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Holly and friends, I am keeping a Word doc with your wonderful tips and advice. Thank you all!

Welcome to the forum! I agree with everyone else-try using a hairdryer at the joins and a Stanley knife. You can also heat the glue, use the knife, heat the glue, use the knife continuously until you get it apart

Oh my Holly is there any trick you don't know? Small packages keep arriving here, almost daily lol. Now I definitely need one of those, or some kind of magnet set-up! I keep trying to jury-rig stuff, but the right tools are a great help. It's nice though because my father was very handy, and he is no longer here. I think of him when I work on the doll house. I do have plenty of frame strips for the extra box, so I can make new frames. I will definitely try with the putty knife. I am having custom paint mixed tomorrow to match the wallpaper...I have an idea to make the turret area easier to do...I will try a bit of wallpaper only under the windows. But I am still quite far from that. I will post Yes one of our ballet ladies is 80 and she is fabulous and skis as well! There is also a very accomplished guest instructor, who was a professional dancer, and I believe she could be 90, or at least late 80s. She is the most graceful human I have ever seen! Back to spackling and sanding today. Many thanks again for all!

😆 I know the feeling! Welcome! I like Holly's suggestion of seeing if you can soften the glue. Otherwise, somewhere recently someone was talking about using an exacto knife (a Stanley for example) to just slowly and gently carve away at the glue. I had to do that recently to a disassembled house, and the glue didn't come all the way off, but at least I got the pieces apart. Otherwise, I've heard alcohol can help soften some glues, but I haven't had any luck with that, plus you don't want to warp the wood. Hopefully more people on here will have more ideas that can help! Good luck!

Welcome to the little family, Paula. I wonder if it would be possible to soften the glue with a heat gun or some sort of solvent to help disassemble a section of the roof for hinging.

I purchased an old dollhouse a few weeks ago from Marketplace which I am going to renovate. I am in Australia and the only manufacturer of dollhouses here is no more, so I've been looking everywhere here for one to renovate. My waiting paid off and I am now the proud owner of the most beautiful house! I did a 'reverse image' search on google and my house is known in the USA as 'The San Francisco' and 'marmod huis De Victoriaanse Villa' in Europe, the 'houses' were sold as plans only that you had to build yourself... The issue I have with this house is that the attic/roof is sealed and I have been going insane trying to find how to remove the roof, or cut into the roof so that I can put hinges on it without damaging it. There is so much wasted spaced up there and I am desperate to open it up. I have searched youtube, Facebook groups (with and without the same house) but I am unable to find a "help me PLEASE, my roof is glued shut & I want to open it up" anywhere... If anyone can offer some advice or steer me in a direction it would be sooo greatly appreciated 🤩

Well, yeah, but I'm an occasional sheller and born beach bum... I grew up in West Palm Beach, FL and the hubs grew up in Gulf Breeze, FL, so hiking in sand barefoot along the water line is something we both could do all day long when we were a tad younger, and are good for a couple of hours even now.

Thanks for the reminders!

Havanaholly here. My personal wood glue preference is Titebond wood glue (with the red cap). The hot glue that is most available for craft work is not very good for holding wood to wood over the long haul. Back in the days of Dean's grandfather (Dean owns Greenleaf now; his grandfather designed many of the houses) the hot glue he used may have been better. I live in the southeast and between the ambient heat & humidity hot glue just doesn't do the job.

Anyone else on suggestions on what is the best glue to use to help build the orchid house im a first timer

https://jennsminis.wordpress.com/2016/10/04/beacon-hill-front-porch/ Jenn's Mini Worlds: A Dollhouse Miniaturist's Blog Jenn's projects, progress, hints, and mini travails Search Main menu Home About and Contact Half-Inch Houses Room Boxes & Scenes Quarter-inch Houses Big House Remodel Greenleaf Instructions / Schematics Post navigation ← PreviousNext → Beacon Hill: Front porch Posted on October 4, 2016 The porch! This step is where I could have used lots of pictures and diagrams! It’s a bit confusing. First–this was my Sheet 23, which has all the porch post trims (about 40 of them). When it came out of the box, it disintegrated, so I had to piece it together like a jigsaw. I managed to find all the pieces, thankfully. The broken Sheet 23 goes back into bags and a shoebox for later use (the front door and some window trim is on it as well). These are the pieces of porch post from Sheet 26 (which thankfully was intact). Note–there are two of Sheet 26. Tip: By the way–I found it very useful to go through all the big sheets in the box and mark their number with a sharpie (in a corner so it doesn’t get on a piece you need!) The numbers on mine are very faint, and I got tired of searching for what number was what. Three of each post pieces are glued together, stacked on top of each other, to create four posts. Masking take was a good clamp. The edges of the posts are a little raw for me, even after much sanding, so… I smoothed them out with spackling. (The post in the picture is pre-spackling–I gave it a base coat of gesso). (Explain to me my spell checker doesn’t like the word spackling? That’s what it says on the jar!) The porch post trim pieces (from my ill-fated Sheet 23). Middle post trim (the long ones, four per post), and the bottom trim (four per post). The spackled post waiting to dry, and the trim pieces getting a coat of paint. The post on the left is what they all will look like. I decided to experiment with one first to see if I liked the colors. I like the dark base with the lighter pieces glued on top. The bottom row is the “mid post caps” (one large, one small for each post) which slide down the posts from the top. I had to sand down the spackling to make them fit! A finished post in place, with the caps–large one first then small one on top of it–in place. The porch-roof trim. These pieces gave me problems, and there were no good photos to guide me! Laid out here from bottom to top are pieces A, B, C, and D (D is the small one). A, C, and D glued together and painted. This part was fairly straightforward. When this is flipped over and glued to the underside of the porch roof, the long piece will go against the right side of the house, the shorter piece on the side with the front door. (I show this in place a couple of photos down.) It was piece B that drove me crazy. I put the roof down under the trim and tried to figure out where B went. Like this? No, apparently not. I even had it glued, took it apart, flipped everything around wrong, glued it again, took it apart … Until I finally figured out …. That piece B goes like this. It rests flush with the top of A (actually the bottom, but we’re flipped over right now), with A’s big rectangular tabs sticking up. Like this, B forms holes for the posts to go in. So B, in this picture, sits about 3/4 of an inch off the table. Who knew? Another shot of B correctly glued to A. This will show on the underside of the porch roof (got all that?). Here’s how the porch trim / post (A-B-C-D) support will fit on the house. Porch roof will go on top of this. Now that everything’s painted (2-3 coats) and given a coat of DuraClear Ultra Matte varnish, it’s time to put it all together. Port posts go in the holes first. I only had to enlarge one hole, which made me feel good. The trim in place with the porch posts pushed through the holes, held in place temporarily by tape. The house, BTW, is on its back, which is why the photo looks a bit odd. A shot of the porch posts in the trim, from the side. The porch roof itself in place, with the top trim painted and glued on. I went with red for the top trim. Now for the porch foundation. This is the smallest foundation piece on the right after it had been knocked loose by the furry assistant. Here is the furry assistant complaining that he should be able to unglue things whenever he wants to. The right porch foundation glued back into place. It took me a while to figure out it went to the left, toward the porch. The longer right side foundation piece goes under the porch floor, against the post sticking through, and back into the piece I glued in the photo above. Small foundation piece on the left side of the porch. It too goes against a post sticking through and back to the main house’s foundation. The long foundation piece goes against the bottom of the porch posts that stick through the porch floor, and against the edges of the left and right foundation pieces. Here we are–porch posts, roof, trim, and foundation in place. This took days! The colors might be too stark for me. I might soften with a yellow or blue, or “age” the house, or do greenery … I’ll see what it looks like when more is done! Next I’ll do the kitchen bay setup, then return to the roof, which I’ve been avoiding.

Thank you so much

I cannot imagine ballet at 82! (Me) I would qiggle a metal putty knife blade under that window frame and keep tapping the handle with a hammer until the frame comes off. Then I'd sand that raised mess around where the frame was. If the frame doesn't survive, see about finding some 1/4" x 1/8" strip wood to make a better replacement. This is where a magnetic gluing jig comes in handy.

Hey I purchased the orchid and it says use hot glue and white glue is it ok to use wood glue as well

Welcome! The Orchid is a lot of fun, I wish you luck and enjoyment! If you search "glue" on this forum you'll get a lot of results, but I'm going to beat @havanahollyto saying NO HOT GLUE! Wood glue is good for construction, I forget which kinds we recommend most, and Elmer's all-purpose or Aleen's craft glue (I think) is good for windows. Keep reading and asking questions! Good luck!

Hi my name is Danielle and this is my 1st house I'm putting together I purchased the orchid and on the instructions it says to use hot glue gun and white glue my question is it OK to use wood glue as well or no?

@MamaV and @havanaholly Yes coming to terms with some things not being perfect. In my career as a graphic designer (when that was a viable career that required skill and talent) there were no mistakes allowed. I also study ballet and that is very disciplined. But in my ballet classes, we are from 40 to 80 years old, and we can only do what we can do. All good lessons. With age comes humility .

Thanks Holly @havanaholly! I got the Elmer's glue. Here are some pix of what I am dealing with. These are the worst of the windows. I think I would like to rip out the interior window frames too if I can...any sage advice foe how to do that? You are very generous. Thank you. And you can see I have ripped off the stair treads,,, I am actually laughing out loud as I write this. What have I gotten myself into? Thanks again for all!

Yeeeeeep that's what my Mom told me after I told her about my fiasco....the more you learn! @rodentraiser I'm sorry to hear everything bad happening at once, but I have more cute stuff!

That's more than what I can normally do, so props to you! Also, hiking in the sand??? Even harder!!

For a while the hubs and I were drinking apple cider vinegar to help control the bad cholesterol, Two tablespoons in a small glass of apple juice will not burn your throat or make your kidneys mqad at you, but we found out it also comes in capsules, so we don't drink it ny more.

Neither the hubs nor I are gardeners, although I used to enjoy planting and tending veggies; but the local deer put the kibosh on that when we moved here. The neighbors warned us, so I just had my little compost pile going until I noticed it wasn't getting any bigger; the deer had decided it was their personal smorgasbord, so now everything goes into the garbage bag. When the weather turns nice we mostly hike a mile or two (at our age and after all my recent medical stuff it's what I can do) and later on we'll head to one of our local beaches and hike in the sand.