IveNoClue

After long hemming and hawing sessions, I decided to remove the stairs from my house. I wanted the real estate in the upstairs rooms, hate the idea of the imaginary mini people walking through what is supposed to be a bedroom to continue upstairs, and I hated that scale had left the building in regards to the stairs. So…off they went. Yes, it causes that “how do you get upstairs” question, but my answer is, “via the stairs on the invisible back wall.” It’s make-believe, right? Now, however, I’ve decided (probably) to put stairs back in…but just in the living room. I want the fun of decorating the staircase and that room is big enough to take all the furniture and stairs. I’m going to have it facing the opposite way as it once did which means it’ll face the front), and that’ll keep it from being so obvious. I can deal with the “where are the stairs to the 3rd floor” thing (invisible back wall!), the horrid lack o’ scale of the treads and risers, but…the stupid thing is only 2” wide! Imagine walking up a set of stairs with 11” tall risers, 7” deep treads, at a 60° angle and it’s only 2’ wide. Goodbye neck! But…how much does this matter? Will it scream OUT OF SCALE? I’d have to double the stairs width to at least 4” to be scale-ish. That would only be 1 1/4” from the front window. Maybe I should chuck the stairs? Again…

I was planning on putting strips of decorative (if tiny) molding on the raw edges of the floors and walls at the invisible wall, and probably painting them the same white as the house trim. So I could do the same around the attic opening. Thank you! I have now finished the back roof, including the extension.

Thank you! I also realised I have a ton (a 1:12 ton 😄) of the granules that inevitably fall off the asphalt shingles. I could glue them on. Does 1/14 inch seem thick? It’s a very old kit house that I inherited. The whole thing is 1/4” ply and the new addition is 1/4” mdf.

Hello everyone, I haven’t been here for ages and that’s because I haven’t been working on the dollhouse for ages. But now I am! Long story… I am, believe it or not, still working on the roof which is what I was working on years ago. All the sudden I’m going fast and doing great. But I have a question. The roof is, of course, made of 1/4 inch wood. I am covering it in asphalt tiles because this is a contemporary house. As I work, I’m realising I will have to paint the edge of the wood. I take it I should do that in some sort of grey that matches the shingles? I looked for pictures online but nothing let me see that part. PS: Since I was on here last, I added an extension and wired the entire thing, so it’s not like I haven’t done anything. Just not a lot….

One paw makes it hard to do absolutely everything. But this too shall pass and soon the paw will be better than ever. Or so the good folks at Dartmouth tell me.

Hello everyone! I was given a 40-ish year old dollhouse that had been stained and roofed and nothing else. I went all-in for a while, making plans, painting and re-roofing, joining this forum and loving it. Then Christmas came and we were hosting which, for me, means going insane making themed decorations etc so the dollhouse got shoved aside. THREE YEARS AGO!!! Since then I’ve taken over a room of the (full-sized) house as a craft room and I’ve learned to quilt and sew. But the dollhouse languished. Because I was waiting for and now have had carpal tunnel release surgery and have one paw out of order, my husband got me a dollhouse makeover for Christmas. Off it went to have an addition put on and wiring done. Now it’s back, larger, with 1 light on it and ready for action! But the paw is still on strict no use and the craft room (aka The Nest) is torn apart and all my stuff boxed so painters can come do their magic. Then....with no more pain or restrictions, and a dollhouse waiting to be worked on...finally, I can play!

I grew up with my mom not allowing me to take art classes or be really creative. She always said, “You have no artistic talent, just like me.” (Um, how do you know if you don’t try?!) She also used to roll her eyes and diss her fellow nurses who were crafty. She said, “Crafty” like it was VD. Then she retired, got excessively bored and discovered gigantic craft stores. She ended up teaching herself just about every craft she put her hands on. She was extremely good at Crosstitch and embroidery. And she renovated and decorated a Victorian dollhouse. Irony much? Now one of my sisters makes fun of me for being crafty. She says I am channelling mom. But I can think of quite a few things she channels from our mother and I think I made out lucky.

I’m putting Christmas away in an organized manner too. There’s a first time for everything! I love Christmas and all its crazy decorations and I love when it goes away and I’m left with space, light and the ability to move around without knocking it over and being covered in glitter.

It feels like I was away from life for a couple of months, but it was just the holidays! I had to focus on a year-long project that was a Christmas gift, and like an idiot I volunteered to host family Christmas. It required me to kick into hyper-drive. Now that the insanity has left me (!) I can clean up the crafting bomb site, put away Christmas, and remind myself I have a dollhouse to enjoy. Now...what was I doing? Oh yeah, the roof!

Ooh E6000 is a good idea! I don't know why I didn't think of it. I have a vat of it and also Goop one table over where I work on my never-ending Christmas project.

They are the mini asphalt roofing. These are salt & pepper colored and I hemmed and hawed for longer than I'm sure was normal over which color to get. They are in long strips and cut with scissors. I tried Tacky glue first but felt like the shingles were moving and weighting them down was hard given the roof pitch. Then I tried hot glue but it hardened too quickly to work with it. Back to the Tacky glue and just working vereery slowly.

That is a really excellent point! No wait, it's one of those new fangled anti-gravity nozzles. It's not glued but it won't bend the right way...yet! A little judicious heat tool and all will be right. ps: I'm in NE too. Maybe that's why I chose the color. I lived in Scotland for years and all the houses were stone. Beautiful but grey/beige. I craved color and now...

Some progress....some backwards motion...then some more progress. One of my sisters said, "What, no pop of colour?!" My first thought was....blue isn't a colour??? PS: The lighting in the cellar where I'm working on this is wretched. The blue isn't as dark as it looks in the shutters pic. Nor as weirdly grey-green as it looks in the garden hose pic.)

And, btw, WOW! That's gorgeous! I live the stone path. Path goals!

Yes, exactly! I think I might do a single-storey addition on the living room side, and have it be a sunroom. So the house wouldn't be symmetrical but there'd still be additions on both sides so the front door is centered.