Memories Before the Demolition (Artply Rutherford)

The Artply Rutherford was my first wooden dollhouse. I had received a TOMY plastic dollhouse when I was 5 years old, but the only real memory I have of it was that the dishwasher had a rack you could pull in and out: that detail blew my 5-year-old brain. But this was my first assembled "from wood sheets that you punch the pieces out of" kit (aka tab-and-slot kit). My mother bought me the kit when I was 13. I don't think she expected me to do much with it; probably assumed I'd lose interest part way thru assembling it and she'd have various wooden pieces laying around her basement. But I assembled the shell that first weekend and then spent the next 7 years, on and off, finishing it.

There's supposed to be a little porch roof over the 2nd story French doors that I obviously lost or couldn't figure out when assembling, but ultimately that will work out better for my future plans for this house...Anyway, 13- to 20-year-old me made a lot of mistakes. I was still learning. 

Overall view of interior

Some things I'm impressed I did: second story stair railing wasn't abandoned like all the other stair railings were, windows have their interior trims in place (some of them even painted to coordinate to the room), the bathroom door is on a hinge! Other things bother me to no end: tower railing is off center, didn't use proper glue for wallpapers, painted after house was assembled...the list goes on but you get the idea.

Painting after assembly means lots of paint where it doesn't belong, like on the porch floor

Some window trims didn't get painted on the sides cuz I glued trim on before painting them and I didn't want to risk getting the trim paint on the house

Many warped shingles - used the wrong glue

Broke original front door and 20-year-old me replaced it with this Houseworks door that unfortunately makes transom window above look like a gaping hole

2nd Story doors also got replaced - better fit, but why are knobs halfway up on all my doors? LOL

Very impressed hinges still work, but again, knobs are in place for the 9-ft tall people who live in this house. LOL

Has bugged me for a while that railing on tower is off center. Didn't bother me enough to do anything about it though.

My stained fingerprints left marks on the white wallpaper while installing the trim in this room

For some reason I didn't paint the ceilings in this house? (Also can see my awful streaky glue job on the wallpaper to the left there.)

I love the play room in this house, but using Elmers glue to attach wallpaper was the completely wrong thing for 14- or 15-year-old me to do! Every single glue streak is seen.

And several years ago, I thought about selling off the house, or even donating it, to make room for my ever-growing hobby. I had long since outgrown the house. I liked some of the accessories and the kitchen cabinets were very nice, however the rest of the furniture and decor wasn't really my style any more. But I didn't follow thru with getting rid of it because of the number of customers who came into my shop lamenting that they didn't keep their first dollhouse. And, technically this was my first dollhouse (my first wooden dollhouse and the first house I assembled). So I kept it, gathering dust and cobwebs, in the basement.  I am so glad I did keep it: because I'm renovating it into a spooky, not-quite-haunted-but-rocking-some-unearthly-vibes, witch's home. This project will barely be started on Halloween, but I had to at least start the process in October, right? That's kismet or something.