Just about a year ago, my friend Kay and I started to build a dollhouse. She had offered the use of her dining room table, but we needed to raise the first floor by an inch and a half, and since I have all the power tools here, the project ended up on my dining room table, instead.
We worked at it pretty steadily, but as Kay said, “there’s more to this than I expected”, and it took me longer than I had figured it would. Then we had our Christmas Open House here, so I moved it from the dining room to the back room, and it sat on top of the dryer for months, getting shoved first one way and then another as we turned dials and pushed buttons. Out of sight, out of mind, although I did continue to purchase little odds and ends to go into the house, and “borrowed” other items from some of my finished stores and shops.
Last week, we discovered – oh, horrors – that we needed to get this baby finished by the 16th!
In truth, all that needs to be done is to finish thatching the roof, connecting the lights, and doing a bit of landscaping. However, even that little bit of work can cause more glitches than the average person can imagine. If you’ve ever worked on a dollhouse, you can understand – I had sandwiched the thatching for one of the porch roofs (there are three) between two narrow strips of wood. First, I glued this sandwich onto the roof with the raw wood on top instead of the painted piece. In order to make sure the thatch stayed put, I had smeared glue all over the porch roof, which made it even more interesting. Carefully removed that, and then glued the bloody thatch to the bottom edge of the roof instead of the top. At this point, The Squire decided to take the dog for a walk. Coward. Now that I have fixed that but can’t get the porch roof to stay on the building. I may have to resort to hot glue, which is an anathema to Serious Miniaturists, but needs must.
I ran most of the wiring down through the fireplace, but The Squire and I could not get the wiring for the two lamps in the upstairs to go down the chimney. In fussing with it, I managed to snap the chimney off the roof. We finally ended up drilling a hole through the wall, coming out next to the fireplace, and then tucking it behind the half-timbering. Blessedly, I already had both a power strip and a transformer that work. Whew!
At this point, most of the lights are working, and I’ve started on the thatching on the main part of the house. Tomorrow and Monday should see the landscaping and last minute stuff done.
I most sincerely hope!
Tags: dollhouse, glitches, hot glue, thatching, The Squire
Last week, I moseyed on over to Grace Shaw’s shop, The Virtual Dollhouse, and collected a lot more goodies for Austin’s McKinley. The kitchen cabinets I had used in the original go-round, when I made this up for his dad, have been discontinued, so Grace and I put together a few things that were by the same maker, but different finishes, and I brought them home and painted them to match. There are three different types of wood, here, and the stove is another matter entirely. I simply wasn’t willing to spend a lot on this project, and the stove is a matter of “you get what you pay for”. S’Okay with me. Nothing that a little bit of foam core won’t fix.
g to put on the floor. I do need spigots for the sink, and a stove hood. I know I saved the one I pulled out, but heaven only knows what I did with it. Put it in a Good Place, most likely. Can’t find the brass bed for the master bedroom, either.
thisendoftheswamp 