In the photos, each piece was lined up carefully on my spare bedroom floor, neatly labeled so I knew exactly where everything was. I was so determined to do things correctly, rather than in my frequent slap-dash manner, and I just knew that the only thing really required was patience and the ability to follow directions carefully. I possessed both of these qualities so I figured - how hard could it be?
However, after painstakingly measuring, labeling and laying out all the pieces, I realized I was missing a few pieces and some pieces were actually damaged! It should have been an omen, but I plunged ahead - just knowing if I worked hard enough and carefully enough, it would all work out in the end. I mean, surely I could recreate the few missing pieces and mend the broken ones as they were all relatively small and simply designed.
If you look in my journal entries of August, September and October 2000, you'll get an idea of some of the frustration I went through. However, in the end I realized that it was giving me stress, rather than the hoped for relief from same! After days of soul-searching and prayer, wondering why I couldn't accomplish what I thought was a relatively simple task, I finally had the intelligence to ask my genius builder husband to look things over and see if I was just missing something "obvious" or if I was simply losing my mind!
"Yes, dear." I replied. "I'm very sure. I've searched that box - and the instructions - about a gazillion times and there's nothing else left."
"Well.....you need to see if you can return it then and get your money back." I have to admit he was very sweet about the whole thing, considering he thought the entire idea was perfectly ludicrous in the first place. But he had the grace, and the good sense, not to bring this up.
So....I packed up all the little pieces, and all the big pieces, and all the everything-in-between pieces, labeled by me in my careful penmanship, and went back to the store. I knew better than to speak with a clerk so I asked for the manager on duty, to whom I painstakingly explained everything that had occurred. And to my utter relief and complete delight, he was very obliging! He even apologized several times for all the trouble I'd had. And before he could go any further, I asked if I could have doll house items in return for another kit or getting a refund. The poor man probably thought I was nuts by then anyway and he happily agreed. I imagine he was even happier when he discovered I actually spent more on those items than the house kit's worth!
And why did I need these furnishings if I didn't have a doll house? Well you may ask! You see.....in all my anguish and frustration, I was still completely taken with the idea of creating a doll house. I'd never had one as a child and I was determined to have one now if at all possible. And - perhaps even more important - it just so happened that my neighbor Susan, who knew of my latest passion, had spied a book in a gift shop that she thought I'd really enjoy. She'd been in a rush and hadn't been able to look through it, but she said if the outside cover was anything to go by, it should be great! Knowing Susan's taste for good books, I went to the gift shop and saw for myself. Here's the book!
Now I ask you? Does it take a brain surgeon to realize that any book that looked this good on the outside must be worth a look on the inside? So I looked. And I bought it right then and there, and I've never looked back since. Why? Because it introduced me to the fact that doll houses had originally been "cabinet" houses! They were primarily of German and Dutch origin, from around the 17th century and they were not shaped like houses at all. Rather, they had "rooms" partitioned off in cabinets which could be closed up when not in use, with none the wiser that "doll furnishings" were inside!
And don't think for a minute these "cabinets" were used as toys! They were considered a symbol of wealth and, as Ms. Finnegan states in her book, they were one of our original status symbols. Great sums of money were expended on these "houses" in an effort to "show up the Jones Family" in the next county (my words; not Ms. Finnegan's).
Additionally, these cabinet houses were often used as a "teaching tool" for daughters of very affluent families. By "working" with the cabinet houses and their contents, a daughter learned how to "run her own household" for future reference! I guess they might be considered the forerunner of our Home Economics classes we took in high school!
Regardless of what their purpose, I was completely, unequivocally, topsy-turvy, head-over-heels in love with them! Moreover, I was determined that a "cabinet" would be my next doll house. I just didn't realize how soon my next doll house would be created! That is - until I returned my doll house kit!
Till the next post then......Love and God's Blessings! Jan
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