Just the Beginning

 I've been at this dollhouse building for a while now, fumbling my way through each build not really knowing what I was doing, making mistakes then trying to figure how to fix them so that they don't show. Seldom satisfied with my work and ever curious to find out how others do their miniature things, I discovered bloggers who are master builders, artists, and interior designers, and I learned where to go for help. So I am tackling another big kit house, with the hopes of building a charming house that looks well planned and well crafted, with as few amateurish mistakes as possible. I came close with Lily's house, the Cranberry Cove, but I followed the kit exactly without any modifications.

With my project there will be modifications or more accurately, I'll be kit bashing-- a very big leap for me.

Every now and then I cruse through the local Craig's List and eBay looking for good bargains on the vintage kits no longer in production. I am finding, however, that bargains are hard to find as the dollhouse building hobby seems to be regaining some popularity. But I got lucky and found this house for $40 in Denver on Craig's List not far where my daughter lives, so she was able to pick it up and deliver to me.

This kit is MFD wood, not the kit with the punch-out pieces from sheets splintering plywood, which makes it a solid, sound house that will easier to assemble with not tabs, slots, gaps between walls, and splinters. The floor plan is similar to the Real Good Toys Vermont Farmhouse.

        

Even with the seven room floor plan, I wanted more rooms. Both of my big houses have 3 room areas across the house, and 3 floors, so I decided to purchase Real Good Toys addition to add two more rooms. I assumed that it would be a perfect fit based on the photos on the company's website. I suggested to my husband what he could get me for Christmas and he was paying attention.

                       

Note that kit does not come with doors pre cut in the side panel that will fit next to the exterior of main house as shown in the photo on the box.

After putting away Christmas--the basement is the staging area for all the decorating that goes upstairs--I unboxed the main house and did a dry assembly and partially assembled the addition. At this point the second story floors don't line up. I am hoping that they will line up once the the buildings are placed on their foundations.

The stairs in these kits are either right in the middle of the house or set off to the side, neither are very good locations. A third option for the house is to eliminate the stairs all together, but I am a literal thinking and I would be bothered without the stairs. So, I played around with an old stair case that I didn't use because I did such a poor job of assembling it, so I cut it apart to see if I could fashion a stair with a landing.

In some old farmhouses, the staircase is in center of the house and perhaps in the main entry, so I tired facing the the stairs toward the door, but they are too long and crowd the door, so the only choice is facing them  the way the kit is designed, to back of the house. I did some research to see how other builders customize and redesign the stairs and liked the idea of creating a landing to add some interest. I am thinking that the stairs will go on the other side of the wall and the landing will go other direction into the living room, for this room will either be the kitchen or formal dining room. I am trying to decide if the kitchen should be in the addition, but the big bay window screams dining room.

I like to switch out the windows in these older kit houses because the windows and doors are punched out the plywood sheet and have to be assembled. The RGT addition came with a lovely double window so I ordered replacement windows doors from RGT, hoping that they would fit and prepared to modify the openings if I had do, but I did not.

Here I need to mention that I wrote the company a not not to send the Lilliput doors if they wouldn't fit the Manchester to which they responded on the invoice that they had no way of knowing if they would fit. In all fairness to RGT, it is important not to assume that their pieces will fit the old kits. I got lucky. Certainly measure your openings before you order to compare with the dimensions of the parts that you are ordering. 

I ordered a door to connect the master bedroom to a library? Not sure which room will be the bedroom.

Worried that the second floors won't line up, I glued the foundations together, hoping that I wouldn't have to modify one or the other.

When I first began building my first house, I purchased these corner clamps but I couldn't use them on the houses. 

But they are perfect for lining up and clamping the corners of the foundations.

Because the addition does not have precut doors, I set about measuring to cut out a doorway on the side wall of the addition and the side wall of the main house.

I decided that the kitchen and dining room would be an open space, so instead of standard door, there will be a wide opening. Easy for me to plan, but a little harder to execute; however, my husband came to the rescue.

Another gift: a Rockwell Blade Runner jig saw, a sander, and a vacuum that attaches to each one to suck up sawdust. The man knows his stuff and is sweet and generous. He created a little workshop in the storage closet in the basement.

          

The saw rather intimidates me, but I'll get the hang of it. My first project today required his expertise, though.

He had to drill holes in the corners of the cut to make the turn at the top of the cut.

The saw worked so well. The alternative would have been to use a box cutter. No way. My old hands don't have the strength anymore.

Next we have to cut out the door on the second floor between the bedroom and the addition. Oh, and the floors do align now with the structures on their foundation.

Once we have the upstairs door cut, I'll be able to glue the main floors of the house together then I'll plan the lighting for the first two floors. 

Thanks for visiting. See you next time.