caitriona

Nutti, she's turning 6. You're right, I think I'll give her mum the transformer and let her deal with it, maybe plug it in when she's supervised. It's already wired anyway. The reason I'm thinking of giving it to her is because he already gave her big sister one which he built for their mum when she was little (which isn't wired). I thought it would be nice for the little one to have one of her own, since her sister can sometimes be a little possessive. When I spoke to grandad, he said something about them preferring mine just because I would have made it, rather than him. Who'd have thought you could step on people's toes so easily?! I just liked the thought of it being played with, instead of sitting in my house gathering dust.

I'm working on an Arthur at the moment and I've been considering giving it to my fiance's niece for her 6th birthday in June. Her grandad, however, has objected to the fact that I've wired it - he thinks it's too risky for a 6 year old. I'm not inclined to agree, as it's only a tiny current (it's only a 6-bulb transformer), and she has plenty of electrical toys anyway, including a playstation and a pc. What does anyone think?

Heidi, it's still possible that you'll get your stuff back - it's not necessarily the hard disk that has the problem (assuming it is a hardware problem), and even if it is, the data can still be rescued. My fiance was upgrading a few parts of my pc a couple of years ago, and I told him to make sure he backed up my photos first - he didn't bother, and something happened to the hard drive; when he rebuilt the pc, it couldn't be read. He brought it to a couple of local experts and they managed to get back almost all my irreplaceable photos. Don't lose hope yet! But do remember in future to make backups - it's hugely important. I have 3 cds with my entire photo collection on each, so that even the backups are backed up! I couldn't face the loss of them all again - it took me months to forgive him for not backing them up when I asked! It doesn't take much time, and it's _so_ worth it.

I know it's great to have a house tell you what it wants to be (my Arthur hasn't been to forthcoming at all so far so I'm hoping it has a huge fit of chattiness before I finish the paint, sand, paint, sand routine!), but my new Orchid is turning out to be a bit of a dictator. It hasn't even arrived yet and already it's decided that it's going to be a cutesy little village dollshouse shop, housing a collection of 1:144 scale houses and furniture downstairs, and with a workshop upstairs for those sensible customers who order their houses fully built. Unfortunately I previously had no intention of doing anything in a scale smaller than 1/12, but I'm utterly in love with the idea now, and can't resist the temptation! I hate bossy houses... <_<

You really do love cats then! That's Tabby (or Tabs, Tib, Tiblet, BunnyPaws, WrigglyFish, or any number of other equally silly names!). She's almost two now, but that photo was taken when we first got her and she was a little nervous of people. Now she and her adopted sister Mittens (Mitzy, MuttonChop, FlumpHead, Fluffy McCushion, BlunkFeatures - the list goes on...) rule the roost in our house, and are the most friendly, loving, tempermental, bossy and rewarding pets we could ever have asked for, and we're totally besmitten with them.

Me too! My credit card is all ready to be hit with a Beacon Hill This time next year, though, I'm definitely going for a Garfield...

Now that you mention it, that's another one I'd love to get my hands on! I like a couple of other in their Heritage Collection too though - Fairbanks and the Lutyens house, which is as far from the boxy English dollshouse style as the most frivolously befrilled Queen Anne. I love the chimneys.

I'm scared of spiders too, and more or less anything with more than 4 legs. Even butterflies freak me out, and I'm terrified witless of moths. I'm more scared of people vomiting though. If there's the slightest chance that someone near me is going to I break into a cold sweat and start shaking like mad, and I just have to leave. It makes me reluctant to go past pubs or nightclubs late at night, and I'm scared of flying because of it - I don't mind being in the air at all, but the whole time I'm on a plane I worry that someone on it might be airsick, and I can't relax till I'm out of the airport. I won't go on car ferries any more, and half the time the sound of someone with a bad cough is enough to make me jumpy. I find it hard to watch some tv programs too, just in case, because it seems to be becoming more acceptable to show vomiting on tv. How strange am I?!

Thanks for the welcome, everyone - this site always brings a smile to my face : ) Susanne, would you believe I'm in Ireland?! I couldn't believe how quickly the house turned up; usually I wait a week for stuff from the UK, never mind the US! I know how you feel though, I've experienced customs delays with cameras and it's terrible! Doogster, don't go mentioning more expensive hobbies, you'll get me curious and then who knows what'll happen! (The internet's a dangerous thing when you've nothing to do in work every day but surf for hours!) Thanks for the warning about the Grosvenor Hall, though it's unlikely I could ever justify spending that much on a house anyway (and I'm not sure about Real Good Toys houses, I've completely failed to fall in love with any of them) It's true that the Dollshouse Emporium houses (and all English ones, from what I've seen) are a bit boring; I don't get it - I know that real architecture in this end of the world tends to keep away from the more gingerbready and exuberant end of the scale but it's not all completely boring. And you'd think that since dollshouses are self-contained fantasy universes, they'd show a little more imagination designing them But with the Grosvenor Hall, what you could do to the inside would be so spectacular that you'd never look at the outside! As for photos, I'm afraid I don't have any yet - despite the fact that I usually have my camera with me constantly, ever since the Arthur arrived I haven't picked it up - I can't seem to stop working on the house! It's not very photogenic yet anyway, it's got no porch and it's all white. I'm not sure yet what I'm going to do with it; I'm half thinking about giving it to my fiance's niece for her birthday, as her sister has one that their grandad (my future FIL) made from scratch for their mum years ago. If she does want it, it'll probably be a vet's office or something, as she loves animals. In fact, it might be that anyway - it's already had two cats in it. Éanna (my other half) was very tickled at the 'attack of the giant killer cats' look - I imagine once it's furnished the camera and the cats will be busy for an afternoon!

I've been hovering around here for a year or so now, eyeing up the houses, and I kept chickening out of pressing the 'buy' button on miniatures.com; I finally did it last week and on Thursday my Arthur arrived! Luckily I had a 3-day weekend for Paddy's Day, because I spent the whole weekend working on it - it's now fully assembled and looking good in a preliminary coat of white paint. I can't believe how satisfying it is to see it coming together like this! I'm so pleased, in fact, that I've already bought an Orchid on ebay and I'm planning to get myself a Beacon Hill in the HBS sale in April (I've wanted one for more than a year; the Arthur is really just a test run to see if I could cope). Next April, I'm definitely getting a Garfield (regardless of future dh's objections to the jaw-dropping size of the thing!). And I might have to have a Lily at some stage. And the Dolls House Emporium's Grosvenor Hall would be fun too... :angry: Thanks to you all for building such inspiring houses, and inadvertently talking me into the most expensive hobby ever invented ;)

Does anyone have measurements for the Beacon Hill hall and landings? I'd like to shop around for a straight staircase to replace the one that comes with it but since I don't have the kit yet I can't check what size staircase I need!

Nutti, I posted twice, I think, on the old forums, but I gave up fairly quickly as financial constraints and also the huge amount of stuff I had to do to my real house prevented me having a mini one. A health scare has since convinced me that sometimes you should indulge yourself now, rather than giving in to practicalities and assuming you'll have time for the fun stuff later! As for colours, at the moment the favourite would be a light sky blue (I haven't a particular shade in mind yet) with white trim. I haven't had much chance to consider yet though so that could change. I'm pretty certain that I'm going to want to change the stairs though, and maybe add a railing to make the top of the porch into a balcony. I've been trawling through webshots for most of the day and saw a few things that jumped out at me. Keep posting photos, everyone! :lol:

Hi, everyone! I'm new here, and new to dollshouse building generally - though I did have a Caroline's Home one when I was little, which I loved to bits - literally : ) I've just been informed that I'm getting a Beacon Hill kit for Christmas so I'm going to be hanging around here a lot; I want to get as much information as I can before the kit arrives, as it's my first. I'm really looking forward to it, and plan to start overworking my camera terribly as soon as the box enters our house :lol: