Stairway to Heaven

Staircases are always challenging. In the past, unhappy with how the kit stairs looked or turned out, I purchased Hobby Lobby stair kits that were already assembled except for the railing, which is always murderous to build. With the Newbury, I decided to use the stairs provided with the kit because I'll be adding an extra wall so that I don't have to do the railing. I am also going to make that wall removable and the stairs removable because that is where I am going to hide my electrical nightmare, but more to come on that later. First, let's build the stairs.

These older kits by Green Leaf and Real Good Toys made circa 1990s were punch out pieces on pretty poor, splintery, rough plywood. They require a lot of tender loving work to get good results, such as sanding and multiple coats of paint. I'll show you what I mean. 

The pieces will punch out easily, but be careful of splinters.

With all the pieces punched out, I did a dry fit by laying the pieces out on 1/2" 12x12 piece of styrofoam. I used toothpicks to hold the stair casings in place. Before I began the dry fit, I sanded each piece front, back and raw edges to smooth out the rough wood.

Of course I referred the kit instructions to determine which piece was the stair tread and which was the riser: narrow piece was the tread.

I had to play around to make sure that I had the pieces positioned correctly. Sometimes stairs can become an optical illusion--which is the up way as opposed to the down way?

Because I couldn't line the treads up evenly, I added a flat rule as support.

Dry fitting pieces really helps to figure out  how pieces are going to fit together before applying glue for the final assembly.

  

I decided to stain the stair tread using a water based stain gel. I applied a thick coat then wiped off the excess with a paper towel. After I stained the treads, I realized that real stair treads had rounded front edge, so I created the rounded edge but sanding in on direction holding the piece at an angle and drawing it across a coarse 120 grit sanding block. I could have left the edges bare to create worn look; however, I don't think wear and tear on the stairs would be so even, so I added another coat of stain gel.

 

The risers were pre-sanded smooth then I applied 3 coats of  this creamy acrylic paint, sanding lightly in between coats.

The Hobby Lobby or Michael's water based stain and paints lend great results. I top coated all the pieces with a couple of coats of clear acrylic water based varnish. 

   

Somewhere during the dry assembly process, I realized that the kit does not proved a back piece for the stairs, so I cut a piece to the length of what the instructions indicate the stairs will be from a piece of 1/6" basswood. This piece does not need to be painted since it won't show.

Next: Glue everything together. 

  

From the beginning to the end, it took me two days to complete the project. Day one I spend figuring out the dry fitting then the sanding and painting were the most tedious part. I let the painted and stained pieces dry overnight and assembled the stairs the next day.

With the stairs completed, the house assembly will go quickly; however, I have a huge obstacle: wallpaper. I bought a digital download wallpaper that I absolutely love, but I cannot get it to print the right color, so I'm having to figure out another paper. I want to paper the ground floor walls before I assemble the house--you will see why, hopefully in the next post.

Until then--so glad you popped in. Here, we are staying inside for the next few days simply because it is COLD, a -1 this morning. Stay warm, friends. Winter is here.

Have a wonderful week.

Ann

Martha Comes to Stay

 I did not realize that it has been so long since I've posted--way back in October. I am back, hoping to keep up with posting the progress on the Newbury. Really,  pictures are worth a thousand words.

The current project pieces lay in a jumbled mess, scooted aside so that I could work on other projects. The Fairfield remodel remains another unfinished project. 

I spent a good part of last week organizing my dollhouse making supplies and inventory storage, a narrow space beneath the stairs. I had all of my Christmas decorations stored on one end in the cubby under the staircase which required my sweet husband  to lug tubs and boxes upstairs, so we decided to move all those containers to the garage, making more room to sundry odds and ends. When finished, I had a stack of odds and ends of boxes that went to the garage for recycle. These shelves hold a lot of mini items from furniture to wood scraps. At the end, the shelf stores my card making supplies.

I replaced  all the actually shoeboxes and odd containers that I used for storage so that now all the containers are uniform and clear.  Next to the shelving I have my mini saw and sander with wood scrap storage and the odds and ends of "stuff" that I can't seem to give up--yet.

  

I also do a lot of card making for my DAR chapter. We send handmade cards to the veterans at the Cheyenne, WY VA nursing home and to veterans in a life care facility on the other side of the Mountain (the Rocky Mountains, that is). I invite ladies in to make cards, so I need a large work area and lots of supplies. Last fall I shipped 100 handmade greeting cards to an organization, Cards for Soldiers the ships literally thousands of cards to military serving over seas. Now I have a nice shelf to organize and store my card making supplies.

The Newbury has a mansard roof, ie. a flat roof with sloped sides and two front bay windows so my building strategy has been to complete the first floor first because it has 9 separate wall pieces, each with a window. I will wallpaper them before assembly.

Before the holiday season I spent a lot of time working on the kitchen. The pieces are all finished. It will be very small, so not a massive cabinet building project. I used Houseworks cabinet kit pieces. I still have some minor things to finish up, but the kitchen pieces are all ready to go.

And just the other night I decided to make my own chandeliers since they are so expensive. After piddling around with my current supplies and looking a handmade lighting on Pinterest, I came up with a design and ordered new beading and finds from my favorite company for mini light making, Bindels Ornaments in the Netherlands, so it will be a while for supplies to arrive. 

Here is peek at the bedroom and the bed that I built from scratch. I've just remembered that I have so much more to tell about how I made the bed and designed the kitchen. I've got a lot of catching up to do. Basically the bedroom pieces are finished and the wallpaper which I purchased and downloaded from an Etsy shop is ready for the final print. Future posts will detail each room.

Finally, I have to share my birthday present from daughter Heather--what a sense of humor the girl has, but she knows her mamma. I am, in fact, a Martha Stewart fan. I make no apologies for my admiration, for she taught me how to make the best pie crust, roast my Thanksgiving turkey, cook my Christmas prime rib, bake the best lemon poppyseed cake. So instead of the popular Elf on a Shelf since all the grandkids are past the stage, I have Martha in the Mantle with Snoop on the Stoop yet to be delivered. They are indeed the odd couple.

The daughters decided that Martha would be horrified at the current condition of the vintage Barbie Dream house circa 1980s and think that she and Snoop should renovate it.  I am toying with idea of some sort; maybe buying a more modern Barbie house to play around with, but. . . 

So that's how the new year begins. I've cleaned and organized to make space to assemble this house, There's more come,  so stay tuned. 

Happy New Year, Friends. May the year bring you health, happiness, and peace. 

So glad you stopped by,

Ann

Not What You Expect

If you've followed me for any amount of time, this blog begins with my restoration of my daughter's childhood dollhouse that I sort of built sometime in the '80s. You read about how the house sat in the barn for decades and was desitined for the landfill when Heather asked for her 35th birthday to fix up her dollhouse--which I did and here I am nearly a decade later with a village in my basement, but before that project I had my first bout of "miniature mania." 

We were living in our other house when I became enthralled with those tin dollhouses. I never had a dollhouse as a kid and late in life, I went on a binge. My first tin house was a wreck that my other daughter found along the side of the road, one of those mid century modern things bent beyond repair and then two more found their way into my hands--I don't even remember now how I came buy them but back then in antique stores their prices ranged in the $45-50. prices, so I picked up else where.

With the empty houses, I went on a search for furnishings and began investing in Renwal dollhouse furnishes. I spent hours on eBay and a lot of $$$ on tiny plastic furniture. At one point, I looked at my collection and realized that my spending was out of control and quit. 

In 2009 we moved across town from our  home on a city lot to a ranch style home on 5 acres. It was a smaller house that did not feel like home after living 18 years in the two story. I had less wall space, so a lot my things stay boxed up. The metal dollhouse went on a shelf in the garage and have been there all these years. 

Last week we cleaned the garage and rearranged to accommodate a spare refrigerator and had move the shelving unit where the houses were stored.  Here is the first one, still dust covered, missing a door and two windows, but still in solid shape with a few dings, dents and missing screws just like when I bought it.  The chimney is also missing.

 

 

The second one is a bit worse for the wear. The roof is not just bent, but has a crack and worse, it's gotten wet and has rust in the far right corner and missing the chimney.

An eBay search shows both of these house at double what I might have paid for them years ago. There are only a couple on Etsy and seem to have the same flaws as mine, which don't seem to affect the value. While the houses have increased in the value--from $45- 50, they now range from $85 to over a $100 on both eBay and Etsy. Some furnished. Some not. Most missing their chimneys. The Renwal furnishings once really pricy have come down in price, with multiple pieces priced for what 1 piece cost 20 years ago. 

And a barn! This is my husband's childhood barn still in great shape for which I have all the animal and farm accessories stored someplace. 

 

The missing doors and window were partly the reason why I lost interest in the houses. I could accept the dents and scratches and even the rust, all demonstrating use, but the missing doors and windows frustrated me. Once I got the houses cleaned up, I searched Etsy for replacement parts thinking that someone might have salvaged the windows and doors from badly wrecked houses; instead, I stumbled upon something better: a vendor who 3-D prints the missing plastic pieces!

While the replacement pieces are pristine white and the originals are cream colored and aged, I will have to paint them. I'll paint all of them the same so that they match. 

The house, I do believe, came unassembled, so I can image Santa assembling them as he delivered them to the Christmas Tree. The windows and door frame simple pop in and out and the door is separate and is hinged.

 

Now what to do with these great houses? I am trying to figure that out now. I have to dig out the Renwal furniture, but more importantly I need to find a place to display these relics from a 1950s childhood--not mine, but maybe yours. Visit this Etsy vendor for your replacements: Dollhouse3DParts.

I'd like to donate one the our little local museum, but it is quite limited in space, My husband and I served on the committee that runs the museum, so maybe I can find a spot for one. Still. I do love my little tin houses--even more. 

Next week: the Renwal furniture. 

The Newbury Begins

 While I still have a few odds and ends to tidy up on the Manchester, I've begun work on the Newbury from Real Good Toys. Let me introduce you the two story cottage with a French mansard roof.

As the box indicates, Real Good Toys introduced Batrie's  Newbury Dollhouse kit into its line, along a Batrie's other kits.When the company went out of business, Real Good Toys bought this company's houses and according to a post on the Greenleaf Dollhouse Forum, the entry suggested that Real Good Toys discontinued this house along with a couple of others from Batrie in 2016. If you like this house, you will find it still in box kits on eBay and other online venders, but shop carefully so that you don't pay too much. It would be a great first house project.

And if you decide to build it and, as I do, look on Pinterest to see how other's built it or search for bloggers who have chronicled their project, you won't find any. You will probably find 4 examples of this sweet little cottage, including the best example, by Robin Cary, one of our favorite builders. She named her's the Francais Chalet Champagne en Pierre. How romantic is that!

Not really planning on building another large house, I couldn't resist when I found this on FaceBook Market Place only a few miles away for $40. When I asked the young mother why she was selling the kit, she answered that she others in box and didn't have time to build this one. What a sweet deal

Still struggling to finish the Manchester, I vowed to set this house aside and wait on opening it up until the Manchester was finished--then I bought the garage.

Then one weak moment, seeing that sealed box sitting there, I caved and opened the box. All pieces were nicely packaged according to parts of the house, like all the window pieces were sorted by size in their own package, the porch pieces all in a package, and so on.

The instructions look pretty intimidating--don't they all though. 

Windows and walls for first floor. I shuddered at these slide-in wall supports. I struggled with  them so badly with that old San Franciscan that I finally gave up. These will be assembled to form on solid ground floor exterior wall that will be glued to the floor--well you will see. 

The walls are covered with lap siding--if that what it's called. Now an advanced builder might do faux stone work or egg crate bricks or some odd concoction to create a stucco exterior. I am not that brave or patient, so I'll paint the siding.

This kit provides pieces to build the front door, but I will upgrade it. I haven't quite decided on which door I'll chose for the front door--a nice one. 

Directions say to dry fit. Now that is the challenge because the first floor wall connected with slide-in joints is not very stable on its own. And that mansard roof with the sloping side exterior walls on the second floor is hard to hold in place, too. 

  So far all it's holding together. 

Lots of masking tape. 

It's not large house and the sloped wall reduce floor space, but still, I'm loving this house.

Of course we have to dig through our stash to test a kitchen floor plan.

It will a challenge to glue this baby together. I always relied on carpenter's clamps, but they won't work with this project.

I've laid all the pieces and tested the siding fit and played around with assembling a window, done some sanding, and used a box-cutter blade to square the rounded corners of the windows.

You can see here how the walls will slide into the post groves.

 

Instructions say to insert windows before walls are assembled.

I've glued the windows together, leaving the top frame piece  unglued so that I can paint the windows frames then slide in the glass then add the top frame.

I didn't have enough clamps to clap the window frames, so I secured them with masking tape while the glue cured. The instructions say to use rubber bands, but they were  too cumbersome to use.

To smooth out the glue joints, I used am emery board to sand things smooth and tested the window in place. 

  

Next day, I worked on the siding. I used a brush to smear the siding with Gorilla wood glue.

As you assemble the wood siding, look to see that first the groves all point the same direction--down with the narrow strip at the bottom that will over lap the wall. Not sure why yet. I am guessing that I will have to trim it off,  and as this photo shows, you can see that one piece will fit nicely into the one above. 

NOTE: the instructions say to start from the bottom and work up, making the bottom edge of siding flush, but I started at the top. Really does not seem to matter. The excess still needs to be trimmed away.

With the siding in place, I used a lot of little pincher clamps to hold the siding in place and to keep ti from curling and lifting. When I ran out of clamps, I use masking and blue painter's tape to secure the pieces in place.

The siding pieces don't exactly fit the window cutouts on the walls, so they will have to sanded or trimmed away a bit, yet the window casing will cover up the edges, so they won't show. 

So here is two day's worth of work. You will note that on the two main outside walls without windows I had to secure the siding pieces across the center to keep the edges from lifting. All the pieces need extensive clamping to keep the thin siding pieces from lifting. When I ran out of the little pinch clamps, I used painter's tape to secure a tight seal. The exterior side walls have 3 sections of siding, so I used tape the hold down the joints.

All the pieces will need a second coating. I'm using regular latex exterior interior house paint.

First I painted each piece with Kilz primer for smooth base paint foundation.

I purchased Ace Hardware's Clark and Kennington, a rich, creamy paint that goes on smoothly and cleans up nicely with water.

While I don't think a second coat is necessary, but I will sand lightly and give it a second coat. 

I am loving this blue

More to Come.

Thanks for joining me.

Ann