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Westville modified to remember wife's family home


Mxytplk

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This is the first doll house I have built. With some slight modifications it resembles the family home my wife grew up in. As you can see from the pictures, many parts were remade, modified, or replaced. Some because of poor wood and warpage, some for modification purposes. Great fun but about 100 hours of work to this point (including some furniture construction. I'd love to read what you think....

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It's lovely, Bob ... nicely done! :clap:

What's next? <evil grin> ... we know you can't stop at one. We've all been there and have multiple dollhouses to prove it!

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THanks. I appreciate your encouragement. I have a bunch of closeups but they are too large to upload apparently.

Next project is underway- 3 shop street of shops. The corner shop will be my law office, the other two combined to be my miniature art gallery- replicating one I owned years ago with my art work miniaturized on display...in the meantime I built a cabin for the seven dwarfs at the request of my 3 year old grandson (Disney sells a great set of 1:12 seven dwarfs!!!)

I need to kick this habit! Actually art production down to zero around here! BUT, I must say these are the first presents I ever made for anyone that actually consumes their attention for hours on end day after day!

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This is great! I bet your wife loves it! I am still a newbie to dollhouses and just wanted to compliment you,but there are some Westville owners who I'm sure will be sharing their experiences and admiring this as much as I do. Welcome to the forum! Kat

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Lovely Westville! I like the patio too. I also like your modification for the space for the ladder to the third floor.

So my question is, why would you want to kick this habit? I find this is the most wonderfully all-consuming hobby ever, and one of the few activities I can do that completely gets my mind off my work! :D

For your first house you've done a very nice job! I'm looking forward to seeing your other projects. :)

BTW, welcome to the forum and after five posts you can start your own gallery.

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Havanaholly. Under my stairs is a master power strip with various area electrical subsystems plugged into it. The door, jam, trim and slanted roof piece easily are removed for access (but fit back invisibly.)

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Bob~ You're a lawyer? You should have been a woodworker. First house, amazing! I am building a Westville right now and really like it. I didn't online then bought a kit on cl for next to nothing. Boy am I glad. I LOVE this house. Also, welcome! Have you introduced yourself in the new members forum yet?

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THanks everyone for your input. No I haven't introduced myself as yet- I'm just learning the structure of this site.

By the way- is it impolitic to mention that I had to remanufacture all doors, window frames, posts and railings, a number of significant and significantly warped panels, and add quite few reinforcements back trim elements and the like to make a decent structure. The "kit" was little more than a box of largely inadequate lumber and some poorly thought out and scantily illustrated instructions. It was much more like building a real house than gluing together rather elegant pre-assemblies as I'm now doing with the street of shops.

My unfortunate experience was not limited to the Westville. I also built a log cabin for my grandson that shared many of the same problems but was more tolerable only by virtue of the rougher style of the cabin. Too bad. There is a Greenleaf kit that looks exactly like my 1853 Santa Fe Trail Trading Post that I live in and have my studios in. I don't think I'm enough of a masachist! So bah! Humbug! Now I got that out of my system.

I am enjoying getting to know you folks...

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Yew, all my life i've made things. So I rehabed a 160 year old saloon. My law office is half the first floor and the other half is art studio. Perfect for gluing! Run from one room to the other, put some parts together, go to the other side, see a client, talk to lawyers on the phone while I'm grouting a patio...works out great! Doll houses seem amenable to working in short but frequent bursts. Keeps me from touching the paint to see if it is dry yet!

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If you were looking at the Brimbles kit for your mini law office/art studio you might be interested to know that it is a laser cut kit rather than a die cut kit. I've built both one inch scale laser and die cut kits, and the laser cut kits are really superior IMO. They are much easier to work with and detailed trim, etc is very clean. You don't have the splintering and sanding issues either. Of course, you are working flat, so if you want rounded dimensional trim, you will be making modifications. I also usually make substitutions on interior trim so that it isn't as thick and is more to scale.

It's funny. I got the Brimbles in half scale (my scale of choice) to turn it into a law office on the first floor, studio on the second floor, and rooftop garden. :)

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Welcome to the forum, Bob. Did you say something about needing to kick the mini-habit? We'll do all we can - to help you NOT kick it. :evil: We are all enablers here! I love your house - especially with the car sitting beside it.

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Scale : HO....It is nice to know someone of your knowledge and experience is nearby! Maybe we'll meet one day and I can see some of your miniatures in person! (I just took a divorce case in Marshall, MO and I will certainly be there in the next few months....)

Here's one more....

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  • 1 year later...

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