Another Follower!

Thanks and welcome to my new followers Tallulah-Belle and Meli!

I recently got a shipment of the woodwork I need for the music room and the entry hall. I am working on the window and door trim. It's going slowly because I haven't had a lot of time to work on it, but the weekend is here and may I will. Then again...

Quality vs. Price

I usually don't buy anything from places other than miniature outlets, but I received a gift card through Amazon.com the other day. When I went online I found that there was a rather large miniature furniture selection. It's difficult to see online, generally, what you are getting, but I ordered several things. Well, I got the package today and I am somewhat disappointed in the quality. What I received was the type of thing one would purchase for a child's dollhouse. I suppose I should have guessed this would be the case since was cost was fairly low. In addition, even though the scale says 1:12, it seems off.

So, I learned my lesson for the day. Don't sacrifice quality for price.

Thanks for following

Thanks so much for following my blog! Welcome to Brenda for following my blog. Hope you like what you see.

Haven't had a lot of time to do anything on the house, but I did finally get the woodwork for the windows so I am going to be working on that soon.

Thank you to new follower

Many thanks to a new follower, Sandy. Welcome to my blog and hope you enjoy what you see.

Followers

Wow, I haven't been on this blog for a long time, but already have people following it. A big Thank You to J Folk, Doreen,
Casey, Meli, Erika, and Debbie for following me.

The Master Bedroom

This is the last room that I am currently working on. I love the way it turned out so far. As you can see I got a little better at doing the wallpaper with this application. I got the wallpaper from the same place as before, and did the floor the same way I did it for the game room, but I used a different stain on this one to go with the overall brightness of the room. I have furniture on order, but as you can see I have some pieces already. I have yet to complete the window molding and have some fireplace accessories to get before the room is mostly complete.

The Dining Room

The Dining Room is an extension of the Solarium and I just got the table today. I have on order some accessories, so I should be finishing up this room soon!

The Music Room - more work to be done

The Music Room was the third room I attempted, and the first room I attempted with wallpaper and a parquet floor. It's not finished, but I am showing it anyway so you get a sense of where it can go. I purchased the tiles for the floor from InMiniaturedollhouses.com and ended up having to puchase two packages. I didn't measure as I should have, but I eventually decided rather than do the whole floor to just use what I had and build around it with balsa wood. It was not complicated, but you do have to check for square frequently as you are gluing them down to the paper "subfloor". I used a grocery bag which I took apart and ironed (low heat) so that it would stay flat. I worked it out on a flat piece of wood and as the sections were drying, put a piece of wax paper and a heavy book on top do they would not buckle. I then stained and put a coat of clear varnish by Delta Ceremcoat. It says glossy on the label, but not so much. The rug is actually a mousepad that someone gave me a long time ago.

The wallpaper was found on the jennifersprintables.com I mentioned earlier printed on heavy paper. Since I am not experienced at this and this being my first time, I didn't do the bay window. It's hard to get around the corners for that, and I see that the wood needs another coat, but perhaps with the window molding it won't be that noticeable.

Yet to do is build the windows molding (still waiting on the woodwork shipment), putting another coat on the bay window, getting fireplace accessories, and maybe do some corner molding for the ceiling. More to come on this room.

The Entrance Hall - work in progress

This was the first room I worked on after completing the exterior so long ago. I laid the floor and painted the staircase. When I started over again, I finished painting the walls and purchased the clock, table, and vase of flowers. What is left to do is finish the woodwork around the small window, the baseboard, and door. I ran out of the woodwork lumber and have more on order. In addition, I am not crazy about the door that came with the kit, which you can't really see in this picture, so I may replace that too. I also love pigs, for some reason, so that explains why I have a tiny pig next to the clock. To the right of the staircase, you can see a corner of the music room, which will be another post.

The Solarium

I just love this room. I had gotten the "wicker" sofa a long time ago and thought it would be great to have it in this one corner of the first floor. I found a simulated flagstone mat that I cut and put in the corner. I got a piece of rather substantial basswood and had my husband cut it out on the band saw for me after carefully measuring the bay window and made a shelf which goes around the whole interior of the bay. I did the windows in white and rested the bottom of each one on the shelf. The best part is the flower arrangements. I just can't seem to stop buying them! I still want to get some more plants, especially a tall one to stand on the floor. I got a hanging plant and found that if I mixed a small amount of putty and glue it would stay on the celing quite well. I hung it with a length of small chain that I got at the hobby store and a jump ring that I bent into an S shape to attach the top of the hanger of the basket to the chain. The light coming in the window in this shot makes it look quite realistic.

The Game Room

I had a lot of fun doing this room. I decided that I was going to try a wood floor and used a sheet of balsa wood and scored it with a pen. I then used a special walnut stain and then finished with satin Polycrylic. I did the baseboard with the miniature baseboard from miniatures.com and stained them. I was going to do the windows with the same stain, but decided to do them in white. I just love the pool table with the tiny billard balls and the chess set.

The Attic

The next room I worked on is supposed to look like an attic. This was the first room I experimented with using flooring printed on the computer. It was also before I had found the site for free wallpaper, and grabbed a picture off the web from a site that did flooring. I picked a parquet pattern and then using Windows Paint copied and pasted the small picture a few times until I got a page full of the pattern. I then did a copy and paste into Windows Publisher and printed it out. I guess you can do individual files for these, but I did the copy and paste into Publisher so that I could make different pages and keep everything in one file. It has worked out very well for me that way.

The First Room

I supposed I started at the top and worked my way down because it was easier to do that room. I made the first room I worked on look very similar to my home office, at least I used the same paint.

The first picture is after I painted the walls

This picture is how it looks now. I don't know if you can tell, but I got a very small cat for the sofa against the far wall. I used red felt for the "wall-to-wall" carpeting, and used small basswood strips for the baseboard. I then found through miniatures.com actual replic baseboard and have used that since in the rest of the house. The house sits on the floor in front of a window and when the light comes through the suggested stained glass windows, the light is very pleasing.

Links of Interest

Some of the websites I have been buying from are:

http://www.miniatures.com
http://www.miniatureplace.com

and this site, which is really good to get wallpaper and floors.
http://www.jennifersprintables.com. These are all free and all you do is print them out on heavy paper and put them in. I did several floors with this and two rooms with wallpaper.

The Exterior

I started by painting the exterior and finishing it. I went to the paint store and got a small can of white paint and some sand to put in it. As you might be able to see, the style of the house is Tudor, so it has the stucco, or plaster, between the wood parts. I first repainted all the wood parts again because over time the paint had sort of faded. I then used the mixed paint and did the parts in between. This worked very well and really does look like stucco. I had to use a small brush for the corners.

Getting Started...Again

As a child I was always facinated with minitature things. When I was a teen I asked my father for a dollhouse kit so I could build one. That Christmas I was granted my wish and eagerly started putting the thing together. As time wore on, I got too busy to continue working on it, but I kept it. I had managed to assemble the thing and painted most of the outside. The next step was to complete the outside, paint and decorate the inside, and of course, decide whether to electrify it.

Fast forward several decades and I had recently finished the renovations of my home office and was staring at the house, so neatly stored in one corner. My husband was working nights and my son had started boarding school and I was all alone when I came home from work. With nothing to do, I decided I would start working on it. I decided that I would not electrify it as I found that I had not completed the steps I should have and the time for electification had passed.

The picture shows where it was when I started it up again.

This blog is a little late in starting because I have made a lot of changes since then and have completed the exterior and almost completed the interior. However I thought it might be fun to have presence on the web about my dollhouse.