Thursday, May 15, 2014

Paint and Windows

I have been busy with paint and glue lately.  I painted the house, a few windows and two doors  (the back door and the French doors).  I also started adding siding to the porch.


While I was doing that, the kids were busy making a dog house.

 
House and dog house.  Must belong to Clifford the Big Red Dog.
 

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Bricks and Siding

I haven't posted in a few days because we were getting ready to go camping (and then were actually camping).

So let's see, what have I done since my last post?  I cut some scrapbook paper to wallpaper another bedroom and taped it to the wall.  I am having a hard time committing to wallpaper.  It feels so permanent.  What if a year from now I decide I hate it?  I will have to pull off all the moldings and the paper, which may or may not want to come off!  Or what if I decide it's really dated?  Of course, this whole house is going to be really dated at some point.  Hopefully, that will be part of it's charm.  Anyway, here is what I have.


I'm not sure if I will make that room into a bedroom actually.  I looked at the original house plans and then at the NN plans and it seems a good scale foot or so has been omitted from the width.  This makes an already small room pretty teeny.  It is only 7' wide if you don't count the alcove.  What else could it be?  A laundry room?  A play room?  A craft room?  A cat room?

Additionally, I have been gluing siding on.  I finished one whole wall of the house and bricked the porch foundation.  WooHoo!  Let me tell you, I was terrified to start cutting that siding for fear I would screw up again.  I finally made it to the dollhouse store last week to get more siding and it is not cheap.  Trying to cut the siding around where the porch was supposed to go made it worse.  I finally decided the porch was added on later and so that whole wall could be sided.  In looking through the plan to find out what they put on the porch roof I realized we had overlooked something major.  The porch was supposed to be glued to the house and the front wall was supposed to be removable and pressure fit. Oh well.  We made the whole porch removable!  I also realized the plans don't tell you how to make the front and back steps.  I saw that someone had sold this same dollhouse on ebay and theirs didn't have any steps, just a door hanging off the wall.  This just might be why.

Lolly helped me brick the foundation and she painted the interior porch walls.



Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Wallpaper, Flooring, and a Table

Over the past week I've been working on several things.  I had a rectangular piece of hardwood flooring leftover from the downstairs.  It was too short for any of the upstairs rooms, but seemed to actually be enough to cover a small floor.  I pulled it all off the paper backing and rearranged it onto a piece of paper cut to match the floor.  Then I wallpapered that same room.   It took me forever to decide on wallpaper!  I didn't like any of the commercially made wallpaper. I looked at scrapbook paper but the patterns were too large.  I looked at free digital scrapbook paper and found a few but couldn't figure out how to download them.  I found this floral from jennifersprintables.  I feel it has that vintage/cottage feeling I was going for and is the right colors, so there you go!


I also made a farmhouse table for the dining room.  What do you think?




Monday, May 5, 2014

1 Step Forward, 2 Steps Back

This past week has been a very frustrating week in dollhouse world, what with walls coming apart and siding going on upside down.  I feel like every time I take one step forward, I am set back by two.  I cut the siding for the back wall and glued it on this past weekend.  I was so excited to have another part done!
 
Then I looked at it from the side and realized the wood had warped! NOOO!  So do I redo the whole wall, or plant a tree there?  Hmm.



While I have been working on all of that, I have been trying to figure out the wall colors for the second floor and whether to paint or wallpaper.  I am also trying to figure out the flooring.  Apparently, there was a miscalculation  that resulted in a hardwood flooring shortage. I had one sheet I bought ages ago.  I had no idea who made it or what the stain was so I could order more.  Unfortunately, the new flooring I ordered and installed in the downstairs doesn't quite match, but it might be ok.  However, even if I use that I will not have enough for the hallway and one of the bedrooms.

Friday, May 2, 2014

Painting and a surprise

Yesterday, I painted the hallway even though I am not sure how much of it will be visible.  In case you are curious about my color choice, it was cream!  I have been a little stuck for the past several weeks trying to decide how to decorate the second floor. After painting the hallway and spending oodles of time on Pinterest, I came up with a little clearer idea.  What is it, you ask?  Well you will just have to wait and see....  What I will tell you now is that I painted the master bedroom cream.  I know, there's a whole lot of cream going on in this house right now.  I still am not sure what to do with the room next to the master bedroom.  After putting in the walls I realized how tiny it is!  It was going to be a bedroom, but now I'm not so sure.  And to think, this minature house is based on the dimensions of a true life-sized house that people built and lived in!  And that room was a bedroom!

While I was off trying to figure all that out, some little sweetheart left me a surprise.


Thursday, May 1, 2014

A Slow Day

Yesterday was a slow day on the construction site.  I picked up the 2nd floor walls to glue them down and several of them fell off!  I reglued them together using WeldBond.  Let's cross our fingers...

While I was waiting for those to dry, I realized it might be easier to finish the stairway before gluing down those walls.  As it was, it was pretty difficult trying to squeeze my hand into that tiny opening to glue in the spindles.  Trying to get the handrail on was even more challenging!  I wondered if maybe I should have glued them on before adding the second floor.  I had considered that, but I was worried I would take break them when I glued the second floor in.  What has been your experience - which works better?