Page 12 - Discover Fall 2020
P. 12
Tiny Renovation CONTINUED
the size of a pencil eraser, attached to a counter sided tape so nothing will be lost or damaged
top in the summer kitchen. during moving, Gerri said.
Upstairs, the master bedroom at the The nursery contains a white canopy crib
top of the circular stairway has a dresser with with a baby and her stuffed Teddy Bear. A child’s
jars of perfume that are about the size of small rocking horse sits on the floor; a book shelf lined
glass beads. On the wall next to the dresser is a with toys is against one wall. Beside the crib is
writing desk with a Webster dictionary on top, an old fashioned highchair with a cup sitting
and a bound pad on the writing surface. There’s on the tray. Among the six pictures on the wall
a book with reading glasses resting on it on a is a needlepoint of the alphabet. There are pull
bedside table, and in the bathroom there is a toys on the floor, and an overstuffed chair where
toilet plunger, a roll of toilet paper attached to Mom can sit while she holds the baby. Also in
the wall, and a folding wooden privacy screen. the nursery is a treadle sewing machine, with
a piece of cotton material clamped under the
Downstairs in the dining room, the table
stitching foot as if someone had been interrupted
is set for six. Accessories include a bottle of
while making a garment. A dress form stands
wine, drinking glasses, and dinnerware, along
next to the sewing machine, and nearby there is a
with candles in brass colored candlesticks, and
straight back chair and lamp on a table.
a matching napkin holder complete with paper
napkins. There is a loaf of braided bread on the All of the doors in the house are operable,
table, and two silver platters holding food. On including a screen door to the summer kitchen,
the sideboard is a jello mold, a sheet cake, and which is in a separate building. Summer kitchens
a “glass” fluted bottom cake plate with what were often used in homes before air conditioning
appears to be Oreo cookies on top. to keep the heat from the stove and/or fireplace
and the smells of cooking out of the main house.
Gerri says the wood flooring looks as
though it might have been made from Popsicle In some instances, summer kitchens,
sticks; it was very much in need of a good especially in the South, also served as living
cleaning. Plus she waxed it. Her favorite room quarters for servants or slaves. All cooking
in the house is the nursery, she said. That is the (summer or winter) was done there, along with
room that she started renovating first. the drying of herbs and storage of root vegetables
in a dirt cellar. Summer kitchens were also put
“You have to start with the further-est
to good use once canning became a popular way
wall and decorate toward the opening in the
of preserving food. The Wednesday Women
back,” she explains. The depth of the house at its
dollhouse does not have a kitchen in the main
widest is nearly the length of a comfortable reach
house; there is only the summer kitchen.
for Gerri.
There is also another “gathering room”
The opening in the back of the house
which is separate from both the main house
allows for viewing, and for human hands to
and the summer kitchen. This room includes a
arrange furniture or add one of the porcelain
hallway, something that is unusual in dollhouses,
dolls that come with the house into the scene.
no doubt because of the amount of space a
Gerri has a mother and child seated on the
hallway requires.
Queen Anne sofa in the living room. They are
watching a TV (with rabbit ears) that is on All of the windows in the main house
the fireplace mantle. The brass colored tools are double-hung, and the bottom sashes can be
for tending a fire sit on the floor next to the pushed up to open them. The windows are made
fireplace. A grandfather’s clock is at the foot of of Plexiglas. Gerri remembers cleaning each
the circular stairway, and on a table there is a window, inside and out, with Q-tips. Among
bowl of walnuts with a silver nut-cracker on top. some of the many upholstered chairs that she
All of the miniature furniture and accessories cleaned and restored, she found one with a price
have been temporarily “stuck in place” with two- tag of $77 on the bottom. Based on the price of
10 Discover Smith Mountain Lake FALL 2020
