MaryKate Posted July 4, 2013 Share Posted July 4, 2013 A couple years ago, a friend of my mom's found out I liked dollhouses and offered me a kit she inherited from a neighbor. There were pieces missing, and no instructions, so she didn't want to deal with it. Who was I to turn down a free house? It turns out to be a nice kit--quarter inch, precut plywood, a good sized 2.5 story house. It included premade stairs, and the previous builder had bought some Houseworks components and trim. I don't have a problem not having the directions, since I've built houses before and this is a straightforward structure, but I'd love to know more about the house and its history. The box it came in is the original box. It has a picture of the completed house on the front and is called "The Farmette." It was shipped directly to a recipient here in Omaha--possibly, given the address, to a miniature shop that no longer exists--from the Dollhouse Manufacturing Co. in New Jersey. The house has very plain structure--no dormers, one door opening on the right side of the front along with three standard-sized (for Houseworks) windows. The base is a few inches wider than the house, creating a front porch. Railings were still in the kit, but the pieces for the overhang/roof for the porch seem to be missing and there aren't any posts. Inside, there are two full-height stories with a divider on each level and a half story attic. There's an opening between the first and second stories for the stairs. I will try to get some pictures when I do my second dry fit and post them here. I've googled the company and the house, trying to find more, but so far I've come up with nothing. I did see an ad for the company in an old...maybe 1988/89 issue of a miniatures magazine I have, but once I started looking through the issues from the 1990s the were no more ads, so I'm guessing they were out of business by then. Like I said, I have no problems putting the house together, especially since it will be a dilapidated witches' house so mistakes can be part of the charm, but I am a sucker for history and detective work, and I would love to find out more about the Farmette and Dollhouse Manufacturing Co. Thanks for any ideas you all might have! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Selkie Posted July 4, 2013 Share Posted July 4, 2013 I searched it here and found someone else that had a kit from the Dollhouse Manufacturing company in NJ There is a resource here call Newts blog and her album that have many older kits and pictures. The blog doesn't work too well since the recent upgrade to this site but the pictures are all still in her album. Just click on the links I put in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaryKate Posted July 4, 2013 Author Share Posted July 4, 2013 Wow, Selkie, you're quick! Thanks so much! That photo of the Rustic kit is absolutley from the same manufacturer; the only difference between that and my house seems to be the position of the door and the fact that there are 5 front windows instead of 3. The plot thickens! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WyckedWood Posted July 4, 2013 Share Posted July 4, 2013 Im the same way, I love to know everything possible about the history of the kit Im working on :-) It would b neat to write down everything you find out and start a journal for the house. Sometimes I write the info on the bottom of the house as Im building it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havanaholly Posted July 4, 2013 Share Posted July 4, 2013 MaryKate, I rehabbed a house that turned out to be a Laurel without its porch and EVERYTHING assembled with hot glue and glued into place (you can see what I did to with it in my "Laurel Rehab"" album);in addition to making all new windows (one working) and working doors I got to make it a porch with a roof. Once I had begun work on the porch I identified the house as a Laurel, BTW. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaryKate Posted July 5, 2013 Author Share Posted July 5, 2013 I love the idea of keeping a record; I do plan to take pictures as I go (one of my distant friends heard what I'm doing and said, "I want this documented!"). But I never thought about making it part of the house. What a cool idea for future detectives. Oh, hot glue...such a seductive idea when we're first starting out. The leader of a mini workshop once told me, "Patience is the art of finding something else to do while the glue dries." I will take a look at that album; sounds like you put a lot of love and elbow grease into it! Last night I told my family what I'm up to with this project. My mom offered up windows and other bits she has leftover from her foray into minis, Dad agreed to help me cut out some new window openings and a new porch roof, and everyone else is going to help me collect egg cartons and drink trays to make the stone exterior, something I've never done but want to try. Then my 9 yo nephew said he wants to be an architect, so I may have some help planning and building, too. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havanaholly Posted July 5, 2013 Share Posted July 5, 2013 Here's what it looked like when I got it home and propped it back together to take its picture (the interior was totally unfinished AND a godawful mess, as you will see when you look at the album pix): and this is what it looked like after I got done doing what it wanted: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodentraiser Posted July 5, 2013 Share Posted July 5, 2013 Holly, I have to say, that house looks 100% better than it did and also that you have way more patience than I. It took only one house for me to "rehab" before I decided I would never do that again. Not when the wood was literally being held together with the paint and wallpaper I was peeling off! I wish more people here would allow pictures of their houses to be used for identification of houses. Especially when it seems that the houses in question seem to have all but disappeared. Then there's the changes the manufacturers made to the houses along the way. For instance, my Hofco house. It originally was offered as a four room center hall house with a one room addition on the side and a window in the upstairs center hall instead of a door. A year or two later, it was offered as the same basic house, but this time with a double half room added on to the side. Then in its final form as a basic house, with both additions on the side and the upstairs window changed to a door. RGT "made" a number of houses and named them all differently, depending on whether they had dormers, porches or additions. Usually you can tell a manufacturer's house by how it was made, but Walmer was all over the board. Cheesy little kids' houses and beautiful mansions to die for. Greenleaf houses looked very simple when they first started. You wouldn't recognize the early Jefferson compared to what it is (was?) now (by the way, the Jefferson and the Rosedale were always my faves). BTW, anyone notice all the presidents'names? Jefferson, Adams, Monroe, Garfield, Taft (store), McKinley, Harrison, Pierce, Arthur. I always think that was so cool. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaryKate Posted July 6, 2013 Author Share Posted July 6, 2013 (edited) My goodness, Holly. I took a look at your album and that is one amazing facelift / overhaul! You did a gorgeous job. A little TLC and some expertise make so much difference. Edited July 6, 2013 by MaryKate Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaryKate Posted July 10, 2013 Author Share Posted July 10, 2013 If anyone's interested, I've posted pictures in my gallery ("Farmette by Dollhouse Manufacturing Co.") of the box in which my kit came to me and the initial dry fit I did of the main structure. Today my dad helped me cut more window openings and we discovered the wood is a veneer over what he called "masonite"--which he thinks was a predecessor of MDF. I also found that the one small, complete window in the kit (~ 2.5x3"), is date stamped "Houseworks, 1979." All great details to know. And then. AND THEN. Oh my goodness. My mom offered up all the mini stuff she has, because she swears she'll never use it. Some of it's basic wood/finishing products (nothing to sneeze at; that stuff is expensive and I now have enough shingles to cover an entire house if I want to make a craftsman bungalow or something), but the furniture is TDF. Some assembled pieces, but, more exciting, a number of Chrysnbon kits and some amazing House of Miniatures kits. Some of it she bought, and some of it came from the same friend of hers who gave me the kit (apparently the friend rescued the kit from her neighbor's trash pile!!!). If I add up what all this stuff is worth... I kept asking if she was sure she didn't want it, and she kept assuring me she wanted me to use it. So I have, I'm sure, hundreds of dollars worth of things to finish and furnish my witches' house (and other projects as well). I will try to get some photos when life calms down a bit, because I need to document it--can't quite believe my luck! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tuppynme Posted July 11, 2013 Share Posted July 11, 2013 Looking foward to ur further posts and pictures. Gail Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaryKate Posted July 18, 2013 Author Share Posted July 18, 2013 I managed to find out a tiny bit more about Dollhouse Manufacturing Company...according to the blog entry at the address below, it "burned down in 1985." Yikes! I may poke around and if her blog is still active, write to her for more info. The Farmhouse featured there, on which she did a lovely job with renovations, is a little more involved than my Farmette; more windows in the front, the door is centered, and the staircase is a bit less simple. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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