TotallyNotACat

My dad bought and built a Greenleaf Arthur for his mother, who died when I was really young. The dollhouse spent most of my life in the basement, where I would occasionally see it when I was playing hide and seek/looking for Christmas decorations/etc. I've always loved miniatures, and when I finally moved to a bigger apartment and got the space, my dad pulled it from the basement and gave it to me. My apartment hasn't stopped smelling like mildew since. In the 2 weeks since, I've turned the house from: to Tonight I learned that the fishscale shingles from ~30 years ago are twice as thick as the ones sold today. I am gluing two together to fill in the gaps in the roof. I CAN NOT WAIT to spray paint this whole thing with Kilz. I'm hoping for a warm weekend soon.

Oh, awesome! These should help too! I was surprised to see that the front of the house is two pieces instead of one, on my house, and on that blog! Easier to fit it into a box, of course. I'm sorely, sorely tempted to take off the main roof so I can wallpaper and spray paint more easily. I just am not sure hot it'll go. I love this house, but it makes my apartment reek of mildew. The sooner I can get that covered with Kilz, the better.

It does! I also just got the roof off the porch. It was terrifying.

Been trying to, yeah! I haven't seen anything that helps me yet.

I'm renovating an Arthur that my parents built for my grandmother. Thankfully, despite my dad's usual attention to detail, they used hot glue on everything. I think. Probably, anyway. I've managed to find tons of great tips so far (hair drier on hot glue? OF COURSE!) but I haven't found any ideas for getting this porch off. The roof is mostly detached from the front. I can see where the tabs are, but no sign of hot glue there. In fact, I don't see hot glue where the porch roof meets the supports either. That makes me nervous. The inside isn't decorated at all. Total bare wood. So I can see the tabs pretty well. Does anyone have any idea how to start? I haven't seen any good pictures of the standard porch assembly, so I'm not sure how to do it backwards.

That makes sense. I just so happen to have a spray bottle of vinegar kicking around for cleaning purposes! Plus I really like the smell. Reminds me of chips.

Still there, but a lot more mild! I'll have to wash my hands more carefully with vinegar. Thanks for the tip!

Thanks everyone! You guys are great. I actually just took did a basic clean with bleach and took off some siding. Don't know when the bleach/mildew smell will come off my hands. The Arthur is such a great little house, especially for starting. I'm also lucky that my parents used hot glue!

It's definitely getting repainted, but I'm going to clean it up as much as I can first. The Kilz is a good tip though!

Hello! I just brought home a musty old Arthur that my dad bought for his mother. My parents said last night that they bought and built it for her around 30 years ago, which would have been not too long before I was born. Grandma died when I was really young, and I suppose my parents got the dollhouse back, but never did anything with it because, well, toddlers and time. I finally have the room for it, and my dad and I are both excited to see it brought back to life. It smells like basement, covered in dust and webs, has a tiny bit of mold on some of the siding, and the decorations on the roof peak are mostly broken, BUT! It's still otherwise in good condition, wired up (I hope the standard of 30 years ago is still standard. I haven't found much about that yet), and most of it was put together with hot glue, so I'll be able to remove pieces easily.