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Lynette Smith

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About Lynette Smith

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  • Website URL
    http://Lady Dwarf

Profile Information

  • Gender
    Female
  • Location
    Salt Lake City, Utah
  • Interests
    Victorian, Tudor, bungalows, cottages, and themed projects.<br /><br />I do a lot of needlework, costuming, sewing, and so forth. I do make some of my own miniature items. I recently made a mini Christening gown.<br /><br />My interests cover the spectrum. What I don't know I'd like to learn. The never received but oft requested Christmas present is Power Tools! (I did buy myself a cordless drill for my birthday).<br /><br />I'd love to meet with other people into miniatures in my area, but the only group I found online is "closed" to new members!

Previous Fields

  • Dollhouse Building Experience
    Four
  • Real Name
    Lynette
  • Country
    United States

Recent Profile Visitors

3,410 profile views
  1. hmm, I need at some point to make a trek up to that area to better secure a fixer upper with some boards until the owner gets back in a couple of weeks. Maybe I'll see if I can arrange to look at it at the same time. Ordinarily I'd run to the library to check for copies, but the libraries aren't open...
  2. There is a copy of the book about 30-45 minutes away from me and I wondered whether it was a book for beginners or serious hobbyists. I'm not really interested in any more basic resource books at this stage.
  3. these are lovely! I wouldn't mind making a few of them. What was your pattern source? What thread count?
  4. Jeanine, I had another small house fire 10 years ago when a log rolled out of the fireplace while I was getting something in another room. I had it 90% out before the police arrived, he put out the last bit with an extinguisher in his patrol car. There was nothing for the fire fighters to do when they arrived but open the windows and doors and place gigantic fans and blow out the smoke. That fire did about $100 damage. I guess I didn't do the experience of having a fire thoroughly enough for fate to cross it off my bucket list. I am thinking of removing a china hutch and storing it in my shed, rather than paying through the nose for the furniture restoration expert to do it, though it appears to be a lovely cabinet, it's actually particle board under the veneer and I paid about $130 for it years ago. I suspect I can find a much nicer one on the classifieds if I keep looking. I've brought several chairs to the apartment, they don't seem to smell noticeably of smoke, unlike my wicker laundry hamper. I might put that in a plastic bag with moth balls as an experiment. =) I suppose it wouldn't hurt to bring the mining shack over and put it in a tub with mothballs after a little experimental cleaning, just to see how it fairs... Someone recommended those white sponges at the dollar store and test them against chem sponges (what the pros use) from home depot.
  5. I am looking forward to a newly remodeled kitchen and bath, flooring, and curtains. =0
  6. I hadn't thought of activated charcoal, I'll have to try that.
  7. Haven't been on much for ages, been helping a friend with 1"=1" scale real estate for a couple of years and spending much of the time out of state with no internet. While I was 3.5 hours from home, I got a call from my niece. "Your neighbors called and said your house is on fire". "You're kidding, right?" Well no, she wasn't. Spontaneous combustion, starting in the bottom drawer in the kitchen where the tea towels, dish cloths, and other linens are kept. Fortunately my neighbor heard something explode (probably a can of food, I did find the top of a can bulged out), then saw smoke soon after and called 911, the fire department arrived quickly. Smoke was so thick they couldn't see anything and went in blind with respirators, with no clue where the fire was or what the layout of the house was. The fire was confined to the kitchen (though singed spots on the dining room curtains and linen cupboard in the hall shows the house was very close to being completely involved). I was having car troubles and didn't want to risk driving up and having the car die on me in the middle of nowhere with no cell phone at night. My friends said there was nothing I could do and to stay overnight, in my own room in my home away from home. I arrived back Sunday afternoon, found my cat Eowyn in the burned out house, surveyed the damage, and went to go to my friend's while I tried to figure out where to stay and what to do, only to discover that the car trouble wasn't remedied after all, and that my car, along with a lot of things in my house, were in need of replacement. After 3 weeks in a Hilton Home2 1 bedroom suite and driving my friend's vintage pickup, I moved into a 2 bedroom apartment, 2 miles from my house. The initial estimate by the adjuster for renovations was 4-6 months, but that was before he decided that everything except the living room would be stripped down to the studs so the wall interiors could be sealed to prevent the smoke smell from coming back, so I am guessing it will be more like 6-8 months. The structural renovations are calculated at $63,000. The damage to contents was calculated at $44,000, though there is an awful lot of stuff that isn't on the list, including a lot of the furniture, all the fabric, sewing machines, dolls, dishes, pots and pans, the number of books was underestimated, and my collections not taken into account, so I expect that figure to rise. Already I have had over $5000 in textile cleaning, alone, and I've done quite a few loads on my own of things I figure were a lost cause. The adjuster counted 4 dollhouses and said he'd put those as unsalvageable, though only one of them was heavily smoke damaged, the mining shack from the spring fling years ago. Not really happy with the value assigned to the dollhouses, though they are all higher than what I paid. I am inclined to send the mining shack off to be cleaned, though I fear it will cost far more than the theoretical replacement cost of $50. I've gotten pretty good at cleaning china, but a dollhouse, being made of wood, is quite a different proposition. I don't know how much of the soot on the surface I could remove, I suspect the professionals would be able to get more. The mining shack is supposed to be rather primitive and weathered, I'd just like it not to be quite so weathered, after all, it's supposed to be only a few years old, not 150+ like one in a ghost town. The pros will put it in an ozone chamber, which should remove all the smoke smell, too. But the kit collection under the bed (undiscovered by the adjuster) includes 2 Beacon Hills, a Willowcrest, Orchid, and Newberg, as well as a Linfield in another room, undoubtedly will have some smoke smell, though not as bad, since smoke rises. Does anyone have any experience with cleaning dollhouses after a fire or getting the smoke smell out? A brainiac friend suggested mothballs for killing the smoke smell in books, but not sure the larger houses would fit in a plastic tub for treatment.
  8. Times have been tough and my space limited, so I've become rather choosy in picking up any new dollhouses. Last month I passed up an original Victotorian because the windows seemed to be in the wrong locations to feel authentic and I doubted I would ever plug up the holes and put in others in the 3/8" particleboard. Last week it was a kit I've never seen before by an unfamiliar company (I think it was 1979 and definitely had Prairie in the name, two stories and a big front porch) but peering in the box, I was dubious whether the kit would be a straightforward build or how the quality would be. Today I spotted a Pierce with --- on the price spot, so phoned. While on the phone, I spotted the best offer part and my heart sunk, because I had $3 to my name and maybe access to another $20 if I was lucky. But in talking to the gal, she was more interested in finding it a home, so I volunteered to take it on, giving it new life. It was a 55 mile drive, not counting the distance from the freeway, and the community followed no grid system, so they even came and guided me the last few miles. We packed up the small bits and pieces, I don't know yet how much will be usable, but it will be fun to see what I can do to it. The house was given to her for free and suffered some damage when the original owner ripped out some electrical stuff. Further damage was done by the 2 year old nephew of it's recent owner. She kept saying that it was really damaged, but I had to laugh, because I have purchased far worse. It's currently in the back of my car, I wanted to enlist some help in getting it out the hatchback to minimize further damage. Once I get it inside, I will set it up where I can contemplate and see what it tells me about itself.
  9. The listing on the local classifieds site had a sold image where the picture used to be. I'm miffed by the text only means of contact. My cell phone is just a trac phone for emergencies and the charger went missing. It's not like I need another house/kit. I still have the unfinished spring fling from a few years ago (the upper floor in the expansion was warped and I grew frustrated and have been letting it sit), but I'd love tackle one of my two Beacon Hills currently residing under the bed, the Glencroft, the Willowcrest, or rehab the Newberg or Tennyson. (the other houses aren't quite as high on my wish list at the moment)
  10. I just checked, it's gone I was hoping to find out what it was supposed to look like while my cell phoned charged, since they were only taking texts.
  11. It says it has all the pieces, but who knows what might have gone missing in the years it's been sitting. I am surmising that the open space is where the front door goes by the slots to accommodate a gabled roof, it also looks like their might be a porch roof, though it don't see any place on the base or a rail. I must confess my heart skipped a beat when I saw the photo online.
  12. I found this house on the local classifieds for $25. When I saw the little thumbnail I thought it was a Pierce or Garfield, but quickly became rather perplexed. I'm not crazy about the open floor plan around the stairs and since it's unfinished not sure if it's missing some room partitions or what it's supposed to look like when done. I'm not sure whether I could even get it in my little two door car and it's a half hour drive, so I don't know that I'll go for it.
  13. My bicycle started acting up last night on the way to water aerobics. My friend with considerably more cycling experience says it's probably the ball bearings. I didn't even know it had ball bearings, but I wondered when the pedals seized up and wouldn't turn for several minutes. I'm a little nervous about riding it anywhere for fear it will do it again. Sigh. So much for having a form of transportation.
  14. Now that the weather is waming up, I've been having better luck at getting in more exercise. Yesterday I rode my bike to my preferred gym for the first time, taking 38 minutes and burning 254 calories. Once there, I spent a half hour working on the weight machines, then caught the bus to go back home. There is no more Saturday Boot Camp class until (and if) a new teacher is willing to take it on, so I'm a bit bummed about it. There is a new one on Monday nights, but the next bus after it ends comes at 9:50 at night, and I'm having a little bit of a battle in talking myself into getting home as late as that would entail. We'll see. I picked up some wool socks for hiking (and hope that I can get a car so I can get to the trailheads). I talked a friend into going on an easy hike on what turned out to be a very muddy access road to the radio towers overlooking the valley. I couldn't find my hiking boots, so I wore my trainers, since it was a fairly tame trail and I began to have visions of Boris Karloff in Frankenstein as the mud would build up on my shoes. It took me two hours to scrape off all the mud once it dried, and that after the bulk of it was removed when it was wet. I'm trying to figure out where I stowed my boots, which I want to have for the next hike.
  15. Is there any word on when the Fling is going to be unveiled? Time has gotten away from me and I realized it's about that time.
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