Pivot

I'll keep an eye out for it. I am running into a time crunch as it has to be done by June 14th at the latest. So getting a little stressed. If only Hobby Lobby was open on Sundays. Michael's scrapbook section is terrible now. It's all that vinyl Circuit stuff.

Thanks for the suggestions. I sanded everything down and used a roller and sponge brushes and it looks terrible again. I am giving up and going to just put up card stock as wallpaper. I love the look of paint and I think it shows how much time you put into it (this is a gift for my niece's birthday), but it looks absolutely terrible. The worst is the ceilings and I am hoping that no one will see them. When I did the plywood Princess Anne, I painted 2 coats and it looked perfect. I hate hate RGT switched to MDF only. Paint goes on like a breeze my butt.

Hi there - I am working on my 2nd dollhouse and am finding the directions for the Alison Jr to be lacking compared to the Princess Anne. Since people here were so much help with my first dollhouse, I am hoping someone can help me out with understanding the directions. There is a step to put a groove fill in the house to go into the floor's groove inside the stair hole, leaving a smooth wall. I do not understand why it is needed. I don't feel a grove to fill in the stair hole at all. And I can't find any pictures of it to get a better understanding. And what does "bevel faces out" mean on the roofs? I can't tell if that means the shorter side of the slanted edge faces out or if the longer side of the slanted edge faces out. Any help at all would be appreciated. Lastly - any tricks to avoid brush strokes on the interior MDF walls? I switched to a sponge brush and that helped somewhat but not really enough.

I am trying without success to get my hands on Alison Jr in milled plywood. The few sites I’ve found either don’t respond to questions or only have mdf. Superior Dollhouse supposedly has them at 140 above retail but I can’t get ahold of them. Any tricks you guys have to find retired kits?

Thanks for the response. I was hoping it was doable but was so surprised that RGT didn't sell siding that it made me think that it wasn't possible. I definitely didn't think about the door/window issue. That was something that wouldn't occur to me. I am so new to building dollhouses that any deviation from the kit seems a bit overwhelming still. Now that I know I can add siding later, I just have to decide to between the Apple Blossom or Strawberry Patch dollhouse kit.

The newly designed Lilliput dollhouses come with either smooth plywood or MDF. I don't want to mess with MDF and I built my first dollhouse with milled plywood and loved working with it so I'd like to choose the smooth plywood option. However, the smooth plywood is missing something and I'd like to put clapboard on it so it looks similar to the milled plywood. Is that doable or do I just give up and try to find a milled plywood kit somewhere?

Thanks, Holly. That makes me feel better that I am not the only one to continue to make boo-boos. I was so proud of myself for getting the house together without too many issues and then this happened. I've spent so much time here lurking looking at all of this community's pretty dollhouses that it is pretty humbling to be having so many problems with mine. I've decided to cover up the stair hole in the 2nd floor with flooring and only have stairs from the 3rd floor to the 2nd. It's a little weird but I think it works for now. That way my niece gets to play with one set of stairs for now and it gives her one big room without stairs for her to have her doll tea party.. I can always pull apart the dollhouse later to fix it as she gets older if she wants.

So, I made a massive mistake in the dollhouse (so much for feeling good about myself). I flipped the middle floor around so the stair opening is in the wrong spot. I measured it like 15 times and must have flipped it at the last minute. So the top floor is in the right spot but the middle floor isn't. So, neither staircase fits. Is there any way to fix this? I was going to try to do split level stairs instead. But am not sure if that would work. Ugh, I am such a moron.

I started assembly on the house today. It's about 1/2 of the way done with only one minor mistake (that we caught in time) so far. Pretty proud of myself I have to say. It isn't perfect, but it looks better than I expected. Tomorrow we are doing the bay portion and the foundation. Followed by the roof. I should be able to get it finished by my niece's birthday which I didn't think was possible before assembly today. So relieved that it is standing.

Good suggestion. I was thinking of Creating a Paper Template - http://moreminis.blogspot.com/2008/05/shingling-guide.html#.Vy-FNdw8KrV

Thanks for the encouragement and ideas. The styrofoam cup is a great idea. Definitely going to use that. I'll use primer to fix the paint mistakes too. And I would never have thought of watering down my acrylic paint. I was just going to buy stain and paint that on. I, of course, already painted the roof to match the stain I thought I'd be using. But, as long as I get an acrylic paint close to that color I should be fine. Thanks again.

I had a really bad day today in dollhouse land. I wrecked my shingles trying to dye them using the toss them in stain method. It was a disaster. They stuck together and started breaking. Had to trash the whole bunch and order more. Which isn't the end of the world, but more money than I wanted to spend. For the next batch, I am planning on glueing them on first and then painting. Then, I started painting the first layer of paint on the interior and had a complete brain fart and painted the wrong end of two different pieces. The paint is a darker peach. One of the pieces was supposed to be painted a light blue. The other piece was supposed to be wallpapered. Any suggestions on how to fix my paint mistake? For the wallpaper side, I think I can sand it down and cover it in primer so the wallpaper will stick (or I hope). For the other side, I am not sure if I should paint all the rest of the pieces that will be blue with the dark peach and then sand it down and cover it with white paint and then light blue paint. Not sure if I need to do that or if I can just fix the problem piece and then paint all the rest white and then peach. I am so frustrated with this mistake. I was working too fast and not thinking. Lastly, how the heck do you paint the porch rails? They keep rolling around on me and look horrible. Do I just sand them down and wait until I put the porch together to paint?

Thanks for all the good advice guys. It is coming along slowly. I am planning on assembling the house next weekend after I finish the sanding/painting the exterior. Once it actually looks like a house and not a million pieces I'll feel so much better.

Thanks that is a big sigh of relief. I am not going to rush out and buy plywood for the base then. I did decide to make it a bit easier by assembling the house on the main level instead of the top floor of my house. I live in a townhouse with narrow staircases that make carrying stuff up and down them difficult. I got the first layer of exterior paint up. My niece wanted a pink house and boy is it pink. It was fun and much easier than I expected. Thanks again for all the help.

Thanks for the suggestions on everything guys. I really appreciate it. I've decided to just concentrate on one thing at a time so I get less overwhelmed. Right now that is going to be getting the exterior painted properly.