Dollhouse Pictures!

 Have I ever mentioned how much I love dollhouses? :P Well, I do.

   I've made dollhouses from scratch since I was maybe ten or eleven, and so it's become sort of a hobby for me. Last year I made the most elaborate I have yet, with an actual staircase, two stories, and eight rooms. I spent hours and hours at work on it- "living in the basement like a woodchuck", to quote my family- and there it sat all last winter, due to the fact that it's so stinkin' huge there's simply no place for it upstairs.
  But even though I LOVE making dollhouses, ever since I was very young I've wanted a real one. That's right, a mass-produced dollhouse. A dollhouse made out of wood, with elaborately painted walls, doors that open and close, and- oh, glory!- electric lights.
  Well, several weeks ago, I bought one. A real one. : ) It looks like this:
 (By the way, I'm sorry these pictures are so dark and fuzzy. I am planing on getting a nicer camera very soon, but for now I must make do with the ol' iPod camera.)


  The way in which I came about it is sort of a long story and consequently it is not what I might have chosen, but even though it is not exactly the dollhouse of my dreams, I am quite pleased with it. No, it doesn't have electric lights. : ( Yes, the exterior is entirely pink and the roof is blue and white, which makes it look like a Barbie castle (and just what is wrong with looking like a Barbie castle? :P), but other than those minor details it is a very charming little dollhouse and I have grown quite fond of it.
  The entire interior was already painted and I am actually pleased with most of the graphics, so I didn't see fit to do any wallpapering, but I did put down some carpet and hung some curtains, as you can kind of see in the fuzzy picture. I also took all the furniture and accessories that we've acquired over the years from yard sales and whatnot out of my old dollhouse and put them inside the new one. Now the old one is empy and I have affectionately named it the Racketty-Packetty House. (And if you've read that book and loved it as much as I did, we really should talk. ) : ) 
   Here are some pictures of the interior. And again, I'm sorry the pictures are so dark, but the lighting isn't the greatest in the basement and I didn't want to throw my back out carrying it to a different location. I'm hoping to bring it upstairs very soon, but I have yet to establish a place for it.

    This is what was originally supposed to be the nursery, but I kind of made it into a sort of spare bedroom. I redid the furniture in a Swedish style, which you can kind of see on the end of the bed.

  This is the library/music room. Last summer I bought a piano to put in the Racketty-Packetty house at a dollhouse store (which is one of my very favourite stores), and it fits very nicely into the corner of this room. I also put in a bookshelf and a writing desk.

   This is the bedroom, my favourite room in the house. I made the bed last year and the rest of the furniture I've accumulated from different places over the years. (The cat is my sister's.)

                                                                  The Kitchen

                                                The Parlour/Dining Room

  And here's a view of the staircase.

    Oh yes, and the current state of our basement is an absolute MESS. A MESS I tell you.

     The only thing is, I'm not quite sure what to name my little dollhouse. I have several ideas, but I haven't settled on one yet. It's far too small to call it Downton Abbey, more like a cottage or a small townhouse than a country manor, otherwise I'd probably name it that. I could call it Downton Place, which, if you remember, is what the Crawleys were going to call the house they thought they would have to move into after they lost Downton (which they didn't, thankfully!) Here are my ideas, from various books and period dramas:

    -Crawley House
    -Hartfield
    -Paradise House
    -Arlington (after Robert E. Lee's home)
    -Longbourne
    -Downton

   I've set up a poll on the sidebar, so you can tell me which name you like best! Or, if you have another suggestion, please comment and I will add it to the poll! The poll will be open until next Tuesday.