Volunteer builds dollhouses for Habitat for Humanity. How this one could be yours.
.jpeg "Larry Kuharik, who volunteers three days a week at the Lexington Habitat ReStore, built a dollhouse from a kit that was donated. He said the kit was missing the doors, windows, shingles and some other pieces, so he crafted those himself.")
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Volunteer Larry Kuharik refurbishes donated dollhouse kits for Lexington ReStore.
- The Habitat for Humanity volunteer spent 120 hours crafting his latest house.
- ReStore sells completed dollhouses to fund Habitat’s affordable housing mission.
Over more than three decades of volunteering with Habitat for Humanity, Larry Kuharik helped build 35 houses.
He loved watching fellow volunteers grow and learn new skills, and he loved seeing the faces of the families on the day they got the keys to their new home.
“You get to talk to the families and you listen to their stories, where they came from … what their dreams are,” he said.
But, Kuharik said, the time came when he had to retire from that. Construction sites are hazardous, and he worried about taking a fall.
Kuharik is still building Habitat houses, though.
They’re just on a smaller scale.
Kuharik has been a volunteer at the Lexington Habitat ReStore at 451 Southland Drive for about 10 years now, and he’s become known for his skills at building and rehabbing dollhouses that come in as donations.
“I can’t build a real house anymore,” Kuharik said, “But I can build these, and I love to do woodwork.”
Last week, Kuharik brought in his biggest dollhouse yet, a blue 1:12 scale beauty that is about 4 feet long by 27 inches wide.
Kuharik said the house came in as a kit that was donated to the ReStore on Aug. 13.
He took it home and after 120 hours of work, brought it back complete.
“It takes a little time, a lot of glue and a little patience,” he said. “Each one is a challenge.”
The house is priced at $649.99.
He envisions it being brought home by a miniature collector, or possibly a parent or grandparent looking for a special Christmas gift for a child.
Kuharik said he built his first dollhouse for Habitat a few years ago, when a kit was donated to the ReStore that sat on the shelves unsold.
When the kit’s price finally dropped to $30, Kuharik recalled, “I says, if that doesn’t sell today, I’m taking it home.”
When he returned the house completed, it sold for $300, he said.
Since then, he’s repaired and built other dollhouses for the store.
“When a kit comes into the ReStore, it’s usually missing a lot of the pieces,” he said.
The blue one he just finished didn’t come in with doors, windows or any of the white trim pieces. Kuharik said he crafted all those by hand.
He remembered one house the ReStore almost turned away. It was partially built and, as Kuharik put it, “was falling apart.”
“It went from a pile of junk that probably should’ve been thrown out,” he said. “I brought it home and turned it into a haunted house.”
He usually leaves the interiors unfinished, in that one, he said, “I had to put some spiders and witches and frightened little dollies.”
It sold for $175.
“We price them to make money,” he said. “But at the same time, we price them at a level that’s fair.”
Proceeds from sales at the ReStore are used to support Habitat’s mission of helping people attain safe, affordable housing.
The Lexington Habitat for Humanity ReStore sells new and used furniture, appliances, home goods, building materials and other home improvement-related items donated by the public.
Kuharik said that when a dollhouse comes in, his coworkers now usually set it aside for him.
He said he spends about 12 hours a week working in the ReStore on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.
In addition to working as a cashier, putting out merchandise and helping customers load their cars, Kuharik, a retired manufacturing engineer, said he has also fixed chandeliers that come in as donations.
“I’ve got a few skills,” Kuharik said, “and I like to use them.”
