martincheck

Should be accurate within a few mm as I didn't necessarily take into account the thickness of the walls. Should be useful for planning wiring or decorating. Garfield floor plan.pdf

I started the Garfield about 8 years ago and then we had a baby and I just picked it back up again in February. I've finished the foundation and the main staircases and all the little pieces like the fireplaces, stairs, chimney, etc. Dry-fitting before gluing is extremely important as the machine cuts are a little off sometimes. Having some blocks or something that has accurate 90 degree angles is helpful. I've been using leftover 4x4 travertine floor tiles. I keep a Dremel handy with a 180 grit sandpaper attachment in case something needs a little more intense sanding. Also planning how you are going to clamp something before you glue it is a good idea. The "Gina's blog" mentioned above has some great suggestions and lots of helpful photos. I really like her idea of dry fitting all the walls and staircases and papering them before you do the final gluing as the front rooms will be very difficult to get to once everything is glued in place. My wife will be picking out the wallpaper and flooring so I have to wait to see what she wants. I bought a Cir-Kit tape lighting kit and plan to install the lighting as i go along as well.

Does anyone have a good method or tool to cut new or custom pieces from the scrap of a Garfield? If you lose or damage a simple piece, how can you fashion a replacement? The saws i have just rip it all up. Thanks in advance. I got lots of great replies on my last post.

I can't help you there but check out this website. http://moreminis.blogspot.com/2009/03/garfield-day-1.html. Go to March 2009 of her "Blog Archive". She built a Garfield that month and it's incredible.

Don't do what I did and try to put the kitchen porch steps where the front porch steps are supposed to go. The instructions are very good there. What "front" and "back" mean as far as the notch is concerned is defined in that earlier diagram where they define front, back, right, and left of the house.

The Garfield is also my first house. My wife didn't know what she was getting me into. I hope I'm up to the challenge. It seems to take a lot of patience, planning, dry assembly as not all of the pieces are cut very well.

I just finished the Garfield foundation a few weeks ago. It is a good idea to assemble all the pieces as directed with tape as you have done. I had to file some of the tabs and slots to get them to fit more snugly. The next step involves building the kitchen porch step which is glued to some of your foundation parts. Then they have you put the bottom floor pieces face down on your table. You then take your taped-together foundation and turn it over onto the floor pieces. The tabs should all line up. This is when you glue everything together (Step 5). I had to do quite a bit of filing to get all those cross beams to fit where they were supposed to go. I went and bought a little file set at the hardware store. Good luck!

My wife wanted a dollhouse and bought a Garfield for me to put together for her and I've been hooked ever since. Now I can't imagine not having a dollhouse to work on. I finished the foundation and both staircases and am at the part where you put the trim on the partitions. I see many people use a regular sealer rather than the wood alcohol-shellac mixture. Is it ok to seal surfaces that will be glued together or should I spare the surface that will be glued? Are there any tricks for painting these small trim pieces and setting them to dry? The warm-up sheet mentions laying them on spaghetti but I was wondering if anyone had found anything better.