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Glencroft Reimagined


chrisatoledo

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INTRO:
Hello Everyone! 

I recently purchased my first dollhouse kit in almost 20 years. Im a early 30s guy living in Los Angeles and my obsession with miniatures began at a really young age. My father was in construction and as a kid, I was always fascinated with every aspect of his job. Im not really sure exactly how I stumbled upon the world of 1:12 minis at such a young age, but I know that when I did, I was hooked. The details, the freedom to construct such beautiful structures in your home, the lighting, the furniture.... I loved it all. By age 10, I had completed two dollhouses by a company that doesn't even exist anymore. It was a log cabin and a large victorian farm house.  By age 12 we moved to a new city and the stigmas of being a 12-13 y/o boy began taking over and the dollhouse miniature world I loved so much was put on the back-burner indefinitely. 

Fast forward a little almost two decades... and here we are. I recently was in a small mountain town outside greater los angeles where I used to go with my parents as a kid and I stopped by this store that I used to get miniatures at. Sure enough, after so many years, the same display cases full of miniatures still stood. The cases looked way smaller than I remember and I could actually reach the top shelves this time.  It brought back a lot of nostalgia and it was at that moment I vowed to get back into the hobby.  I chose the Glencroft as because I always loved the tudor style and as my first dollhouse in so long, I felt like it would help get those creative juices flowing.  Plus, Ive seen so many Glencroft houses on here that have been so beautifully personalized, I was even more inspired.  

Of course, a simple kit wasn't going to be good enough for me... So I decided to use the shell of my Glencroft and create a completely personalized (As true to scale as possible) Mini-Home. 

 

THE FUN BEGINS
The first thing was to do as much research as possible. I looked up about 200 different Glencroft Build Blogs and completely became familiar with the steps and processes.  I then decided what it was I wanted to change on the overall house and made a list.

1. Bring main entry forward to create a portico style porch.
2. Cover first floor front facade in stone
3. Ad a Kitchen wing to right side of house and turn current kitchen into dining.
4. Open up the wall between the Living and Dining to a more grand Tudor style arch.
5. Cover entire living room in Tudor style wall paneling.  
6. Rebuild staircase from scratch
7. Create custom wood detailing on front facade using 1/16 x 1/4 basswood rather than the punch and glue pre-designed wood provided.
8. Create new more detailed doors for the whole interior. 

These are only the bigger points on a very long list but I provided a quick moc-up of the house as I want it to look. (Dont judge me, I made it really fast)

Glencroft_moc.jpg

 

For the record, as Im posting this.... I still have not received my Glencroft. I should get it Monday.... But I wanted to make sure to have as much planned as possible before even opening the box.


BUYING SUPPLIES
This has been by far the most stressful part so far. (Financially Speaking)  Since I haven't built any miniatures in almost 20 years, my supply list has been pretty bleak. Aside from the average set of home tools, there wasn't much else to work with. SO, I bit the bullet and put my Amazon Prime account to work!  I stocked up on everything I can think of.... fine tooth saws, coping saws, x-acto sets, various grades of sand paper, like 20 bottles of stainable wood glue etc. 

Next was to start buying some of the first finishes I would need.  I knew that finishing the living room was going to be my first official task, so yesterday, I purchased all the wood I think I would need for the floor to ceiling tudor paneling, including a micro-sized table saw with a 4 inch blade that I CANNOT WAIT to use. Next was lighting since I had to wire all the walls before I finished them.  For the living room I found 4 Heidi Ott sconces on Ebay that were PERFECT! (Pictured below).
Sconces.jpg

I wanted the fireplace to really pop on that wall so after doing A LOT of research on Tudor fireplaces, I settled on doing a stone carved arched fireplace, inset to the paneled walls. I loved the look of THIS fireplace but since I don't want to spend almost $200 on a fireplace mantle smaller than my hand, I found a cheaper alternative at Miniatures.com which I was going to repaint to look like my inspo photo.  (Pictured Below)

s-l1600.jpg

 

SO here we are. My Glencroft officially arrives tomorrow so I can finally begin to post about my process and steps. I would love to hear what you guys think and if anyone has any tips, I would really appreciate it! (ALSO, I wasn't sure what topic to post this under so if anyone has any suggestions for that as well, I'de greatly appreciate it.  

So until my next post, Have a great week everyone!

- Chris

Edited by chrisatoledo
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Normally we look for intros in the Newcomers; Forum so  we could all welcome you to the little family.  I had all sorts of wonderful plans to build my Glencroft to be Miss Marple's cottage, right up until I opened the box and began to dry fit it, and it told me it wanted to become a pub.  I have learned to listen to the kit as soon as I see it now, and I have traded off several kits I had becaue they wouldn't talk to me.

When you have made five post you can open an album in the Gallery so we can watch your build.  I have discovered that a lot of the things I want to put in my houses are either unavailable or won't fit or don't look quite like what I want, so I make nearly everything I put into my houses.  I used kits for the pub; bathroom and much of the kitchen and the two settles, but everything else was made by me using mostly a utility knife and spackle.

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Welcome.  I have the Microlux mini table saw and couldn't imagine my mini life without it. I just finished cutting columns which required a 15 degree cut. Love it! I'm looking forward to seeing that eyebrow roof line.

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I'm really looking forward to watching your home come together!  I have tons of similar inspiration pictures saved.  We used to own a 1920 bungalow.  It had many of the features you are describing.  I miss that house a lot. 

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It is a shame they aren't lasercutting the glencroft yet. So if the stairs-fireplace-beams get you frustrated...just take a deep breath and know you are, have been and will be in good company. Some folks do their own custom beams, but this section is so intertwined and interdependent....and not lasercut. Sigh. Good luck.

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8 minutes ago, Elsbeth said:

It is a shame they aren't lasercutting the glencroft yet. So if the stairs-fireplace-beams get you frustrated...just take a deep breath and know you are, have been and will be in good company. Some folks do their own custom beams, but this section is so intertwined and interdependent....and not lasercut. Sigh. Good luck.

Good to know! Ive honestly been dreading (and looking forward) to building out those details. I'll definitely need the luck! Thanks!!

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I'm still trying to wrap my head around why you want to rebuild the Glencroft's charming staircase; it would be a simple matter to add the newels and banister and panel the bit that sticks out into the bottom room.  During the dry fit you can trace around the staircase to mark where you would want to put paneling along the walls.

Whilst I would love to build another one day, I still want to do Miss Marple's cottage, and I don't trust the kit to want what I want.

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