A few months ago my Mother called and asked if I was interested in an old wood dollhouse. Their neighbor's had passed away and their house sold and was getting torn down. Since the kids had already gone through it and removed all their parents belongings, my Mom and Dad walked over there to look around and they saw this dollhouse. She sent me photos from her phone and as it turns out it's a Greenleaf Harrison, about 80% built with the parts still laying on the inside. The best part is the windows are all there and still in great condition!
You can sort of see in the photos that the rest of the chimney is there, staircases, remaining roof pieces and other parts.
My parents live about 10 hours away from me, and if you know the Harrison, it's a huge house that does not fit in the backseat of my car or my trunk. So the next time I go up there I'll rent an SUV, or if someone else in the family goes they'll bring it back...one way or another I'll get the house down here so I can start finishing it.
In the meantime, I was browsing Facebook Marketplace and saw a DuraCraft Log Cabin "Pioneer" kit NIB for a good deal and pretty close to me. I went to go pick up the kit, and had a nice conversation with the owner, and mentioned that I had built several houses already. I left and about 5 mins later she text and said she had another dollhouse in the garage and would I be interested? I turned around and immediately went back. A few other ladies came out of the house and we went into the garage. There sat a beautiful, finished Greenleaf Harrison! They explained that their Mother built it and she passed away 7 years ago. They tried to fix it up, but didn't really know what to do - which also explains why the windows are gone, they tried to replace them. They offered the house to me for FREE on one condition - that I send them photos of the house once it's been rehabbed. She did a good job building it, and it has copper wire already run through it. She wasn't able to finish the inside, but it came with electrical supplies and quite a few lamps and a nice wood triple wide bookcase. Also inside was a miniature tudor house that she built. I later found out it is also from Greenleaf, and part of their set called "The Villages". I don't own any goodies for a 1:44th scale, but I'm going to finish off the mini tudor house too. I sure wish I could have met the lady, but I'll do my best to restore her house and all it's glory!
Here's the house when I brought it home (that's a Toyota 4 Runner it's sitting in, that's how big this house is!) Not shown in the photos is the rest of the roofing already shingled. It just needs to be re-attached. The balcony needs to be recreated, and of course - THE WINDOWS. That's the major stuff, the rest is minor.
The inside is like a blank canvas....I can start from scratch. You can see the little mini tudor sitting inside it for scale.
The mini-tudor house...it's so adorable! 1:44 scale
The best part is I also have a new log house to build whenever I get around to it! It's going to be challenging for me, which is one of the reasons I wanted it. It's a little "outside the box" for me. It's not a plywood build, it's actual logs. I'm not quite sure how to decorate it either, but I think I'm going to go with white-washed wood logs and a cozy ski mountain house, with black-white-red checkered country fabrics. Here it is still in the box:
So that's three more projects sitting and waiting for me! In addition to an Alison Jr. (Real Good Toys) make-over that I'm dying to get done, and three amazing room boxes that I picked up at a thrift shop for $10.
I also managed to pick up a Greenleaf Buttercup kit NIB for just $20 so I couldn't resist, I've had this bakery planned in my head for years so I can finally get that going too!!!
Oh yeah - it's also the holidays - lots going on!!!!
Thanks for looking!
~ MiniShack
