Saturday, April 29, 2017

Day #3 of the Birthday celebration continue- Vintage Country Living Barbie foldup dollhouse arrival

So day #3 of the birthday bacchanalia of the loot continues....I should mention here that my birthday is not until May 1st, Monday, lol.  Today my vintage ebay find , the Barbie Country living fold up dollhouse arrived. I won this ebay 
Country Living Barbie foldup dollhouse for a song, and it only had one crack on the corner with all the furniture intact, and one crack on the bed! I have this same exact item, only mine has damage when a table fell on the roof and my kitchen table got damaged. I still have it in the attic somewhere. My mission has been to replace the vintage items I had as a kid.I have replaced my country camper, now my birthday present this year has been this dollhouse! Now I have both this dollhouse and the cardboard original Barbie 1959 foldup dream house my aunt had. 

So let's get started with some pics!


This is the kitchen and bedroom, together.
Graphics are bright and the vinyl walls are not bent or warped.





The living room. This house looks like it has hardly been played with. I remember my frustration with the house as a child, as the rooms were so very small and didn't accomadate the furniture and dolls very well. I didn't like the furniture spilling out of the house as a child and in order to play with the house , you had to put the furniture outside the floor plan perimeters, which spoiled it for me. Even as a kid I was a stickler for things being picture perfect/ scale correct. I remember putting my mother's placements  or towels underneath the furniture for 'carpet' so it would look right. 





Here is the living room/kitchen peopled with dolls. That is a vintage Skipper with sausage curls and Living Barbie, and my Pillow Talk Poppy Parker, since she is one of my most 'mod' dolls. You can see how cramped the dollhouse is in the living room. I remember the kitchen was my favorite room of this house. 









Mattel did some of the most in-depth graphics of all on this house in this room, I think. I took photos of the swinging doors, the doors to the bedroom, the back wall of the kitchen, the graphics of the fridge, it all blends with the orange country farmhouse table and chairs. As a child I loved playing with this set and as a grown woman, I am still drawn to it. Barbie in her vintage dress still brings back the nostalgia of the 70's. I might start making some 70's food for that table ! 






Ah, the mod- vintage bedroom. The bed arrived with a crack in it, but I knew about that when bidding on this piece. I might be able to pick up one later that isn't damaged. I did some furniture placement and had this orange office chair that seems to fit right in with the mod decor. 




The roof. The roof has one slight crack on the corner which was larger than originally in the photos, or probably the seller didn't take that great of photos of the crack. Otherwise, the roof is pretty much intact. I might be able to repair that roof. It is rare, very rare to find these houses without a crack in the roof and without the vinyl walls warped. I plan to store my house in a safe and dry place, since it is over forty+ years old. Hopefully I can get my other childhood one down from the attic and salvage it soon. 



And finally, the exterior.  The colors are equally bright and astonishing - most of all, this item is CLEAN. No dirt, ingrained dust, it looks like it might have been stored in its box and barely played with. I am wondering if the crack might be storage or from heat damage or something falling on it, versus a child playing with it. Someone has carefully taken care of it, which I'm grateful for. My vintage girls are going to love it. 

So far, I've had a great day unpacking this item, and watching my new DVD, 
Batman vs. Superman. What an awesome movie.  I have also ordered the new
giftset Wonder Woman Paradise Island giftset from Barbie Collector, which is on Backorder until June 1st. I can hardly wait for the new Wonder Woman movie to come out, as the dolls are amazing. 

More to come, and enjoy the pics! Lisa 

4 comments:

Phyllis said...

Well, happy birthday day #3! This set is in awesome condition considering its age! I am happy for you! Can't wait to see what comes next!

Lisa Neault said...

Thank you Phyllis. I was really happy to get this piece. I am hoping to get the Barbie beach bus next, which is on my list of vintage items I amreplacing.

Barb the Evil Genius said...

What fantastic shape that dollhouse is in! I never had that dollhouse, but one of the girls in my neighborhood did, and I used to love to play with it.

Lisa Neault said...

thanks Barb! It really was a grail find !