1978 Dream House the way it is supposed to be used, part 1

One can find umpteen articles on the Internet about restoring or remodeling or adding to the infamous red, white and yellow 1978 Dream House.  However, I haven't found any articles about using the house for what it actually was designed for, the late 70s dolls and accessories.

I want to show you the Dream House with period-appropriate Barbie and friends actually in the house.

I obtained the Dream House at a yard sale about 10 years ago.  I could barely fit it in the back seat of my car!  The house had its outer walls, roof and floors, but many of the smaller pieces, such as windows and doors and pieces to cover the corners, were missing.  I didn't care.  I paid only $20 for the house and some non-Barbie furniture, which I believe is the cheapest that this sold for in the past decade!

About five years ago, I was out driving one day when, at a corner near by Mom's house, the homeowner had left one side section of the Dream House out for the garbage.  I yelled, "Barbie stuff in garbage!" and pulled over suddenly, annoying the driver behind me.  I joked later that it was the car that yelled out and that it pulled over automatically, and that I had trained my car to do that.

Both the house and the section were put in the basement, but life intervened and I never got around to my plans of taking some of the pieces from the side section and putting them on the whole house.  Last summer, I had my nephew finally bring up the house and section from downstairs and set it on a table in the glassed-in patio.  Lots of daylight and room to move around.

I wiped off the house with a damp rag, and then I started taking the section apart.  I had gotten advice from a Dream House remodeler on how to remove and install parts--use a hot blow dryer on them to make them pliable!  It worked!

In the 1980s I had purchased some of the furniture for the house.  These were meant for the Dream Cottage or the later pink and white version of the house.  I got them out and placed them in the house, plus a 1981 Barbie jewelry box that was the perfect size for a chest of drawers in the bedroom.

Now the dolls could move in.  All of the dolls I put in the house were sold in 1978, the second year of SuperStar Barbie and the first year of SuperStar Ken.  I redressed all but one of the dolls. I own the Barbie celebrity dolls from 1978 and a Rosebud, plus a Malibu Skipper, but I don't own either a PJ or Christie from 1978, the only Barbie friends that were sold that year.

Here is the first photo of the house.  I know wall sections, windows, doors, flowers and covers for the frame pieces are missing.  And I haven't tried to restore the house's original white pieces that have yellowed.

The furnishings that I have for the 1978 Dream House are a bed and its covers,
the toilet and towel stand plus towels, the stove and oven, a refrigerator, a rolling cart and a grill.