Michelle Luxon is house hunting.
And even after seven years of searching, Luxon still hasn’t found what she’s looking for, though she can still picture it’eight rooms, two staircases, three floors and approximately four feet tall.
‘My dad made me the dollhouse when I was little,? says Luxon, a former Ortonville resident now living in Dryden. ‘I knew I’d made a mistake as soon as I sold it. I just felt sick.?
Luxon and her husband, Bryan, were living at 180 Church St. in 1999 when they decided to have a garage sale to rid themselves of some excess clutter. Since the couple didn’t have a daughter to pass the house down to, they decided to sell the structure that had brought so much enjoyment to Luxon as a child. Luxon recalls mentioning the house specifically as an offering at the upcoming sale in an advertisment she placed in The Citizen at the time.
It was a choice Luxon said was uncharacteristic of her typical sentimental attitude.
‘I save everything, I save every toy the kids have had,? said Luxon, 35, referring to sons Brent, 8, and Blake, 4.
‘It was just a moment where I just didn’t think,? Luxon laments.
The dollhouse was the first item sold at the garage sale. Luxon says the sale hadn’t even officially started before a woman pulled up asking to see the house mentioned in the paper.
‘I sold it for only $40,? Luxon said. ‘It was just one of those things that was a bad, bad choice. As soon as she loaded it into her car I was sick about it.?
Luxon says her father, Art Peters, didn’t outwardly react much to the news of her selling the house he’d given :Luxon when she was 7-years-old. There was a little bit of water damage on the bottom of the house from a basement flood, explained Luxon, so when telling her father about the sale he just commented on the house being damaged as a reason to sell it.
It came out later that Peters, 66, had spent more than 500 hours building the house for his daughter. The house had come as a kit to be assembled, but Peters had decided to make some modifications to build the best dollhouse he could, including adding thicker wood and paying strict attention to detail. Peters logged the hours he worked on the house, charting his progress on the gift.
‘He’s a perfectionist,? says Luxon. ‘He had to go the extra mile.?
Now Peters is in ailing health, explains Luxon, and as his condition worsens, so does Luxon’s need to retrieve a gift worth more to her now that she could have ever anticipated.
‘I’m really desperate to get it back. The older he gets, the more panicky I get to get it back,? says Luxon.
Having lost hope of retrieving the original, Luxon went so far as to search for a similar kit for her dad to add his unique craftsmanship to but was unsuccessful.
With a renewed sense of determination to track down the dollhouse, Luxon placed an ad in last week’s edition of The Citizen, in hopes of it reaching the eyes of the mystery woman who bought the house years ago.
‘I should have done something like it a long time ago,? says Luxon.
The dollhouse in question is three stories, with three rooms on the first two levels and two rooms on the top floor. Inside the house are two staircases, one winding, one traditional. One portion of the house has a peaked roof. When sold, the dollhouse was unfinished and unpainted, missing shingles from the roof. A bag of supplies to complete the house was sold along with it.
Luxon asks anyone with information as to the whereabouts of the dollhouse to contact her.
‘I’ll definitely compensate them for the house,? says Luxon, stressing she’d find some fair arrangement to repay the current owner of the dollhouse.
‘Even though it was unfinished, I had so much enjoyment playing with the dollhouse as a kid,? says Luxon. ‘I have been praying about this.?
For the moment, those prayers and hope for a small miracle are what Luxon says she is left with in this situation. But maybe, says Luxon, with a little luck, a moment of bad judgement won’t end as a lifetime of regret.