Hallowell Posted October 9, 2008 Share Posted October 9, 2008 Where is the strangest and most unexpected place you have found a poor abandoned or neglected dollhouse? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hallowell Posted October 9, 2008 Author Share Posted October 9, 2008 And were you able to rescue it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhonda from the Bluegrass Posted October 9, 2008 Share Posted October 9, 2008 When I was a little girl, I used to ride my bicycle on an old country road. There was an old abandoned house with a beautiful (antique, I think) dollhouse on the front porch. I rode by that a zillion times, but I was too shy to see if anyone knew who owned it. I wanted that house SO badly, and I remember it to this day. Sadly, I was never able to acquire it and I have often wondered what became of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havanaholly Posted October 9, 2008 Share Posted October 9, 2008 I rescued a Storybook Cottage from a charity thrift store in Avon Park, FL; it was my Sow's Ear, the first rehab I did for Toys for Tots. I saw a Worthington in godawful condition at Good Will that they wanted three times what it was worth to take home and go out and buy everything it needed to effect repairs, much less restore; and a RGT (don't remember which one, the only RGT house I've seen that even remotely tempts me is the Thornhill), ditto. Probably the Poor Pitiful Pearl, we were at a resale shop in Tallahassee and one of the booth owners whose miniatures I was looking at (I think I bought one because it was in scale) asked me if I was interested in a dollhouse she needed to get out of her house. You have seen the "before" pictures in my album; I propped it all back together for those pictures! I rescued it for US$2. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nechee Posted October 9, 2008 Share Posted October 9, 2008 My house. My house is definately pretty strange!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chesterfieldzoo Posted October 9, 2008 Share Posted October 9, 2008 I got one out of the garbage on trash day. I found most of the parts for it. It is now my haunted house. I also found a large plastic house. It was very cool. It had a speaker for the working doorbell and fireplace. Working lights. I have all the pieces. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elsbeth Posted October 9, 2008 Share Posted October 9, 2008 Rhonda! I find your story oddly heartbreaking! I imagine that little house sitting out there waiting to be found. I wonder what happened to it. It's a wonderful dreamlike scenario - the abandoned house with the little abandoned house sitting on it's porch. <grabbing kleenex> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elsbeth Posted October 9, 2008 Share Posted October 9, 2008 A coin shop. I think the original owner (who had a wonderful collection) must have passed away and a male relative dropped the house off at a coin shop. Probably the only place he could think of as "hobby related". Odd. I treasure that house and look/play with it almost every day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Val Posted October 9, 2008 Share Posted October 9, 2008 Rita found a Dura Craft Colonial in Raleigh NC at the Goodwill Store. He also came with the table on wheels to support it. It is now in our local county museum. Here is a pic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hallowell Posted October 9, 2008 Author Share Posted October 9, 2008 I found one last year near Preque Isle maine sitting in the front of an empty antique shop. It had snow around it, so I think it spent the winter outdoors. I wish I could have taken it home but my car was too small for it and it was too far to go back. I also found the largest house I have ever seen on the coast of Maine about three years ago outside of an antique shop, the shop was closed. I would have gone back to get it but I forgot what town it was in. LOL. I fell in love with that one istantly and have often wondered what became of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alamom Posted October 9, 2008 Share Posted October 9, 2008 When I was a little girl, there was a house we passed by frequently. In the front yard they had a hand made dollhouse that they were using as yard decor. That house fascinated me and I believe it is what made me love miniature houses . After time in the weather it collapsed and it broke my heart to see it that way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havanaholly Posted October 9, 2008 Share Posted October 9, 2008 DH's mother was the youngest of her father's two dozen children, and over the years the rest of her siblings were living we attended many, many family reunions in the "home town", which included attending the AM service in their momma's church; while waiting for the 1100 service to start we'd wander around the surrounding streets and I noticed one empty store that had a Beacon Hill in the window, just the bare wood kit, built with hot glue, and over the course of four years I watched it fall apart in that window. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corwin Posted October 10, 2008 Share Posted October 10, 2008 Hmm i have not been luck enough to rescue a house. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aggiemae Posted October 10, 2008 Share Posted October 10, 2008 I trashed picked a Finished Dura-craft Heritage almost two years ago. I took off all the windows and trim, re-sanded or replaced every piece that will go back on the house. II gutted the interior built a new staircase then fixed up the body as neatly as possible and . Then I primed everything and re-shingled the roof. I did this all in two days but then found uninteresting to decorate even with the relocated stairs and have not touched it since... I thought about a small addition, but it is to much effort so I might put it on craigslist. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
THmini2 Posted October 10, 2008 Share Posted October 10, 2008 I found a ranch style house in the garbage at a house where the people were moving away. It was a project that the son was doing for an artitechical (sp?) class he did in high school. It is just the framework, partitions, porch, roof etc. I want to make it into a modern ranch house. It has a long hall down the center. It will probably be one where the roof lifts off. It is 1/2 scale. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shy Spirit Posted November 16, 2008 Share Posted November 16, 2008 I missed this thread the first time around! I found an old home-made dh when we rented a cottage a few summers back. It was for sale in a florist's shop, in the local town! It was quite mungy, with a thick coating of grime, dust, and cobwebs. Poor thing - I had to hose it down outside before I could even bring it inside. I think someone made it in the sixties - don't know why I think that, I just do. I asked the florist if it had been hers as a child (hoping to learn more about it), but she just smiled and said "no". It was $5.00. It's blue and white, with a ramp instead of a staircase, and I've not decided whether it's a mouse house, or a cat house. Either way, the ramp makes sense. I even thought about making it a dh for a wheelchair bound doll. Wheelchairs aren't easy to make, and the only ones I've seen for sale were waaaay outside my budget. I did find an online tut for one - but even that looked too time-consuming for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cwoods Posted November 16, 2008 Share Posted November 16, 2008 My husband found my general store (it's in my gallery) on the curb. It had been in a yard sale for $5 and didn't sell and the lady was ready to throw it out. He got it in the nick of time. It's a great house. I haven't got to it yet but I have lots of ideas working in my head. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hallowell Posted November 16, 2008 Author Share Posted November 16, 2008 I can't believe that general store did not sell. I'd of snatched that up in a second. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shy Spirit Posted November 16, 2008 Share Posted November 16, 2008 Me too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tracibobs Posted November 17, 2008 Share Posted November 17, 2008 me 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justmesue Posted November 17, 2008 Share Posted November 17, 2008 I found my "Mystery Tabbie", (Arvey put-together) in the very back of a fleamarket. It was covered up with old coats and rags, dirty, smelly, and falling apart, only the wallpaper held it together. The windows were so darkened it looked like it had been in a fire! For some reason, I had to have it! I found the booth owner, he gave me the longest story about his deceased wife who built it, how he stepped on the stairs when she was building it, so she never replaced them, and so-on... I heard everything about this house that had ever happened to it. Heard his whole life story, but all he knew about it's name was "Country Manor ". I purchased it,promised to rehab it, and bring him pics. Then I had to a talk DH into helping me carry "the ugly monstosity", (as he named it) out, so it wouldn't be in peices when I lifted it up. We had to walk ever so slowly down a long hallway, back to the front entrance, and the house got a standing ovation, and the other shop owners applauded it on the way out! It was very embarrassing!This house had been in that booth for 12 years, with never a second thought!!! I did bring the old fellow pics when I cleaned it and rebuilt it. He was so happy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
welcomehomeminis Posted November 17, 2008 Share Posted November 17, 2008 Sue, Aww. That is my favorite story! I'm so glad you did bring pictures back! Our first big house was given to us by a woman whose mother had built it with her daughter (Grandma and granddaughter), but (now grown) daughter never really had an interest and Grandma was very elderly and ill, so the woman wanted the dollhouse out. We gave her pictures periodically as we were rehabbing the house, and she brought them back to her mother. She always said that it cheered her mother's last years to think of the house being truly loved again. The mother died this summer, and though there's little evidence of its old life any more, that house will always remind me of her, and of how something they gave to us ended up giving a lot back to them. We put more heart into it because we were thinking of making her happy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shy Spirit Posted November 17, 2008 Share Posted November 17, 2008 What heartwarming tales! I will have sweet dreams tonight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
butlerestates Posted November 17, 2008 Share Posted November 17, 2008 These stories are so sweet! I have not had any cool rescue stories but I did find the house I redid for my little girl on ebay for $40. I am now gonna be out searching the city for houses on trash day Or better yet my sister has a "dumpster diver" for a father in law, I may just have to tell him to start helping me look for a house there! I remember playing with those metal dollhouses as a kid. My friend had one that her mom had gotten at a garage sale and I wanted it so bad. I LOVED playing with the fisher price little people. I had the old house that was brown. If I remember correctly it was a tudor style house. I used to make houses myself from shoe boxes and cut pictures out of the JC Penny's catalog. I would get frustrated because they didn't turn out perfect. (I'm still like that!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hallowell Posted November 17, 2008 Author Share Posted November 17, 2008 I knew when I started this post that the stories would be wonderful. Thanx for sharing everyone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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