Kells

I may be right on that point but I am the very last person to ask about who made what, lol. This is funny but Google brought me to this thread originally. I was only looking for ideas about how to do dollhouse dormer windows because I'm having issues with my gambrel. This thread was one of the hits and I had just seen that dollhouse on Ebay. I hadn't paid any attention to the questions about who made it until Jules Beth replied to my post. Anyway, I'm sure one day it will pop up somewhere and one of us will see it.

The one listed on Offerup has pictures of the interior that might prove useful. https://offerup.com/item/detail/601170658/

For Victorian Times, this house is definitely the least of their offerings. I like the B&W picture of it finished that 1martinimomma posted from their catalog. I'd like to see it in color. Instead of clapboard siding and fancy shingles, though, I think it would make a wonderful stone cottage with simple trim.

Silkscreen printed windows are a pretty good clue that a house wasn't homemade. As for who did make it, yours appears to be of good quality wood so that rules out a host of low-quality manufacturers, none of whom will I name on this forum. I don't know who made it but Walmer is the only dollhouse manufacturer I've seen who uses that diamond window. That said, I've seen plenty of Walmer houses but never your house specifically identified as one of theirs. Here is the Ebay link for the one I posted above. I see that I forgot to include it. Unfortunately, the seller does not name the manufacturer. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Childrens-Handmade-Wooden-Dollhouse-in-Great-Condition/401666919063?hash=item5d8536ca97:g:nskAAOSwPGtcHUp7 Interestingly, I recently came across another one, this time without dormers. This seller also does not say who made it. I see this house every so often on Craigslist, Ebay, and etc. If I ever see a listing that identifies the manufacturer, I will be sure to let you know. https://offerup.com/item/detail/601170658/ EDIT: Just looked for "Walmer" on Ebay. Here is one identified as a Walmer house that has that diamond-shaped window. The mullions are also silkscreened on this one and the shutters are somewhat similar with a planked look. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Walmer-Dollhouse-Wood-Fully-Assembled-Alexandria-VA-1-12-Scale-P-U-Only/133058207918

Victorian Times "Bee Tree House" for $70 in Ventura, CA. Seller does not list it as such. Part of me wants to tell him/her what they've got but that usually goes badly so they're on their own, lol. https://ventura.craigslist.org/tag/d/ventura-doll-house/6956196265.html Identifiable thanks to 1martinimomma posting the Victorian Times catalog. Thank you!

I posted about that one here. It will be interesting to see if it sells and for what price. It certainly is beautifully finished! I hope someone posts if/when it does. I don't dare save that on Ebay. Even at that price, that would be just way too much temptation staring me in the face every time I look at My Ebay, haha.

Dangit, I can't find the books from which I learned to do staircases. I'll link to them below. I prefer building my stairs out of long blocks of 3/4" thick wood stacked atop one another. I learned that from Christopher Cole's book. It enables a much greater variety of stairs than can be accomplished using traditional stair stringers, which I find very limiting. If I could find that book, I'd post his schematics! Maybe someone else has it. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Make-Your-Own-Dolls-House-by-Christopher-Cole-hardcover-w-dust-jacket-1976/223490488192 That stacked method was used to create my stairs that I pictured above. I believe that method was also used to create this dollhouse staircase: The built-up method for curved railings is from Dorie Krusz's book: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Building-Miniature-Houses-and-Furniture-by-Dorie-Krusz-HC-Dollhouses-Dolls/173957631877 The spiral end cap instead of a newel post at the base of this staircase below is from that book. This method also works for full railings for circular staircases, as well as the landings around stairwell openings (again, as pictured in my post above). For the actual staircase railings, you have to lay the finished staircase down onto matboard or sheetwood (I prefer sheetwood) to get a template. You have to use the finished stairs and not just a schematic of how it looks from above, or else once you tip the railing up at a 45-degree angle, the length will fall short. Again, I can't find my copy of that book for no love nor money. Maybe someone else has it. It doesn't give specific instructions for doing railings for a circular staircase but the method is adaptable.

I'm just curious, did you ever decide to put the dormers on? I think they give the house a nice balance. I've only ever seen it with the dormers so maybe I'm just not used to seeing it without them.

Sorry, I know these pics don't help at all. This is the staircase that goes into my Barstow Belle. Part of the handrail is curved, as are the top and bottom rails of the upper railing that goes around the stairwell opening on the second floor. They've been filled, sanded and painted/stained so you can't really see the layered build-up process used to make them. I'll post them anyway, such as they are. :/

Some of those curved handrails are notched to better enable bending them. You can see the notches clearly on the left handrail in the picture below. I think smoothing that over with stainable wood filler would effectively make those notches disappear. You can also do a build-up method using varying thicknesses of wood. You have to use sheets of wood, not stripwood. You cut out the entire curve on a flat sheet of wood, then another slightly smaller to put on top of that, then the top of the rail from a thicker piece of wood. That one has to be sanded a lot to give it a rounded shape or else you end up with a big block of wood for a handrail. Once layered atop one another, the pieces make a pretty good curved railing. Essentially, you're cutting the wood into a curve, not trying to bend the wood into a curve. Does that make sense? I have a staircase that used that method. I'll try to get pictures of it later.

That is rare! I don't think I've seen one of those kits for sale in something like five years or longer.

I like those colors. It's such a pretty house, you should do it in miniature!

Imagine if every manufacturer burned their name and the name of the house into their kits, we wouldn't always be asking Kelly (the original one, not me, lol) to look in her stash of old magazines to tell us who made things! Carrie, please, future Ebay listings will include the phrase A Genuine Carrie Original! as a selling point. I've wood-burnered my name into the bottom of a couple houses. One thing I do is use heavy packing tape to secure a list of paint colors onto the bottom. Even if discontinued, paint formulas are often available for years. Might come in handy for some future owner. I did that in the few RL houses we've renovated. With those it's mostly for myself! "Did I use Benjamin Moore Chantilly Lace on the walls or the mouldings? Eggshell, satin or semi-gloss.....?" I like that about sharing memories. Now I wish I'd have jotted down notes for some of my Southwestern pieces. I have some pretty special memories of meeting Margaret Tafoya back in the day and visits to various pueblos. If you're ever speeding along I-40 between Albuquerque and Flagstaff, be sure to take the short side trip to visit Acoma, the Sky City.

I hope all you talented miniaturists sign your creations or else 20, 30, 50 years from now someone will be wondering, "Who could have made this?" I'm up with insomnia finding there is no signature on my mom's childhood home. I remembered the man I thought must have built it died in the 90s so he couldn't have done. I had my suspicions previously verified on a house I've taken to calling the Not da Marcus because of a misleading plaque someone put on it. I emptied that one out to turn it over only to find it's not signed either! The builders of both of these are lost to posterity. I shrug and half-heartedly reassure myself that if they didn't want to identify their craftsmanship, why should I struggle to do it for them? I don't know, it just makes me a bit sad. I'm too sentimental for my own good and will probably feel really stupid about this in the morning! Please tell me you sign your creations?

Myrna Loy was gorgeous so your grandmother must have been too. I love the Thin Man movies! Ugh, insomnia sucks. I'm up at 2:30 in the morning quietly turning this house over to look for a signature. Nuthin'. Norm Nielsen couldn't have built this house because he died in the 90s. Why do people not sign their work?? I wonder if I should ask his son David if he built this? Ugh, I don't want to impose. The man is trying to run a business not play researcher to strangers on the Internet with questions about 17-year old dollhouses. Mom was a regular customer of Norm's Dollhouse for years; I can't imagine who else in town she would have commissioned to build this. It's like the house I've taken to calling the Not da Marcus because of the misleading plaque someone put on it, lol. That one's not signed on the bottom either! I suppose if builders don't care to leave their names for posterity, I shouldn't concern myself to do it for them. It's just that this sort of thing drives me batty. I hope all you awesome miniaturists on this forum sign your work or else 20, 30, 50 years from now someone will be wondering, "What talented person made this?" I'm going back to bed. Thank you for the nice comments on this. It's special to me.

Mine came with these. Yours are much fancier. I like yours a lot better! https://lawbre.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=6&products_id=361&zenid=d61fca16b83c69c1020f6397e087d76b

Hardly dollhouse related but what the heck since these were on my computer anyway. Since it's a real house, I figure why not show two of the real people who lived in it? First pic below is my Granny Anna ca. 1936. She and my grandfather built the house in 1939. He died before I was born. She lived in it until she died in 2002. I believe that is when my mother commissioned this 1/12th scale recreation, when the house was being sold. I guess her way of sort of keeping it in the family. And Mom, who grew up there of course, ca. 1962.

Something like this. Thank you Google satellite view! But squared off better than my quickie red lines.