Perseverance (Really?)

I’ve been away from the minis for quite some time. Other things have just required my attention, and to be honest, I lost my mini mojo with this house because assembling it has had so many problems, yet in order to finish this house, I must preserver. 

As a reminder, this the Real Good Toys Newberry, is such a romantic little cottage that one would think that it would be an easy project with just the tow floors. NOT. Now don’t get me wrong, I love RGT kits. They are so well designed and easily assembled, but not this 1990s kit with a first floor that actually is quite a challenge to assemble with so many working pieces that have to be glued together and with each. Nor was it a company original. RGT acquire the rights after the original company shutdown.

 As I searched Pinterest and googled for examples of how others had assembled and decorated this little cottage, I found only 3 example of finished house, one done by the famous Robin Cary who tweaked the original kit. Occasionally one will pop up eBay. I found this one on Facebook Market Place 

 So I was pretty much on my own. After painting all the wall pieces, I began by wallpapering and installing windows on each of the 8 panel--probably not the best way to go. 

When it came time to glue the free standing wall panels to the main floor base, there were two major problems: little surface to attach  mini clamps and no way to keep panels from falling over as I assembled them. I didn't take many photos of this process simply because I was too involved in getting the pieces to attach to each other as well as to the base floor.

Let me briefly summarize what happened next: Once I had all the pieces glued to the base floor, I noticed that the side pieces that would be the living room wall on one end and the kitchen wall on the other didn't line up with the edge of the base. Bummer. And I had measured and marked so carefully. Guess not. At first I thought that I could live with that crookedness but then I realized that the interior surfaces would be crooked. 

Finally I decided to unglue all of the wall panels and start again. Using my embossing heat gun, I was able to soften the Gorilla Wood Glue enough to release it. I measured, repositioned, used little pincher clamps to help keep pieces in line where I could and finally glued it together. The photos show how the walls attach and stand in place. Next the first time around I did not use the clamps to help secure the walls in place; instead I relied weight to press the pieces into place. To undo my mess, I used the heat gun. Goo Gone by the way does not dissolve or soften glue. 

  

The second time around, I used my mini clamps to clamp pieces where I could, which really helped.

 

The first floor is now securely in place with walls that line up.  In future posts you will see the second major problem that occurs when the ceiling/second floor is added, but for now let's make some window treatments.

As I search for minis on a variety of mini shopping sites, I get frustrated because I can't find exactly what I want and prices are so high these days. I've alway been a DIY-er, making many of my own things inspired by all the mini bloggers who are true craftsmen-women-people. So, of course, I make my own curtains. I went through my 18" doll dress making phase some time ago and purchased some beautiful antique lace that I would use on the doll dresses, but I'm not doing that now, so I talked myself into using this wonderful antique lace to make curtains for this cursed house.

Supplies

• Lace or fabric, newly purchased or from your stash

• Spray starch to stiffen and stabilize, especially to make folds

• Fabric Glue--short cut to sewing edges. 

• Craft Sticks to make the wooden valance. Tongue depressor for larger, wider valances; popsicle sticks for narrow valances.

• 1/4th" wood trim for the sides of the valances--or something similar

• Double sided sticky tape. I've gone to this to attach so many things instead of glue for a number of reasons. This tape is scrapbook mounting tape which I like because it comes in a couple of widths. The red will peel off, leaving a clear, sticky tape.

I begin by starching my pieces to give them body. I use a pressing cloth--and old handkerchief--so that iron does not sit directly on the delicate fabric and the pressing cloth will absorb some of the excess starch.

I am using my mini Cricut heat press. Love it. Recommend it for mini making. It does not get too hot, holds its temperature, is small, making it easy to maneuver. I use seamstress pins to help keep folds in place, and for many materials finger pressing them into shape works, too.

The side seams are pressed into place and held securely with a dab of fabric glue. 

Clear tape is attached to the inside of the valance to hold the lace panel in place and the lace panel is pressed into place. How easy is that!

The wood valances are cut length to fit the window, using scrap wood trim for the sides and painted, stained, or upholstered before adding the curtain.

The kitchen windows were even easier to make. I wanted transparent window shades that in real life would roll up and down, so I searched my paper cache` and found this dotted vellum scrap. Just enough to make 3 window covering. Cut it to size. Attached it to the valance made from the popsicle sticks and made the lacy trim-look by cutting edges from square paper dollies that a friend had given me. Fabric lace scraps would work, too. 

Now that the walls are securely in place for the first floor, it's time think about flooring. The base floor is sturdy 1/4" plywood with a pleasing wood grain and I got to thinking, I wonder if I could just stain it. Using the ceiling side of the second door, did the sample test. I used one very light pine and one darker oak. Seems that the wood absorbed them the same, so I chose the light pine stain to finish the floor. 

I will print on muslin or printable fabric my rugs that I borrowed in a google search--not recommended if you plan to sell mini rugs, but since this just for me and I don't intend to profit off images that I have personally created, then I feel okay about borrowing from others. The area rug could be a little larger, but my printer will only print stand size, but I think this will give the rustic look that I like. 

So tell me please if you like the idea of using this as the floor, instead of making a planked floor. I've ordered my Circuit dark walnut veneer and will cut the planks on my Maker II and glue them directly to floor instead of card stock as I have done in the past, but with the bay windows and awkward angles, the floor will be a challenge. I've cut some text planks but I'm not sure that I want to do that.

What do you think? Stain the current floor to create a rustic, well used wood floor covered with a pretty area rug or go to the work to do a plank floor?

I've sanded the floor and it really does have nice character. You be the judge.

Instead of finishing the house and rooms, I get lost in creating the furniture for the rooms. Instead of building from scratch, I decided to use up some of my stash kits, starting with this HOM chair kit. I love how the chairs turned out. I am getting better at upholstering from watching true mini artists work.

  
I did create this hall tree, using a Shackman hall tree from one my other houses as a pattern. It sill needs painted and mirror, but it turned out nicely. Once again using from wood scraps. 

I am really going to love this house once it is finished, but at the moment it is a challenge. If I just stain the floor, the first floor will be done, but without electrical wiring, which will have to run along the floor. I can make my own battery powered  lamps. My post Shedding Light shows how I make my battery powered lamps. Or I could just buy battery lighting--costly as it is.

In addition to using kits to make minis, I am also buying bare or unfinished furniture pieces mostly from Miniature Crush and Miniatures.com (which by now you know is run by Miniature Crush, blending 2 favorite mini suppliers 💖).

I think that is about all I have today. There will be more to come. I do miss blogging, which really is a lot of work, and it seems many miniaturists have turned Social Media to share their work, but I love to write and share more than just "how to", for mini making is a journey, and adventure and storytelling makes it even more engaging.

Give me your thoughts on flooring. Speaking of Trials and Tribulations! Visit this post to see my last flooring project for the Manchester. 

So glad you stopped by. Look Ann's Dollhouse Dreams on Instagram

Blessings and Peace,

Ann

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