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Six different views on building the McKinley

Entries in this blog

Working on the Tower

Step 3 calls for the middle sized tower pieces to be added. It is on sheet number 3. I have also glued the tower top on. This is what it should look like. Part F Step 1 The instructions calls for the front roof part to be added. This is what it will look like. Mine is NOT glued in because I am going to shingle mine 1st because it is hard to shingle around the tower and cut the shingle correctly. I am also thinking about adding a Garden deck by opening up the roof this time. y

Minis On The Edge

Minis On The Edge

Working on Bay and Tower

Jimmy has continued to assemble parts of the McKinley. I'm waiting for him to get to a point where I get to play ...One of the things I find interesting about this house--probably because I've never seen it before--is the back of the house. I note the little holes in the back where you would actually hang it on the wall, but I cannot figure out what goes in the front of the house there to cover those holes ... Hmmm ... guess I'll figure it out as we go.Jimmy has installed the bay window, which

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Wallpapering The Tower

Before I began wallpapering and painting the tower, I took the roof piece out that goes over it and laid it on to draw myself some lines to work in. I drew two different sets, one where I would need to paint to, and one where I would need to wallpaper to.I started with the smallest outside side of the tower first, and just cut the paper to the line, or actually slightly above it. I also cut a slight overhang on the edge so that I can wrap it around to the inside of the tower. I'm using a prepas

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Wallpapering Rest of Tower Room

Time to wallpaper the rest of the tower room. This room is a bit tricky because of its angles and the tower room itself. To get my first cut, I actually took the wallpaper and laid it on the outside of the house at the tower, face down, and made a crease to show me how the tower goes into the floor and around the tower, and then I cut along the crease. I then took the paper and laid it into the house. I also discovered that it was easiest to lay the house on its side to wallpaper this area. This

LPCullen

LPCullen

Wallpapering Ceilings

Now that I've got my walls and ceilings primed, it's time to wallpaper the ceilings. Normally, I would turn the house upside down to do that, but because I had polyeurethaned the floors, I had to wallpaper the ceilings while the house was on it's side.I'm going to use the same "real house" textured wallpaper that I used for the ceilings in the Glencroft for this house. I cut the paper to close to the size that I need for each ceiling, but leaving some "overhang" to give me some room to move the

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Very little progress

We have not progressed as much as we would like in the last few weeks. Here is some of what we have done.I took some of the left over crown molding that I used in the living room and painted it a contrast trim color and placed a piece at the bottom of the window sill on all the outside windows for a little extra detail.This is the design I decided upon for the stained glass windows in the front door. I also thought the house needed a splash of color on the outside, to make it less dreary looking

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TRIM TRIM TRIM

uuggggg I was putting off doin the trim...it is so tedious! very necessary but uggggggg and to top it all of these windows are all peices. except for the round ones. so that is where I have started. to make my job seem easier and seem to go faster I am breaking up the window trim installation. first the round windows than onwards. I also finished the tower roof. I started it 3 different times. it went from silver to textured paint before I

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tower roof

oooooyyyy vey! Ima tellin you well it decided I knew how to use my tape and glue and now it is a proper roof for a tower! make a cone with the tape first. tape untill all peices are supported when you turn it upside down and push the roof peice into place. now I have to wait for the glue to dry and than I can do the decorating to it.... ohhhh cant tell you...shhhhhhh but that is how I did my tower.

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The Finished Mckinley Tracy Topps

These are pictures of the finished Mckinley! The Greenleaf houses are loved by many great miniature Artists. There are so many things you can do with a Greenleaf kit. They are lighter in weight but sturdy when assembled. They are simple to cut (I only used my hobby knief for this. All you have to do is think outside of the box. If you dream it you can do it! Have fun & feel free to ask any questions you may have.

Minis On The Edge

Minis On The Edge

The Electrical ride

well I have had some ups and downs and it was a wild ride! I finally got up the nerve to Wallpaper all of my remaining walls and the ceilings in bedroom and livingroom. happy dane!!!when Hubby came home he was eager to start on the Chandelier he was going to make from a Christmas Ornament....which was Originally bought for Catriona to make earrings from.we made 1 chandelier, 3 pairs of earings and was left with fancy plant hanger for a porch. ohhh and it was soooo beautiful when he lit it up the

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The begining

I can't seem to find the pics I took during the construction of the shell. I will be posting some pics soon. So far we have built most of the shell and have cut a few holes to run electricity. Really should of wired the back wall before construction. We are waiting for some supplies to arive and have some more to order. I also have a BIG plan for the attic space, but that will take some time, as that idea is rather expensive. Like all my house, I try to stick to a low budget, to show what can be

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The Balancing Act

For some reason, I am still waiting on this house to "talk" to me and tell me what it wants me to do. So far, the only thing it has told me is what wallpaper it wants in the living room .... Hmmm .... So, time to think about "priming" the interior of the house by using two coats of semi-gloss primer (I like using semi-gloss paint under my wallpaper because I can more easily move the paper around to position it, and it is easier to remove if I have to). Of course, this house has quite an interest

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texturing

tonight I have taken some photos of the outside of the house to show the kitchen bay is complete and already has the textured paint on it. also I have completed the tower minus the peak but it is textured as well and a photo of the front of the house ready for the trimming ....kind of like a cake or a Christmas trees. as I am still having some issues with the colors. I am settled on one but will it be too much? I have decided for 2 reasons to leave out th

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still waiting

while I wait for my electrical supplies to arrive I have been doing small things so I will be ready. I have primed the walls and stained the floors. the attic floor is still warped.this is my first warped board...well one fresh out of the box. so not sure how I will fix it. I have started the fireplace and will put it together tonight. the next step will be the staircase. I think it can be preassembled also. the house is having a fight with itself. it cant decide if it wants to be a christmas

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Starting to electrify

Adventures in electricity by Darrell.In the previous pictures the holes I had drilled in the back of the house were round. You'll notice in these pictures they are squared up a bit and made flush with the floors of the house. The first picture is the installed junction splice that will live under the lower portion of the staircase. I made sure it was installed far enough inside the house so the wires won't be pushed and bent up against the wall we hang the house on, but not so far it would inte

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Starting to build

This is the first of two posts showing our fun with the McKinley.As we posted elsewhere we WISH we had added tape wiring to the inside back of the house before assembling the shell but we didn't. And upon getting the shell pretty much together there were a few things we wanted to change.First of all we didn't like the location of the kitchen doorway, so we sealed that one off. In anticipation of needing to get electricity to the kitchen we left a teeny gap on the bottom of our new wall so we cou

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Starting the Mckinley

This time I am only blogging the changes that I made to this Gorgeous doll house kit. The Mckinley has been my favorite since Lisa from Greenleaf asked me to make one 4 years ago. This is something that a newbie can do if they have the patiance but, this blog is really for the advanced builders who can look at these breif comments and make the changes. I started the building of this house a few weeks back. I started out pretty much like everyone else. You'll notice easily that I did start a

Minis On The Edge

Minis On The Edge

slow progress

why is there slow progress because I of course have to many things going on at one time....as always.but I have made a small bit of progress on the wallpapering on the first floor.I had named it the candycane cottage but it looks more like the snowflake Inn to me. I dont think it knows what it wants yet. so all outside painting is on hold...well just the color the textured paint is already on the front and now the kitchen side is ready to be textured as well. I am very sick of using textured p

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slow goings

I am making some progress in the windows.today I put the porch on and textured it and painted it. looks good to me!! B) I also used wrapping paper for the attic wallpaper....wooooweeeeeeso much wrinkling B) but than I said hey that actaully works for me.so I left it ;) like Catie said "its just the attic!" and how right she is. I guess there is to be no roof change. Im ready to do more decorating and get this finished before my son gets home....wonder what the chance of that is?I have taken pho

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Roof Changes

I started with foam core just to see if this design would work and if it would look really nice. I ended up cutting the roof height (on the raised roof side) down to 8" high. This is what it looked like in the beginnning: It took a while (3.5 hrs. ) to get the angles right because I found out that this house needed a little more support now that I was bashing it away from how it should have been done. This is after I added the wood roof & attic parts. It was level on one side

Minis On The Edge

Minis On The Edge

Porch and attic

We have finished assembling and decorating the porch, just needs shingled now. After 3 different tries for a wall tratment I liked in the attic I decided on this. I still have a bit more work to do on this house. Melissa

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Planning, lots of planning

I haven't actually started building yet. I am still in the planning and plotting stage. Originally I had thought to build Ms. McKinley as a Christmas house, to be used as a seasonal decoration. However, after opening the box and extensive web surfing, I changed my mind. We (McKinley and I) decided that it should be a shop and after brainstorming with friends, we came to the conclusion that a dress shop would be the perfect fit. The ground floor will be loosely based upon a tiny shop that I

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Picking Out Wallpaper

Now that I've got my ceilings wallpapered, it's time to figure out what I want to do with the interior. I'm only doing the first two floors for now, because I want Jimmy to modify the roof for me and I can't decide what I am going to do on the third floor until I can see how the modifications will work. As usual, I start with wallpapering the front wall first.For the livingroom, I wanted something that would make that fireplace stand out, plus I have to carpet the room because I messed up the ba

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Past week or so

This is what the house looked like before the Thanksgiving weekend. We've textured the tower and bay and added siding to the remaining outside of the house.Add a little paint to give the house some color, so it won't disappear against the wall. It's going to be a medium gray with white and dark gray trim colors.The bay roof has been covered with copper sheeting. This will be "aged" to give it the natural copper patina. That will take a few days. And about twenty or so sponged on applications of

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Painting Exterior-More Wallpaper

I tried and tried to come up with the color for the exterior of this house, and kept waiting for it to "speak" to me. Actually, it was speaking to me, but I didn't believe it. So, I called the recipient of the house to get her input and told her what the house said to me, and she said that's OK, that's one of my favorite colors! I had three shades in mind, and again couldn't decide ... So, I put one coat of each color on the back of the house and had youngest son take it to the recipient's house

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