Requiem for a dollhouse: Handmade replica of a 1950s ranch house is too big to donate, too precious to toss

BENSENVILLE, Ill. -- A lot of people remember their childhoods through photo albums or a cherished toy. Penny Parrish’s keepsake is rather more substantial — and that has become a problem.

A few years after her family moved into the Bensenville ranch-style house her father and a friend built with their own hands, her dad made a replica of the home as a dollhouse for Parrish and her younger sister.

It was scrupulously faithful to the real thing — he carved the chimney brick by brick and added imitation shrubbery on the artificial lawn — and it was massive, covering most