Goshengirl

I am building the Beacon Hill after completing the Glencroft (my first build), and it is challenging but also complex and fun. I am currently working on the roof and have definitely run into a few snags up to this point, but nothing that couldn't be resolved (yet, ha) and I am learning SO much. The instructions can be confusing, but this is a popular house and there are a TON of blogs and videos out there to help. It is helpful to take it one step at a time and watch/read the blogs on each specific step as you get to them, and do a lot of sanding and dry fitting. I say if you would love to build the Beacon do it!

I am also building the Beacon Hill, and am almost to this part and the instructions are confusing. I think the back edge supports aren't actually for the roof at all, they go along the second and third floor open edges to support them, and basically hide and support where the interior walls meet with the floors. It is hard to describe, I have found this guy's videos on Youtube to be super helpful and here is the one that describes this section. It is so helpful to see pictures!

I don't think widening the holes for the staircase or the doors will weaken the structure of the house. I renovated my childhood Tennyson, and widened the door for the bedroom so I could actually fit a door in there (so narrow!), and replaced the front door and the door to the porch. Good luck!

Oh yes, thanks to reading through this forum and a few blogs I did realize I needed to do that and have been wallpapering that area. Here is a picture of it in progress with the front wall propped up.

I am also working on the Beacon Hill and just finished the sub-assemblies of the staircases, and the risers are narrower than the treads, but not that much narrower. Those definitely look off to me, I agree that you should ask for a new sheet. My next step is to fit the staircases into the house, which I understand is going to be a challenge! So far I am really enjoying this house.

I love the Realife furniture kits and have amassed quite a collection over the years thanks to ebay. I have a Realife watchlist set up so that ebay emails me when new kits are put up for sale, lol. They usually aren't inexpensive, but sometimes you can get a good deal thanks to bidding or with a best offer. I just recently snapped up a Queen Anne bedroom kit I had been watching for, and I love the Victorian sets too.

Oh my goodness, this was my first dollhouse! I got it for Christmas in 1979 or 80, and I loved it! I remember the avocado green bathroom and the harvest gold kitchen, and the state of the art stereo set for the living room. I had all the furniture and dolls as well, including the dog. Do you remember a hutch that came with plug in lamps that lit up? My brother and I also used to play with Star Wars people in that house. It satisfied my dollhouse itch for a while, until I got a 'real' dollhouse in 1985 - the Tennyson that I just finished rehabbing. And now that that is finished, I started building my first kit from scratch and am having a lot of fun.

Hi Rebecca, I just finished rehabbing my childhood dollhouse, which had not really been damaged over the years just neglected, but still needed a lot of work. It was definitely a labor of love, it's wonderful to resurrect a beloved dollhouse and all its memories! I used wood flooring sheets from Houseworks for my house, which are thin strips of wood veneer attached to paper and I loved how they turned out. I polyurethaned the sheets, used paper to make templates of my floors, and then cut the sheets out and taped them in with strong double-sided tape. You can find them in the flooring section at miniatures.com and they come in several different types of wood. Good luck! I was also brand new to the world of miniatures when I took on this project, but have been thoroughly sucked in and just started my first dollhouse kit from scratch :-)