More Than Just a Hobby

HobbyHouse started life in a tiny 8' x 20' unit in a garden centre. It was great fun and as we became better known, the customers were very patient about having to queue outside when there were more than six people already in the shop! After three years, and despite a 6' extension to the unit, achieved by badgering the long-suffering owner of the garden centre, we were bursting at the seams and a move became inevitable.
We found this shop almost by accident when I had occasion to visit a specialist lighting shop, (real size) nearby. I have lived in Newcastle almost all of my life and had never been in this particular street in the city's Quayside. The whole area had been pretty well run down for years, but more recently has undergone a facelift with wonderful results.
All the initial worries we had about moving were quickly dispelled on the big day, when we were deluged with "Good Luck" cards and telephone calls from our loyal customers. Now we cannot imagine being anywhere else!

Having a larger shop meant employing more staff and the first rule was that they should be well experienced in the hobby. Karen and Brenda are both long-timers at miniatures, we both like making (with varying degrees of success) and were both founder members of the Tyneside Dollshouse & Miniaturists group - so if we haven't made the mistakes ourselves, we're almost certain to know someone who has!
Kirsty, who is Brenda's daughter, is a comparative newcomer to the hobby. She must have learned a great deal from hearing her Mum swearing away at various projects over the years, as she is now quietly becoming one of those people who make a success of everything they touch. It would make you sick if she wasn't so nice with it! Linda strolled in one day as a new customer and left with a job doing the books. However she has never complained about the wide range of other jobs we get her doing!

We think experience is more important than having super talents, we would much rather send a customer away with nothing more than food for thought than something they might not really want. The stock is enormous! With everything for the DIYer (except 8'x4' sheets of plywood - you would be amazed at how often we are asked for it!), as well as a full range of lighting, wallpaper, flooring, furniture,accessories and some craftsmen made goods, not to mention houses of course. Our main problem is keeping up with it all and these days Brenda is more frequently found in the 'dungeon' scribbling out urgent orders, or haring around the countryside making "housecalls" to customers who have problems that cannot be solved over the phone or by a visit to the shop.

Our customers are very special to us, some have developed real friends over the years, most are on first name terms - with each other as well as us. At our first Christmas in Newcastle, a group of customers organized themselves a party, bringing food and booze which was consumed amid the sawdust and chaos which is our basement stockroom cum office. We did think they might have invited us though! HobbyHouse also organizes the North East Dollhouses & Miniatures Fair which is held twice yearly in a local hotel. It is not huge as some fairs go, but we attract a good range of high quality exhibitors who love coming to the North East because they just love the geordie collectors. We'll drink to that.