The Beautiful Behemoth

Back in November, Brae (Otterine) posted on her blog that there was a Citadel dollhouse kit originally from Lolly's in the Chicago area for sale on Ebay.  Of course, I had to check it out.  It was an unused complete kit still in the box.  I thought about it....for about 3 minutes and clicked on that crazy "buy it now" button.  Seriously, I had a huge smile on my face and giggled.

Several years ago before kids, I was in sales and would regularly go to Chicago for my job.  Of course, whenever I was in the area I would hunt down dollhouse shops.  Lolly's was one of my favorites.  Every time I went in there, I saw the Citadel house gleaming with all of it's glory.  It had a hefty price tag (around $900 as I recall) and at the time, I don't think they were selling the house in kit form.  Needless to say, I looked at it longingly. 

Here are some pics of the Citadel I found from Lolly's. 

After I had gotten back into miniatures, I saw the Call-Small's adventures on procuring her Citadel house.  She drove a long way to Chicago to pick hers up.  So, when I saw this one on Ebay for a buy it now price and free shipping, I HAD to jump on it.  It was a now or never situation.

I, like many of us have a tendancy to buy great miniatures and do nothing with them for awhile.  I got the house in November and just started on it last week. I've been a little busy, what can I say?

Anyway, along with the kit the seller sent me this awesome deck and hut tub kit which was a really nice surprise.

I took pics of the other two boxes when they arrived, but I can't find them.

I have had a couple of blog friends ask me about it which gave me a kick in the pants to start building it.

 Yes, that is an air compressor you see in the background.  I used it to nail this sucker together as I glued it.  I like power tools!

It's so big that I had to put it on the floor to build it.

Here is where I am at now.  I have the primary structure finished.

There is a yard stick leaning against it to show that it is nearly 3 feet tall and almost as wide.

I realized after it was put together, (glued and nailed) that I put the second floor in backwards and that one of the dividing walls was crooked.  Unfortunately, there was nothing I could do because the wood glue was already dry and the nails wouldn't allow me to knock anything free with a hammer.  This sucker is solid! I can disguise the floor part though.

Note to self, do not try to build a dollhouse all at once. It's all good though, I can live with it and nobody will notice...unless you are reading this.

  I'm considering a slight modification...

 Here it is with the curved tower, which is what came with the kit.

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I'm toying with the idea of using two doors in the center and making the rest of the "tower" glass.

Any thoughts?

This has always been my all-time favorite dollhouse.  I have seen some amazing ones, but this one makes me drool.  I can't tell you how happy ecstatic I am that I am the proud owner.  I can't wait to do some more work on it!

Thank You, Brae!!!

If you hadn't posted it on your fantastic blog, I would have missed out!