2018 - end of an era

Like I said in my first post, my grandpa (now chillin' in that donut shop in the sky) built this dollhouse for me when I was about 7, using the outline of my parents' house, a whole lot of Liquid Nail - and according to my dad, a certain kind of wood that apparently CAN'T be sanded. *facepalm* At some point I had figured it was my duty to try to buff out the rough bits on the house, even though I'd long moved past when it would be prudent to do so. I unloaded the furniture and covered the floors, but I still needed to clean up a lot of dust, losing a little bit of the flooring (felt and paper don't really like water no matter how gentle you are.) Then my dad lays the wood trivia on me. ARGH.

So after fixing the slight detour I took, it was time to finish all the furniture, fix the stinkin' doors, and put the finishing touches on the house.

 

Closet doors! I ordered 1 inch window shutters, Dremeled them to size, and painted them.

On the left you'll see the hallway closet and "my bedroom"'s closet.

Here's the secret for the closet doors AND the side and front doors! Tyvek two-sided tape. Flexible enough to hold the doors in place but still open. Strong enough to keep the doors where they're supposed to be. Thin enough to not bulge outside the outlines. No, I'm not being paid, LOL. Just grab some at your local Lowe's or Home Depot (great places for sandpaper, wood filler, tools like scrapers and Dremels, and other items in a pinch. Michael's is fun, but sometimes the creativity exercised in a hardware store is more enjoyable.)

The little plant is from sdk miniatures. The pictures on the wall? Those are the actual framed items that hung when I was a kid. I took a picture of them, edited them down to the right proportion, printed them on sticker paper (available at Meijer and Staples, etc), cut them, and fixed them on the wall. You'll see other pictures/items affixed with the same method. I'm so glad I found a way to reflect my childhood home.

Record player and stereo speakers are TOMY brand, along with the TV in the next picture. I got these from crischarlie on ebay.

I realized, finally, why the living room looked wrong. First, using sticks of wood found at Meijer, I added window frames to the windows. Much more accurate.

Second - I found a macrame hanging plant for the '70s/'80s era I was going for. (Why do you think my parents had shag carpet? Or a record player when I was growing up?) This guy came from HouseofMoss on etsy. With a pushpin, I poked a hole in the wall, then bent off a piece of a paper clip, wrapped the end of the string around it, and stuck it in the hole. Et voila. (Somewhere, my high school French teacher is probably proud.)

My bedroom has two posters that I distinctly remember from childhood. I wanted so badly to get some of the rough lines out of the walls, but according to Dad - that's just not possible. Oh well.

And my brother's room, complete with posters for him, his closet door, and his dresser, which I ended up just biting the bullet and buying as a wood dresser and painting. I believe the dresser came from A Trifle Small again, though her bare wood section has shrunk. I remember ordering and getting an item marked "joujoux.com" at one point, which was awesome, because they don't ship to America! But I think the deal has ended? Which sucks - joujoux's bare wood is GORGEOUS. If you're European, you're in luck. 

So, the dollhouse is finished. It's always good to know when to say stop. Luckily, I've caught the bug, and have begun my second dollhouse - this one from a kit, so essentially from scratch for me. Stay tuned!

Through the end of 2017

More furniture! More decor!

The mirror behind the stairway railing and bannister was from its totally minis on ebay. You've seen the dining set and the cedar chest. The two sinks and the tub came from A Trifle Small. These items were merely painted, not assembled (except for the faucets).

Pretty Small Things on Shapeways had the ottoman and the two-tier, painted brown. DollsDelight threw in the adorable lamp when I ordered from them. It, like the stereo cabinet in the corner, were painted and added to the house. A Trifle Small had the fireplace items next to the fireplace.

White dresser was DollsDelight on etsy - no paint, no assembly. I gave up, ah well. My brother's "bed" was also assembled. Pillows were sewed on one end, filled with sand, and then glued shut.

Bed for the master bedroom was Melissa's mini wereld, and the good ol' dark stain. Bed and pillows were created. A Trifle Small had this lovely dresser with a mirror that fit right in.

Welcome to the bathrooms!

In the kitchen, the cuckoo clock was ordered (I really need to check my records and see if I have this info!) The kitchen table was from Melissa's mini wereld. The fridge, sink, and stove are from the kitchen Greenleaf furniture kit. 

Still in progress - kitchen table chairs, my brother's dresser, and finding a solution for the doors!

Progress through the last half of 2017:

1. Living room - ottoman, two-tier, lamp, mirror, cedar chest, and stereo cabinet purchased and painted. Couch created.

2. Kitchen - cuckoo clock and chairs purchased. Clock attached to the wall. Kitchen set bought, assembled, and painted.

3. Bathrooms - ordered toilets, sinks, and tub. Assembled and painted.

4. Master bedroom - bed assembled and stained, bed parts assembled. Dresser painted.

5. "Kids" bedrooms - bed frames assembled along with beds and pillows. Dresser purchased.

August to October, 2017

Well, it's been awhile. Didn't mean to not keep this up, but life happens. 

Here's "my" bed. I cut some fuzzy stuffing for a bed and had the sheet ready in this picture.

Unfinished furniture! I found a basic outline online for the couch, which I made with the jewelry-making metal, cardboard, glue, and "fuzz". The lighter stained item on the right in the foreground is the cedar chest, with two of its pieces in front of it. The chairs with arms are from Scale Designs, and the table and 4 other chairs are from restless61a on ebay. I stained them with a dark stain from Meijer. 

Table, chairs, and cedar chest finished and drying (glue/stain). Two toilets are painted silver, from Scale Designs again. The pieces of my brother's "dresser" are in the back. Unfortunately, I got the drawers assembled, but the instructions were so complicated, I haven't finished it at this time.

Here's the front door with the hinges. I was correct in suspecting they wouldn't stay well (even with super glue and my scraper to hold it in place). I would later find a better option!

The inside right side of the house.

The inside from the other side. In the blue room, you can just see the piano and its bench  from A Trifle Small, stained with the small color as the dining set.

Look at that reinforcement. Aw yeah. Plus I got some fabric on the couch. Woo hoo!

This is a plant stand, stained with the dark stain, from Melissa's miniwereld on etsy. It seemed to be missing a piece as it was on 3 legs when done, so I put it in the corner to hide the problem.

More to come!

Now!

These pictures were taken today and sent to my brother (he had heard I was updating my dollhouse and hadn't known how much I was planning to do). 

Banister has been re-affixed, curtains have been assembled, rods painted, and curtains have been glued! 

Today I was sanding and painting two wood items I received from atriflesmall.co.uk. The piano and its bench have a dark wood stain I got from Meijer, and the color matches the old piano my mom still has from an older relative. I also painted the double bed pieces white, figuring that I could screw up "my" bed without worry. Looking forward to assembling my first piece of furniture soon, creating a mattress, and covering it with bedding. 

April - Today Progress:

- Further painting

- Window location, assembly, attachment, painting

- Carpet installed then uninstalled, "linoleum" installed

- Different carpet installed

- Curtains created, assembled, attached

May and June 2017 Updates

 

I wanted to take pictures of the front door just to remember how Grandpa originally made them. Here you can see the imprint of the duct tape he used to attach it to the house. (Yes, that good ol' Swedish know-how: duct tape! Right up there with the copious amounts of the Liquid Nail used on the roof. As I told my dad, I didn't mean to, but I kept asking Grandpa, the hell were you thinking???)

The front of the door. Same kind of tin material used on the banister and the windows. 

Michael's again for felt (they must be tired of me by now.) Much flatter, though my husband was shocked by the brightness of the yellow. In real life it's shag yellow, which is also shocking. :)

You probably also can spot that the top window panes in the living room are now wood. This has proven to be MUCH sturdier for that area (and a hell of a lot easier to cut to size.)

I went to Hobby Lobby for door hinges (which are probably too large the more I look at them), and bought fabric quarters for curtains and bedspreads. I began cutting strips for curtains and wood pieces for the rods.

April 2017 Updates

Further updates and paintings in April. At some point I also went home and took pictures of our old photo albums for context.

The original staircase banister Grandpa crafted out of a material I could find NOWHERE. :(

Staircase banister and pole painted to match the one in my parents' house.

(Shout out to local ads on my painting newspaper, lol.)

I found bracelet-making tin/wire at Michael's. I attempted to measure, straighten, and cut them as uniformly as possible, then glue them together (Aleene's.) THEN I painted. Not my best idea. Touch-ups have been constant; plus the 2 at the top of the giant windows in the living room stuck out way too much and kept breaking. Hmph.

Check out my awesome flashlight (to see crevices) and you can also see the bluetooth device with which I play podcasts while working (Stuff You Missed in History Class, You Must Remember This, WEDWay Radio).
I ordered carpet samples from FLOR (since my parents (STILL) have shag carpet) and forgot about the whole "scale" thing. Crap. 

Here's the Dremel (originally purchased to use on the roof) with the fireplace and top cut off.

I thought I could make the carpet work but once I put in the fireplace (UMF18) on it, its dimensions were suddenly off. I ordered bricking on sticker paper for the front of the house and fireplace and concentrated on that for the time (ebay - starboc1).

On the other hand, the paper for the bathrooms and kitchen went in nicely (DollhousesandMore). Note: since none of the flooring had anything besides the original wood, I painted a light coat of the wall color in each room so the wood wouldn't suck up the adhesive once applied. 

February and March 2017 updates

Observing the crap angles and trying to clean, I came to the inevitable conclusion that I would need to take the roof off to adequately and completely update the doll house.

Here is the house once I figured out I needed to pull the chimney top and front off to pry off the roof. It was kind of exciting and strange to think that the last time the inside of that chimney had been seen was when Grandpa built it some 25 years ago. 

Staircase in the living room and the wall next to it have been removed. You can see on the left where I tried to use a Dremel to get the nail out and was unsuccessful (scraping tool and screwdriver were used to leverage it off). 

Other things to note: the back bedroom on the left ("my brother's") lost part of its ceiling in the process which had to be rebuilt with wood spackle. The divider between that room and the one next to it ("his" and "mine") was glued down during the painting process as well.

A mix of water and vinegar with an old rag was used to clean and more filler was added to fix the gouges. Extreme sanding before and afterward (likely not enough, oops.) (Spackle, tools, and sand paper/items purchased at Lowe's.)

While cleaning and sanding, windows came off. This added another item to fix.

I repainted the chimney and the outside.

After researching the colors with old photos I had, I bought paint and brushes at Michael's.

This is before I painted the living room (hence the visible spacklings).

Total items accomplished in January, February, and March:

- Assessed the extensive damage from the passing of time

- Filled in holes with wood spackle

- Removed the roof

- Deep clean

- Multiple sandings and spacklings

- Painted inside and outside