RIP: WCT Dollhouse

 Imagine you are a well-made dollhouse, intended for use with dolls like American Girl.  Imagine you've survived a decade of being moved around and even disassembled and reassembled.   Now imagine an overweight woman, with bad knees and ankles, using you to brace herself as she rises from a seat on the floor.  Yeah.  I have killed a dollhouse. 

Wicked Cool Toys makes an amazing dollhouse.  That it lasted this long is a testament in and of itself.  That I believed it would support my weight (again) speaks volumes.

As a result, my dolls have moved.  One shelf is (in my mind) the first floor and the other is the second. And maybe an attic.  Depends on where I feel like pretending the game room is.

The rooms are about the same width, not as deep,  but there are more of them.

Here we see the kitchen (invaded by a random checkout counter) and the dining room (table is being repaired).

Living room and pantry.  Most of the pantry was previously the grocery store.  

Two bedrooms.  

Whoever sleeps in the top bunk better not be claustrophobic.  Or maybe the dolls will take the top bunk down for sleep. It does pop off.  The daybed makes this room suitable for three.

The bed in the room with the crib is made for the more recent version of My First Barbie and therefore wide enough to serve as a double.  They'll use the trundle bed it if they have company, but usually this will be for a couple and their baby or babies. 

Another pair of bedrooms. 

The sewing room has another of the My First Barbie beds. This room will normally sleep just two.

The kids' room has bunk beds and lots of toys. 

Game room.  

I put it on the bottom shelf because I suspect it will get less use than the others.

The other bottom shelf has the folding house (formerly Sunburst Cafe), the basketball court wall (remnant of a Monster High playset), and a bin of school furnishings.

The round purple bin is outdoors stuff.  Picnic tables, garden seats, strollers...   

I spy the clothes bin behind it.

A close look will show you that the small bins are stored on top of the shelves.  These have labels like "beach" and "sports".   Thus, the dolls are now mostly tucked into a corner of the living room.  

Vehicles and the 70s dream house (which is serving as a garage/barn) are still in my bedroom.

Doll Space Envy

A chat with some of my fellow doll people led me to consider the space I've dedicated to Barbieville.  Some of them have entire rooms!  And even outdoor spaces! 

This is Barbieville.  Not quite half of my living room.  Rusty (My Size Barbie) is the only doll that doesn't spend the majority of her time here.  Join me for a tour, won't you?  The large teal bin is Wardrobe and the pink thing under it is full of Lego blocks.

We start at the Pike's deck/carport.  A clip lamp on the neighboring bookshelf is used for lighting over here, if needed. (The table once held my grandmother's little television.)   

This shot of the Pike's house shows one of my lighting challenges. (It's a My Dolly And Me house, by Wicked Cool Toys.) 

Most of the day, I get natural lighting from the windows, which can create some lighting challenges.  I do sometimes use other locations in my apartment.  For hospital rooms, I use the kitchen counters. Anyplace that needs to look industrial, I set up in the furnace room. 

This old computer desk in the left-side corner is my primary shooting location.  The Guinness family portrait, for updating the census page, was the last thing I photographed and they're still there.  In all honesty, they'll be there until the next session.

Underneath is the rest of the Pike family vehicles, Pocahontas's Jeep, a play set piece, and an old grocery store display.  The display is crammed full of tables, school desks, and things to sit on.  Top shelf holds the pictures I sometimes use for backdrops.  Folding backdrops and play sets go between the desk and bookshelf next to it.

The bookshelf in the corner holds plastic bins full of accessories and one end of Albus's home.  This is also where most of the citizens of Barbieville hang out when not being played with.  (Those with established home sets, the Pikes and Albus, hang out in them.) There's also a "treasure chest" full of weapons.  My dolls are ready for the Zombie Apocalypse. 

That electric cord is to the wandering lamp.  So called because it wanders the area, providing light where needed. The iPod is hooked up to a portable radio, but those cords are tucked safely away.  You can see the lamp and radio in the first picture if you're really curious about them.

They generally hang out in family groups.  The Singles and Unassigned mix and mingle.  

The horses, horse trailer, sleigh, and golf cart share space with the day care's swing set and a tin full of headgear, including a space helmet.  The sleigh is full of decorative items.

My non-player dolls stand on the game shelf with my vintage VWs.  There are two 19 inch Pocahontas dolls, a Lagoona Blue, and a Cleo DeNile.  I'm not usually a fan of Monster High, but they were a gift - and ironically, I'd recently lost a feline companion of almost 20 years named Cleo!  

I have extra doll seating on the wall and right-side windowsill.  

That's my Behind The Scenes Barbieville.  None of my minions have complained about its utility as a play area.  I'm pretty happy with it, but just like Ariel....  (sing it with me) I want more!  So jealous of those with, like, whole rooms and yards to play in!

Dollhouse and Residents

Most of my dolls don't live in the dollhouse.  They're friends and neighbors.  This is the dollhouse family:

Back row: Finnick, Rose-Grace (Mom), Tanner    Center row: Nikki, Stacie, Pike (Dad) holding baby twins, Front row Taylor and Fred.  Ash is by Stacie, Max and Soot on the floor.  They're a blended family.  You'll get that story later.

The house is a "My Dolly and Me" by Wicked Cool Toys.  It's made for American Girl size dolls, not Barbie, so the rooms are huge for these guys!  The only problems I've had are a bit of floor sag that wouldn't be noticeable on the intended scale and the fact that anyone shorter than Skipper can't look out the windows unaided.   I did add the center wall to divide on the third floor.

Most of the vehicles.  The purple SUV and the golf cart are some of the few cars made that sit more than two dolls.  The ATVs are dead RC vehicles.  I removed the battery case and as much of the motor as I could.  Fred loves it when his big brothers take him out!  As luck would have it, all these vehicles are street legal in Barbieville.  The trash can and recycling bin I found at Dollar Tree!  

The wall art in the living room is a decal meant for use on human walls and some stickers (on either side of the window) about traveling.  The television stand is a votive holder I've repurposed but most of the furniture is Mattel.  

The kitchen wall art is coasters (and one magnet) with food themes.  I removed the cork backing for better glue strength.  Again, the art on either side of the window is stickers.  One says "Pink never goes out of fashion" and one says "Good Eats".  The little metal shelf is glued.  

The girls' room is decorated mostly with Barbie wall decals meant for human walls. (The "pink" sticker in the kitchen came with these.)  There is a metal sun glued over the bunk beds.  The "Walking Dead" poster is cardboard, cut off a box.  The big peace sign is a decal.  The heart pillows and bear are small stuffies.  They use the ladder from the bunk beds to see out the window!

Mom and Dad's room is done up with travel stickers, bookmarks, and postcards of landmarks.  The small picture above the crib is the ticket card from The Wheel in Pigeon Forge.  Oh, and the dream catchers in both bedroom windows are key chains!  

Please ignore the mirrors on the floor.  They need mounted.  The tub was missing a shower head, so I repeated the earbud-as-a-hand-held deal that I used in the camper.  The tub surround is, of course, imaginary just like the front hall and stairway!  This floor was originally one big yellow room. Bathroom is done in "marble" Contact Paper and the boys' room in "wood".  

The twins have to share a double bed and Fred's toddler bed is tucked under the eave.  The wall art  again is stickers, bookmarks, and the like.  The pin up girls poster is the "index" of a calender.  The peace sign pillow has a little pocket on it (I think it was meant for Tooth Fairy use.) and the cookie pillow is a small stuffy.  Fred's pillow came with the Monster High bed in the girls' room.  

The deck/carport is an antique table that was my grandmother's.  The original top is long gone.  The Camper parks here with the bike and pram.  

Silver Stream and Angus in the "barn".  The upper shelves are general storage. The picnic table and bleachers are some of my Lazybones DIY - more on that in a later post - and the lighthouse tin is full of things like doll stands.   

Their wardrobe is stored in two drawers.  No pictures of that because it's just all jumbled together - clothes in one and accessories in the other.  Everyone shares!