Lisa_F

Not sure if anyone will remember me as it's been well over a year (probably closer to two) since my last post, so I thought I would reintroduce myself. After several years of collecting everything mini I could get my hands on, building a hobby room to store my collection in, and literally thinking about miniatures daily, life happened, circumstances changed, my empty nest became full again and I fell off the mini-wagon for a long while. I never lost my interest in miniatures, but my enthusiasm for the hobby took an extended leave. I still popped in once in awhile to read forum posts, but other than that I rarely pulled out any of my miniatures or worked on anything mini related. I think I'm finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel now though and am ready to jump back in to my miniature hobby with both feet! Circumstances for me have changed, with a full house and the loss of my hobby room (to accomodate more people), I'm having to prioritize what I want to keep in my mini world and what I'm willing to let go of. I'm keeping all of my finished shops, roomboxes, large custom-made dollhouse and a Lawbre Shadowcliff I acquired some time ago, along with all the supplies I have for these houses/shops. I've had to get rid of all the rehab houses I acquired and I'm in the process of listing everything that I won't be keeping on Craigslist. If anyone is interested, I'll post a link to the Craigslist ad later today when I have it ready. I'm getting ready to start working on the Lawbre Shadowcliff & am really excited about getting back into miniatures and I hope to be a contributing member on the forum again. It feels great to be home!!!

I'm here. I noticed it's kinda quiet around here too. I haven't posted in quite awhile but I pop in when I can to get my mini fix! I've been busy working on my honeymoon cottage project. Just uploaded photos to the gallery if anyone's interested in taking a peek. I didn't finish it in time to enter the contest - by the time I figured out what to do with the kit I knew there was no way I'd finish in time. But I'm kinda pleased with the way it turned out.

I always lay the entire floor first then sand, then stain. I make a template of the floor space & then trace the template onto cardstock (old manilla file folders work great too). Then I glue the skinny sticks onto the cardstock. I lay wax paper over the flooring & weigh it down overnight while the glue dries then the next day I sand & stain. I usually do a few rounds of sanding & staining till I get the look I was hoping for.

We remodeled our garage a few years ago and turned it into a hobby room for my dollhouses. I've been collecting dollhouses for 4-5 years now. Originally I was only planning to have one large dollhouse - just one. I selected a dollhouse shell built by a local dollhouse builder. After I got the shell home I started thinking that perhaps I should have a smaller, cheaper house to work on first - something to do my *learning* on before beginning my forever dollhouse. And the rest is history I was naive back then - nobody told me that when you have two or more dollhouses or dollhouse kits, they will multiply when you aren't looking! lol Those first two houses morphed into more than a dozen house shells / kits / craigslist rehab houses / and one enormous custom built house. At one time there were so many dollhouses, kits & mini supplies inside our house that there wasn't even room to work on them. So DH & I came up with an agreement, we would remodel the garage into my dollhouse room & I would agree to confine all my houses & mini things in that hobby room. It's a 440 square foot room so I think I got a heck of good deal!

Absolutely beautiful Deb! The entire room is stunning, but the addition of the dividers really adds to the overall beauty of the room!

I watched all afternoon & evening too. It's one of my all-time favorite series!

I'm at home too & on my way to bed. For DH & I New Year's Eve is just another evening - and midnight is wayyyyy past my bedtime

Christine, Have you tried Goo Gone ? It's available in many stores, Walmart, etc. One of my rehab houses had wallpaper & wrapping paper glued to the walls - I don't know what all kinds of glue the original builder used, but that paper was horrid to get out and once I got most of the paper scraped out of the house there was gloppy, sticky, bumpy globs of glue still stuck all over the walls. We had a bottle of Goo Gone in our cleaning cupboard & my husband suggested I try using it. So I sprayed the walls down good with this stuff and then used a kitchen scrubber pad to scrub this stuff out. Took a couple different evenings to get all the glue out of the house and then I really had to wash down the inside with a washrag damp with water & soap because the Goo Gone leaves an oily residue - but this stuff did the trick (with a lot of determined scrubbing on my part!). It didn't make the walls like new but it got them smooth enough that after I primed the walls & wallpapered over them the walls looked every bit as good as a new dollhouse would have. I'd give Goo Gone a try (get the orange one) before giving up on the house - your house has such character & it has the potential to be absolutely amazing!

I'd love to use the 20% off coupon for the last few things I need for the contest kit, but Christmas is so close and I have to concentrate on that right now.

You & me both Mary! I see, I buy, I figure it out later

Added my review for the Adams. I loved doing that little kit.

On a semi-regular basis

Oh Julie, if you ever do decide to make (and sell) a Santa in 1:12 scale in his nightshirt or pj's, please let me know!

I love most all versions of Santa but if pressed to pick a favorite I'd have to go with the traditional Miracle on 34th Street type of Santa. With that being said though, I'd love to find a 1:12 Santa in a non-traditional outfit, especially a Santa in red or green plaid flannel pj's. I'm (slowly) working on a set of Christmas roomboxes and one of the roomboxes will be a scene with Santa lounging at home in his flannel pj's after a long night's work delivering toys, providing I can ever find a Santa for it.

I printed some wallpaper for the house I did for my niece a few years back (2007) and that wallpaper still looks good. Some of the rooms were done with printed wallpaper and some were done with scrapbook paper - I didn't have much regular dollhouse wallpaper back then as I was really just starting out in the hobby. For both the printies and the scrapbook paper I sprayed them with clear acrylic spray - matte finish - before gluing them to the walls. I don't know if that has anything to do with the papers still looking good three years later or not. Also, that house didn't have lights in it. I do know that most of the rehab houses I have gotten off of craigslist, if they had wallpaper in them more often than not that wallpaper (regular dollhouse wallpaper) was faded in areas and discolored. So it can happen even with dollhouse wallpaper. I think in the case of dollhouse wallpaper though it has a lot to do with storage conditions and where/how you display the houses. I read somewhere (can't recall where) that if you have a dollhouse in a window that the direct sunlight will fade/discolor the wallpaper. So I tend to spray a clear acrylic finish on all my wallpapers - even the purchased ones. May be overkill, I don't know - I just figure as slow as I am in getting my houses done, the last thing I want to see is faded wallpaper after years of working on them!

I'd want a Glencroft - I keep daydreaming about how I'd decorate it with a brick exterior And also a Beacon Hill - I love the windows & trim on that house. Then I'd want a victorian townhouse or a brownstone. I don't know of any kits for either of these, so I'd probably have to have one built from scratch.

What a beauty of a house & it looks like it has the potential to be absolutely amazing once it's fully rehabbed! If it were mine I would remove the screws & brackets as already suggested & then glue or nail (small nails) whatever might fall off when the brackets are removed. Then I'd fill in the assorted screw holes with spackle, wipe the entire house down inside & out and remove all of the wall paper, interior trim (baseboards & crown moulding) and flooring that's currently in it. Once that was done I would remove the windows & doors (saving them to use in the house) and then prime the whole house (taping off the shingles if they are in good shape). That way I would start with a completely clean slate & the house could tell me what it wanted :groucho:

A kitchen set is a great idea! I purchased a kitchen set for my grandaughter earlier this year for her second birthday & she absolutely loved it - still spends hours playing with it. Her mom has it set up in their kitchen so they can cook together :groucho: If you go with a kitchen - Toys R Us also has other dish sets & pot & pan sets you can get to add to what comes with the kitchen, as well as plastic foods - large & kid friendly. Along with a kitchen, you might consider a little table & chair set. Children that age love having their own size furniture.

If it were me it would be the Beacon Hill hands down. So much character in that house.