The Wayland Road house was the house where my mother’s family lived since 1959. Four generations called that house home at one time or another. After building the Ocean City cottage my mother decided that she wanted me to immortalize that house as a doll house for her great niece who at the time was the perfect age for such a gift: a replica of her childhood home. This undertaking was a little different as I was able to take all the measurements that I wanted. So I did, as well as taking pictures of all the rooms from the angles I needed. Interesting too was the fact that it was a split level house, so the plans were easy enough to recreate, but the construction had to be carefully thought out in order to make all the rooms fit together properly. Also, the landscaping was difficult to pull off because of the split level configuration. All the rooms had to be accessible as a doll house, so not only did both roofs come off but the sides did as well.
The primary focus was to build the house and make it to scale as a doll house and with working lights for the inside. The furniture was to be acquired later. So the focus could be on details specifically related to the house like the den with crawl space or the built-in toiletries cabinet at the end of the hallway that remained green for 50 years. As I myself lived there for a short time and visited my whole life, it was fun to rebuild yet another childhood “friend” where so many memories were still very much alive in me.
This was indeed a test for me as an artist because this was not just a box with rooms, this had staircases and crawl spaces and there had to be access to every important room in a way that made sense. It was a great deal of fun. I will always remember when I was about halfway through the build and superstorm Sandy hit. I had to bring two stories separately up the basement stairs in a hurry, so it wasn’t easy getting them out of there but I did, and got a lot…a lot of water in the basement.
Ironically the family moved from that house a few years later, so they get to keep a replica of the house wherever they go.
