Search the Community

Section N. Roof and Trim1 I will not add the trim in this step. All I want to accomplish here is a sturdy, squared house.2. There were no big problems here. I had to pull at the Center Wall at the attic to straighten the wall, but other than that, everything fit where and how it should: a perfect roof. I am using lots of masking tape to hold the roof together until the glue dries. I used a “set square” to make sure walls were vertical as I put the attic floor and the roof in place. 3. Now that the house is square and vertical, I will go back to some of the previous instructionsSection - Stair AssemblyI did a test fit, and then removed the assembly. This makes it possible to paint or paper the wall. Then I will put the stirs in permanently.http://www.greenleafdollhouses.com/forum/\html\style_emoticons\/tongue.png' alt=':p'> Complements of judithfa

The box arrived! This is very exciting. I always love a new house.1. I opened the box and checked that all items were there and that the wood was in good shape. I put the siding and roof shingles in a separate box. I saved the window “glass’ in a folder and put it in a safe place. 2. I quickly reviewed the instructions (detailing comes later). I wanted to get the “lay of the land”.3. I then went through all the wood sheets against the schematics and marked the sheets with their number and major pieces on a piece of masking tape, and stuck the tape to the sheet. (I can see this easier than the perforated numbers, and always having to check the schematic as I am working.) Any pieces that looked as if they were going to fall out of their sheets were taped to the sheet.4. I decided that I would build this house by only removing the pieces as I needed them.5. I carefully looked at the pictures/ drawings of the completed house to get the house appearance firmly in my mind. I carefully read the instructions. Then I read them again, checking against the schematics and pictures as necessary, and annotated the printed information to help the building process.6. Relax. Remember that building a dollhouse is fun -- even when there are frustrations. Accept that there will be some frustration. Accept that even the most careful planning sometimes goes awry. Work slowly and neatly. Relax. Some of the slots and tabs will not line / will extend beyond the house wall. These problems are easily corrected with a few cuts with a craft knife. Relax. http://www.greenleafdollhouses.com/forum/\html\style_emoticons\/tongue.png' alt=':p'> Complements of judithfa

1. Supplies to be used: Aileen’s Tacky glue to glue house together, craft knife with sharp blade to cut through perforations, masking tape, paper towels and bowl of water for cleanup, pencil, level, sandpaper, electric sander, newspapers to cover work surface, cutting mat (or heavy cardboard) to protect table surface when cutting plywood, wood filler, spackle, hammer (for LIGHT tapping into place), MinWax Golden Oak stain, Mineral Spirits (the stain is not water cleanup), low-gloss, water cleanup polyurethane, newspaper to protect the work area. I use ordinary flat latex white house paint for priming and for white walls. I buy it by the gallon. I have not decided on other wall treatments yet, but wallpaper will be put up with YES glue. 2. I use Aileen’s Tacky glue to glue house together for a number of reasons. It dries clear and FLEXIBLE and TOUGH. If necessary, you can make minor adjustments after it dries by just coaxing the wood into position without having to break the glue seal. If you must break the glue seal, you can usually cut though the Tacky glue without damaging the wood. You can use it for every aspect of the building process including siding and shingles. A well-known, quality dollhouse shop recommended it to me. It is easy to find in stores and is inexpensive. It cleans up easily with water.3. I also like the glue a little tackier for putting houses together. I leave the top of a new bottle open for a couple of hours – this is a personal preference, but not necessary.4. Work in a well-lit, well-ventilated area. Protect your work area with newspapers or a disposable plastic sheet.5. Save all the remnant pieces of wood, either in the original box or another until the house is finished.6. Read the instructions for the step you are about to do. Gather together the pieces for that step. Read the next step (if any) and gather those pieces in a second area. Try to do as much a “dry-fitting” as you can. Use masking tape to hold the house together.7. Relax and enjoy. Complements of judithfa

I would like to blame the slow progress on my weird life, but … some of the problem is due to being overly ambitious in what I wanted to do here and underestimating the amount of work involved. Well, what else is new, Judith?Progress since the last posting.-- The porch and balcony flooring is down and stained. The balcony railings are glued into position (this took more time than I thought it would). I still need to ‘gussy’ them up a bit. The porch just has two square columns supporting the balcony. This gives the porch a nice open look. I need to add some trim here and there. There will be two steps up to the porch. The steps will go across the entire front of the porch. -- A full view of the interior. Notice that I actually worked out the “flying staircase” -- The living room. The colors for the living room came from the Kleenex box that Andrew found, part of which is now the picture above the fireplace. -- The spindles for the stairs are just thin dowels glued to the outside edges of the stairs. I like the way this turned out. The railings need to be fixed into place. The buffets under the stairs are the bottoms of two Michael’s hutches painted gloss white enamel. -- The sink has been “built-into” the bay and ‘cabinets’ have been built to connect the sink to the frig and stove -- that was trickier than I would have liked – but it looks very nice. The piece behind the window is a Styrofoam form covered with white cardboard. The side pieces are a small box cut in two and pushed into irregular diamond shapes and stuffed with Styrofoam to keep that shape. The counter tops are from a vinyl floor tile (Home Depot). I will put silver door pulls on the doors to make them look like cabinets. -- The color on the walls and ceiling is not right. They are a blue with some white rubbed in to make an illusion of sky with wispy clouds. My sister found the wonderful bedroom set by Aztec, and the bed came with all that wonderful bedding. The glass door goes out to the balcony. (pic 9)-- The 2nd floor hallway, showing the bath (walls unfinished), also.-- The den is a slight problem area. For some reason, after the scrapbook paper was on the walls for about a week, it turned translucent in areas and discolored in some areas. I always glue scrapbook paper with YES glue, so I don’t know what happened here. I am removing it and will replace it with solid white vinyl wallpaper. I will add colored trim to make the red, white, and blue look I wanted originally. Yuk … The desk is a soft maple not red. I bought the sofa, chair, and desk from Craft Club.B) Complements of judith

If I keep this up, my little people are getting closer to a "Certificate of Occupancy"--The exterior – the chimney and the rear roof are unfinished. The porch needs columns. The balcony needs some posts connecting the railings. I am using the Greenleaf railings. For the picture, I simply taped the railings to the balcony.--The Living room windows have some green and yellow stained glass at the top but the green looks as if is behind the glass – I don’t know why. --Looking at the kitchen bay and den windows. The only other coloring in the window glass is in the kitchen and den windows – red, white and blue.--Full interior view. The stairs will have railings on both sides. The first floor walls are painted a soft yellow and the trim is a bright yellow. The floors, except for the bathroom, are HBS random pine. The first floor will need more supports. --The kitchen – the sink will be “built” into the bay. The counter work space is a shop counter and will be painted white.--The living room – the buffet under the stairs is the bottom of a Michael’s hutch. It will be stained pecan or painted white. The stairs are not finished.--The den – the hall door to the den (and bedroom) are narrow doors from Classics. I had to build out the walls so I could insert them. The desk is a soft maple color but looks very red in the photo. I have a sofa and chair on order, but Craft Club is having difficulty getting it – so I may have to find something else. The red, white, and blue wallpaper is scrap book paper from Michaels, as is the “sky” paper for the ceiling.--The bath is done in a beach motif, since this is a beach cottage. The ceiling tile in the bath and the hall is painted sky blue. The bath will have a “rim” of wall around it – this is where the wall and the bathroom door would be. The hall paper (Michael’s again) has to be finished. There is an error in the stairwell. I cut the opening for the stairs too narrow so that two banisters don’t fit. The one next to the wall will have to be sanded flat on one side and glued to the wall when it reaches the second floor. Yuk …. --The bedroom also opens to the balcony to catch the ocean breezes. The walls and ceiling are painted a sky and clouds blue. I was going to put a fireplace in the bedroom, but it may take too much space.--Just another view -- The living room rug is from DHEmp; the bedroom rug from a local dollhouse shop.<_< Complements of judith

OK, the Westville is getting lovable! The exterior is finally beginning to look the way I want it to look. I gave up with the weathered grey – I just could not get the colors the way I wanted them to be, and I was destroying the siding in the process!I painted the exterior a light grey and the trim a semi-gloss white enamel. The door is Air Force Blue since the owners are Air Force officers. The chimney is not finished. The roof shakes are stained MinWax Golden Pecan. The roof is all the same color – but it doesn’t look that way in the pictures. I can’t decide if I want shutters or not.The porch will have a really open look with the steps going across the front and just three simple, square posts to support the balcony. The balcony goes across the entire house and when it gets to the bedroom, its shape follows the shape of the bay window below it, thus keeping the Westville charm. I am thinking of using the Greenleaf porch railing top edge as the top edge of the porch, and the bottom of the railing as the railing for the balcony. The house sits on a 2’ x 4’ plywood base. I want to raise the area of the house so that I can somehow have the land slope down to the beach and ocean – don’t know how I am doing this yet. Anyway, as I look at the house, I can already smell the ocean (at high tide only, please!) and feel its breeze.Now, finally to get to the inside!! -- Besides, the exterior was getting boring (I need constant excitement). I love the way the den looks with its high ceiling and I am sorry that I did not think to do that in the bedroom – but I ain’t bashin’ no more -- just decorating.B) Complements of judith

The exterior-- I really don’t like the way the grey painting turned out. I am trying for a weathered grey look. I might wait until I have the roof done and all the trim (white) is done to see if the grey color looks better. If not, I will repaint. -- The chimney “form” is sturdy packing foam. It will be sprayed with Fleck-Stone in a whitish-grey flecked color.-- The second floor porch will go from the bedroom to the den (which will have exterior glass door matching the one in the bedroom).-- The first floor porch will just be in front main section.-- The bedroom needed a dormer since my sister bought a bedroom set for it that she says “needs lots of wall space”! I think I will also put a fireplace on that wall.-- The front roof is very unfinished!View of the entire interior-- All the floors will be random-plank pine. The first floor walls will be very light yellow with a deeper yellow trim. The stairs (changed again!) will be painted white with pine treads and banister on both sides. Under the “flying” stairs will be a server. The picture of this real Cape Cod home is my inspiration.-- As you can see, I widened the floor of the attic so that the second floor ceiling covers the hallway. The den and bedroom will have doors. The bathroom wall and door will have to be imagined. The bathroom window will be curtained or shuttered on the inside for privacy. (My little people demanded it!).Living Room-- Sarah and Franklin are much happier to see real progress – hey, they have a bathroom and a kitchen …A view through the staircaseB) Complements of judith

I bought 1/8” Baltic Birch for the new sections (from Michael's).The new exterior:-- 10” added in length with a new window on ground floor front. End wall still has the bay.-- Porch will go across new section also.-- 1” removed from lower edge of front roof sections to move the edge further from porch roof.-- Full length exterior chimney on living room wallNew interiorFirst floor:-- The main floor is a completely open plan-- Commercial staircase facing rear and ending in a small hall on second floor, Staircase is ACTUALLY is on the OTHER side of the wall I removed so that the living room is a full 12 “ wide.-- Will have kitchen at left end and dining area near stairs. Sink will be built into bay Second floor-- From right to left: Bedroom, stair hall, bath, and den-guest room (walls needed)-- Den ceiling will be at the rafters.B) Complements of judith

Test fitting the porch railings Working with the Greenleaf siding and HBS cedar shakes. The roof and the siding will be grey (various color samples being tried), and the trim will be white (I think). I am using Aileen’s Tacky for the siding and shakes. I put the house edge trim on first, but I have decided to put the window and door trim on after the siding.This is a start to the living room area. The walls are a light yellow (didn’t show properly). I had stained the plywood and was going to use that as the flooring, but I decided that a pine floor was more in keeping with a seaside cottage. I need to get more from HBS. I really like that fireplace but it is too wide for between the windows. I mulled it over and decided that I would just close up one of the windows. The picture above the fireplace is from a “designer” box of Kleenex.B) Complements of judith

Section D. Bay Windows & Section F. Porch Before beginning, widen all slots and make all tabs narrower. Bricks and large cans of tomatoes make good weights.Also, if you are going to wallpaper the Bay, wallpaper the pieces before gluing the bay together. I doubt that you can get in there with wallpaper after it is glued in place. Spray the wallpaper with sealer so that the paper is not damaged if you have to clean up glue drips inside.Section D. Bay WindowsWell, I had some real manipulation problems with the Bay Windows. I simply could not get all the pieces to “hang” together by following the instructions. After a number of false starts, I worked out a method that worked for me. The supplied instructions may work for you. I needed to find another way.Steps 1 & 2 for Right Bay Window1. I glued the Bay window floor to the first floor and at the same time glued the two larger foundation pieces under it. I could not get the Bay floor to stay in place properly otherwise. I weighted it down with a brick and let it dry.2. I pushed the two major pieces of the Bay Window sides into the slots of the Bay Window roof and glued the roof to the 2nd floor and pushed the window pieces against the floor “slots” where I had added glue. Then I added glue into the top slots and ran a bead of glue down the window and taped it closed. I put a brick on the second floor for weight and let the whole thing dry.3. When dry, I glued the two small side pieces to the foundation and the two small side pieces to the window. I taped the side Window pieces until dry.Steps 1 -3 for Front Bay Window1. I used a similar approach as above except this Window was simpler because the bay floor and roof are part of their respective floors.Section F. Porch1. Steps 1-4 had no real problems, except I found it easier to put the house on its back and:---a.Put a bead of glue around the underside of the porch. I then put glue on the short and longer side pieces and glued them on. I gave them a minute or two firm up. I then glued the front piece on. 2. Subsection: Step. I will attach the step at the end. ----------- Now that the body of the house is finished and I can see its lines, I have started to think about the house as something functioning well in the lifestyle of the little people I think should live there.I see it as a small vacation house situated on a bay or tidal inlet. It has a dock and a small boathouse. The house faces the water and the cedar shakes and clapboard have weathered to a glistening silver-grey from the salt-sea air.B) Complements of judith

If joins are stubborn, a LIGHT tap with a hammer can often fix this.After gluing, quickly clean up any excess glue with a damp paper towel or rag.Doing the Walls & FloorsSection A. Walls and Floors1. I removed the pieces for A from their sheets. They removed very easily with just an occasional help from the craft knife in the perforations. I sanded any rough edges. The plywood was smooth and needed no filling with spackle or wood filler.2. I have not decided what I will use on the floors. Since I may leave them just plywood, I stained the 1st, 2nd, and Attic Floors with MinWax Golden Oak stain. (This is not a water cleanup). I worked quickly. I put on one coat with a throw-away foam brush, brushing in the direction of the grain. I immediately took a paper towel, rubbed the stained floor sideways to even out the color and to remove any excess stain. I then checked to see if any spots needed a touch up. At this point, I left the area to let the stain dry for a couple of hours and to let the smell evaporate. I then gave the floors 2 coats of low-gloss polyurethane and sanded lightly between coats. I did a final check that the color was even. The wood did not warp as I was staining.3. I painted the 2nd Floor ceiling with two coats of flat latex white paint. I used house paint. (If it is not smooth and evenly colored, you can give it another coat.) I sanded lightly after painting. The wood did not warp as I was painting.4. I stained the 1st Floor ceiling with Golden Oak. I thought this type of house could look interesting with a wooden ceiling. Now I am not so sure since the ceiling is only 8” tall and a “wood” ceiling could overwhelm the rooms. I will see how it looks when I test fit the house. I may paint it white after all.5. I have not decided on wall treatments, so I did not prime the walls yet.6. Steps 2 – 4 went smoothly. 7. Before doing step 5, I carefully looked at the Center Wall pieces. After I put the 2nd floor in, I wanted to put them in quickly and with no surprises.8. Step 5 had a problem. The Second Floor started to slide in, and then got stuck; I could not push it in nor get it out. Eventually, with great care, I removed it. I enlarged the slots in width and height and slid it into place with a few LIGHT taps of the hammer – a few anxious moments, here. 9. Step 6 (the Center Wall) worked well but I had to enlarge the slot in that piece. I added a picture of the placement of the Center Wall Extension which confused me for a moment.10. Step 8, the Left Front Wall offered no problems. 11. I know the instructions have you do the Staircase Subassembly here. I will not put in the staircase at this point because it is very difficult to paint or wallpaper once the stairs are in. Thus I went to Section C – Walls (continued)Section C. Walls (continued)1. For Step 1, the Left Wall just needed some adjustment to the tabs. The rest of this section had no problems except I had to enlarge the slots in the middle of the attic floor. Note: I glued the 2 “Partial Back” walls to the house back wall edges and the Foundation Back. Also, the only Partial Back Wall to which the attic can be glued is the Left Partial Wall, not both Partial Walls (Step 6).2. It begins to look like a house! I have decided that I like the stained ceiling in the Living Room, but I don't know about the Kitchen - Dining Area. 3. The next sections in the instructions have you do many things before attaching the roof. I will do the Roof (Section N) next because if the house is not “square” and/or there is any problem fitting the roof, I have found these problems best handled if the house is as “flexible” as possible. Also, the house is the most secure when the roof is attached. I will then go back and follow the instructions in order. These are my personal preferences. The house can be built by doing the steps in the order indicated on the Instruction sheet. http://www.greenleafdollhouses.com/forum/\html\style_emoticons\/tongue.png' alt=':p'> Complements of judithfa