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Six different views on building the Magnolia Dollhouse

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Finishing Up The Magnolia

JULY 7, 2007 Just before Jimmy's death, I was working on the wallpaper in this house, I had done most of the kitchen, all of the livingroom, and was working on the bathroom and the bedroom. Here's where I was at that time. JANUARY 20, 2009 It took a long time to be able to touch this house again, but I started working on it again in January 2009. I had to finish paperclaying the chimney, and begin the brick around

LPCullen

LPCullen

Finished After Months of Delay

First off, let me say that I love this house, and anyone looking at the dates of when I started and finally finished must take into consideration that the delay and long time in building was completely my own fault and had nothing to do with the level of difficulty of the house. The house itself was a very easy build and I have no excuse for the delay except for (want of a better term) "funk" I was going through this year. In summary the basic changes to the house that were made are

Peggi

Peggi

Updates

I haven't posted lately because I've been working on my house. :whistle: Let's see since my last post, I've added molding around the walls; using joint compound, made stones and painted them on my chimney and attached it after using magik brick to make the interior of the fireplace. Then I decided to build a fireplace using styrofoam and real wallpaper sample as the covering. To keep it from looking so blan I went looking through my stash of stuff I have lying around "just in case" and fo

Peggi

Peggi

Finishing Fireplace, Starting Wallpaper

If you'll remember, we last left off at me having to finish the fireplace before I could begin to wallpaper. I got the bricks painted a nice brown. And then added a bit of color. I had just spray painted this with clear to seal the acrylic paints, so it's not a good picture. I'll take a better picture later. For the kitchen, I'm going with a red. I think it will look really pretty against the white trim. I'll have to wait for this to dry and

LPCullen

LPCullen

Exterior Stucco/Interior Joint compound

Wanted to try the Greenleaf stucco, but also wanted to try a short cut and mix the paint with the stucco--so the finish and paint would be done in one step. I think I mentioned earlier that I had bought some spray paint. Well, I tried spraying the paint into the stucco and that experiment was a bust. The paint wants to separate and not mix. Back to the drawing board--nothing ventured nothing gained. So another trip to the paint store, unfortunately without my paint sample--could've took the

Peggi

Peggi

The Interior Fireplace

Well, since I couldn't ever get to Charlotte to work on the house, I brought the house to Maiden. Jimmy set me up a workspace on the far wall, until I finish polyeurethaning my real life mantel and get it out of the middle of the floor of the shop. I did have some helpers come in and chase bugs while I worked, Robbie, Ronnie and Darby. I decided since the outside of the fireplace had a design on it, I would create a design for the inside too.

LPCullen

LPCullen

A Little Progress

After transfering my templates to the larger sheets, I proceed to stick the tiles on the card and after about four rows, sat back to admire my work. It looked so good, the rows were straight, but something seemed a little off. Then it dawned on me--I had put my tiles on the bottom of the template and not the top. Everyone of the tiles had to come off, had to reinforce the card stock (the tiles stick real well) and replace them back on the sheet. Just call me the Queen of Do Over.

Peggi

Peggi

In the Beginning

I started out by sealing each sheet with a sanding sealer. On my first house, the Lily, I took every little single piece out of the sheets in order given in the instructions and sanded and sanded and sanded each piece. Then DH introduced me to his palm sander and boy does that machine make short work of sanding. So the last couple of houses, I've taken the sheets out to my deck and before punching out a single piece; go over it real good with the palm sander. This doesn't eliminate

Peggi

Peggi

My Name Is Linda & I Am Addicted To Making BRICKS

Hello! My name is Linda, and I am addicted to making bricks out of paperclay. Don't believe me? Just check it out then. First, I need to brick the inside of my fireplace chimney, right in here, so I need to roll out some paperclay. Then once I get the paperclay in that area (and I had to first put the chimney onto the house and insert the wooden floor thingy and draw me a line so I wouldn't paperclay over that portion), then I have to "stipple" it, which is just taking a small (1 in

LPCullen

LPCullen

Day 10 Of "The Maggie"

Today I had to do the shingles and add a base to this house. I had a total ball building this house. The windows and porches are Wonderful. This is the PERFECT house for the Newbie, Great for a Child and is also WONDERFUL for the Collector! I stained the Shingles a Dark Mahongany: To see more pictures, see my gallery: /index.php?automodule=gallery&req=user&user=4&op=view_album&album=943">http://www.greenleafdollhouses.com/forum/i...m&album=943

Minis On The Edge

Minis On The Edge

Days 5 - 9 Of "The Maggie"

This house is really a Fast Build. I completed it in 10 days with working on it just a few hours every night. I added the window trim and it really makes this house begin to POP I also added the porch roof and porch trim. I covered the plastic windows so that I could do touch ups to the window frames. I LOVE this house and look forward to making another one soon These are pictures of the staircase assembly. I used Quick Grip glue because it is paintable: I used the foun

Minis On The Edge

Minis On The Edge

Day 2 - 4 Of "The Maggie"

This is the Kitchen wallpaper I picked for the Maggie: This is the front bay: This is the inside of the front bay. I always add the wallpapers as I assemble the house: I used "Old English" to stain the wood floors: I added the top front wall after I added the wallpaper: The top Divider wall has been added now too: My customer that I built this house for, wanted the house to be the same colors as it was on the box so I had to try and find paint colors to

Minis On The Edge

Minis On The Edge

The Bare Nekkid Maggie: last session

Warning: this blog contains extensive nudity and occasional strong language. Viewer discretion is advised First I assembled the porch railing and then I temporarily installed it along with the posts and roof. Next I temporarily installed the mantle and hearth and then assembled and temporarily installed the balcony railings. I assembled the chimney and temporarily installed it. Then I dry-fit the roof in place and then dry-fit the stairs an

havanaholly

havanaholly

The Bare Nekkid Maggie: session 3

Warning: this blog contains extensive nudity and occasional strong language. Viewer discretion is advised First I installed the side bay (right) and temporarily installed the trim with poster putty and painter's tape. Next I installed the lattice frames under the porch and then the lattice, porch support and step. Next I installed the front bay and front balcony wall. Last I installed the side (right) balcony wall. At this point I had to stop and run err

havanaholly

havanaholly

The Bare Nekkid Maggie: session 2

Warning: this blog contains extensive nudity and occasional strong language. Viewer discretion is advised. I finished temporary installation of trim to the assembled parts. Some of the trim was warped, probably due to the box standing on end at an angle on the porch between the time it was delivered and when we got home. As I was anxious to build I didn't store it flat for several days to "unwarp" the sheets. I installed the second floor. I stood the assembly on its back to we

havanaholly

havanaholly

The Bare Nekkid Maggie: session 1

Warning: this blog contains extensive nudity and occasional strong language. Viewer discretion is advised. It was bandied about that we ought to show at least one of each kit build as it will look in all its pristine grandeur "as is" without the creative license/ bashing your building team tend to take, or decorating. I was asked to undertake the first such build, so what you'll see here is the Magnolia kit pretty much as I first saw one built (unfinished) in a hobby shop on one of our tra

havanaholly

havanaholly

Sleek Geek-Chic

I call this style "Sleek Geek-Chic". Here's the finished house. The colors don't photograph well, but the main body is a medium grey-green and the trim is a light silvery-green. This house is home to a Silicon Valley bachelor and I had a lot of fun adding the décor to give the house its final touch of character. To see the finished house fully decorated and furnished, you can visit my /index.php?automodule=gallery&req=user&user=329&op=view_album&

Deb

Deb

Cantilevered Floating Staircase

The last step for this house was to build and install the staircase. I liked the staircase that came with the kit, but I wanted something a little more modern that would also open up some floorspace. I did a little research online and came up with a design for a mini floating staircase. The materials were easy. All it requires is a .5x.5 strip of basswood and the stairsteps from the kit staircase. Using an xacto blade, I scored notches into the basswood and cut the edges t

Deb

Deb

Puttin' on the Porch

Having completed the roof, my next stop was the porch. With all the pieces given a first coat of paint, I assembled the components. First came the steps. Then came the latticework. These are the three pieces for the front lattice. Glue the two lattice pieces together so that the lattice criss-crosses. Then glue the frame on and clamp it till it dries. And it’s ready to be glued in place on the porch. Fo

Deb

Deb

Exterior Finishing

As I mentioned earlier, I use bamboo skewers to cover the joins of the bays. Here’s what they look like before they’re painted. And after a coat of paint. I really like the way the skewers give such a nice finish to the bays. For the modern look of this house, I wanted to use asphalt shingles, but I didn’t really want to go to all the expense of the pre-made asphalt. So I used square birch shingles instead and applied them with rough edges and just a bit of gap between

Deb

Deb

Raising the roof

With the walls in place, it was time to install the roof supports and pieces. The first piece to go on is the back roof support. Then the side roof panel: And the interior roof panel: I ran into a bit of warping here because of the addition of the skylight, but nothing that couldn’t be handled by just taping everything that didn’t move and letting it sit overnight for the glue to cure. After those pieces had set and were secure, then I added the

Deb

Deb

A built-in entertainment center

I decided that a modern touch in the living room of this house would be a built in entertainment center/bookcase. Nothing complicated……….just a neat and cleanly lined area for the tv, stereo, books and other little things. I used one inch strips of basswood and cut them to size. Here's a pic of the sizing and planning process. (the house is laying on its side here) I painted the wood to match the woodwork. After it dried, I installed it piece by piece: And the fini

Deb

Deb

Assembling the shell

With all the windows installed and the door frames in place, I was ready to assemble the shell. The Magnolia has an interlocking design, so there’s a specific order for assembly. First I put the center partition in place on the first floor. It slides into a slot on the first floor. Then I added the front door section which also slides into a slot on the first floor: And then the second floor: The pole in the center is one I put in place to support the

Deb

Deb

Windows and Doors

On to the windows and doors! I’m a bit fussy (well, okay, I’m totally obsessive) about organizing pieces of the house before I start building. When I remove pieces from the sheets, I label each one and stack them together in categories. I put the smaller pieces like stairs or windows into envelopes and label them. It’s a bit of overkill, but it does two things for me. For one thing, I’ve never lost a piece of trim. The main thing however, is that when I’m ready to start on a step, all

Deb

Deb

A bit of a bash

As I've mentioned, my style of building is to decorate as I go, so the "R&P"portion of my building includes wallpapering before I assemble the shell. With the Magnolia, I had one other step to do before beginning the wallpaper process. I had decided to install skylights in the roof in both the computer room and bedroom, so while the house was in dry fit, I marked off the places to make my cuts. I used a drill bit in my dremel to make the pilot holes in each corner of the areas marked f

Deb

Deb

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