A labour of love on a mini scale
IT’S been quite a refurb. My husband did a complete rewire, with brand new lights and a complicated system, and put new flooring in seven rooms. Paintwork was touched up; the roof restored, too. I sewed curtains for eight rooms, complete with tie-backs, and made new finials for the poles.
I made a lacy crib coverlet as well, and am now moving on to embroidered cushions. Different rooms of our house were in some chaos all the while, but it’s all but finished now (bar the picture hanging) — and we’re proud.
The focus of all this labour is… my daughter’s ‘Victorian’ dolls’ house. I mentioned it here three years ago, explaining that my father built it for Kitty in 1985, making his own fireplaces, fenders, stoves etc.
I’ve taken great care of this precious heirloom which is now for Kitty’s own daughter. In time — because it’s not a toy. I like to imagine her in the future, maybe telling her own child, ‘My great-grandfather made this’ and ‘My grandmother sewed that’.
My husband and I will shrink some family photographs to hang on the stairs and I shall write a miniscule ‘book’ telling the story of this dolls’ house. Let’s hope it never leaves the little library.
What’s it all about? Nostalgia and sentiment you could reply, if you don’t ‘get’ it. I prefer to say a sense of continuity, of family, of precious memories. There’s something magical and peaceful about this house of miniature objects and people (which we like so much we’ve moved it into our sitting room) because it slows down time.
When my little dog Bonnie died in 2015 I found a tiny Maltese online (from Holland) and gave it to the lady of the dolls’ house — which made me feel less sad. That what I mean by magic.
There’s a lesson here. If you’d told me ten years ago I’d make a hobby of the old dolls’ house, I’d have laughed. But now I seriously recommend treasuring the old and creating the new as really valuable therapy.
Bel answers readers’ questions on emotional and relationship problems each week. Write to Bel Mooney, Daily Mail, 2 Derry Street, london W8 5TT, or email bel.mooney@dailymail.co.uk. A pseudonym will be used if you wish. Bel reads all letters but regrets she cannot enter into personal correspondence.