Does this count?

We had a miniature fair on Saturday at Lahti, and it was fun, as always. It was the sixth time, and I had a table there, as always. I remember the first one especially. I was very new to Finnish dolls' house community, so there were lot's of new people there, not too much was sold, but it was a beautiful day. And the weather was quite important thing, as the tables were outside on the garden of one Englishman.

And I was more than happy to meet this gentleman, Brian Stevens, on Saturday. Not only is he a nice guy, but we had a business to do. :-) And now we come to the long story...

I think it was the second or third Lahti fair, when I saw a beautiful shop at sale. Oh my, how beautiful it was and so cheap... It was quite big, and I was commuting by train, and I thought I would not have a place for it, so with regrets I decided to leave it there.

Photo by Brian Stevens, when the shop was an antiques shop.

However, two years ago, I told this story to my friend who said that she knew who had bought it, it was our friend. So next time I talked to her, I said how much I admired the thing and asked what she had done with it? Well, after all, she had not bought it!

So, next time I saw Brian, I found out that he still had it. Unfortunately he had re-used the box, but he still had the front. So we agreed that he will build me a new dolls' house behind the front. I think this was at Christmas fair in Helsinki one and half years ago.

So in spring, I draw the floor plan. And me being me, instead of one floor, there were four!!!

The ground floor plan, let's see if it will have anything to do with the end result!

But we found emails as boring method of communication, so we met on Lahti fair last year and agreed on the details: Brian would build according to my plans, and I will send him the lamps I have craved from Dolls house Emporium for ages.

Half a year later we meet in Stockholm Miniature fair, and agreed we both been very lazy.... The same thing at Christmas fair in Helsinki...

Then came the local miniature magazine, and I read from it that Brian has invented a perfect cover story for laziness: He claims to be too old, and he is only 75! It is a pity that I have a few decades to wait for that excuse...But many happy years to you, Brian, on your new (or should I say old?) career with the model boats!

So we agreed that I can buy only the front and build the department store myself.
So now I have only two (?) questions:

1. Does this count as a new dolls' house or is it an already going-on project? At least I have to add another house to the left hand side of this page...
2. Which one you prefers as a name for a department store that will hold every collected item that does not fit to any other house: will it be Elina's Emporium or Kalli's Gallery? So please answer to the poll on the right hand side of the page...