Throwback Thursday: Extreme Home Makeover, Dollhouse Edition

Many years ago my dad built me an awesome dollhouse for my Sunshine Family dolls.

My brother and I on Christmas morning 1977 (I think I said 1975 in a previous post).  Items to note..look for the dollhouse furniture in later pictures, its there!....the lovely wallpaper....matching Christmas jammies...and, yes, a box of Captain Crunch....proving the tradition is at least 33 years old...

 

Not my dolls...I found this photo on the internet...but, golly, that is them...Grandpa, Grandma (my version of Grandma lost an eye not long after she came to live with me), Mother, Father, and Baby Sweets (yep, that was the name on the package...I made my Baby Sweets clothes though...it came in a yellow sleeper, but apparently those didn't hold up well)  These treasures seem to be wearing their original clothes..amazing..

The Sunshine Family were shorter than Barbies, but that didn't stop the Barbies from moving in a few years later.  They just had to learn to walk around with their knees bent.

As time went on, even the Barbies had to move on, and the dollhouse moved first into my closet to hold sweaters and later into my parents (awesome) attic.  I should write a post about that attic...it was truly Nancy Drew worthy.  (Apparently the new owners "finished it" and it is now a master suite...it was better as an attic, but that is a story for another day).  When my parents moved from the Indiana house to South Dakota in the mid-1990's (again, a story for another day) my mom called and asked if I would like them to give away my dollhouse....I guess I threw a bit of a fit, because she took pictures of the movers putting it on the truck.

Things I want to know....is that a pile of trash or stuff to put on the truck?  Why are there only two movers, had they not seen that house?  

The dollhouse lived at my parents' house in South Dakota after their move, entertaining visiting children, until we moved from our tiny townhouse in Denver to the Suburban Ranch.  The summer after we moved in, my parents drove down, dropped off the dollhouse and took The Girl to their house for a few days before The Boy and I drove up to join them.  While they were gone, The Boy and I remodeled the dollhouse, bringing it up to code and modernizing.

 A before shot--the roof was blue, and the shutters red--note the "Sunshine" on the door for the Sunshine Family.











The roof received new shingles and the exterior paint was touched up--updated burgundy shutters and the plant stand outside the back door (which was partially peeled off, but the rest impossible to remove) painted over.

 1970's yellow and blue replaced by "wood floors", stairs, and door.  I did hate to paint over the clock, fireplace tools, and china cabinet--they were pretty cute.

 Just like a real house, the kitchen had the biggest make-over.  Note the lovely lineoleum...I'm pretty sure we had some that matched in one of the houses I lived in as a kid.  Unfortunately, just like in a real house, that darn flooring didn't want to come out...sooo....enter a trip to Hobby Lobby, to the doll house section...and ta-da...new flooring, right over the old (just like many houses I've lived in).  The stove is Barbie's 1980's era stove--but, it is a masterpiece (and fit so well) and the rest of the kitchen was a self-contained until that The Girl already owned (look at how the windows lined up though...awesome!)  The old cabinets and refrigerator moved to the garage...just like real houses!

The make-overs in the bedrooms weren't as extreme--mainly new pain and flooring when needed (carpet over the old...just like a real re-model?)  Looking at the finished product in retrospect I do notice that the remodeled version was a lot more pink than the original.  Hmm.

The finished, and furnished final product--some of the furniture (like the beds) were mine, while other pieces were new to the Girl.  And I have to say that the Barbie Convertible fit in the garage, even with a stroller and refrigerator, much better than the Barbie camper van or Sunshine Family Truck ever did...

Not my truck...but, um, creepy...

Not my van...but basically identical.  I think my mom still has my van, if anyone wants to make a deal...

Alice the Cat approved when she arrived in 2009--she even tried to stay for dinner, but was shown the door by the Barbies.

The dollhouse has been very happy in The Girl's room, but as mentioned in a post earlier this week, has met the fate of many a teenage girl's dollhouse...becoming a storage shelf, at least for now.