My real house is a mess but my haunted house is…well, it’s actually a mess too.

in Haunted dollhouse, Random Crap, Scary things, why yes I do know how to operate an EMF detector

If you’ve been around long enough you know that I’ve been building a haunted dollhouse for the last 19 years and it’s still not done because I have ADD and don’t have the ability to finish a project. Today I added a ghost to the house but I can’t tell where I should put her so I need your advice.

The house in question:

Should she be floating through the walls of the rooftop greenhouse:

Or patiently await the next seance in the parlor?

Or drift down into the witches kitchen?

Or be forever plummeting to her death?

Or be levitating in the mad scientists lab/dungeon?

Or be reading over the shoulder of the conjuror?

Or be levitating in the library?

Or be doing a full exorcist (sans pea soup vomit)?

Or does she look too glossy for the dollhouse altogether and should live somewhere else?

258 thoughts on “My real house is a mess but my haunted house is…well, it’s actually a mess too.”

Read comments below or add one.

  5. Reading over the shoulder for sure. It’s what I plan on doing as a ghost!

  6. I love her! She fits in everywhere, but I especially like her Exorcist-style, in the lab, or over the conjurer. Not too glossy at all.

  8. Gorgeous! I think you should move her around when the mood strikes, and find someone with some dark green resin to make some pea soup.

  11. Personally, I think it would be kind of fun if you told Victor that you thought she might be inhabited by a real spirit and then move her around and point it out to him every time. “She’s not where I left her!” OR, same premise, but move her around your real house instead, lol.

    But, to really answer your question, I like the exorcist pose and the reading over the shoulder pose ^_^.

  12. I like the visual of “forever plummeting to her death” although that doesn’t seem like a valid activity for a ghost. So second choice is up at the greenhouse.

  14. Levitating in the library is my vote. It really adds to the eerie feel in that room.

  16. Each one is better than the last! I won’t even ask how you got her to levitate, that would ruin the magic. I think she either needs to be reading over the shoulder or floating over the bed, those were my two favorites.

    Also, the dollhouse isn’t messy, it’s busy. There is a lot of magic happening and that can’t happen in a tidy place.

  20. Why do you have to pick just one? Whenever someone walks by, the ghost should move!

  21. Can’t you move her around on a whim? Think she should be able to haunt the entire house

  22. I vote for either the Green House, or more ghosts so you can have all the options!

  23. She looked too glossy until she started levitating on the bed. You could also dress her in white and make her look truly ghost-ly.

  28. I do not see a need for an end to a project that requires no completion. This represents no flaw of ADD but the intuitive path to the divine. Before enlightenment we chop wood and carry water and rearrange our haunted houses. After enlightenment we chop wood and carry water and rearrange our haunted houses.

    But I vote for ‘reading over the shoulder.’

    Or possibly in a group pose with the rest of Edwardian-era Fantastic 4.

  29. I think she looks perfect floating through the wall of the green house! Wherever she lands, I think she definitely needs to stay a part of your haunted house.

  32. I like (not the right word) her plummeting to her death on the stairs. Ghost-making in the action Really, you need more ghosts.

  33. I feel like a ghost in the kitchen could explain a lot of ruined cooking (at least for me)…?

  34. I really like her going through the wall in the greenhouse or forever plummeting to her death. She is not too glossy for this! I think she is perfect!

  38. Reading over the conjurer’s shoulder. That’s what I would do if I were a ghost. Then writing out ghostly questions about the book.

  39. I kind of like the seance room, like she’s waiting to communicate something important, but any of them are good. Next choice would be reading over the shoulder.

  41. I am in awe of that dollhouse! My mom and I used to make a lot of miniatures and dollhouses when I was a kid and I just love all the teeny tiny details, you have got some seriously amazing stuff in this house!

    Oh, and I vote for moving her around as the mood strikes (who needs “elf on the shelf” when you’ve got a “ghoul that can hover like Zuul” (Ghostbusters) terrorizing your dollhouse! I also like her over the shoulder of the conjurer, very cool!

  44. Haunted libraries have been popping up in my podcast feed this week so I feel like that’s a sign that she needs to be in library.

  46. Floating in the lab
    Have you ever read The Miniaturist? I think you’d like it. At little spooky.

  47. I love her (and the whole house). She belongs there! Absolutely reading over the shoulder. I often feel someone over mine while engrossed in a good book. I ask “are you done?” before turning to the next page 🙂

  49. Either over the conjurers shoulder or in the basement on the right with that kid reading a book

  51. The haunted house isn’t messy, it’s well lived in.
    I love the ghost moving around to a new place every once in a while. If I was a ghost, I wouldn’t want to be stuck in one spot, and I would want to drift around to follow the actions of the day inside the house. You and Victor and Hailey could take turns to move her around to wherever you all think she should go next.
    But, if that is too much of a commitment, then reading over the shoulder of the conjurer is my next favorite idea.
    Of course, this is all a moot point when one day, a cat decides that the house needs an overhaul and messes with it. Cats like to rearrange things.

  52. I especially love her reading over the conjurer. But she looks great everywhere and definitely belongs in your haunted home!

  53. I think you should just randomly move her around and have her in a new spot every so often.

  60. Reading over the shoulder; perfect for a bookstore owner! Then move her as the mood strikes – the greenhouse in spring, the kitchen at the holidays, etc

  61. I vote for reading over the shoulder because the ‘ship writes itself.

  62. I have been working on my dollhouses for a very long time–you’re way ahead of me. Mine don’t look like real people live there, and there certainly *are* real people there.

    I think through the garden or reading over the shoulder. Also nice addition to the witches kitchen.

    I have a bunch of witches and zombies, devils etc hand made by some unknown English artist. (The people who I got them from said they were made by convent nuns, but really, devils and witches?) Anyhoo, a lot of them are dressed in black and have gotten re-purposed as servants.

    What was my point?

  67. The next time I get the strange urge to skip forward a bit in the book I’m reading, I’m going to imagine that I’m being psychically influenced by an impatient ghost over my shoulder who can’t believe how slowly I read.

  69. I vote for reading over the shoulder. That way she’ll never be bored.

  70. As a reader who lives vicariously through your haunted dollhouse posts every year, I vote for reading over the shoulder!

  71. Floating over shoulder of conjurer is my vote, followed by wall of greenhouse!!

  72. I like her coming in the attic window best. But, decorating is not something you “finish”–it is an ongoing, evolving process. Your house is gorgeous, doesn’t need to be finished, just re-arranged or added or subtracted to as the mood hits. Just because I re-paint every few years when a new color strikes my fancy doesn’t mean my place wasn’t done!

  73. What is her name. If it starts with L go for the levitating in the library. Love alliteration.

  79. She is quite beautiful I must say. I am going to say she needs to be with the witch.

  83. Reading over the conjuror’s shoulder. She’s lovely, and if she does that, she’ll be my ghost idol.

  87. Uh, get 7 more so you can do all of the above!
    (Barring that, just move her around whenever you feel the urge. What’s the point in having a haunted dollhouse if you’re not going to rearrange the furniture and inhabitants?)

  89. It’s a gorgeous house! But why limit her to one spot? Let her change positions as the mood strides (presumably you, but her too I guess) and maybe just don’t mention that this is what’s going on and see if someone notices?

  90. Re: 12: Julia:

    “Julia October 6, 2022 at 3:18 pm
    I like the visual of “forever plummeting to her death” although that doesn’t seem like a valid activity for a ghost. So second choice is up at the greenhouse.”

    I dunno. If you watch the British version of the series Ghosts, you see that Mrs. Button plummets to her death every night. None of the other ghosts seem to have to relive their deaths every day but she does.

  93. Well, isn’t the point of a ghost in any house is it’s ability to constantly be moving around, annoying and/or scaring the residents? If the ghost is stationary, it seems like it’d be too easy for the “living” residents to say, “Yeah, I’m staying out of that room, because the ghost lives in there. I don’t need to deal with that asshat.” But in that case, you have to take on the duties of moving it around regularly, like some sort of supernatural elf on the shelf, and who needs that kind of pressure 24/7/365?

    Which is my long-winded way of saying she should be perpetually plummeting to her death.

  95. Forever falling is my fave, but really you have too many great ideas! Add more ghosts!

  96. Reading over the shoulder of the conjuror. That is a lot of work, I made a regular dollhouse.

  97. I have a group of apartments in historic buildings (1790’s) that are haunted. In one apartment, most of the noise they make is in the kitchen area. In another apartment, the ghost (a Revolutionary War soldier) just floats thru the walls. I found all of your ideas great but like the over the shoulder look in the living room the best.

  102. I love the idea of her being in the witches kitchen, or reading over the shoulder of the conjurer.

    I cannot tell you how much I love this dollhouse.

  104. Pingback: My real house is a mess but my haunted house is…well, it’s actually a mess too.

  106. She’s so lovely! She looks great everywhere, except maybe on the stairs. I know as a ghost she will just float through the floor but I can’t help wincing at her arms flung back plummet. I love her reading over the shoulder. The whole haunted house is amazing. I see gorgeous projects like yours and I want to do one but I know I’d never get the amount of awesomeness into it that you have.

  107. I like her falling and reading best, but she looks good everywhere. That’s the nice thing about being a ghost, you belong anywhere you want to be.

  108. She is an amazing figure! The pose is incredibly versatile. I say spotlight her forever plummeting to her death.

  109. I thought ghosts had already plummeted (or somethinged) to their deaths? At any rate I think she’d like to creak the rocking chair in the upstairs gallery. It looks like a good spot to keep her visual aura on the whole dollhouse family sand swoop in and bother as many of them as possible…

  110. I say move her to a new spot every week and the family can look for her each week. Kind of like the elf on the shelf.

  112. I love her everywhere! I agree with some others that you shouldn’t just choose one pose, you should randomly move her around as the mood strikes.

  113. She’s not too glossy! She looks perfect for a ghost. I think she should be reading over the conjurer’s shoulder or plummeting to her death. I think the seance idea would be cool if there were people holding one, but I don’t think it’s as neat for her to be waiting there alone.

  116. I don’t suppose you could do flames coming off the ghost? That would be cool. Well, spooky cool. Oooo! Oooo! And do a tiny noose around her neck trailing the rope of course. That would go with her back story!

  117. well, my favorite is falling down the stairs or the seance (since I’m in Blithe Spirit now and we do a seance), but, she’s a ghost! I think she should haunt them all at some point or another!

  118. Okay, she is glossy BUT I vote for reading over the shoulder or levitating in the Library. I also like the exorcism on the bed but you’d need to have another doll just like her in colour underneath that she is being exorcised from, no?

  120. I love the exorcist, with the other ghost coming out of the mirror.
    Or, tripping on the last step, suspended in mid-fall. Both great options!

  122. What’s her motivation? My two choices are: Plummeting to her death, or reading over the shoulder (or vomiting over her shoulder).

  123. I like the reading over the shoulder and the greenhouse poses best, but I also think it would be totally valid to switch her position around as the mood strikes!

    (Also props to you for even getting as much done on the haunted house as you have that looks like something I would only ever contemplate doing “someday”- and yours looks marvelous!!)

  124. I vote 100% to have her in the library as an homage to the Nowhere Book Store !!

  126. She’s perfect.
    I was thinking in the little room next to the Greenhouse, hanging out with the owl.

  127. My vote is for her infinite plunge to the death, bed levitation, or greenhouse. I like how she’s floating through a wall or when she’s floating period. That’s what makes her extra ghost-y!

  128. Definitely reading over the shoulder of the conjurer because:
    A) reading
    B) having something just behind you hovering is terrifying
    C) reading and conjuring? Heaven!

  132. I think she should be constantly moving, so she is the one thing truly “haunting” the house…
    Popping up unexpectedly, she becomes something to look for. 👻

  133. So many good choices! I was all set to vote for the rooftop greenhouse until I saw forever plummeting to her death…

  135. Hmmmmm.. My answer would change every day…..maybe you should change her daily (or whenever you feel like it.)

  136. I love reading over the shoulder! (I also think maybe you need more than one ghost…? They could be friends. Or enemies. Or frenemies.)

  137. I like in the room with the seance. Ooh.but you need a miniature ouja board!

  138. Definitely the library, I mean who wouldn’t want to spend eternity in a library??🤷🏼‍♀️

  139. Seance in parlor or over the shoulder of the conjuror. This is a fine ghost.

  142. If the kitchen had an ice box, obviously popping out of there. If not, given her shape, hovering horizontally over the bed. Duh : )

  148. Ah go for the dragon. Have her riding the dragon like on Game of Thrones. She too could be the Mother of Dragons. Let her breathe fire,

  149. I feel levitating over the conjurer’s shoulder has the most spook factor and leaves no doubt she’s a ghost. Plus, it just looks bad a**. However, it’s not like you can’t change it up.

    Plus, I’m also partial to the idea given it’s what I’ve chosen as my outdoor Halloween display this year. My two skeletons, dressed as seers, are at a seance table conjuring with a plasma ball, while a ghost hovers behind the shoulder of one of them.

    I’m much more partial to this scenario given last year I staged a car crash crime scene that two weeks later actually happened. I’m OK if the ghost actually shows up instead this year.

  150. Look, if it’s one thing we all know, it’s that ghosts spend a good chunk of their after-life replaying out the tortuous last moments that caused them to become ghosts. In that regard, plummeting down the stairs is AMAZING and she looks spooktacular in that pose!

    But also, ghosts hang out doing fun stuff so maybe put her plummeting every night and then when you wake up in the morning, make it a routine to put her doing something more enjoyable during the daylight hours. And then if (when) you forget to move her, it’s fine. Because she belongs where ever she is in that moment.

  152. I’m digging over the shoulder reading, though maybe she can be unshined some like you say? Or maybe not. She IS a ghost after all–how do I know how shiny they are? I think now that I think about it, shiny is good so she’s very obviously a ghost.

  157. Either forever plummeting to her death or drift down into the witches kitchen! But reading over shoulder is cool too!

  158. I would like her to have her own room where she is throwing stuff around, having a ghost tantrum so to speak. I know I’d bee having tantrums right and left.

  162. The Haunted Dollhouse would warm the heart of Wednesday Addams. It should be a work in progress always and the ghost should move around at will.

  165. You need at least five more of these to go in every room. She definitely belongs.

  169. Witches kitchen grabbed me the most. But reading over the shoulder was second.

  171. Waiting for the next seance. She looks like she would be a beautiful spirit guide to a medium.

  179. I like the flying through the greenhouse wall/window. It would require a little rearranging, but if the spiral staircase is actually open between floors she might look cool going up between floors. I love seeing the pewter unicorn. 🙂

  180. Do you not have a mirror she can be coming out of? If not, then I vote plummeting to her death. Also, you need some cobwebs for room corners.

  181. I vote for moving her from place to place. Because they are honestly all awesome. Also, of you think she’s too glossy, what if you painted her with a coat of something to make her look frosted? That seems a bit more ghostly.

  182. I think she maybe needs to be a little more amorphous. That shadow from the corner of your eye. Maybe rub her with some black acrylic paint, not a solid coat, but a smudged coat, and lurk her in a doorway where she would be seen in the periphery of the rooms occupants. That was a long sentence, sorry

  187. I like her on the stairs in either position. 2nd choice would be the exorcism. 3rd choice would be reading over the shoulder.

  189. You clearly need more ghosts, in all those places. Where’s the rest of her family? I’d love to see Beetlejuice in there somewhere, too.

  190. Love the “plummeting to death”, since I think it looks more like she is a kind of ghost, who cannot even float gracefully, and keeps stumbling over material that she technically should not be able to even touch, and that feels so relatable

  192. I am 100% in favor of plummeting to her death. Although it seems like that could possibly summon up a real ghost, so maybe just reading over the shoulder….

  193. Reading over the shoulder or plummeting to her afterlife. Can I also say that is an INCREDIBLE achievement and I am gobsmacked by your ability to blog, write, bookshop, family, and create stonkingly GLORIOUS architecture?!!

  194. Plummeting, reading, greenhouse…repeat at random…these caught me most, and also feel like a familiar pattern of activity…

  196. Reading is my vote, but I also like the suggestion to move her around.

    And if you want her to be less glossy, thin down some white school glue and give her a light coat of it. (If it won’t stick to the plastic -if it’s plastic- it’ll wash off.) That will keep her translucency but make her less shiny.

  197. reading over the shoulder is my vote she seems to fit right in there. I do also like the rooftop greenhouse options.

  198. She is absolutely perfect, if we have to pick one I think the plummeting is the best, but really you should move her every once in a while, cycle through the positions!

  205. Weellll… I love the exorcist one, buutttt, she’s a ghost why can’t she move around based on your mood?

  206. My first thought was that she should be up in the greenhouse- she can haunt her way down through all the rooms. But I also love the idea of you moving her around when the mood strikes, like a travelling gnome.

  207. You could deglossify her with a light coat of matte clear acrylic spray paint… I love her reading over the shoulder😉🤗😙

  209. Exorcist and drifting into the witches’ kitchen look the most “real,” although the plummeting is okay.

  210. I like the idea of moving her around randomly. After all that would be what a real ghost would be doing 🙂

  213. I just realized that your dollhouse has a basement. That’s so cool!
    I like the reading over the shoulder or the plummeting.

  215. I feel like her pose is sort of “coming out a mirror”-esque, in fact that’s what I thought she was doing when she was reading over the shoulder. So maybe coming out of the parlor mirror? I know, that wasn’t one of the original options. I also like the “move her around regularly and deny it’s you doing it” option. 😀

  216. Reading over the shoulder is extra creepy if you think about it… There could be a ghost reading over my shoulder *right now* and I’d never know it.

    Forever Falling is also a good one.

    However…….is the porch ceiling painted haint blue? If it isn’t, you could show her entering the house. If it is painted haint blue, you could show her stuck on the porch, unable to continue inside.

  220. I seem to be in the minority on this (here and on Instagram), but I like her in the parlor for the seance.

  222. Forever plummeting to her death, that can be her backstory. When she enters the room it happens over and over for eternity

  225. I doubt that a swimming pool is the right note for a haunted house, but it would be cool if she were underwater in an ornamental fountain or a pond, where careful eyes could make out her outline in the wavelets in water

  226. Hmmm, I think it’s between looking over the conjurors shoulder, or forever falling down the stairs!

  228. I think she would be happiest moving about the place as the *cough* spirit so moves her, and not be permanently affixed anywhere. But if she must be rooted to one spot, I’d vote for reading over the shoulder.

  229. They’re all so good, why not move the ghost around periodically, kind of like an actual haunting?

  230. I agree with move her around as the mood strikes. Second choice is reading over the shoulder of the conjurer. Plummeting to her death doesn’t make sense since she’s already dead.

  234. I’ve always been convinced that ghosts are people who are stuck in a loop so I’d put her falling to her doom.

  235. I say levitating in the library for sure! It’s not overdone, they wouldn’t expect it. And I am a little bit biased about libraries 😉

  236. I vote Forever Plummeting to Her Death, because making it all the way to the last step of the staircase and then faceplanting is totally something I’d do in real life.

  237. Levitating in the library is giving me real Flashdance vibes. That could be either a plus or a minus.

  238. Ghosts move around, so you should just let her go where she’s called… 👻

  240. It would be so cool if she could be attached to some kind of pulley system with invisible strings and you could make her fly just when somebody gets closer to better inspect the decor

  244. If you are concerned about their shininess, maybe a spray clear matte sealer would work. There is also a matte Hodge-Podge.

  247. I kind of like all of them! But I really love the one where she’s levitating over the conjurer. She is kind of glossy, but you could rough her up a little with a piece of fine sandpaper. or paint her a really thin layer of translucent white or green?

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  250. My favorite is definitely the first one — drifting in through the wall. Second choice would be reading over the shoulder of the conjurer for sure.

  251. Drifting in through the wall or flowing down the stairs to the witches or exorcism sans pea soup barf. Def not too glossy. Perfect.

  255. My vote is for floating above the… is that supposed to be a mattress? How in the fuck do you get the sheets folded like that? I want to have that on my actual bed, instead of the fitted sheet that never fits our king-size bed. My wife is very OCD and would do the ironing or whatever is necessary, and since I’m ACD, I’d just watch and direct and complain until I leave the room to go fiddle in my office.

  256. Plummeting down the stairs… really dynamic pose/action as if she’s rushing to meet someone knocking at the door… someone who is never there, of course! Just stumbled upon your blog via Amazon. I love creations that have a long – hopefully lurid – story behind them… and your haunted house fits the bill and is really amazing. From my perspective, I would say that The House is both already completed and will forever be a work-in-progress!

  258. So why limit yourself to one ghost? I think hanging out in the Seance room AND looking over the shoulder of the person reading!

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