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.....

Bedcover

So today hubby but was wearing this shirt with this awesome teensy houndstooth-like print.

It's a relatively new shirt and I'm like nice shirt.  But I look closer, at the print.  I love houndstooth! So I say "Hey, when that shirt shrinks or gets stained or something, can I have it?"

Of course he wonders why.  I fess up.  " Because it would make an awesome print for my dollhouse!"  

And Lolly says "What would you do with it?  Make a table cloth out of it?"

"No," I replied.  "It would make an awesome bedcover!"

Hubby is all " It's not a bedcover!"

" Yes it is," I replied.  "With pink sheets."

And he says "It's a shirt!"

"Okay," I say. "well the next time you wear that to work, remember, it's a bedcover.  With pink sheets."

I mean really - can't you just PICTURE it?  So I offered to do his laundry for him next week.  I don't know why he said no....

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!

 

 

 

 



 

A New Neighbor

Well I didn't accomplish a lot on my house today because Lolly is moving in next door and needed help building her house.  I figured since she is in my craft room with me all the time playing with my dollhouse maybe she should have her own.   We bought the Creatology puzzle house from Michaels and dry fit it yesterday.  Today we glued it together and she started painting it.  See that bit of blue peeking out from the side?  That's the color she picked for the exterior of her house.  She got the two sides painted today.

As far as my house goes, I was going to glue the door knobs on the doors and then glue the doors in -and wouldn't you know?  I didn't have enough doorknobs!  Pooh.  I thought I did.  I went to Joann's to see if I could find anything to make my own but I didn't.  I do not want to order them on-line, pay for shipping, wait for them to get here.... But I guess I will have to.