How a $15 dollhouse brought a really big smile…

Who wants to hear a really sweet story about a dollhouse?

My sister, Cindy, sent me some pictures the other day of her latest find at their rescue mission. She is the QUEEN of bargain hunting! She found a big doll house and didn’t know where she was going to put it, but she thought Hannah, my niece’s little girl, might find room for it in her room… It’s about 2 feet tall, Cindy said. It came bare bones, but wait till you see what transforms…

Hannah has all kinds of little dolls, and she began digging out all her “treasures” and filling up the house…

Cindy said they had a junk drawer and she and Hannah were digging through it finding things they could use…

She said this chair was a bit over sized, but Hannah wouldn’t mind…

Hannah already had a refrigerator and a kitchen table and chairs…Cindy added the doily.

Looking good…don’t you think?

Does anybody in the whole entire United States still have one of these little blue phones? It was actually a key chain but we used it for Barbie and Skipper and thought they were the niftiest things! Cindy still had hers with all her Skipper stuff.

Awwww…it looks like a candlelight dinner to me…

I asked Cindy if Hannah was busy finding more and more things… she told me, “No, she was taking a break and eating lunch…” :o)

If anyone needed a dollhouse, it was Hannah… Look at ALL the stuff she “already” had…

Cindy said they finally cleared out a place in Hannah’s bedroom and moved the dollhouse upstairs… Just look at that smile. Yep, $15 won’t buy too much these days, but it sure bought this little girl a great big smile!

I hope you enjoyed seeing these pictures…

See you tomorrow,
Blessings, Jeanne

17 thoughts on “How a $15 dollhouse brought a really big smile…”

  1. Charlotte Trayer

    Yes, I’d say Hannah Needed that dollhouse!! What a find, and what fun she and Cindy had, filling it up!! (Some day she could also paint the walls with craft paint, or maybe “wallpaper” them with gift wrap, too! Oh, and she could also paint the exterior I see this house as a lot of fun projects down the road!)

    Oh, that little blue phone….I have one, and I’ll tell you where I got it. They were giving them out at the Bell Telephone pavillion at the Seattle World’s Fair, way back in 1962!!! I remember it well! I’m sure they used them as promotionals for other events, too, but in 1962 the “princess phone”–and phones in colors other than black were still quite a novelty! They cost extra, of course, so the phone co. wanted to promote them as much as possible.

    Thanks for sharing the pictures, Jeanne!! It brings back memories of the fun I had with my own dollhouse, back in the early-mid-1950s; it was metal and much smaller, so I couldn’t use even my smallest regular dolls in it, had to be the dollhouse family that came with it!! This looks like a lot more fun!!

  2. Oh, how I loved this story, Jeanne! I know the fun of fixing up a doll house all too well! I love the fact that Cindy and Hannah did it together, so Hannah will always remember the fun time they had. It’s always more fun with grandma!

    And the telephone keychain! I have several—somewhere! My grandfather was a big shot downtown at Southwestern Bell Telephone in St. Louis! He gave us girls several of them, and yes, like Charlotte says, they were promotional items for the new “princess phone”! There may be more out there than we realize!

    That blue and white couch in the living room looks familiar. I think I have one like that in my own dollhouse, but in a different fabric. It fun to see how she fixed the house up and gave it a little girl’s touch! Yes, Cindy can help with painting and doing all kinds of fun things to make it one of a kind. And don’t forget the special “holiday touches” like a Christmas tree, pumpkins, Easter bunnies and baskets and a flag at the appropriate times. It just goes on and on! And then, every once in awhile, you have another house to dust!!!!

  3. What fun for us to see what Cindy and Hannah were enjoying in their home. It’s surely a delight to be able to share “doll stories”. Thanks again for bringing us along to real life. May your weekend be blessed.

  4. What a wonderful find!! Those doll houses are costly and Cindy clearly is the queen of bargain hunting. More importantly, look at all the fun they had together! That is a day I bet they both always remember.
    Hope you have a good day.
    Take care.

  5. What a neat find! All the furniture the girls found fit very well. Good job and Hannah is sure to have many hours playing with it. Some of those pieces of furniture are beautiful little pieces. Loved the blue phone. I have a pink one in my Barbie stuff but I don’t think it was from my childhood.

    I had a metal dollhouse and played with it a lot when I was little. Several years ago at an antique store, I found an identical one, with all its furniture and purchased it. It brought back many fun memories.

    By the way, that is some “junk drawer.” I see lots of treasures in there!!! What a darling tea set!

  6. Oh, have to add – like some of the girls above, we got those promotional little phones from our town’s telephone company too. What a genius item for a telephone company to hand out. Kind of an American icon!

  7. Oh boy! That house looks like so much fun. Love it.
    And I too have one of the blue princess phone key chains. They must have given an awful lot away. Believe it or not, I also have the matching blue princess phone standard size. 🙂
    Fun seeing your post today, and always.

  8. What a fun post. That was an amazing price for the doll house, such a nice house! I have collected miniatures for years and love doll houses. Her dolls certainly did need that place to live in. Besides the outside paint/decoration and inside wall paper, one could finish the edges of the walls and floors with ribbon or lace. There are a lot of DIY instructions on line for dollhouses and miniatures. I hope she has years of fun with this. I have a room box on display and a dollhouse too. I have a roombox just for Christmas too. I loved reading this story and seeing all the photos. Such a delight.

  9. Charlotte, I may have seen you at the Fair, though I don’t remember the month we were there. It was wonderful and exciting. My parents rented two tiny trailers, and Linda and I and Janeane got one while Mom and Dad and Ken and Susan got the other. Linda and I would have liked to take ours home and we still miss it.

    1. Marilyn, Charlotte, I was at the fair too! We drove up from California. Then on to Idaho, Montana, Wyoming on that trip. Small world.

    2. Charlotte Trayer

      Marilyn and Joy–small world!! We lived in south Seattle at the time, so I think we went to the fair at least a couple of times. I think we went into pretty much all the various national pavillions, as well as the other exhibits. I remember watching a demonstration of how to pack a suitcase (maybe Samsonite or American Tourister?) and I still use some of those same tips when I pack!!

  10. What a great find for Hannah. How sweet of Cindy to buy it for her. Such a great price as well. I’m sure she’ll have many hours of fun with it. Now when she goes places she can look for little treasures to add to it.
    My mom still has the dollhouse my grandfather made for her all by hand that was a present for her fourth birthday. It was right at the end of the war and you still couldn’t get much. but he managed to get some scrap lumber and make it. My grandmother crocheted rugs, and a tablecloth and a kind friend went to a store owned by someone she knew and bought all the Renwal furniture she could for a given amount of money. She also found brass pots and pans as well as a pair of brass candlesticks We really treasure that dollhouse. My daughter and I both played with it. Later she got another one, unfinished like the one Cindy found and we wallpapered/ contact papered it, painted parts of the outside and she filled it with Playmobil stuff. A little out of scale for the height, but cute.
    I remember Princess phones, not small like that, but human sized. My aunt had a pink one in her bedroom next to to pink velvet chaise lounge. As a child, I though how elegant one must feel to sit there and chat with friends. We still have the black rotary one my grandparents had it the basement near the laundry room and it still works!

  11. HI everyone,
    I don’t think I’ll make it to the comments today, except this one. I have a visitation to go to in an hour and I’ve been up to my eyeballs in deviled eggs and buttercream frosting… for the baby shower Sunday. I’ve wrapped gifts, finished games, gathered up all the things I “think” I’ll need and I’m running out of time…
    Now I have to switch gears, get dressed and head off to visit with a principal I used to work for, who just lost the love of his life!
    I’ll be home later, but my kitchen is a disaster… so I have to work on that… before comments. sorry… I have skimmed over your thoughts, but want to read them again, slowly! :o)
    I hope everyone is having a nice day like we are…
    Blessings, Jeanne

    1. Charlotte Trayer

      Just so you don’t get the buttercream frosting and the deviled eggs mixed up, Jeanne!! LOL I don’t think deviled eggs would taste very good with icing on them!!

      Okay, hope you’ve had a chance to take some deep breaths, clean up your kitchen, etc., then sit down and put your feet up for a bit!! Take care!

  12. Now that’s a great buy for $15.00. I see they have already filled it with everything the dollies need to just move in and be right at home. It looks like a fun day for both Cindy and Hannah! I will add my name to the list of ladies who have the little princess phone, but mine is a beige color. I don’t think it was a keychain….I just got up and measured it, and it’s a little over 4″ long and there is not any place to put a chain. My dad worked for Western Electric, the company that made the phones for Bell, and I’m guessing that’s how I got one. Thanks for a fun post!

  13. I’m for the buttercream frosting. Send it to Colorado.
    This brought back memories of Ricky’s memorial. Most of the people who were working on it were men. Wrapping baskets of presents, arranging flowers, arranging tables and checking food supplies — women’s work, and all mine. On top of that, I made the front page of the local paper — at least the back of me did, hugging another of Ricky’s friends. I looked like a balloon or a bus. I will probably never again be on the front page and that’s probably not a bad thing.
    You’ll get through it — you always do. And then you deserve a day off, which you won’t take.
    Just remember, always face the camera and know that the people you are doing this for couldn’t manage without you.

Comments are closed.