Christmas came and went this year and it was a great one spent with friends and family as usual! But one gift (to myself!) will be coming just a few days late. I was looking around on ebay and decided to give it another shot and search for the Toadstool High Rise dollhouse plans that I have been searching for, for years now! And lo and behold there they were! I panicked momentarily thinking "oh I shouldn't be buying things for myself this time of year" and "how much have I already spent this season?!" before I quickly clicked buy it now!!! After all I had a bit of Christmas money and some graduation money so why not buy myself a little something - I just made it through Nursing school, right?!
These 2 pictures are borrowed from the auction listing itself. It was a long time ago, but I blogged about my love for this kit and how sad I was that it hasn't been available in 30 some years. You may remember me talking about http://minimodern.blogspot.com/2007/09/some-modern-dollhouse-plans.html which is one of the first places that I found this beautiful dollhouse apartment building. I actually replied to this post back in 2010, but I'm sure my reply was lost somewhere (as it was never published), especially since the original post is from 2007. The main thing I remember is reading that these plans pop up every few years on ebay. I have had a saved search set up to email me daily through ebay looking for this exact item since sometime in 2010. Sadly to say it never got a single hit. So when I typed in the search terms myself I wasn't all that hopeful that I would find it. Search terms are funny that way, not everyone is going to tag something the same way and unfortunately ebay is not set up to default to worldwide searching.
Anyway according to my email my package has been shipped so fingers crossed that it travels safely and will arrive soon. Perhaps it was fate, or luck, or most likely a gift from God that I found these now. Someone knew that I needed to wait until I would actually have the time and money to get back to working full time on my hobby. Graduating from Nursing school was the first step. Next will be getting my RN licensure and then of course a good job! So yes, it will be a while before I can start on these, but I knew I would regret it if I didn't snatch them up when I did!
The only images I was ever able to find of a partially completed high rise came from this link
It was from a past sale through ebay.
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If you are a Greenleaf Dollhouse forum member you may be able to see the above link, but back in 2013 I was still searching. I had used the worthpoint link to contact the person who bought and sold this particular house, but they did not have the plans from the original builder. I will have to update my post on Greenleaf to let everyone know that I finally found the plans!
During my endless search I stumbled upon this little gem. If remember correctly I found this book on ebay as well while doing a search for dollhouse high rise. I can't remember if ever shared a blog post about it, but I always meant to.
I'm not sure if the seller knew the original owner of the book, but whoever they were they signed the inside cover in 1991.
The copyright info shows the book was published in 1978.
And of course you can see why I was immediately drawn to it!!! A fully detailed description and measurements for building an 8 unit dollhouse apartment building! I have spent many hours studying these plans and drawing them out on graph paper dreaming of how one day I might build this beautiful house! I'll have to share more pictures later, but it includes a stairwell and a working elevator. Most of the plans that I have created using this example include moving the elevator from the middle of the complex to the back beside the stairs - after all who wants an elevator that opens in the middle of your apartment? And my plans also include using each level as just one apartment and not two. The book includes everything, measurements, the type of wood to use, even wiring. Although I have yet to be brave enough to delve into dollhouse wiring.
In a perfect world I will have all the time, tools, and money that I need to put these 2 dollhouses together. So needless to say this will be a project that will take years to complete. For the dollhouse in the book I am interested to learn if there is a way to build the house floor by floor with sections that could be taken apart in order to view each level from above. I think it could be done, but it will take alot of time and practice on my part to learn how to do it.
Anyway I am happy to share this post with everyone and a hint of what is to come! David and I have plenty of plans for the future, two of which include paying off all of our debts and moving into a new place. We hope for a home of our own one day, but that may not be our next step. I will need a place big enough and a craft room all of my own to have the space to really put these together. But I am happy and it gives me something wonderful to think about and plan for!
Happy Sunday blogland!
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