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Dura-Craft farmhouse fh505


lolli28147

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I bought an fh505 for $30 from Craigslist about 2 years ago. I love making miniatures and finally have time to build the house.  This is my first build and I am having a little bit of issue with construction. I have read the instructions many times over, and I've examined the pictures, but I'm still not sure I'm assembling it correctly.  I don't want to mess it up. Does anyone happen to have any pictures of their progress AS they are building? Im a visual person and hope if I can see the way someone else is doing it, it might help me to figure out if I'm doing this correctly. Thanks in advance!

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This is for encouragement, but I found my San Fran next to a dumpster already assembled, but without its windows, stairs, or doors.  So I didn't actually build it, but it was hard to install windows which didn't come with the kit.  Its a very sturdy dollhouse, thick walls, and heavy.   I also have an Artply Tennyson, and its thin construction by comparison.  Good Luck and you will find much help and kind supp56cfece16df6b_MermaDollhouse2016b.thumb.ort on the Greenleaf website.MermaDollhouse2016.thumb.JPG.e34b6c07160

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Thanks for sharing your house with me.  My current confusion stems from putting in the corner posts. I think I've got it figured out, for the most part. The instructions said to assemble the foundation walls and the the support walls.  I assembled both and glued the foundation walls, with the exception of the walls on the left hand side of the house, as the way the way I read the instructions, getting the walls to stay in place for glue to dry wasn't a possibility.  It also appeared to me that the corner posts slid down into those corners and held the walls in place, so for now, I simply have those walls taped till something makes more sense or its confirmed I am doing things correctly. It also states to anchor the walls and corner posts....but I am not exactly sure where these pieces go.  I am assuming these go under the base floor of the parts of the walls that don't line up with outside foundation pieces. Can someone confirm if what I'm thinking and reading mesh up and are right? Thanks. 

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A new issue....just trying to do a dry fit with the walls and corner posts on the base and I am struggling! Is there a trick to this? My walls will not easily slide down the grooves of the posts. I broke 2 pieces trying...attempting to re-glue those as I type....I used my Dremel and sanded the edges a bit to taper them, and I made a little progress, but it still isn't working well.  Do I just need to sand a little more?  I'm getting so frustrated! I'm starting to wonder if I should just cut new walls out of plywood....which would be a ton of extra work! But I don't really know what to do. Please help!

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Did you do a dry fit of the house first? That is the time to see if all the peices  fit together. In some cases you have to cut the tabs so they fit properly in the slots. But if they are off a lot you may have something upside down or inside out.

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Her Dura-Craft isn't a tab & slot, it's wall panels that slide down into the milled grooves in the longframe corner post pieces.  Laura, both the San Franciscan and the Cambridge Dura-Craft kits I built needed dry fitting and sanding/ shaving to get those (censored) walls to slide down.  Even using a steel carpenter's square I still would up using spackle and baseboards to cover the gaps along the bottom of the walls.  It's just the nature of those kits.  I till have a Dura-Craft Newberg I will eventually build, they make up into lovely houses.

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Thanks for your replies. i do have the tongue and groove siding for the walls and I glued those pieces together about a year and a half ago....I probably should have waited. :) so I guess I'm doing a semi-dry fit? Lol I did notice those gaps you were talking about, the one wall that did go in easily had a noticeable gap at the bottom that I will have to fill in a little. Should I continue to sand on the edges of the wall panels and taper them to get a better fit? Or do I need to start cutting walls from plywood?

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I would try the sanding.  I would also invest in a pack of emery boards and take them to those routed grooves in the longframes that are giving you the most fits with your walls.  I had a video with my SF555 that contained one useful tidbit of info; sometimes it's necessary to shave the wood to get things to fit (he was doing it to those lovely windows you had to build in the bays).  That's when I retired the Xacto knife to its box and put it in my doll-making box and turned to my old Stanley heavy-duty box-cutter utility knife, instead.  Does your DH/ SO have a workshop?  A full size belt sander is a useful play pretty.

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8 hours ago, havanaholly said:

I would try the sanding.  I would also invest in a pack of emery boards and take them to those routed grooves in the longframes that are giving you the most fits with your walls.  I had a video with my SF555 that contained one useful tidbit of info; sometimes it's necessary to shave the wood to get things to fit (he was doing it to those lovely windows you had to build in the bays).  That's when I retired the Xacto knife to its box and put it in my doll-making box and turned to my old Stanley heavy-duty box-cutter utility knife, instead.  Does your DH/ SO have a workshop?  A full size belt sander is a useful play pretty.

I will keep at it with sanding....didn't think about sanding in the grooves though....I may need to check that out in the next little bit. Hubs is a brick mason and fairly handy...but the funny thing is that I'm the one with all the tools! Hahahahahahahahaha I don't have a belt sander, but I do have a handheld sander as well as a nifty Dremel with lots of attachments and various other power tools.  Thanks for the advice, I'm about to get started again fitting these walls into the slots.....a sanding I will go! Lol

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I sanded the wall edges a little more and now we have a perfect fit! I'm attaching a couple of pictures to show the progress so far.  Walls aren't glued yet, just taped.   

Currently, my plan for this farmhouse is for it to have an old, rundown kind of look.....I may change my mind a little further down the road.....we shall see.

image.jpeg

image.jpeg

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Hooray!! That looks wonderful! What does the husband think of the tiny brickwork? 

You can start an album in the "gallery" to store all of the photos. I think there's a limit on how many photos you can put in an individual thread.

Love the house! I can't wait to see how it all turns out!

 

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Do start an album of your build in the gallery and put the pictures you have already posted here there, as well.  There is a limit to how many pictures you can post to a thread from outside, but none to the gallery albums, and as far as I can tell, no limit on how many pictures in you albums you can post in threads.

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Thanks Linda. Husband likes the brickwork, although the joints are too large for the bricks. Lol I used the brick mix that came with the kit and was pleased how they turned out, but not content with the joints just simply being the painted wood. I opted to buy some tile grout to use, which gave it a nice look. I ended up having to use a toothpick to apply the grout in between each and every line! A long tedious process, but it turned out so well, I can't complain about it. Lol. I will certainly start an album...as soon as I figure out how! Lol thanks for the input all of you have given me. I love getting other people's feedback. And all of you have been such an enormous help already! Thanks you!

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  • 1 year later...
On 2/25/2016, 9:58:53, lolli28147 said:

I bought an fh505 for $30 from Craigslist about 2 years ago. I love making miniatures and finally have time to build the house.  This is my first build and I am having a little bit of issue with construction. I have read the instructions many times over, and I've examined the pictures, but I'm still not sure I'm assembling it correctly.  I don't want to mess it up. Does anyone happen to have any pictures of their progress AS they are building? Im a visual person and hope if I can see the way someone else is doing it, it might help me to figure out if I'm doing this correctly. Thanks in advance!

I know this post is old however I just bought the dura craft farmhouse New in the box from a thrift shop in New Jersey complete with original instructions. I'd be happy to take pictures of any part of the instructions you need. Let me know. 

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Rob, I have requested the admins to remove your email address.  We have a Personal Message function for sharing personal contact information so that spammers and bots cannot latch onto you.

I hope you will post an introduction in the Newcomers' Forum.

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