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My attempt at the Magnolia


Joyrene10

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The kit in question is over twenty years old and I was surprised to find it in pretty good condition considering it had been transported from England to Crete during its boxed lifetime. The ply was rather brittle so after looking on some of the forums I decided it would be better to sand all the sheets on both sides with a palm sander and then size them all with a watered down PVQ glue. Whilst this left me with a reasonable surface for painting and wallpapering it meant that I could not stain and varnish any of the floors as I had in the Buttercup. Still I assembled a dry run and left it up for a couple of days and finally decided to turn the staircase around as I wanted a space to put the double cupboard from the kitchen set that I had been given as a present

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The shape of the bay windows in the kitchen was also a problem as they were too low for all the cupboards so I decided to leave the bottom panes in place and use on single windows throughout the whole kitchen.

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The kitchen floor was my next project and I liked the blue tile look which gave me the idea of white walls and blue window frames. At this stage a saw some advice that it was a good idea to cut templates for any wallpapering schemes and attach the wallpaper to the templates once the room was constructed so I dismantled the dry run and started the templates.

Edited by Joyrene10
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Your project looks great. Your issue with the kitchen windows is a common one. There are more kits with that issue than without. I have a couple of future builds where I will cut new windows into the walls for just that reason.

Keep up the good work!!

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I had to build the Magnolia as is, without finishing decor, for the Team Magnolia build, so I only built the shell and attached the trims, doors and windows with poster putty and just set the stairs and roof into place. Once I finished my build and blogged it I went back to finish Maggie as a Florida Cracker house. By then it had changed my mind about the kitchen, so the windows were no longer an issue.

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I have had a few problems making the construction strong as the bay window section of the ground floor do not fit well enough to be glued together properly so I cut cardstock templates for each three sections, cut out the door and windows to allow the frames to glue to the wood and them joined the templates together on the back with wide masking tape and dry fitted the wood sections together. This worked well but I them encountered a problem trying to fit the sash windows and frames whilst they were in an upright position so I took it all to pieces and started again. This time I laid out the three bay sections on the work surface in order, pasted the wall papered templates directly onto the wood using wall paper paste and when all the sections were dry including the front kitchen wall and the side lounge wall I set about fitting the sash windows, the frames and the door (hinged with tape) and the sills. When this was dry I turned the construction over and fixed the stone paper to the outside sections so that when I finally glued the walls onto the floor all the papering and fixing was done. Mindful of Holly's warning regarding fixing windows too early I covered the frames of the windows with the widest masking tape I could find to protect them. The skewers, painted brown to match the frames, have added more stability and the ceiling coving and fitted units has also helped. I will post a couple of photographs in the gallery as soon as I work out how to do it

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Thanks Patricia, it was worth going back and starting again, now the build is really asking questions as she has become the 'Stony Maggie', rather countrified and rustic but colourful and cheerful. She will need to be rugged as I think I will end up giving her to some sort of childrens nursery out her in Crete as she is going to be too big to get back to the UK except my car if somebody is returning empty at the end of the year. I have started the porch but this old kit is very fragile so I have started to reinforce the veranda railings and posts so I hope this will work. More pics to come soon. I have to make this the best I can as I will not have enough room i the future if we return to the UK.

Edited by Joyrene10
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...I do not know how to put a link in to this page.
Highlight the url at the top of the page and rightclick on it to "copy"; then, where you want it in your post you can right click to paste it: http://www.greenleafdollhouses.com/forum/index.php?app=gallery&album=6100
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Hi Joyrene, love your solution to the kitchen space-- I had already made up all my windows and assembled everything by the time I figured this out, so I was stuck with a window-ful kitchen and no room for kitchen furnishings! (I did try out a tutorial for a matboard kitchen cabinet by http://1inchminisbykris.blogspot.com/ though, which I liked very much and highly recommend. My finished product is modified from Kris' original and not nearly as polished as hers: http://www.greenleafdollhouses.com/forum/index.php?app=gallery&image=85763 but I had alot of fun doing it!)

Had the same problems as you with the railings-- I decided to stick it out with the kit railings, and ended up reinforcing them with cardstock, wire and spackle: http://www.greenleafdollhouses.com/forum/index.php?app=blog&module=display&section=blog&blogid=82&showentry=2451 I glued strips of cardstock on each slat and affixed a length of craft wire over that, with the intent to add some dimensionality to the railing. I spackled and sanded where I could, and repainted a few times, but that wood was quite brittle.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Joy, it's coming together awfully well considering the kit has been everywhere and not stored in good climate conditions. I had a ball building mine a few years back. It's a great sized house. Looking forward to seeing more pictures!

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With that scalloped edge I would be sorely tempted to paint the roof like a striped awning! For a rougher finish to the exterior, have you considered spreading some polyfilla and whilst it's damp, pop the surface with the flat of an old credit card?

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Hi Holly, Thanks for the suggestion, I like the idea of the polyfilla, perhaps I will use a piece of stripped off corrigated cardboard and spread some greeny grey coloured polyfila onto that, with a sprinkling some of the fine grey grit that I found in the arty shop in the town today to make it look a bit aged. What do you think? It might tone down some of the colours that I am using externally.

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Well Holly I have submitted your ideas to my DH, sister and daughter and they think the awning is a great idea so awning it is. I have found in my pile of scrap fabric some mottled grass green canvas which I have draped over the roof and I like the effect very much. I will cover a piece of card with a scrap of this fabric and offer it up and take a photo so that you can see what I mean. I had thought of painting on brown and yellow stripes but it is looking a bit garish especially as the brown paint is gloss. Thanks so much for your help.

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  • 6 months later...

Well I am back at last, been very busy creating a vegetable garden at my daughters house and it has taken all my energy but it is now far to hot to grow anything so have been spending some time in the Stony Maggie. Finally the lights are in on the ground floor, so is the staircase, the carpets and the curtains and now I have put on the ceiling. I will load some photos of the finished ground floor in the gallery. The lighting was very difficult for me but I am very pleased I did it as the results are great. I am now looking at the bedrooms and have decided to do more kit bashing and put in a bathroom between the 2 rooms and add a roof extension to the large bedroom with a skylight and a dormer window over the front porch. Dry run in cardboard is interesting and gives the Maggie a more unusual shape. As my son and his wife said when they came to visit, trust Mum to change it she can never make anything without doing changes!!!

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... trust Mum to change it. she can never make anything without doing changes!!!

My mantra exactly ... why be the same as everyone else?

Might as well be unique if you can, right?

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