I have recently been bitten by the miniatures bug. Symptoms include snapping up dollhouses on eBay whenever possible and looking at everything with an eye for "Can that be a tabletop/chair/bookcase/whatever for my dolls if I turn it upside down/sideways?". When you don't throw away bottlecaps, lids, or that weird tray meant to heat up a microwave pizza, you know you have the fever.
I really got bit when I discovered that dollhouses are not all old fashioned and hokey or Gothic and friviously Victorian. Imagine my shock when I found out I could have had a Tomy Smaller Homes dollhouse as a tot, or even a Caroline's House in the 1980's, both with a fantastic modern look and feel!
The real tipping point in my descent into miniature madness was stumbling across the blog Call Of The Small. I went to the original entry when the author started with her first modern dollhouse, and over several days read her progress from a fun hobby to borderline psychosis. She seems to have it all under control now, but there are some fun posts where she details her and her spouse's concern that maybe things were getting a 'little' out of hand! Get it? 'Litttle'? (sound of crickets) Ok, I'll stop...
Now I have a Tomy Smaller Home and a Caroline's House. I have started gathering all sorts of nifty furnishings for both. I just need to find room to properly work on them (the Tomy house needs a lot of restoration, but I'm foolhardily excited by the challenge), and I need display room to play with them. Yes, I fully admit I want to play with my dollhouses. Why not? At least I can afford to make renovations in 1:12 scale.
My little dolls are anxiously awaiting "move in" day, as well, so I had best get motivated. After all, a fashionable doll needs a fashionable place to live. Fellow doll collectors should be able to empathize with the burden of impatient dolls. As well as with the looks caring family and friends give when you talk about the dolls in such anthromorphic terms...