Hannah Montana Malibu Beach House

Dear Readers,

The baby went to sleep a little earlier today so I had some time to snap a few pictures of my new dollhouse: the Hannah Montana Malibu Beach House.  I found it at a garage sale and I liked it instantly because it was completely furnished and the interior decor was fun and unusual.

It was released in 2008 by Disney and modeled after its hit TV show Hannah Montana starring Miley Cyrus.   It is 1:6 scaled and fits the Hannah Montana dolls or same size dolls like Barbie, LIV, etc. 

Here is a full view of the inside.

This is the bedroom with a balcony and a swing chair.

Or I guess you could re-arrange it like this.

The other room could be a boudoir or bathroom.

The living room has fantastic French doors that can swing open.

The kitchen looks very retro.

The stove door can open but not the drawers.

The fridge has two doors and an ice maker.   It has many built-in shelves.

The exterior of the dollhouse is lovely and looks quite realistic.

The dollhouse was a real bargain although there are scratches, stickers on the wall, and paint/crayons marks lefts on some parts of the floor. 

Overall, I love the dollhouse. It think it's a dream house for children.  But for an adult collector, I am not sure I would want to keep it.  The furniture are very sturdy and the stained-glass window upstairs is beautiful.   The French door is my favorite feature.  But the house is very big even when it's folded in half.  It's just a really massive house.  Maybe I would keep it for my daughter.  What do you think?

Barbie Beach Raquelle Doll

Dear Readers,

Rain rain rain! We had rain for the last 3 days.  One night, the rain came down so fast and so strongly that within an hour, the sewers got clogged.  Our neighbor called us at 3am saying the front of our home was under water and we should check if we had any damage inside.  Good thing he called because we rushed out of bed and sure enough, water had started to flood our living room.  We moved all the furniture away from the front door and front window and started scooping the water.  Nothing was damaged but the floor will eventually need some fixing if this flooding goes on. 

We actually get flooded at least twice a year during the summer but it's not too bad if we are home and can scoop the water out before it spreads to the whole apartment.

While moving our living room furniture, I realized I had a lot of dollhouses and dolls displayed in my bookcase.  I'll have to purge organize my collection soon otherwise I won't have any more space for the new arrivals!

Many dolls have been added to my dolly family during the last few month.  Among them is a Barbie Beach Raquelle Doll!  I bought her because she is so pretty and her face mold looks quite different from the other Barbie dolls I usually see in stores.

She is also very affordable for under $8.  She comes with a bikini and sunglasses.  Her hair looks great but it's super stiff.  I think Mattel had it covered in some sort of glue to keep the shape of the end-curls.  I might be able to make it more manageable after a soak in hot water and hair conditioner.

The only thing I don't like is her body. It's hollow plastic so you can't bend her knees or arms.  I will eventually swap her body for a more flexible one.   

Here she is unboxed!  Can you see how stiff she is?

She is sitting in a Hannah Montana Malibu Beach House !

Her hair is a little messy because my neighbor's daughter came to visit today and she really wanted to play with my dolls and the dollhouse.  I just couldn't say no to the little girl and let her play all her heart's content.

Raquelle held up nicely in the hands of a 4 year-old!

She deserves a little rest now :)

Do you like this Barbie doll?  I think she fits perfectly in that beach house.  I'll write a post about the dollhouse soon so you can see how fantastic it is!

Goldilocks House for Little Dal

I was going through my dollhouses collection to put them for sale when I stumbled upon this one ...



Ever since I have my Little Dal Dolls, I had been looking for a dollhouse that would fit them.  My biggest Sylvanian Families Dollhouse was slightly too small for them.  My new Ivy Cottage was also too small.

I then tried all the dollhouses I had, including my camping trailer and treehouse... but in vain as they were all too small.  The only house which was too big was the Play Wonder Wood House for my Licca dolls. And so I still didn't find the perfect Goldilocks dollhouse that would fit my Little Dal.

I finally got lucky when I unexpectedly became the new owner of a Vintage 1993 Fisher-Price Loving Family Deam Dollhouse.  I say unexpectedly because it was not my intention to buy it!  You see, I was looking for some 1:6 furniture for my Licca dolls and I found a Barbie furniture lot.  In the lot was many other toys and to my surprise, a vintage Fisher-Price dollhouse!

I had seen a modern Loving Family Grand Dollhouse in store and I disliked it immediately because of its garish green and dark pink colors!  The setup was not attractive and the furniture were boring and of the same awful color combination.

I knew the height of the Loving Family dolls were about the same as the Little Dall dolls (about 11 cm or 5 inches tall) but there was no way I was going to put my pretty dolls in that ugly house!

So imagine my surprise when I saw this super cute Victorian dollhouse with scalloped roof shingles, elegant French doors, a spacious balcony and front porch!  It was an old house but in good condition.  Very solid and easy to clean too as it was made with the usual Fisher-Price thick and smooth plastic!  The floor and window edges are pink but I didn't mind so much because the house was mostly white and light blue.

The front porch is adorable! With a little step and a mailbox, and enough space for a rocker or a swing!  Here below are my two Little Dal checking out the new house!

For once Lady Vixy could walk into a door without having to lower her head!

There is a balcony with plenty of space for them to set up a little garden!

"I don't feel safe!  This balcony needs some railing!"

Inside the dollhouse it's bright and open with a lot of space for furniture.  The staircase going from the first floor to the second floor is really cute and there is closet underneath just like in a real house!  The two sides of the house do open up if you want to make more room for play.

The built-in kitchen is practical but obviously lacking storage space.  But the oven and fridge doors do open which is really nice.

The kitchen is slightly too big for Little Dal but it's not a big difference.

"Where is my Easy-Off Oven Cleaner?"

There were some of the original dollhouse furniture in the lot so the Little Dal tried a few for size comparison.  Remember how Princess Tulip's feet were dangling over the Calico Critter's bed (HERE)?  Well this time the bed fits her just right!

"Finally! Furniture that fits!"

The third floor is smaller than the other floors but it still fits the Little Dal.  And unlike most highest floor dedicated to nursery rooms, this one does not boast too  many nursery decoration so it can easily be utilized as another type of room (I was thinking about making this the music room).

The house folds up easily for storage too but it's still very big compared to my other houses.  I am really on the fence with this one.  To sell or not to sell.  I can just imagine the house with a new floor and curtains on the windows and it would look soooo cute!

Although I am in the process of cleaning out my dollhouse collection, I am having second thoughts about this one.  Do you think I should keep it?  I think Princess Tulip and Lady Vixy already feel comfortable in it ;-)
 

Melissa and Doug Pink Fold & Go Dollhouse

I am continuing today on reviewing some of the dollhouses I will put on sale.

If there is one dollhouse that I won't regret parting with is the Melissa and Doug Fold & Go Dollhouse.  It is a sturdy house with a front door and many many windows!  There is a handle so it's easy to carry around but there is not clasp to keep the dollhouse close so if you have things inside, everything can easily fall out.  The same goes for the Woodland Treehouse by the way.

The paint job is nice but a bit boring.   I like having so many windows.

Just like the Woodland Treehouse in my previous post, this dollhouse has a bare interior which is great if you want to customize it with wallpaper, flooring, curtains or paintings.

It comes with 2 dolls and the following furniture:

• 1 bed
• 1 bedside table
• 1 dining table
• 2 dining chairs
• 1 living room sofa chair
• 1 TV
• 1 TV console
• 1 bathtub
• 1 toilet
• 1 sink

The furniture are all made of wood and partially painted with purple to match the house.  They are sturdy and well made (no nicks, no rough sides).  Their proportions are correct for the dollhouse but I find it silly to have such a small bed when there are two dolls.  And one couch only.    Also, there is no kitchen furniture but maybe it's a bit too much to ask for such a small house.

 

The dolls are a mix of peg dolls and rag dolls with wooden head and feet.  Their limbs are made with some bendable wires.  They are the typical Melissa and Doug dolls (other family member are sold separately). I was never a fan of such dolls so they didn't really interest me.  Their soft body feel strange in my hand.  Maybe because I am used to the harder body of other dolls.  And their simple painted face are not cute to me.  But that's my personal opinion.  I don't know if they appeal to others but I would not buy more.

The dollhouse and furniture fit Calico Critters (aka Sylvanian Families) which I think are much cuter.

I don't know why but I was never really attached to this dollhouse it although it is pretty, affordable, easy to store away and does allow room for personalization.  At that time I didn't have the Mini Lalaloopsy Sew Sweet Playhouse yet so I used it to display my Mini Lalas.

The furniture was boring and bland so I switched quickly to the Mini Lalaloopsy cute furniture! 

 

Ah much better!

I added some miniature cakes and furniture from the Li'l Woodzeez Bakery Set!

I guess it would look even better if I added wallpaper, some curtains and flooring but I am not crazy about the overall design and exterior so I will let this one go.  I think I prefer my plastic Sylvanian Families dollhouses the most so that was an easy choice.

Do you like this dollhouse?  

Play Wonder Dollhouse Review

The dollhouse arrived today!  Once assembled, the dollhouse looks stunning! And huge!  And very colorful (but in a good way).

 

 

 

Assembly: It took Hubby 45 minutes to open the box and assemble the house by himself without my help.  He used only the tools provided in the box.  He said the instructions were good and everything was well aligned so there was no problem.

Durability: The house is very sturdy.  I am impressed by the house structure.  It's made of solid wood.  The walls and floors are made out of pressed wood and it's thinner than the beams of the outer structure but still very hard and hold the furniture well without sinking.

Furniture: There are 10 pieces as I described in this post.  They come already assembled except for the bed for which you have to screw in the foot and head board.   They are all made of wood except for the bathtub which is plastic but it's thick plastic and not the flimsy kind.  Maybe they did this because they expect children to fill the bathtub with water? The furniture pieces are big and bulky but that's great for young children because they won't break!  The bed is however too big for this dollhouse while the coffee table is ridiculously too low.

Design: I love the pretty colors and the height of the floors, especially the third floor which often is dwarfed to only 1/2 of the other floors in many dollhouse design.  I would have preferred wallpaper without all the drawings of furniture but I don't mind so much for this house because it has a beautiful effect when you look at it.  The pastel color palette is just what I wanted.  The spiral staircases are made of plastic and very well designed.  Each step can rotate independently on the pole to which they are attached so you can therefore twist them to whatever position you want.  However, they take a tremendous amount of space in the dollhouse so I took them off to allow more play space.

 

Compatibility: The dollhouse is to scale with dolls 11 inches and taller. 

Barbie: I don't know how it would look like for Barbie because I don't own any Barbie dolls.  My guess is that it would fit her nicely but I am not sure for the furniture because she has longer legs than Licca dolls.

Licca:  They are 9 inches tall but they fit perfectly in the house.   They are slighty too small for the kitchen chairs and table but the other furniture are fine. 

Dal: They fit very nicely because their body is about the same size as Licca dolls although their big head make them look quite big when in a room.

Pullip: They are slighty too tall for the house.  Although they can stand in the room without hitting their head on the ceiling, they just look awkwardly big.  The furniture are much too small for their long body.  Put two Pullips in a room and you'll feel claustrophobic for them :P

 

 

 

 

The open doors give the possibility to add more rooms to this house but it's already so big I can't really add more!  The dollhouse is placed on a table for now, away from baby's little hands but when she will be old enough, I'll put the house down on the floor where she can play all her heart's content.   In the meantime, mommy will fill the house with her dolls and play instead ^_^