I can’t believe it has been six months since my last collections blog! So much has happened since then! We sold our home in Connecticut to move to our brand new log home build on 12.55 acres in New Hampshire! We made ours quite well on the sale of our post and beam home on 5.95 acres in Connecticut! We received seven offers and went with the highest bid! Our home in New Hampshire was still under construction when we had to move in due to the closing deadline of June 9th. Before we placed our home on the market, our contractor told us the house would be complete before the end of May! He did not finish it until the second week of July! Fortunately it was mostly finish work. We did the stair railing ourselves from first to second floor. We also built the steps to the farmers porch. All while trying to move! We certainly had more than enough on our plates getting moved! We didn’t need to take on work he was supposed to have done! But there were things we had to do to get our occupancy permit! We did other projects as well that were his job! Our contractor never finished the basement! He never finished any of the closets with shelves or rods to hang clothes on. There are no doors on the bathroom closets or the master bedroom closet. Yet we still somehow went well over our original quote for a turnkey home build! Considering he left several things undone and we did a lot of work ourselves, it should have been less! We added a few things along the way but we accounted for that in the estimate versus final cost! We just finished the two bedroom closets downstairs with a shelf and clothes rod in each one. The rest of the work can be done during the winter. Since it was summer, we much preferred doing outdoor improvements that cannot be done during the winter months. And we also wanted to have some fun with our family and doing outdoor activities while the weather was good!
But, still thrilled to be here! We now only live one and a half miles away from our son, his wife and our two grandchildren! And our new home is gorgeous and so much fun! Living the dream!
We own 12.55 acres on a mountain side. Our bottom boundary line runs half way across the river! We have a table, chairs, smaller side tables, and a fire pit here! This spot is about a half mile from where our house is. We just finished clearing a trail for the 4-wheelers so we can ride down to the river now! We cleared about 4,000 feet of trails! We have two trails up by the house, one on each side that meet up just above the first brook where the trail to the river starts.
This is where the two trails from the house meet up and where the trail to the river starts!
The trail to the river heads down the hill to the left of the large boulder. The first brook is at the bottom of the hill!
More house photos!
Master bedroom!
Larger downstairs bedroom!
Smaller downstairs bedroom, my office! I work from home!
Basement!
Half bath/utility room in basement. We have two full bathrooms upstairs; one on the first floor and one on the second floor!
Love our deck and farmers porch! I have my gas fire pit here in the corner!
We just had landscaping done and had the field out back cleared and seed has been planted there. Hope it grows well before winter hits!
However, downsizing has been a huge challenge for us! But it is still so very worth it! But I do miss my tiny nursery that I had at my other house! I’m at a loss on where to set up my collection! I was going to take the area under the basement stairs but Hubby took it over! I realize now that the area under the basement stairs is far too small anyway. It’s smaller than my tiny nursery was!
We just purchased new heavy duty metal shelves for a storage are in the basement. When Hubby took over the area under the basement stairs, he said I could have one of the three large shelves! Tonight I finished setting it up! It still needs some work but all of my Reborns and all supplies (clothing, accessories) are finally unpacked! It was great seeing them again! I was also able to set up my vintage collection! Unfortunately there is no space for my dollhouse collection. I’m hoping this is not a permanent solution. I hope to find a better and permanent solution to keep and access my collections in the near future. But, for now, at least now I can enjoy my Reborns and vintage collection! My six Reborns are in the third shelf up, inside the cabinet system. Their clothing is now nearly sorted and placed into fabric boxes. Everything else is in fabric boxes on the bottom shelf
Latest photos:
My Reborns! It’s so awesome to see them again!
My latest addition from just before we moved to New Hampshire, Parker, Primrose sculpt, limited edition, 494/1250! I literally did the unboxing to check him out and then re-boxed him for the move!
Kodi Bear gal, limited edition, 1285/2000! I believe the Kodi Bear sculpt has been sold out so it may now be considered a sold out limited edition (SOLE) as the sculpt is now out of stock at MacPherson’s! If not, she should soon be a SOLE!
Kodi Bear Boy, limited edition, 1231/2000! As noted above, he is likely a SOLE!
Pickle, sold out limited edition (SOLE), 1023/3700!
Michael, my only one that is an open edition.
Gracie Mae, sold out limited edition (SOLE), 1308/3000!
Now moving on to my vintage collection!
My most prized, extremely rare item! If you can even find one for sale, it’s likely not in perfectly new condition like this one is! Nobody ever used this item for a baby back in the day, primarily in the 1960’s! And you likely won’t find one with all of the original parts; nothing missing, and I also have the original box and manual! This infant seat is worth at least $250! I haven’t been able to locate how much these cost back in the 1960’s but I am guessing these were around $10? Probably $20 at the most? I purchased this on eBay and when it was down to the wire, I upped my bid with literally two seconds to go! I wasn’t even sure if my bid went through in time! But when I saw that I won it, I was so excited! I did pay more than I really wanted to at $225 plus shipping. But I truly still have no regrets! I wanted one of these badly and found it difficult to find one, and whenever I found one it was already sold despite fair to poor conditions! Many were missing the pad, the plastic had cracks, and/or they were stained. None had the original box or manual! And they were still selling anywhere from $75 to $150! So I now actually consider mine a steal! If I wanted to sell it, I wouldn’t sell it for less than $250!
In the photo below, the blue book on the upper left is from the early 1970’s and is extremely rare! If you want to buy one, be prepared to search almost daily for months, and be prepared to pay at least $75 for it if you do find one that’s available! Most sell for $100 and up; that is, if you can even find one to buy! I had this book as a child and it was my favorite book, even to this day! So when I was finally able to buy this one, you can only imagine how thrilled I was and how much I treasure this! And I purchased it for only $75! What a bargain! I could not believe it! I would have to say that this book and the infant seat above are my two most prized possessions in my vintage collection!
Sunshine Family complete with parents, child, baby, dog, cat and grandparents! One of my favorite sets in my vintage collection!
Dawn dolls! Another favorite!
Assorted vintage items!
My Reborn dolls are inside the white cubes!
The xylophone is worth mentioning as it is in good condition with no missing parts, and I also have the original box!
The wooden toy with the red circle handles is from the 1960’s! It would be hung across the crib from rail to rail for baby to play with! And baby could use the little rings to try to pull herself or himself up into a sitting position! I had one of these as a baby! Another favorite of mine!
I also love my Lincoln logs! Same sets I had growing up!
Ken and Malibu Barbie from the early 1970’s! No missing parts! Another favorite amongst my collection!
I had a lamp just like this growing up!
My second favorite puzzle as a child!
My favorite puzzle as a child!
I had this clock as a teenager and it eventually died on me. This one that I purchased about a year ago still works! It’s just not plugged in right now! I also had the item below for years! We had two or three of these and my sisters and I would talk with each other over them from room to room as kids! So fun! This is the only one I have and it doesn’t work. It’s just a symbol of some fun times with my sisters.
I love this item from childhood, too!
This next item is fairly common but there aren’t many in this condition and it is rare to find one with all three bears plus Goldilocks! I had one of these as a very young child in the 1960’s! Another favorite of mine!
I had one of these in the late 1960’s! This school bus is in near perfect condition! It is rare to find one that still has a working stop sign in the driver’s side, the door still intact, and one that still works when pulled; the eyes move up and down. Many have stickers that are worn or missing; and many have cracks in the plastic, especially the top area. Not only do I have this in excellent condition, I also have the original box!
Love these old rollar skates! I used to skate all over the neighborhood with skates just like these!
My three original boxes!
I had the brown clock on the right as a child! These still work too!
Having lots of fun with my collections! And look how many boxes I unpacked!! Yay!!
Boxes all broken down! Nice and neat!
