This Old House - Vintage Dolls House Rescue

  This dates from 1951-66 and the poor house was in a terrible way when we got it. It was so bad the lady seller agreed to post it as it couldnt possibly sustain any further damage on its journey. It is a miracle it had so many original features left. Most of the windows, although some were yellowed with age and the door. The worse damage was to the front and the door, some chemical or another had been spilled down the front and gone very brittle. We had such a job cleaning that off. Internally the paper was all intact apart from the floor and it needed a good lick of paint. This one is an unusual shade of blue so we took one of the doors and got it colour matched. Then I worked my charm and painted on the exterior flowers while John laboriously made  some windows. We salvaged those we could and sadly had to abandon the door but he made a replica. The roof was completely missing so we worked out the shape and made a new one, papered it in the same sytle tiled paper that it would have h

This house dates from1924 -33 which I think, makes it my oldest house to date. It was in a  bit of a sorry state when I got it. The interior papers were torn, painted over and the fixtures had all been taken out. Luckily, I am not a purist. I like to restore houses as close to the original as I can get them but I don't mind reproduction replacement parts. We made the dresser, the fireplaces and chimneys ourselves and from a distance you wouldn't know.  I touched up the roof with matching paint. I didnt paste the walls but put the paper onto card and used double sided tape to fix it to the walls. I retained the piece of lino someone had placed in the left hand bedroom and kept the carpet on the stairs which was not original. I painted the hall because it wasn't possible to get my hand in far enough to repaper. I also kept the original floors in the downstairs rooms, the tatty bits don't show once the furniture is in. To tidy it up and give it an old timey feel I used vin

I've three houses from the Stockbroker range: number 90, 91 and 92, and they are fabulous houses. We travelled all the way to Hereford to collect number 90. It wasn't in original condition but had been restored to how it would have once looked.  Triang wallpaper inside and the exterior was as it should be. The windows were all present and correct but the base had been replaced. Apart from adding skirting boards to hide up scruffy wallpaper at the bottom, I haven't done much with this one yet but intend to make reproduction fireplaces or buy originals if I am lucky enough to find any. I might even get my old fella making one of his lovely reproduction dressers. (see post for Lines DH8)                                      I've already talked about number 91 in a separate post, and house number 92 is very similar but slightly larger footprint with an adjoining garage rather than an integral one beneath the bathroom.  I picked this one up from Oxford for £50, luckily enoug