Barbie's New Real Estate

Midway through April already?  Time flies.  Next Sunday will be Easter, and I may just have to include some Easter decor in Barbie's New Dream House.  

Since last week, when I first started setting this up, punching out furniture and getting used to this new structure in the room (hard thing to do, I know), I finally put together the last piece of furniture which was the patio lounge chair.

Ken at your service over here, playing the junior real estate agent.

Anyway, I'm pretty tickled to have this all put together now.  One piece of furniture a day, maybe two.  I was very, very careful punching out these 61 year old pieces.  There was no running down to the Woolworth's to pick up another Dream House if I blew it.  

I have a funny feeling that cardboard shrinks over time, or can.  I might look that up.  Of the old pieces that I replaced, in comparison,

the fit was better in the old pieces.  Not all of them.  I don't believe that when Mattel produced the originals, they expected collectors to be playing with these things sixty-one years later.  Or getting excited about finding unpunched sheets of furniture.  Or that their primary audience for the toy (it is a toy), would be adults.

But this was fun, and this is just the start.  As I was putting things together, I did some digging in my vintage Barbie stash and started accessorizing the interior just to see how things would look.

For the photos, there are no accessories.  That will come later.  Let's talk about the pieces.

As you can see I have two chairs in the living room.  One is new, the other old.  I like the look of two chairs.  There's some balance to the room, but that could change if a Christmas tree gets decorated next December!

To the left you see a brand new coffee table.  These pieces usually passed the test of time, and aside from a few bumps and bruises, the general feel was 

that the cardboard yellowed.  So why didn't it yellow on the unpunched papers?  Perhaps because they weren't exposed to the elements.

To the right you see a brand new end table and the lamp shade is new as well.

This is the new living room chair.  Trust me that putting these together was a surgical experience.  Often times the paper wasn't completely ready to punch through.  I had an X-Acto knife to aid in this case.  Sometimes when creasing the bends, the colored paper on top would stress a bit.  

And pushing the tabs into the slots took some effort.  Just the right amount of pressure would get them in, but it was a little nerve wracking at times.

The TV!  And it has all the television program cards.  I think that this must have been one of the most played with toys in this set because they are always in sad shape and missing program cards.

This one is in decent shape for its age.  There wasn't an unpunched one to put together, but I'm okay with it.  I think sometimes people put the TV on the end table, but then where would that lamp go?  Seller said it was complete, so I have to trust this.  There were extra Barbie bedroom night stands so one of the good, old ones, sat in for the TV 

stand. 

Onto the bedroom.  Looks pretty nice.  The bed was in decent shape, and there was no paper to punch an entire new one out of, but I did change out the headboard and gave the bed a couple of pillows from my reproduction Dream House.

Upon opening the reproduction house, I fell in love with it all over again.  However, Barbie is moving up in the ranks, so now she owns the New Dream House.  I did find several outfits in the closet 

though and carefully bagged each one for Barbie to wear in the future.  I expected that when I was done playing with the Little Theater, it would go back up, but the table was taken over by some big dolls for a while.  They've been moved or put away now. Boy, I'll tell you, if I wasn't married, there'd be dolls in every room in this house!

To the right you see a brand new nightstand, lamp, vanity chair, and mirror.  The nightstand was made out of one piece.  Its ingenious how these fold up furniture pieces were designed.  

Artists have been making paper toys for a very long time, but never to this degree of cleverness.  You used to find the paper cut outs in ladies' magazines, and you'd have to paste the page to cardboard and then cut it out and fold it up or assemble it.  Most common were doll rockers and pull toys.

There's just something about cutting out paper pieces and putting 

them together or scrapbooking them, that I find so peaceful and relaxing.  

So, here's the new kitchen hood over the stove.  Another piece that is often beaten up pretty bad when you get a used New Dream House.  I think it took its beating from the house being stored and the furniture bumping around in it.  I was very excited to find this piece.

Guess what else I found?  The tabs, or handles to the cabinet and oven!  The tan ones might go into the cabinets above the stove.  Believe me, I studied each piece of unpunched paper to make sure I didn't miss anything.  When I found these, it was a red letter day.

I won't use them.  I don't want to stress the doors and they look nice just as they are.  I'll put them in a little bag and tuck them into a cabinet that's easy to open a crack.  It would make more sense to simply insert them into the slots, but this is minty old cardboard and I wish to preserve it as much as possible.

Two new chairs and a new table.  Wow.  Another piece that is often in sad shape, especially the legs, is the table.  I don't know if this set came with two kitchen chairs, but there were two to punch out, so I assembled them.  Which is nice, because I have a round table from the Kitchen-Dinette coming for the kitchen.  The rectangle table can be used as a worktable or counter.  Good place to put the toaster and the telephone.

Nice rectangle table.  Can't help myself.  I love NEW.  I wish they'd make a reproduction of this structure, but then again...having the vintage one makes me feel like I have something special.

And finally, the patio.  There were two lounge chairs already built, and one unpunched.  I put together the unpunched one today and borrowed an arm from one of the others.  As I mentioned, the unpunched pages weren't complete, but all furniture accounted for. 

I thought two would be good for the patio since Ken will spend a lot of time at Barbie's house.

Here's the brand new one with repurposed arm.

One of the reasons I pushed a bit to get this done is that I'll be spending the rest of April making Alice costumes for two dolls.  I needed to have this done and my work surface cleared so could concentrate on the projects ahead.

I only wish this house was on a large Lazy Susan.  It would be fun to turn it every so often to enjoy fully, each side. I'm just happy I found out how to situate it on a "small table".

After signing the real estate papers, Ken takes Barbie out to dinner.

Well, the next thing to do will be to get both dolls dressed in comfortable about-the-house clothing and decorate with accessories all the surfaces.  I have a silver tea service that will look nice on the coffee table for instance.  All for another journal posting.

Until then, enjoy the April weather as Barbie does.  She never lets a rainy day get her down!