jiggitykid Posted December 29, 2008 Share Posted December 29, 2008 Hi! I am brand new to the dollhouse building world (after watching my poor parents struggle and then finally give up 30 years ago when trying to build a house for me when I was a child). Santa Claus brought my child a Beacon Hill dollhouse kit for Christmas, and we are ALL excited. Intimidated, but excited. While we are getting our building area together and assembling our tools, I have a few start off questions I hope someone will be able to answer. 1) Is there a basement kit available for the Beacon Hill, or instructions for one? 2) What tool would you say is absolutely essential (besides patience) to build this? 3) Most instructions I've seen (and I have to order the instructions because one of Santa's elves fell down on the job and only included pages three and four) say to do wallpaper/paint prior to assembly. Is this the consensus? 4) Once assembled, will the dollhouse fit through a standard doorway, or do we need to build it where it will live? I know they may seem like silly questions, but since I have no instructions and I'm a total newbie, please be patient with me :-). Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolfie Posted December 29, 2008 Share Posted December 29, 2008 There is no kit for a basement, but they are easy to build. Just take your first floor measures, and make the walls to fit exactly under it, and there is your basement. I make my basements about 9" high......... The Beacon Hill will fit through a standard doorway, yes! If it doesn't, just cut holes in your present doorway so it will! LOL Just kidding. DO NOT DO THIS!!!!!!! And welcome to the forum by the way! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jiggitykid Posted December 30, 2008 Author Share Posted December 30, 2008 Thank you for your welcome and for your advice. No, I don't think dear hubby would allow me to cut holes in our doors. They are 100 years old. The house we are in is 100 years old this year - almost 101. LOL! Now that you've said how to make the basement, all I can think is DUH! Thank you again. As I said, I'm new and my questions may seem silly, but I'm just gettin' started. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havanaholly Posted December 30, 2008 Share Posted December 30, 2008 After you've given all of us a chance to welcome you over in the Newcomers' Forum, Karen, allow me to say first of all that on this forum there are NO "silly", "dumb" or "stupid" questions, if you don't know the answer, and no one expects a Newb to know the answers. I'm still a newbie and I ask all sorts of questions! The most essential tool to building any kit is patience. After that, there are some basics items: knife (craft knife; I prefer a heavy-duty utility knife) masking tape carpenter's wood glue (NOT hot glue); tacky glue for gluing the acetate window inserts sandpaper (I staple mine to a block of wood to make a sanding block) you cannot have too many clamps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chesterfieldzoo Posted December 30, 2008 Share Posted December 30, 2008 You could make a box bigger than the house, put the house on top and a basement below. From the front it would look like a house on a small table. But that way, you could still landscape around it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Good Morning Glory Posted December 30, 2008 Share Posted December 30, 2008 Karen, You have a wonderful adventure ahead of you. There are so many places that you can go for help. One thing to do is a search of the Greenleaf Forums. The search box or link to search is found at the top of the page, type in Beacon Hill (if there is a box that says this forum only uncheck it) Pages of information will come up. You can download the Greenleaf Warm up Sheet (you will probably get one of these with the instructions that you are ordering from Greenleaf) http://www.greenleafdollhouses.com/forum/i...amp;showfile=54 go to the middle of the page and click on the download link, select save and make a folder on your desktop to print it from. You can also use this link to a book you can either read it online or download and print it out. Everything You Wanted to Know About Dollhouses But Didn't Know Who To Ask The complete instructional guide to finishing a dollhouse or miniature project by Nancy Van Horn that is available online no charge from the miniature.com website: https://www.miniatures.com/hbs/global/Index..._HowToGuide.asp There are so many dollhouse sites that you can google for information one of them is Alice's Dollhouse Page: http://kuoi.com/~nyssa/dollhouse.html where you will find her guide to constructing a dollhouse starting with this link: http://kuoi.com/~nyssa/tennyson/build1.html The only dumb thing you can do is not ask the question because the people on this website are helpful and well informed and will help you with any questions that you may have. Just reading the posts in the forum can be a helpful pastime with plenty of rewards when you find these wonderful tips to make things right and warnings about what can go wrong. Enjoy yourself and don't panic... Barbara Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Intrinsicat Posted December 30, 2008 Share Posted December 30, 2008 I JUST lined up the pieces for my Beacon Hill along my workbench.... I started out a couple years ago with the BH, but set it aside because it overwhelmed me! I decided to try a few starter projects and build supplies and knowledge before tackling a real dollhouse. I'm glad I did! In that time I've acquired clamps, a Dremel, a Quickcut, a mitre saw, an extra worktable and loads of experience with glue! :groucho: A suggestion for the basement (which I am also doing)... I saw this on a cover of a mini magazine for a haunted house. They constructed a basement / dungeon and surrounded it on three sides with newspaper and covered that with plaster or some such coat. Voila! Instant landscaping for the front... the basement is only visible from the back. I am also planning on wallpapers / distressing the walls before I glue it together. I'm afraid I won't be able to get the detail I'm looking for if I have to do some kind of funky hand yoga to get the walls, floors and ceilings the way want them to look. Mine is going to be a haunted house so I'm planning on bashing it a bit to give it a dumbwaiter and a false wall for peering out of paintings. I'm also keeping the tower open on the back so there is actual access to the widow's peak - I've seen a few people here set it up that way. If you want a little practice sanding, gluing etc you might consider getting a one room dollhouse just to assemble it - it can be the garden house for the BH! Or maybe one of the contest peices this year, like the HBS arbor - and Greenleaf has done a spring fling contest the past couple years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MidnightVoice Posted December 30, 2008 Share Posted December 30, 2008 Somewhere, and I have no idea where, I saw a picture of a bashed dollhouse that had a half-basement. The builder had set it on a table so it looked like street level from the front, and then cut away the table so he could "hang" a full basement below. Cost a table, but looked really cool :groucho: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MidnightVoice Posted December 30, 2008 Share Posted December 30, 2008 This is not it: http://www.search.com/images?q=dollhouse+b...532&index=1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Intrinsicat Posted December 30, 2008 Share Posted December 30, 2008 This is the magazine and the front cover of the haunted house I was referring to in the above post: Patricia Paul I don't think she's got any pictures of the backside, but you can see how the landscaping runs downhill because the basement is behind the landscaping! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amyinOR Posted December 30, 2008 Share Posted December 30, 2008 I saw a cut up table used to hide a basement in the gallery. Do a search in the gallery for Sea Side Villa. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
More Minis Dollhouses Posted December 30, 2008 Share Posted December 30, 2008 Karen I also have some newbie information and Ive blogged the builds of two Beacon Hills in my blog. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Intrinsicat Posted December 30, 2008 Share Posted December 30, 2008 Karen I also have some newbie information and Ive blogged the builds of two Beacon Hills in my blog. Thank you Gina! I will be frequenting your Beacon Hill blogs quite often!!! It will be invaluable I am sure!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nechee Posted December 31, 2008 Share Posted December 31, 2008 I think I found the link to the Beacon Hill with a basement cut into the table. It is partway through the pictures but it looks great. here is the link http://community.webshots.com/slideshow?ID...GRFuG&pos=0 I found it on the last page of the "Question about a particular house>Greenleaf dollhouses" forum. If you go to the last page it is the very first thread in the forum. The links are part way through the thread but I believe that the link above is the one everyone is talking about with the basement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rbytsdy Posted January 1, 2009 Share Posted January 1, 2009 I think I found the link to the Beacon Hill with a basement cut into the table. It is partway through the pictures but it looks great. here is the link http://community.webshots.com/slideshow?ID...GRFuG&pos=0 ... Wowza! Lovely BH. Makes me want to build another one! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chesterfieldzoo Posted January 3, 2009 Share Posted January 3, 2009 I like basements. They are cool and there are so many ways of doing one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aggiemae Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 Do consider building the basement as part of the table/stand for the house so it will stay in two pieces. I just drew up a plan for the Pierce as I wanted to garden in the back to fill in the "L" and decided if I was going to cut uot all those pieces I might as well add a basement. The Pierce has a great kitchen on the first floor as is but a basement is good for other victorian houses, you can add a kitchen, wine cellar, servant's room and even a bath room. My SF has a laundry room/bathroom. A room where it is easy to boil water for the family to take their weekly baths. Then I was able to add a small WC under the 2nd floor stairs. The door to th cellar is under the first floor stairs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarah91 Posted February 7, 2009 Share Posted February 7, 2009 Wallpaper first! I thought this was silly when I started mine but now that I have to get around all the finiky little corners when I wallpaper, I wish I had done it before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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