Sable1

Liquor stores sell packs of turned toothpicks, which make nice baluster posts and porch rails in 1:24., and HO model railroad tunnels are what I used for chimneybreasts: I found actual 1:24 chimneybreasts in a miniature store in Richmond, VA:

I want to wire my Fairfield for lighting. This seems to need more thinking through as I read through the build directions. I don't remember lighting being so difficult (but I could well be misremembering). But that was a 12 scale house with a lot more room to work inside. As this point I have the base built and am working the staircase. So now seems to be a good point to sort of plan out the wiring. Unless there is a better suggestion, I am planning on using the tape wire.

you can go to my youtube @godmother209 and I have it uploaded on my channel. For some reason I couldn't link it on here.

Welcome to you both!

I use premixed wallpaper paste from the hardware store, even with pre-pasted wallpapers (some of the borders have designs small enough to work in 1:12). If you use scrap book papers, get an extra sheet and test to make sure the paste doesn't make the colors run. I have also used some gift wrap paper successfully, as well as pretty papers from gift bags.

Hi everyone! Thanks for the replies! @MamaV I will upload to Google docs when I have stopped asking a number of questions (lol) and have this better organized. @LPCullen I particularly love glue tips. Thank you! Glue is my friend and nemesis at the moment. @havanaholly thanks for the laugh and the ongoing encouragement! Here is my Passover tableau. We celebrate all holidays here. Still very much under construction but I cleaned up the dust so that the two five year-olds who are coming can play, but not with these items. But they have their own toys! Those wine glasses and decanter are 45 years old! From my first dollhouse.

Sent you a message as well. 🙂

you have a drool worthy list! I don't envy your position tho!

It sure does!

Welcome to the forum!

When you have made five posts you can open albums in the Gallery. Why not make an album of the rehab of this house?

Here's your chance to own the discontinued Real Good Toys 1:12 scale Thornhill Dollhouse Kit. Best of all - it's FREE! I got this kit in the 1980's. I started putting it together and never finished. (It became a tool holder as seen in the picture.) It is a little worse for sitting around, but never painted or papered. It was taken apart for our move to Waynesboro and I came to the conclusion I am NEVER going to put this thing together. It is huge! Two rooms deep like a real house and probably could be gorgeous. I have - I think - all the hinges included with the kit. I cut two dormers and have the Houseworks dormers, but not the windows. I also have an pdf file I can send you with all of the instructions because mice ate my original paper file. No shipping, obviously, but I can help you load it at pickup.

I may be late to this post but I also have an ACP Victorian. Received as a kid, built with dad, picked up again after his passing and my aging. I joined this forum and pulled away. Not interested in procrastinating any longer. Curious to see your house status and progression. Here's an image of mine...

I have a Greenleaf Willowcrest dollhouse new in box. I bought it from someone who had opened it, but it is securely sealed. I'm only getting rid of it because I have too many other ones I want to work on first. I know I'll never get to this one. It is VERY heavy and cannot be shipped. I'm willing to drive up to an hour to meet someone. I'm in central NY.

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.

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.

Welcome to the forum, and hello to the nerds! My own nerd is just a toddler but I'm sure she has potential. Anyway, I'd say if you didn't find instructions yet, some people have digital versions posted on blogs and such that you could find if you didn't want to buy them. Good luck!

I did this to my husband when we moved into our house...he still eyes the patches I haven't painted yet (it's been months 😳) and grumbles just a wee bit. Oh well! At least the cracks are gone 😇

Welcome to the little family, Lynn. Lots of our members have built or are building the Beacon Hill and will be able to share pointers with you.

New to building also and I was looking at the wiring kits. I think though for my first build I'm going to stick with battery lights. Looking forward to updates on how your lighting goes! Lynn

Arielle, never NEVER post your personal contact information on line where spammers can harvest it. People can contact you through our internal messaging feature. At the top of the page there's a little envelope icon; when a number appears beside it you will have a message. If you click on the three little dots at the top right of the box your post is in you should get an "edit" option in the drop down box that you can use to remove your email address from your post.

Oh, good. I was worried I'd lost all my marbles. Again.

Thank you!!