A Barbie Doll House Is Special, Part 2

Four-shelf wire shelving unit used as the 

frame for the Barbie house.

The pandemic hit, and Indiana shut down just as I had gotten an idea for how to build a new Barbie house to replace the old one.

What could I do?

I was working at home like a large portion of the country.

So, like a large portion of the country, I turned to Amazon and ordered what I thought I would need. Everything arrived quickly, and then it sat in my house for more than a year.

I had other projects to finish, and by the time I completed those, I had returned to working in my office cubicle.

Finally, more than a year later, I opened the boxes.

One four-shelf wire shelving unit on wheels, a box of 15 white foam core boards, various rolls of Contact Paper and 5x7 picture mats.

Testing the zip ties.

After assembling the shelves, I tested my theory that zip ties could be used for assembly. They worked perfectly.

On to construction!

Unlike the original Barbie house, this one would be three stories with a rooftop garden. I had Contact Paper for the exterior and interior walls as well as the ceiling. At this point, I wasn't sure if I was going to use the foam core board for the flooring or if I was going to use wood panels from a hardware store. I would have to test to see.

But first the walls.

I cut the side panels with an X-Acto knife, then covered the exterior with a brick facade and the interior with the appropriate wallpaper and trimmed as necessary.

One of the side walls.

Interior side wall.

Interior side wall.

By the time I started attaching the front panels, I realized I forgot to cut windows out. Oops! I would have to think of a Plan B for that.

Exterior front, sadly 

missing windows.

Interior first floor walls.

Interior second floor walls.

Interior third floor walls.

I covered the roof in strips of silver duct tape. Then I tested the idea of a foam core board floor and decided it would work perfectly. So, I had to order more Contact Paper.

Roof covered in duct tape.

Once it arrived, I finished the floors and attached them to the shelves.

Interior first floor.

Interior second floor.

Interior third floor.

Furniture updates would be next.

to be continued

A Barbie Doll House Is Special

When I was about 5 or 6 years old, I got the best Christmas present ever. It was a homemade Barbie doll house complete with homemade furniture, made mostly by my mother and grandfather. I loved it!

I played with that house for years--long after society says I was too old to play with Barbies.

I didn't care. I had that house, and it was perfect.

When I was about 8 or 9, I got a Barbie Town House. Now I had two houses for my Barbies, and they could visit each other. But the Town House wasn't as well-constructed as the one Mom made, and it collapsed over time. The furniture was still good, so I moved some of it into the homemade house.

Eventually, when I was in college, Mom moved that homemade house to the attic. I was devastated. It had become a part of my bedroom, like the lights and ceiling fan. It didn't belong in the attic!

When we moved from the farm to Angleton, I insisted it come with us. Mom was not pleased about this decision, but I would not be swayed. So, it sat--fully furnished with Barbies--in my Angleton bedroom. My cats enjoyed climbing in it, and I would shoo them off. By this time, the house was almost 20 years old. I wasn't sure if the weight of my 10-pound cats would be too much.

But it survived.

Then we moved to Indiana. Again, I insisted the house come with us. This time, when one of the cats jumped in it, the house was no longer able to hold. The second floor collapsed. My heart broke. I had had this house since elementary school. What was I going to do? Where were my Barbies going to live?

It took me a year to gather up the emotional strength to throw out my poor, broken Barbie house. Before I did, I took measurements and decided I would build another one just like it. But there was a problem with that idea.

I'm not a woodworker by any means. And we no longer owned the tools it would take to put together a wooden Barbie house.

I would have to come up with a plan for a house I could build.

After several suggestions from Mom, some friends and not-terribly-helpful Google searches, I stumbled upon an idea.

And then the pandemic happened.

to be continued...

Playing with Barbies

I had a conversation with a co-worker recently about Barbies we had as children. As the conversation turned from the dolls we had (Peaches and Cream Barbie for the win!) to the various accessories we acquired (Town House! Corvette!), we began discussing how we played with our Barbies.

She was more interested in decorating their spaces -- crafting furniture from catalog photos, using images from magazines to decorate walls, cutting down carpet samples and Contact paper for flooring.

I was more interested in telling their stories.

One of the best presents I ever got was a Barbie doll house that was made by my parents and grandparents. It was wooden and had four rooms, furniture, carpet -- everything. I got it when I was about five years old, and I loved it! Several years later I got Barbie's Town House. While the Town House was cool (it did have an elevator, after all), it did not replace my homemade doll house in my heart. Eventually, the Town House collapsed into a pile of plastic and paper. Survivors included the Barbies who must have been inside at the time and the furniture.

The homemade doll house, the Town House, and several other "houses" around my room were the settings for elaborate stories. All of my Barbies had names -- most of which came from soap operas or the TV show Five Mile Creek. Because of the names I chose for the dolls, some of their backstories came from those shows as well. I couldn't very well have my doll named Eden interested in anyone other than my doll named Cruz (fans of Santa Barbara will understand).

The names only guided me in the relationships and connections of my Barbies -- Maggie and Kate were friends; Hannah was Maggie's daughter. The stories were entirely my own. School, work, parties, swimming, working with horses -- these were all options.

Sometimes the dolls went on trips, and I would stick them in the Corvette and drive from my room through the living room, kitchen, dining area and back to my room. Sometimes the dolls went to "Europe," and I would pack up the ones I was playing with at the time along with the suitcase full of Barbie clothes (yes, a whole suitcase) and head over to my grandmother's house to play. New setting, new stories.

I know some people think of Barbies as anti-feminist, but I could not disagree more. My Barbies were outspoken, hardworking and adventurous. Through my Barbies, I could express myself in ways I was only beginning to comprehend in real life. I loved my Barbies. I still do. I wish I had all of them to this day, but I've only kept a few (and the suitcase of clothes).

Homemade Barbie doll house
destroyed by Hurricane Cat.

photo by me

As for the homemade Barbie house, I had it until 2016. It survived a move to the Houston area and to Indiana, but it did not survive one of the cats jumping onto the second floor. I won't lie; I cried when I found this. It still took about a year for me to actually haul it to the curb for trash pick-up.

The furniture, however, is still with me. And the stories live on in my imagination.