Khadi

I built one about 25 years ago so I'm not sure I can help too much other than to say that you wouldn't have wanted those shingles anyway. They were an 1/8 inch thick and a pain to cut. I gave up after doing one side of the tower. I did find this link to someone's post from a long time ago, and they have pictures of the directions. I hope it's helpful. It is a great dollhouse with large rooms.

Looks like I need to take a trip to the Smithsonian next weekend. Speaking of exhibits. Has anyone been to see the KSB Collection in Kentucky? I saw this on Mysteries at the Museum, and it looks fascinating. http://www.ksbminiaturescollection.com/

He is quite adorable. I'm tempted someday to build my cats their own dollhouse to play in. Then maybe they would leave mine alone. LOL

That is quite a story although I hope my dollhouses never get such a revenge on my cats. Of course, if I hadn't caught the Garfield, I may have had a squashed cat. I do dread trying to remove splinters from cats' paws someday. That would certainly be a Greenleaf revenge.

That moment when you have to leap across the room to catch your in-progress Garfield dollhouse that your seven month-old very precocious, very strong kitten has just managed to knock off the desk.

I try to wear old clothes but every now and then I get lazy and wear something good. Of course, that's the only time I ever get paint on myself.

I've used narrow masking tape to create straight lines for laying shingles. Otherwise, you could do a few rows and then check for the average measurement for each row. Then measure up the side of the house and draw lines since you will be covering them anyway.

A hair dryer should work to remove the hot glue. Hot glue is usually pretty easy to peel off with minimal impact to the wood. I do use hot glue for shingles mainly because my cats like to climb on the roofs of my houses and often knock off the shingles. When they are hot glued they come off in one piece and can easily be reattached whereas ones glued with other sources often break off in pieces and harder to repair.

I bought more ink for my printer as I'm in to creating my own decorative ceiling tiles at the moment by using real tile images off of the Internet. I'm trying to decide if I want to print them again with space in between where wood strips will go or if I'll cut them apart and glue each one separately with wood strips over top.

I prefer the battery powered because my corded is too loud (I live in a townhouse and don't want my neighbors to hate me.) I have a Dremel 8220. It's a little expensive but worth it as it has multiple speeds and can be very gentle or very powerful. Besides the sanders, I love my Dremel EZ Lock Wood Cutting Wheel because it makes it very easy to cut through the Greenleaf wood. I started buying generic sanders off of Amazon because as other people mentioned, they wear out quickly. I've also found the carving tools handy but a little hard to control the depth of the cut.

It's not too heavy, but I never permanently attach tower tops because they add several more inches which can make going up and down stairs or moving in vehicles difficult.

I keep the board that I pop the pieces out of right beside me so that if I'm not sure about certain pieces, I can put them back in the board like a puzzle and check the schematic to see what they are. This comes in especially handy with stairs because often there are subtle differences in top and bottom steps and risers.

I recently built my first laser cut and had a similar experience. I was so excited at how easy it was to pop out the pieces and put it together that I built the whole thing the first night without remembering to wallpaper, paint, etc. LOL As far as the die stamped Greenleafs go, I invested in a good battery-powered Dremel a few years back. It makes sanding and cutting so much easier and has really cut back on the splinters. You just have to remember to use a light-touch because it it very easy to sand too much if you're not paying attention.

I sometimes get thin sheet wood and trace the original pieces onto it and then use the sheet wood instead. The wood is usually fairly soft and can be cut easily with an Exacto knife or a utility knife. It's not very expensive, and you can find it in most online dollhouse stores. I also use it for paneling instead of staining the walls and having that same "rough" look.

I look at dollhouses like I look at my real house. They're always works in progress.

I find images on the Internet. If it's something that I want to keep, I copy and paste into a Powerpoint. I have Powerpoints for fireplaces, kitchens, floors, etc. Some images are miniatures and some are real-life. Then when I'm making something such as a fireplace, I just look at the Powerpoint file for ideas. I'm constantly adding new images. I do the same thing for articles but put them in Word.

And, miniatures will fit so well in a suitcase.

I spent some time visiting with my old dollhouses when I was at my mom's house for Christmas. Technically this was my second dollhouse, but the Rutherford was the first dollhouse that I purchased and built completely by myself. I think I was 15 or 16. It was before the days of internet and online shopping, and there were no dollhouse stores nearby, so I had to figure things out as I went and interior decorating and furniture was pretty much whatever I could find. I still love this house. The rooms are so large. It's too bad it was discontinued. Unfortunately, it is stuck at my mom's house until I can convince my brother to drive it down to me in his truck, but I hope to get it someday and renovate it.

My abandoned cabin. It looks simple but was actually a very complex build with a "built from scratch" structure within the kit shell. It was also the first house that I built that was based on a real connection in my life- an old abandoned town in the woods near my family's cabin that we often explored when I was a kid. The best part was my uncle saw a picture of the outside on Facebook and called my mother because he thought it was a real cabin that I had bought.

Thank you! It's not quite as impressive on the front yet because it is still bare wood, but once the stone paper comes in stock so I can finish covering it, I promise to move it farther away from the wall and take a picture.

Thanks. Do you have any pictures or an album of it? I'd love to see it.

Hi Jeannine, I'm learning for myself with these. I'm actually not going to physically attach them because there's no way that I'd ever be able to move it. I'm just placing them next to each other. I'm aligning pre-existing openings, but I do have to change them some (enlarging or partially closing in). I'm still deciding on that. That's the scary part about combining dollhouses. You have to cut into very expensive investments hoping not to do irreparable damage. Thanks to watching enough of those home renovation shows on HGTV, I know to be careful cutting those load-bearing walls. I did cut two of the windows into doors on the second floors and am using bookcases to make a secret passageway between two bedrooms. I'll let people use their imaginations as to why that exists. ;)