I ordered my Newport from miniatures.com on Sept. 15th. I figured it would take 4-6 weeks for delivery, which would be perfect since I planned to start work in November. Real Good Toys, however, is a very prompt order filler and when I got home from work on Friday, UPS had left a notice on my door.
Oh.
I called them up and made arrangements to pick the house up at the service center. They told me that was fine, and then followed up by trying to deliver it again. Sigh. I called them again and managed to convince them that I was absolutely sincere in my desire to not have the house delivered to me, as I would not be home. I picked it up two days later. The very nice guy behind the counter carried it out to the car for me, as this house weighs at least 60 lbs.
I am trying to stick to my resolve to not start the house until November but, hey... a little prep work never hurt, right? I drove out to the local (23 miles away) dollhouse emporium yesterday and spent an hour or so talking to the very friendly and extremely helpful ladies who worked there. It's nice to have a real dollhouse store a reasonable distance away; what little the area craft stores have to offer are things that are intended for play... i.e. cheap, poorly-constructed and deeply unattractive stuff meant to be banged around by kids. Also, there's no one there who really knows the hobby and can help and support you. I left with some glue, a short-handled brass hammer, a parlor stove and a lot of very useful advice.
I think I'm going to like this. No, I think I'm going to love it.
