I am mostly finished with this house. I painted the shingles brown and I started off too dark so I had to finish the rest of the roof the same way because I did not want inconsistencies. When it dried, I took sand paper and rubbed some paint off. All I have to do now it go all over the roof with a wash of Dark burnt umber and that will make it more realistic by adding depth.The only other thing left to do is for me to either paint the back foundation wall or to paperclay it. I finally put the ho
well I tried to get some things done on the Arthur but RW just wouldnt allow much.but I did make some progress.the first photo is of the window trim...I stained all of it. this house has started a picture and now I have to see if I can finish it.can we say Gingerbread house?my shingles and shutters will also be stained.very glad that the rooms are square...will make for some easy wallpapering now that I have a picture in my head.2nd photo is the new porch and foundation.somehow the walls just do
I just did an impetuous thing.I spent about an hour tonight applying a few strips of siding, waiting for them to dry a bit, and then applying a few more. As I was waiting for the glue to dry I got to thinking how much time applying this siding was adding to the building process, and how I'm sort of on a deadline because we're all supposed to be building this Arthur at the same time, and how many hours this was going to add to my project -- hours that could be spent in other ways. The more I th
well the house is looking better!took some advice and used spackling in the cracks on the front.looks much better.I stained my shutters but only 3 sets came out looking ok! I will paint the other 2 for the side windows white.the porch post just didnt look the way I liked so I went into my stash of things bought for other projects and came up with cake dowels I cut them to size and they dont look to bad. kind of a farm house look.even Catriona had to get in on the pictures she really likes how th
Cutting out trim is SUCH fun on Monday AM with osteoarthritis, but those who know how stubb, er, singleminded I am will know that as soon as I do my bit of venting I'm going back in there.I figured out why I was so confused about the interior rectangular window trim, there are only two pieces of side trim, so I needed to remake it anyway; at least, if there are two more pieces I haven't found them yet...I started three ziplock freezer bags, one for the interior trim, one for exterior trim &
Okay, I have done the touch up to the shingles and they look MUCH better!!I think I will jazz up the house and add the base sooner than later. I can't picture my houses without the yard so I will start on that next even though for the most part, I am finished!! Okay....are we ever really finished with a house ;) . Here are some more pictures and there will be more to come since I am going to do the base....TODAY!! ;) Charles is the Real Estate agent trying to sell this guy a house with a bed
So, I finally took two pictures of what I've been up to this weekend. (And let me say that the new camera takes NICE pictures. I'm still sorry I broke the other one, but not that sorry!)Overall, everything has been fitting together nicely. I have had to enlarge some slots with my utility knife, and there are some cracks that will need to be filled with wood filler. The bottom of the front wall just wouldn't meet the floor no matter how hard I tried (but it did lock into place on the side wal
I have the porch trim installed, I have one piece of trim left for the short side railing (I had five pieces for some reason & no, it's not a sill; I used all those (inside the house). I looked high & low for the "embossed 'L'" the instructions referred to for porch post placement, but there wasn't one (or two) so I eyeballed it. Having the porch roof on helped with post placement.I have shingled the upstairs front, the last two courses of shingles are drying as I type and then the hou
The roof is shingled (and covered with masking tape until the little rascals finish drying); DH says the ripples make the shingling job "look real"; isn't he just so sweet!So I decided I have to paint the eave trim to match the roof & peak trim. I sort of wish I had painted the porch trim to coordinate, but think it would've been too much of a good thing. It's going to a lady who loves purple in all its glory & the complementary color to purple is yellow, hence the exterior color schem
The UPS driver left the box on DH's truck's hood so he didn't have to get out of his truck, he was pulling out of the yard as I ran out to get the box. The first thing I did was to open the box to see if everything was there; one window's missing from the acetate sheet, but I have already thought how I'm going to bash this cutie and will make a replacement.I scribed floorboards & nailholes in the livingroom & upstairs floors & began to prime everything else. The "floorboards" have
Nothing happened yesterday, we did river clean up in our kayak & today I'm sore all over. Perfect for waiting for glue & paint to dry!I painted the bathroom walls almond and papered the bedroom walls. There is no interior trim for the rectangular windows so I have painted the front of a corner of posterboard I'd already marked out interior trim on, I'll cut it out when the paint's dry. Wainscot wallpaper strip are drying on the bathroom walls, I used a strip of prepasted border in a s
I have finally started on the foundation and only have the back part left to complete. I added Creative Paper Clay ( www.paperclay.com ) to the foundation and sculpted stones to give it an authentic look of real stone. The trick comes in with the painting which has not started yet because I must wait for the clay to dry.To add the clay, first I add some wood glue to the object I wish to paper clay. In the pictures, I used my chimney. The second step it to roll the clay to the thickness of pie do
The Arthur Dollhouse Kit remains one of Greenleaf's most popular kits. You will find this blog useful for tips a decorating ideas as build your Arthur Dollhouse.
The Best way to navigate this blog is to select a members name from the category are to the left. That will sort all the blog entries so that you will be looking at one persons progress as the move through their construction of the Arthur Dollhouse.
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My name is nuttiwebgal and folks round here call me nutti(with good reason) ;) this is not the first house I have built but I am still green enough to be considered a "newbie"so I will approach this as simply as I can to show how easy it is to build a house. I have always wanted a dollhouse and asked my DH and both DS and nothing.so one day I came across a website where a woman had built her own house....hmmmmm why didnt I think of that? so I ordered me a kit and built it myself.....I will adm
Finita est. The eave trim is masked in place to dry, the glue is dry & tape's off of everywhere else, and if the weather's pretty tomorrow I'll take it out for finished front picture, & if it's not I'll do it with the flash. Then I can take the roll for processing and add the pictures.The roof might've fit more flush if I hadn't decorated first (as the instructions suggested), but it fit well enough to reinforce with the heavy stapler, which I also did at the corner seams and where the
Hi-ho, the paint's drying on the upstairs ceiling, the rectagular windows are in & framed on the inside, and all the exterior windows & door are masked for the non-siding treatment. I have a stained glass window after trying in vain to wrestle with Liquid Lead, which is more of a partially "set" nontoxic acrylic goo that does NOT flow... Fortunately, because I 1) use acrylics straight from the tube & 2) add things to them to achieve desired effects I have a stained glass window tha
You may notice that my door frame is square . It is because I decided to upgrade and add a door that open and closes . This is how I did it.
I layed the door flat on the front wall where the doorway is.
I traced the door on the front wall piece so that I would know where to cut.
I then took my Handy Dandy hobby knife and scored the area 8 times till I felt the blade going to the other side. I popped out the wood parts I did not need and no Power tools were re
well today was slow goingeverything has recieved all the coats of whatever they needed if it needs more the new owners will have to do it.I had a couple of problem areas...the front of my house doesnt meet up as flush as what I been seeing....me thinks builder should have saw this before going to bed and letting glue dry. but I think the porch will cover it and no one will know.I really like the double wall and closet area.my other problem area I see is for the dormer...in the dry fit it didnt m
I finally decided to use the shingles that came with the kit. I was tempted to use paper clay but decided wood would look better on this house. Another BIG thing that made me want to use the kits shingles is the fact that it comes on sheets. What that means is I don't have to add each shingles on one at a time Yeppie!!This is louisa at the front door. She will not live here but is a new doll I just got and so she needed a place to stay until I find her a stable home.I have to paint or stain the
ok I went and took a breakand came back to it.house is glued first round of filler in the slots.rest of inside walls painted....I have decided to use the extra wall and "kitbash"(modify the kit) I am making the 2 walls removeable so the new owners can do what they like.I also have decided to trim the house out(baseboards and crown molding)but I also will make it removeable for the ease of wallpaperPhoto #1 is the front and the door....the inside panels will be light blue.Photo #2--view one foll
Hi-ho, this is fun! The roof actually FITS!!! without too much whacking with the hammer. The porch roof is shingled and the glue is drying on the front roof. I'm not too sure why the front roof is in two pieces since they fit together so it's logical to glue the seam; hope I won't need to reinforce the seam with a strip of wood since I don't really want to make beamed ceilings upstairs and that's the only way I could make a seam brace work. Not too sure how it's going to look until it's fini
On Tuesday night I managed to get the rest of the siding off. The last stubborn bits came up after I doused them with a vinegar / water mixture. I don't know if the vinegar helped at all to loosen the glue or if it was just the water, but in any case, I was able to loosen the last bits of trim and rip them off. The downside is, the house smelled like vinegar. The wood also turned an awful black color where the vinegar and water touched, but no worries, since that will be covered up.The after
as in pre fabulous...lolI realise Im suppose to keep track of my time spent.taking stock of kit took about 20 minsI made sure all parts were thereI put them in the order I will use them...mostlyand returned them to the box.the dry run to get the feel of the house took about an hour due to the slot and tab issues.sanding and spray primering the main walls almost 3 hours.one side has to dry before spraying the 2nd side. thank goodness for perfect weather. being the insomniac I am I was up at 2am.
Just did a tiny bit of work today. First I stained the bottom of the porch (realizing a teeny tiny lip would show if the house were displayed on a glass table and someone got down on the floor and looked up at the bottom of it... okay, I'm anal!) and the porch foundation pieces.Staining on my messy workbench.A few hours later, after the stain had (mostly) dried, I glued the porch foundation pieces together. I think I found a mistake in the instructions. They say that the side pieces and front
Here is the picture of the almost completed porch. I just noticed I have 2 more porch posts to add but for the most part, it is completed. I only have to paper clay the chimney and foundation. I will save the shingles for last.The instructions for putting the porch together seems a little vague to me and MORE pictures would help. I did not assemble mine correct when I look at the picture on the box and compare mine to the picture (and I thought I was following the instruction perfectly till the
