Doll houses

Hi,
Not sure if this is the right spot, but I have a question about doll houses.
DD is turning 3 in a bit over a month and I have recently seen her play sooo nicely with a friend''s doll house that I was thinking of getting her one for her birthday.
It was quite an advanced one with a million tiny pieces (knives and forks for example and fruit and individual flowers, all for quite small dolls - Playmobile), but she played for hours. I wouldn''t get her anything quite so intricate, she'd just lose the cutlery or her brother might eat it ;)

Can anyone recommend a house? It should be a decent size (minimum 60cm tall) for tiny fingers and it has got to be sturdy and durable. Oh, and it shouldn''t cost a fortune :shakehead:

So far, I have my eye on a Fisher Price Loving Family one, second hand from ebay with lots of furniture etc. I haven''t seen one in reality, so if you have one, what do you think of it?

I have also seen the Savannah at Target. But only in the box. It is wooden (I like the idea of a wooden one over plastic), but not sure if it is sturdy.

And last but not least, the Sylvanian Families one. I know nothing about Sylvanian Families and the box was still closed. How big are the rooms? How big are the dolls that go with it?

I hope someone can help me here...

We have the Fisher Price My 1st Dolls house and my DD absolutely loves it, so I think the loving family one would be excellent for an older child (my DD has had hers since she was 1). It's sturdy enough not to break and DS can bang around in there too and it's no real drama.

We have the Savannah one which we bought from Big W. I love, so does both my DD's. We've never had a problem with its balance. Some times we can have 5 kids playing with it, nothing has ever gotten broken.

FP My 1st Dolls house here. It is still going strong and we have just pulled it back out for DD2 now that she is almost 2. Both girls just love it and the bits are big enough to not worry about.

Oh, I forgot about the "My first doll house". I had a look at it and it seems good. Do you think at 3 years of age DD is going to get a lot of use out of it? Or would she get more use out of the "Loving Family''?

hmmm, well my nearly 4yo still loves hers, but that's all she's had. I love the loving fam one too, but I just couldn't get that. Can you see them IRL and compare them?

Well I put ours away a year ago, when DD1 was about 4 and she kept on asking for it. She is about to turn 5 and she still plays with it even though she has a huge Barbie house.

Thanks everyone for your advice. I just won an ebay auction for the loving family house. Had I not won it, I would have bid on the My first doll house. But I think the Loving family might last her into the teenage years which the My First might not. And it came with a million accessories. I won't give them all to her at once, but only give her the essentials. The others can be little rewards for the next few years for being a good girl :)

We have the Loving Family one that someone on Freecycle gave us years ago. DD has had it since 18 mths. Nana bought a whole heap of furniture for it too for one of her birthdays. It was never an issue that it was the second stage one and we had no issues with the furniture being too small, etc.

DD still loves it and plays with it at four. I'm hoping to get her a really nice wooden one when she's a bit older. 'Cause she really needs more toys! :rolleyes:

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'Cause she really needs more toys! :rolleyes:

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:rofl: so, so true.