How the house began.

 

Once John had said that he would make me a dolls house and it was up to me to tell him what I wanted it to look like.

For a long time I didn't know but the moment I saw a picture in the property papers of a house I knew THAT was what I wanted. Since it was on the market at a mere £900,000 it was clear that a model was the only way I would be owning such a house.

John spend many weeks thinking about the layout and how he would do certain things. I wanted it to be a much like a real house as possible. Two rooms deep and to be able to look along the upstairs corridor, and to see through one room into another.

It took about eight months to complete. This included time spent in Casualty when John badly cut his hands. He is extremely good with his hands and wood is his forte but he is definitely accident prone.

One or two details which are interesting - the wiring is all concealed in the roof. The switches are all in a drawer which is disguised as a Burglar Alarm and each room lights separately.

An Interesting Thing. During the making of the house I discovered that the last owner of the real house was an avid collector of miniatures and her collection of room boxes and furniture was on exhibition in a National Trust Property called Nunnington Hall in Yorkshire. She used to commission the top men of the day to make her furniture. It is called the Carlisle Collection.