Thank you

@@KMLautanen wow. I would love to see your dollhouse collection. Sounds like you have a very interesting house in general🤩

I don't actually own a real dollhouse as such, although I have one specifically made four-tier shelf decorated as a dollhouse and built to size. Instead I have a room with dollhouse rooms built inside the solid wall structure. The only light fixtures in that room are inside the dollhouse rooms, so there's no overhead light or sconces etc, but the relatively small room is still lit by 23 light bulbs at eye and chest level. And those dollhouse rooms contain my collection of dollhouse things. Here's a few examples: www.kmlautanen.fi/fi/katjablog/minit/l1.JPG www.kmlautanen.fi/fi/katjablog/minit/c1.JPG www.kmlautanen.fi/fi/katjablog/minit/e1.JPG www.kmlautanen.fi/fi/katjablog/minit/f1.JPG www.kmlautanen.fi/fi/katjablog/minit/a1.JPG www.kmlautanen.fi/fi/katjablog/minit/g1.JPG Then there are a few "roombox" style settings built in old bird cages, a glass lantern etc. In all, the room has currently 35 dollhouse rooms without one actual true dollhouse. As a bonus, they take no actual floor space at all. The house has been called "interesting" before. The oldest part is around 100 years old, though there are no building permits, paperwork or plans left from that time, so nobody seems to know the actual building date, and it's in public records as a "guess-timate". The main building is a bit under 500m2 (5381.9 square feet?) (though that's another guess-timate, since the library is six meters high, the main staircase takes a lot of floor space etc) and then there's another building with a sauna, storage space, a summer guestroom, wood storage and hobby space. The entire thing has been expanded a few times over the years, and there's no official floor plan of it all either.

@@KMLautanen thank you😊 Those dollhouserooms are incredible - so much detail. Do you know what the house has been used to earlier? With the really high ceiling and size it must have been something grand 🤔

Nope, it's always been just a private house. The six-meter library was our own construction and my own plan, the room was built from scratch by hand and using manual tools (the house main skeleton/frame was there first, of course, but we did everything from the interior wall and ceiling beams and support columns up by ourselves). We wanted to try and build a large round room (six meters in diameter and six meters high) with a domed ceiling all out of wood, because many professionals said it was impossible (one was determined it could only be done by masonry, another suggested a metal support structure etc, so we decided we wouldn't hire anyone and just did it ourselves). The library floor (www.kmlautanen.fi/fi/katjablog/bloginkuvat/kirjastolattia.JPG), the entire round room with hand-made along-the-walls shelves (www.kmlautanen.fi/fi/katjablog/bloginkuvat/torpkirjasto2019.JPG) three metres high etc, and yep, a domed ceiling made out of wood.

Thank you!

@KMLautanen I'd be devastated if a shelf broke and lost my collection. I have Crystal houses, carriages and figurines from my husband's great grandmother. Along with just other random momentos. And I definitely agree on the support group! Mine sounds like he's sawing down a whole forest and not just a single tree!! It's awful!!

@KMLautanen when my mom was still alive she used to buy me caterpillars to raise and once they turned into butterflies I'd go release them out towards the more rural areas.

A loss like that becomes especially devastating if there's sentimental attachment to the figurines, and not just monetary. With some good luck and proper insurance you can replace some of your loss, but nothing brings back a valued gift when it's shattered. The snoring trauma becomes especially terrible when they're apparently using a chain saw. And then people just tell you to poke them so they'll stop snoring, and then when you've spent the entire night "just poking" you start looking for a dictionary of worst insults to anyone who says "have you tried poking".

I have a friend who raises monarch butterflies in the 'States. They bring the eggs and caterpillars indoors to safety and then raise them so that no parasites, weather or birds can harm them, and release them when they hatch. They do tons of them every year, and apparently it's something that requires a lot of care and work, but people who do that help the conservation efforts. It's something I've always appreciated and I follow their photos and videos every year. Just a thought of touching a caterpillar makes my skin crawl, but the way they release the fully grown butterflies is so impressive. Such beautiful creatures. Although we have no monarch butterflies here in Finland, they impressed me so much I started growing flowers just for butterflies and leaving some over-ripe fruit in the garden for butterflies to feed on.

Nope, I don't have everything, not even close! I think someone estimated there are 11 000 Swarovski pieces total, including all variants, rarities etc. I've heard of people with collections of 2000 or 3000 figurines too, so I think mine is rather modest in comparison. I've kept all the boxes, yep. I emptied one of the larger walk-in closets of our house just for piles of empty Swarovski boxes.

LOL Let me guess, either solid wood or very old, or both? :D Our library floor is louder still, since we used neither nails nor glue to attach the planks. You can definitely hear when someone is browsing XD Kitchen is the loudest, but with 100 year old floor that's kinda given.