The Front Is (Mostly) Done

All the siding, windows, and trim are on the front of the house!  The front door was tricky and took me awhile to decide what to do.  Why is that, you ask?  Well, the door openings on the plans use Bauder Pine doors.  The house pieces were all cut ages ago to match the plans.  However,now Bauder Pine no longer exists. Houseworks doors are too narrow.  In fact, I looked up every 1/2" scale door I could find on the internet and couldn't find any wide enough. I considered redoing the whole front wall with an opening to fit a Houseworks door but I had already put a Bauder Pine door on the back.  I didn't think it would look right for the back door to be wider than the front door, even though you don't ever see them at the same time. In the end, I decided to make the door from scratch. How does it look?

The removable walls were also tricky.  The plans don't explain how to do the corner trim.  At this point, the corner trim is glued to the front wall with a space on the sides so when the wall is put in place the trim will cover the sides too.  In order to allow for a big enough gap to cover the side walls the only about 1/8' of the trim could to be glued to the front.  I don't know how well that is going to hold but I didn't want to use a wider trim.  I could have glued the corner trim to the front and then cut another piece to cover the sides but that would have left a seam.  If I had to do this over again I would try making the removable walls a little wider so the corner trim could be glued on flush and would cover the sides.  It might be hard to tell from the photo, but I used 1/2' corner trim.  I cut the part glued to the front wall to 1/4" to match all the others corners of the house.  I left the sides at 1/2" so it would be wide enough to cover the sides.  I might have to go back and redo this at some point if this doesn't work.

There is a gap between the trim and the walls so the side walls can fit in there.

Painting and Flooring

The neighbor painted the outside of his house today.   He was pretty excited to get it done and eager to start building furniture.

My house is coming along.  All the rest of the exterior pieces have been cut.  They just need to be sanded, primed and  attached to the house with hinges.  I make it sound so easy, right?

I cut out a piece of hex tile for the bathroom floor.  When I bought it (on-line because there is not much available in 1/2" scale locally) the website did not state the tile measurements.  I was hoping for penny tile but they work out to be about 3".  I guess it will have to do.  I spread spackle mixed with gray paint over the whole thing to look like grout and then wiped it off.  It came out really grungy looking.  It would be perfect if that's the look I was going for!   However, none of the rest of the house has been aged or grunged.....

Big Changes in Little Houses

Well, the house next door went up for sale.  I was told that Lolly decided she doesn't want to own a house.  And if she decides she wants one, it will be a modern one. Her little brother was eager to take over and has already painted all the rooms.

The Puritan has been in the shop since last weekend waiting for the rest of the roof and the dormers.  I had placed an order with Superior Dollhouse for windows and another door and it was all wrong!  I don't know what I was thinking.  I ordered 3 single windows instead of 1 and no doubles. Which may be okay because it turns out I may need more doubles than I thought.  I was thinking the house only has a dormer on the front but it might have one on the back too.  Also, the door doesn't fit the door opening.  I'm not sure why.  I believe the door I already have, and the one I just received are both Houseworks doors but one is narrower than the other.  By the time I finish this house, I will have enough extra windows and doors for another house!  Unfortunately, I don't think Hubby will have time to build another one any time soon!

 

I did do one little project when Lolly had the air-dry clay out yesterday.  I made a little fairy tree sculpture.  It is 5/8" tall, which is teeny but actually probably too big for the house.  That would be the equivalent of 1 1/2 feet tall!

 

 

Another mini room done!

I finally got the wallpaper sized correctly and printed out.  I had used Modge Podge before and it yellowed the paper so this time I used a spray Krylon sealer.  The wallpaper was printed on a thicker paper so I used Aleene's Tacky Glue to glue it in.  I cut all the trim, painted and installed it.  Another room done!

I also got the door trim for two of the hallway doors done.

And painted the bathroom a pale pink.

 

Window Mullions

It was another early morning yesterday, but thankfully not a 4:00 am morning!
I worked on window mullions.  Working with those tiny pieces was a challenge!  I got three windows done.

That is the dining room window but they all look the same.

Inside view.

While I was doing that, Lolly started painting the interior of her house.  I liked the color she chose for her living room!

After that I made the mistake of trying to fix the wallpaper in one of the upstairs bedrooms.  I had put it down with double-sided tape and it wasn't sticking in one section.  I tried to pull it up to glue it down instead and ended up tearing the paper from 3 different walls!  So then I went to reprint it only to realize I had never saved the file when I did it the first time.  I don't have a good program for resizing and editing pictures, or maybe I just don't know how to use what I have.  So I spent a good hour resizing and printing and still never came up with the right size.  

 

Dollhouse Trim

I woke up at 4:00 am yesterday morning.  It may or may not have had something to do with our  kitten, Mickey.  As soon as I stirred, he was in my face nudging me with his nose, begging to be caressed.
Since I couldn't get back to sleep, I decided to make use of the solitude and work on my dollhouse.  I cut all the baseboards and door trim for the two rooms I have been working on.  I painted them and glued it all  in.  Wow!  Two more rooms done!

Door trim and floors

This morning I used my flooring scraps to piece together the hallway floor.  Since none of my scraps were long enough, I cut a piece of paper to fit the hallway floor. 

I cut all the strips apart

 

glued them to the piece of paper,

 

 trimmed the ends and glued it in! 

 

While I was doing that, Lolly was staining her floors.  It would have been easier to do that beforehand but I didn't think of it.

 

After that, I glued the floors down in the master bedroom and tiny room.  I cut and painted the door trim.  I got a lot done today!

 

 

 

 



 

Knitty Gritty 2 and doors

I finished the second Knitty Gritty project a few days ago.  It was a pair of baby booties.  I used some left over Berrocco Vintage pink yarn from my stash. 

I have also been lucky enough to have some chunks of time to work on my dollhouse.  I finally figured out how to cut my last sheet of flooring to fit the two remaining upstairs rooms.  I've been mulling it over for several weeks.  When I figured it out I exhaled and did a little happy brain dance.  This in spite of the fact that the hardwood strips keep popping up.  I don't know if that is just the nature of this kind of flooring or if it has something to do with the fact that it has been sitting in a box for more than a decade.  I ironed them down but they just keep popping up.  So I am just going to label it character.  This house has character.

Small upstairs room

After all that, I decided I should glue the doors in before the flooring. I got some help assembling the doors tonight.  They are held in the doorframes by pins. Ideally the doors would open all the way.  But to get them to do that I would need more space on the sides of the door.  I wasn't sure how much of a gap to leave and thought if it was too big it wouldn't look realistic.  So now the doors can only be opened a crack.  More character.  I hear old houses have a lot of that.  I painted one door and set it in place, along with the flooring, to get a preview of what the room will look like.  It's exciting to see it coming together!

Master bedroom

 

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.

 

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.

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?



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.

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.

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?

Second floor

Over the weekend I spent a good amount of time priming and sanding the second floor walls.  And then my sweet husband helped me glue them all together because I wanted them square and he knows how to get the job done!

It's a good thing the landing is completely enclosed. 
Now you can't see that I made the stairs too high!

Yesterday, while I was unknowingly gluing the siding upside down onto the front panel of the house, some little people moved into the house!

When it's too hot to cook inside, move the kitchen outside!

 

Looks like some lucky person is going to get breakfast in bed.

 

I wonder what these girls are talking about.

Doors and More Doors

Well for the past couple of weeks I've been making doors, doors, doors.  Unfortunately, I forgot how I made the kitchen door so I had to figure it out again. Here's what I did.

The DOOR FRAME was cut from 3/16" thick basswood. I cut my pieces 3/8"W because that is the depth of my walls.  The top and bottom pieces are 1 5/16" long.  The sides are 3 3/8" long.  I glued it together and laid it on my cutting grid to see if it was square.

The DOOR pieces were cut from1/32" basswood.  Here are the pieces I cut for one door:
1 door base: 1 5/16"W x 3 6/32" H
4 vertical pieces (2 for each side of the door): 5/32" W x 3 6/32" H
10 horizontal pieces (5/side): 5/32" W x 15/16" L. You will need 2 more for the bottom strips but I waited to cut those until everything else was glued in.  That way if I needed to adjust the width I could.  Not that all my other measurements and cuts weren't always spot-on.  Ahem.
10 panels (5/side): 15/16" H x 7/16" D.  I sanded the edges of these by holding each side of the panel at an angle and sanding it down on an old nail file.

Done!  Now flip it over and repeat on the other side.
 

5 doors and door frames ready for installation.  Well, almost.  They just need to be painted.  Oh, yeah - and hinged.