House for "Wilbur"

Long-time readers may remember that some years back, I made a small (3" or so tall) toy tardigrade. (because I could). I named him Wilbur and bought some inexpensive dollhouse furniture for him (and made a few accessories, specifically a small suitcase). One thing I always wanted to do was get a proper "house" for Wilbur, either a very small simple dollhouse or something like an enclosed shelf that seemed like a house.

Until this weekend, I never saw anything that seemed like it would work.

Saturday, I made a quick trip to Target and the natural-foods store (they had to special-order the canned sweet potato for me). Oh, and a digression: while driving down there, it started raining just a little. So I turned the windshield wipers on. Apparently the little plastic flange that holds the wiper onto the wiper arm either failed or fell off, and my driver's-side wiper started flapping. Luckily, my reflex was to shut off the wipers, and when the wiper DID fall off, it fell into the gap between the hood and where the wipers go (instead of blowing across the interstate, which was quite busy at that moment). I was also able to pull off onto a side road. So I sat for a moment wondering what to do: do I bail on the trip and try to get back home (I was not quite halfway at that point). Do I brave it and hope we don't get a heavy downpour I'd need wipers for? Do I go on and try to find an autoparts store and get a new wiper?

I finally decided that if I could reattach the wiper, that would buy time until I got to Sherman and found an autoparts store. Luckily, I had a small piece of plastic-coated wire (like a twist-tie, but sturdier) in an emergency kit. So I re-wired the wiper on (it took some doing for it not to be "floppy") and set back off. And only used the wipers sporadically, as little as I could.

My first thought was to ask at the tire shop that I knew was in the big "Town Center" (which is that sort of glorified strip-mall thing that is replacing enclosed malls in so many places). But the place was super busy, I was standing waiting and someone shoved in front of me, so I went all Sad Fluttershy and just walked back out, figuring that since they didn't sell what I needed there, they'd be less eager to help. So I went and got a salad and tea at the Panera next door, and asked the counter person. She was able to tell me right where the autoparts place was, so that was a win.

By that time the sky had mostly cleared (and the autoparts store was in the opposite direction) so I decided to go do some shopping at Target first.

And I found - on clearance even - a little house-shaped shelf. I think they were intended as storage in children's rooms, but I saw it and thought "Wilbur house"

So I bought one:



Yes, the house itself is a little Danish Modern considering that Wilbur's taste in furniture is more neo-Early American, but it works. You can see the pieces I already had there - the fireplace, the chairs and table. I added the cabinet (it's a Re-Ment piece stuck up with doubleside tape) because I like that Wilbur has a place to store his tea and sugar and jam, and also to keep a couple mugs on hand in case of visitors.



No, there's no space for a bed, and I admit my inner eight-year-old is going, "But where will he SLEEP?" but maybe Wilbur is that sort who can sleep comfortably enough sitting up in a chair. (I probably should make a tiny quilt or afghan for him). Or maybe he sleeps in the bathtub, which I tucked over in one corner.



I wanted to keep it with Wilbur's things, and besides, if you're heating water in the fireplace to fill the bathtub, you probably want it close to the fireplace.

(I did get the wiper replaced, the guy at O'Reilly's even installed it for me. So I felt a lot more secure driving home).