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Hi All, I'm having trouble choosing a car for the San Franciscan's Garage.. I've been trolling around on ebay and other sites all morning.. wasting time searching. So I'm hoping you can help me choose. As you may or may not know the back story on the San Franciscan is that a young couple live there.. they inherited it from her spinster Aunty. So with that in mind, I've been looking at the kind of cars I think a spinster Aunty might have stashed away under a dust cover in the Garage. I feel a pull to this Morris Minor as my Dad's Secretary in the 1970's had this exact car (even the same colour) and I have vivid memories of her driving into the yard of my Dad's office when I was very young. She was a spinster who lived with her mother, as you did if you were a spinster back then. Her name was Deirdre and she was tall and slim with Mrs Doubtfire hair and glasses. She wore tweed below the knee pleated skirts with matching jackets, thick hose and utilitarian lace up shoes. She was an old school Secretary. She took dictation using shorthand and typed so fast it was like rapid fire on that old manual typewriter. I loved her, she was no-nonsense and stern but also kind and very nice to me. When I saw this car I immediately thought of her... maybe she will be my inspiration for my imaginary San Franciscan Spinster Aunt. My next choice is this BMW Isetta.. because.. well.. it's just so cool! I feel like the San Franciscan needs a cool retro car and this little Euro number fits the bill entirely. Plus it's petite, meaning it's good for parking in busy San Francisco. My only concern is that it will be overwhelmed in the garage which has quite a high ceiling height. It also comes in this great retro pale green My husband is voting for this Porsche (of course he is ), however I fear my back story would have to change to my young couple working in the tech industry.. or perhaps the savvy spinster Aunt was an early investor in Apple. Fortunately, I think this car might be too long for the garage. I haven't been able to find the dimensions of this model but this vintage model (which I quite like) is 14 inches long and the garage is only 13.5. Of course I could always get a Combi which I think is very San Francisco.. but again, slightly too long.. maybe I could park it in the driveway. or a maybe a Beetle... Or a Mini.. a retro Morris one not the new BMW version. These come in endless colour combinations so there's a lot of scope there to fit into my overall scheme. Though I do like this green one. Or should the spinster Aunt have had a secret wild side and kept a corvette or mustang under covers in the garage all these years. So what do you think? Which car should I go for.

I bought a San Franciscan 550 this past weekend from Craig's List. The house is fairly sound, and is only missing interior stair railings (as far missing/broken components) The tower roof is not original (or so I've been told) but the low roof doesn't bother me. Here's my question. Someone, at some point in the past, glued lace to the windows of the house (as you can see from the picture, the person took care to use the same pattern in each window) While I don't hate the look, I'd rather have something else. Whoever glued this lace in must have used some spectacular glue, because this lace is all stuck tight. Any suggestions to remove the lace (without having to take apart the house) would be greatly appreciated. PS If anyone has any ideas for the roof (aside from building a "witch hat" tower roof) I'd like to hear those too!

While I have always been a lover of miniatures, I am new to building dollhouses. In fact, my first build, The Orchid is only in the "priming" stage. However, I have the opportunity to purchase a Duracraft San Franciscan (open box, but the seller assures me all pieces are there) for $100. I honestly don't know if this is a good deal or not. I have seen this same house selling on ebay for twice as much, but I'm not familiar with the Duracraft brand to know if this would be worth the investment. I have my eye on a Real Good Toys house for my second build, but this one is significantly less expensive. Can someone tell me 1 - is this kit worth the money, 2 - are Duracraft houses much harder to build than RGT? Thank you in advance!

Hello, Mary Sue here. I have a convoluted story... I wrote stories for a friend's twins. They are said to be very good, so I seek to publish. But how to illustrate? My grandfather left a box of Xacto House of Miniatures furniture he had done -- my partner had a framed then abandoned miniature house in his basement -- and they came together in an idea to set up a mini world for the characters in the books. The pieces were added to with a big EBay box of random furniture and accessories. The house benefited from a Craig's List buy of building parts. I found a store (Chautauqua Miniatures) with helpful owners who will be my go-to place forever. What fun we are having! But yesterday, a scary thing happened. I bought an incomplete San Franciscan 550 kit on EBay. We want to create a mansion by marrying the SF to the one of a kind main house. Amateurs have such bold ideas! It will be an adventure!