The Christmas before I turned twelve, my parents got me a dollhouse.

Not just any dollhouse but they had it custom made by a local man for me. We had been looking for just the right house for quite a while. I don’t know how I got into it, but my mom and I went to quite a few places looking for a good dollhouse.. You know the serious collector kind; 1″ to 12″ scale.. all miniatures.. the scaled down wallpapers etc. The kits were all crappy and many of the custom ones were way crazy priced. Eventually, we found this man who actually made scaled houses for insurance brochures. Like he would make a mini house and smash it with a mini tree so potential insurance customers could witness the devastation.

What was important was that he made a really good quality house and would customize it exactly as we wanted and while it took quite some time and cost allot, I had a beautiful custom miniature dollhouse under the tree that year.

My mom and I used to go every year to the Dollhouse & Miniatures Show and buy the most amazing collectables for my house. I had the whole thing.. porcelain bath set, custom upholstery, carpets, working electric lights.. it was beautiful. And, surprisingly enough, though I banned it from my room at one point during my teen years, I never trashed it or spray painted it black.

When I moved off Long Island, the Dollhouse stayed behind in my old room.

Same as it ever was, it was only after my mother had died and we were getting ready to sell the house that I prepared to take it back with me to upstate NY. After the huge tag sale and the U-Haul full of furniture I kept, I still left the house. In fact. it was literally the last piece of my family’s life left in the house. The whole place was empty, except for my dollhouse on the floor in my old bedroom. I had planned to pick it up when I went down for a visit as back then, I used to travel down to the Island much more often for parties and to see friends, etc.It made sense since I still appreciated the heirloom aspect of the house and thought that taking it up in my car as a single transport would be best for the house.

But on my next trip to Massapequa Park, and I went to to get it, my dollhouse was gone.

The only thing left in the spot that it had sat was a small cupboard and a single porcelain doll. I called my Grandfather thinking that he must have moved it to his house for some ungodly reason, but he had no idea either. After checking with my uncle, we came to the conclusion that the dollhouse had been stolen which was pretty odd consider.. well it was the only thing IN the house and it was on the second floor so it wasn’t like someone could see it through a window.. and then, all the doors had been locked too.

My mother’s house was on the market then and had a lock box. While we would have thought that the local realtor that had the listing would be horrified that a priceless family possession had been stolen from a dead woman’s house, but oddly enough, he kind of brushed it off. While my Grandfather did report it to the Nassau Country Police Department, I don’t think that they had much care or motivation to find a doll house thief. My grandfather did, however, report that the said realtor had five granddaughters, so based on that and his lack of concern; my best guess is that he stole it.

This happened fifteen years ago or so and it still makes me angry.

After Scarlett was born and I finally had the girl to pass it down to, it would come to mind periodically and I would feel angry all over again. I have thought about getting a kit and building one or something, but she is not yet nine and she is rough on her things, so I have held off.
So, I am alone with the kids this weekend as Rye left for Florida today. His cousin is getting married and we really couldn’t afford for us all to go, plus if I am in Florida with my kids there is NO WAY I am not getting them to Disney! And I had no time off from work after my arm surgery, but that’s OK, I am looking forward to getting much accomplished this weekend.

Anyway, so being that it’s Friday and we had to get a birthday present for a party the kids are invited to tomorrow, I figured we would do a bit of shopping and then have a nice kid time dinner out ( which meant Friendlies, but whatever!) I wanted to stop by the local Salvation Army to do some “shopping”.. to be honest I have been so impressed by the clothes there lately.. I have great stuff there with killer labels… for like nothing.. so it’s a great way to get my shopping clothes needs taken care of for nothing. I really wanted to get some wine glasses for the office since I am now reviewing wines weekly for a clients wine review blog and I HATE drinking at the office in plastic cups. I know, my job rocks. I have to drink to drink wine.

Anyway, we are at Sally’s Boutique and as we get up to the register with wine glasses and various clothing in hand ( Gap Claret colored silk shirt $2.99!), I notice that the place has dolls houses all over. In fact, they are some pretty nice dollhouses. So I leave my stuff on the counter and I go over to look at them and I am floored.

These, my friends, are some seriously NICE dollhouses!

Like close to my old custom doll house nice! Quarter inch plywood construction, windows and doors, siding.. and they were ..well at the Salvation Army.. so for a doll house like these, they were cheap!

And I could hear her. I mean literally I could hear my mother saying, “Claudia, you go now and buy my granddaughter her dollhouse!”

And so I bought the Dollhouse

Much to my children’s dismay, I looked at them all ( there were five, six?) and picked out the best one.. that looked closest to my old dollhouse and we bought it. I told Scarlett to thank her Grandmother and yes, this would be part of an early Christmas present and she better not color the walls with watercolors or markers , but I paid for it and put in the trunk. Then we went ot Target and I had to spend money on a big Lego set to even it out for Tristan, but I didn’t care one bit that I was wild and impulsive.

It just felt like that was supposed to be THE dollhouse. And besides, my mother said so. She would haunt me if I didn’t get it. It really is perfect and so well made:

• The base is painted a rough gray texture like cement
• The siding is clappord wood siding pained yellow.
• It has gingerbread trim and real wood shutter.
• The roof is tiny cedar shakes with copper sheeting underneath! I just discovered the copper and I am very impressed. I think the thing could shed rain water!

And, the inside is completely unfinished, so we can take ourselves over to Ben Franklin Crafts in Town and start getting the teeny tiny wallpapers and Oriental rugs.

Remember that last forgotten doll left after the heist ? Well Scarlett has had possession of her and when we got home, she went and got her and put her in the house. I think my mom smiled.
I do know that something got to me. I had some connection somehow and something opened up inside me too.. becasue, when we were at Target and buying a birthday card for the party tomorrow. I saw this really stupid talking Pirate card. And I bought that too.

Guess who is going to be getting that in the mail next week? Yeah.. I think my momma gave me a kick in the ass tonight and I know to listen.

My mother, she was often right. She doesn’t say much anymore, but when she does now; I listen.