I’ve had my Beacon Hill for many years. In fact, I got it in the late nineties while on holiday in Sydney. I said to my then boyfriend, If I buy this would you build it for me? I hadn’t a clue myself and it was a very ambitious project for someone like me. He said yes he would so I paid for it and my boyfriend took my luggage trolley back to the shop to pick it up for me. He would not have wanted to pay for a taxi. The outcome for my trolley was not so good as he broke it which meant I would have to lug my case all the way back to the railway station without it. I would have arms like an orangutan afterwards. We also had to lug the Beacon Hill and our other luggage to the railway station. I made sure we got a taxi. The station wasn’t that far. The Beacon Hill had to go in the baggage car so we were charged extra money for it which did not go down well with boyfriend. It was a long trip home on the train because I had booked us to go via Melbourne so we could experience more than one train journey. We had gone direct on the Indian Pacific but returned home on two other trains. Well, I had no idea I would be buying a dollhouse.

Well, back at home I kept asking when my dollhouse would finally get put together. I never got a real answer so the house just sat in its box. I continued to go to dollhouse fairs and to little shops in Adelaide and Melbourne buying bits and pieces for it. I stored all of these in a box and every now and again I would get them out to look at. I did so want to have a nice dollhouse like the ones I had so often admired at the dollhouse fair. Finally after several years boyfriend finally put the house together for me. It took some time as it was a big project. He was pretty proud of himself and went on about wanting to get a story in the paper about it. I wasn’t very enthusiastic about this but he went ahead with it anyway. He had taken the house to his place and invited the press over from our local paper. I have to say I was less than pleased with him. This wasn’t to say I did not appreciate all his hard work in putting the house together. I just didn’t want it in the paper.

Well more years passed by and I once again shelved the project for various reasons but hoped that one day I would get the house painted and decorated inside. The time came for moving from Adelaide to Oatlands here in Tasmania. I was worried about the house being sent in a container with my other worldly goods by rail. All of my belongings had a rocky ride but luckily not much was damaged. I don’t know how my fragile house survived such a wild trip across half of Australia. Two solid dining room chairs were broken upon arrival.Talk about moving house! I found a spot for it amongst my big toy display but it took me a few more years to finally buy some primer and start painting the outside. I did about half of the house but then the project was shelved again.

Well, here I am twenty years later having decided that I am going to finish the Beacon Hill once and for all. Notice I have underlined this part. I am going to make a commitment and do it. The other day I looked to see if I still had the tin of Taubman’s primer. It took me a while but I finally found it in my laundry. I only walked past it five or six times a day! I got a knife to lever up the lid which was stuck down pretty good. I got it open but the paint was all separated and looked pretty yucky. I thought I would have to throw it out but with some hard work, I got it back to white again so I started painting the house that very afternoon. I have this weekend off work so I am going to get busy and see how much I can get done before my good friend Phillip arrives in August. He is coming over from Adelaide to celebrate my 60th birthday with me.

So that is the story of my particular Beacon Hill dollhouse. It is of course made by Greenleaf. You can find these at http://www.greenleafdollhouses.com if you would like to have a look at them. They make some wonderful houses. Vanda has asked me to take some photos of my house as I go along with my renovations. I haven’t yet decided on a colour scheme but I can tell you that it will not be grey and nor will it have any horrible grey carpets inside. At one time I had wanted it painted light grey with cream and light blue trim and a dark grey roof. That will not be happening now. I imagine I will paint the weatherboard cream but I am not sure about the trim. I’m thinking about going with a slightly run down look so I might distress some of it to make it look a bit weather beaten. Well, that’s all for the time being. I will be back with more another day. Thanks for reading.

www.greenleafdollhouses.com