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Hi from a first timer


Jeff Church

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Hi everyone I found this site when searching for information on the Greenleaf Beacon Hill Dollhouse. I have never built a dollhouse before so am very excited to try it. I have taught Jewelery, woodworking, and tool and die work at a university in North Carolina. So have some experience working with my hands. I plan to build my first house from scratch so have lots of questions. I have already learned a lot reading the forums here. The house is for my 4 and a half year old niece. It will be her first dollhouse. She picked the Greenleaf Beacon Hill Dollhouse out from pictures. My target date is Christmas 08. I will do my best to post pictures as I start building.

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Hello and welcome to our forum. But I'm confused (easily done in my case) are you building the Beacon Hill from scratch and not the kit? or is there 2 houses in the plan--the Beacon Hill and a scratch built one?

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Welcome to our "little" family, Jeff, and we are delighted to have you. With your prior experience you ought to have no problem completing the Beacon Hill within a year, and there are some gorgeous ones in the Gallery to inspire you. I'm also interested in your "scratch" build & hope you'll make an album to show your building procedure & prgress on both houses. When you've made a total of five posts you can create an album.

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Hi Jeff, and welcome to the forum! :wave: There are all kinds of pics of the lovely Beacon Hill - various members have built this beauty. (I'm not one of them, unfortunately.)

I posted in another thread that you started - but I'm still a little confused .... are you building a Beacon Hill kit - or a dollhouse of your own design? Perhaps when you say building "from scratch", you mean beginning with an unassembled kit. Usually, "from scratch" means starting with the basic ingredients (wood) and going from there - as in, making a cake from scratch involves measuring, sifting and mixing flour, salt, sugar, baking powder,etc. and then adding measures of milk, perhaps a beaten egg, and so on. Baking a cake from a mix (not from scratch) means the dry ingredients have already been measured and prepared for you .... kind of like a dollhouse kit.

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Hello and welcome to our forum. But I'm confused (easily done in my case) are you building the Beacon Hill from scratch and not the kit? or is there 2 houses in the plan--the Beacon Hill and a scratch built one?

Hoping to do one from scratch.

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Hi Jeff, and welcome to the forum! :blink: There are all kinds of pics of the lovely Beacon Hill - various members have built this beauty. (I'm not one of them, unfortunately.)

I posted in another thread that you started - but I'm still a little confused .... are you building a Beacon Hill kit - or a dollhouse of your own design? Perhaps when you say building "from scratch", you mean beginning with an unassembled kit. Usually, "from scratch" means starting with the basic ingredients (wood) and going from there - as in, making a cake from scratch involves measuring, sifting and mixing flour, salt, sugar, baking powder,etc. and then adding measures of milk, perhaps a beaten egg, and so on. Baking a cake from a mix (not from scratch) means the dry ingredients have already been measured and prepared for you .... kind of like a dollhouse kit.

Hi Shy Spirit

Yes I am starting from scratch. I am trying to decide between MDF and baltic birch plywood for the body. I know I want to use 3/8, since it works out to 4.5 inches in scale, for the walls. The kits seam to use 1/4 inch which looks wrong to me. I plan on 1/2 inch for the floors to be 6inch. Thats a little thiner that real floor joist but I have found a few examples of Victorian houses using 2*6 inch floor joist. That still makes 1/2 inch a little thin but it should be ok.

Of course after looking at some of the incredible houses here I could be like the weekend hiker that says he is going to climb Mt Everest. Even if my first house doesn't work out it will be fun. I can always try a kit latter.

I would like to add everyone here is so nice and the gallery's are incredible.

Thanks to everyone,

Jeff Church

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Jeff, consider the weight of the final build, especially if you're leaning toward one of Beacon Hill proportion. (Also consider the size of the doors between the room where you build it and the room where it will eventually live.) :blink:

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Jeff, to mitigate the weight factor you might look into using 1/4" diameter square stock for "studs" and foamcore for "sheetrock" and scratch-build your Victorian that way. Then your main limitation will be finished size, and you might want to consider building the house in modular sections that can be separated to fit through doorways.

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Hi Jeff

Welcome to the forum. I am also in NC.

I built my house from scratch and it started out as a gift to my nieces. Then I became obsessed with realism :D . I ended up having to build them a play one from a kit and am still working on the custom built one :ohyeah:

I used 1/2" ply as it was available readily. It is 5 stories (3+ attic + basement) and it is heavy. I don't mind, but it does take 2 people to move it.

Good luck

I like to order stuff from Cheap Joes Art Supplies inn Boone now and then. Good prices on paints and stuff.

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Hi Jeff

Welcome to the forum. I am also in NC.

I built my house from scratch and it started out as a gift to my nieces. Then I became obsessed with realism :) . I ended up having to build them a play one from a kit and am still working on the custom built one :)

I used 1/2" ply as it was available readily. It is 5 stories (3+ attic + basement) and it is heavy. I don't mind, but it does take 2 people to move it.

Good luck

I like to order stuff from Cheap Joes Art Supplies inn Boone now and then. Good prices on paints and stuff.

Hi Sherr

Glad to meet someone from NC here. I can already see that I am going to obsess on realism. Would love to see pictures of your house. What experience did you have before starting? I think mine will be 3 stories but maybe wider than an original BH. I do have to keep the size reasonable since I will have to take it to Louisiana for my niece. My wife is laughing at this post because she can see me going down the same path with this. I do tend to get carried away with projects. LOL

Along this same line does anyone know if there is a reason that rooms tend to get shorter in upper stories. Form what I can see in picture here the BH is 12 feet first floor, 10 feet second floor, and 8 feet on top. Is this done to give an illusion of scale hight. Bonsai trees are done with something similar to give the feeling of great hight.

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Jeff

I am in coastal NC but have a family mountain house between Boone and W Jefferson...near Todd.

I found that my neices who are 3 and 5 now, really like the house I built for them to play with. And they keep saying some day they will get the "big" house. There are pics of my build in the link in my signature. It says something like Quasi Georgian Custom Build.

I think the floors getting smaller as you go up must have something to do with the golden proportion. At least that sounds plausible and intellectual!

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:) Welcome from another newbie that's originally from NC, now living in TX and proud of both.

U said you've taught at a university there, would that be ApState in Boone? Noted that was where you live. I am impressed that you are custom building a dollhouse...that is eventually my dream.

I want to eventually build the house that my grandmother lives in in Historic Oakwood, Raleigh, NC. House was built in 1876. Like everyone else, I would love to see pics and story of your progress.

Terri

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I don't know about "golden proportion", but my maternal grandmother's best friend married into a wealthy family and their townhouse had 12' ceilings on the ground floor, 10' ceilings on the second (except for the room above the port cochere) and about 8' on the third floor (where the children's rooms & nursery were).

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