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Step 3 calls for the middle sized tower pieces to be added. It is on sheet number 3. I have also glued the tower top on. This is what it should look like. Part F Step 1 The instructions calls for the front roof part to be added. This is what it will look like. Mine is NOT glued in because I am going to shingle mine 1st because it is hard to shingle around the tower and cut the shingle correctly. I am also thinking about adding a Garden deck by opening up the roof this time. you'll see that soon. Part F Step 2 This is the other roof side that had to be added now

I used a mixture of hard wire and tape wire to light up this house. Because this house is flat back and will hang on the wall, I fed all of the wires to the back of the house by clipping off the plugs and feeding it through holes I drilled into the back of the house.. After that, I added a 11" strip of tape wire and took the plastic cover off of the tape wire. I then took the wire, and split the two wires about half inch down and then added one side on each side of the tape. Do not let the two exposed hardwire touch each other when you lay them down. I then took some masking tape and tacked it in place so that I could do all of the wires this way. Once all wires were added, I then took my soldering iron out to heat it and while it was heating, I added soldering flux (just a little touch) to the exposed wires (All of them) so that the solder will adhear to the wires to the tape wire. After that, I add some solder to the tip of my soldering iron and then to the exposed wired to affix it together. I do this to all exposed wires. Here are the pictures to help you with the visual side of it. After that, you can remove the little pieces of masking tape you use to help tack down the wires and keep them in place while you solder them in. After that, I taped down all of the loose wires and labeled which room each wire it for. You can also add more lights & outlets to this later on if you like. To see more tips on the tools I used, go to this blog entry: Electrifying tips I then added the Junction Splice and put one prong on each side of the tape wire. Then you add your transformer lead in wire and transformer and You have Electric!

I started with foam core just to see if this design would work and if it would look really nice. I ended up cutting the roof height (on the raised roof side) down to 8" high. This is what it looked like in the beginnning: It took a while (3.5 hrs. ) to get the angles right because I found out that this house needed a little more support now that I was bashing it away from how it should have been done. This is after I added the wood roof & attic parts. It was level on one side and not the other and zi went around and around with the leveler I did finally get it right . After I got it to the point I was satified with, I added sandpaper and painted it black to give the "Asphalt" roof look then I added the Chimney stack ;) : I wanted to add roof trim to give the roof more detail. At first I started off by using the kits trim: I ended up using some iron railing for the widows walk instead. I aged it with a seafoam green paint:

This is the close up of how high the attic wall would have been. You can see where I added the extension here: This is the way the stairs & fireplace originally look. I decided to add an extra wood storage shelf I also added stones on the fireplace: After that I started trying to figure out where to add the porch light. I found out that the area is too tight to add a light next to the door but, you can add the light above the door. I also wanted to make a pointy tower roof as i had with my Pierce that I built last year so I did this by cutting wood in long triangle shapes to make the roof pointy I would have added a weather vane but decided that a tower cap would look good to.

This time I am only blogging the changes that I made to this Gorgeous doll house kit. The Mckinley has been my favorite since Lisa from Greenleaf asked me to make one 4 years ago. This is something that a newbie can do if they have the patiance but, this blog is really for the advanced builders who can look at these breif comments and make the changes. I started the building of this house a few weeks back. I started out pretty much like everyone else. You'll notice easily that I did start a little bit out of sequence. When I have built a kit several times, I don't view the instructions as much. I have been wanting to bash (Alter) this kits' design since I completed my last one . I started on the back wall since I knew I was going to bash it by extending the roofline. I took wood that Greenleaf uses for their kits. They sell extra sheets but you have to call them for plain sheets that are not punched out yet. When the original roof is finished, it is only 4" high. Mine right now is bashed to have a 9" high ceiling. ;) The next big change was that I wanted to change the kitchen wall so that the opening would be in the front of the room, not the back. I did this by cutting this wall into three sections so that most of the tabs would still be in most of the right parts of the floor for stability. I figured this out through trail and error and it took me over an hour to get it staright & right. I also moved the kitchen wall over by 1" to make the kitchen larger. I then had to attach it to the rest of the structure that I had already assembled: It ended up looking a bit like this: My next change was to alter the look of the Mckinley's front door. I did this by using 2 strips of wood that is 1/16" x 1/4" x 36" . I then added a lion head knocker to it that I hand made.