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My Orchid Just Arrived!


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Hello everyone! My name is Ani and I'm new to the forum (although I've been a lurker for a long time) so I just wanted to introduce myself. I live in the San Francisco area. About 2 years ago I bought myself a huge laser-cut victorian farmhouse, but moved shortly afterward and just don't have room to build it in our current apartment. Also, in retrospect, that was way too big and fancy a house for my very first build - even before we moved my anxiety/perfectionism got in the way of starting! My very sweet SO just bought me a Greenleaf Orchid kit (which we do have room for), with the thought that a smaller house will be easier to start with and since it isn't my super-perfect-dream-dollhouse (like the kit stored in my mother's basement) I'll have an easier time just jumping in and counting it as "practice" for the big one. I'm excited to get started and I know I'll be constantly reading posts on here as I go for tips and tricks! I love that the Orchid seems to be so popular as I've already found quite a few blogs and forum posts online of builds!

-Ani

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Welcome to the little family, Ani.  The first thing I will tell you before your perfectionism gets any further in the way is that this is a hobby for most of u, so it is permissible to make mistakes.  Usually fixing mistakes leads to uniquely beautiful results.  I can safely say that not one of the houses I build suffers from perfection.  I have seen 1:1 scale houses with warped shingles and out-of-plumb walls and all sorts of OMGs that are easier to fix or cover up in mini.  I have learned an awful lot of useful stuff about building thse kit and making them look the way they want to,, and it wasn't by building them perfectly.

Mike's advice to NOT use hot glue is excellent.  I strongly recommend, especially for a first-time builder, to invest in a roll o two of masking (beige) or painters' (blue or green) tape and begin by assembling your kit parts with tape before you glue (what we call the "dry fit").  Among the MANY functions dry fitting serves is to make any adjustments to the tabs & slots for a perfect fit and to figure out if you understand the instructions (and sometimes to find a way that works better for you than the order written in the instruction).  Building is a very personal process, and what works for me or Mike might not work for you.  That is OK.

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 8/25/2016, 5:50:58, Beulah said:

Hi, welcome, I am also fairly new and working on an Orchid.  Though I am altering it quite a bit lol.  

I've decided (after browsing some albums on here) to go ahead and do a little kit-bashing my first time out of the gate. I can't remember the member's name now, but I saw an album with bump-outs on both sides of the Orchid and am trying for something similar. We've got the first floor almost finished with flooring, wall paper and siding, and one of the extensions is nearly done and ready to attach. I'm excited to see your pictures @Beulah and eventually start an album of my own!

Thanks for the welcome everyone!

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Hi Ani! I just started an Orchid, too; I've built several houses before but I got this kit for free (shopping in my mom's craft closet!) and decided to just have some fun with it. I started an album today and I'm going to try to document some of my choices and the steps I'm taking with it; if you want to ask questions (or offer ideas--there's always more I can learn with this hobby) feel free to hit me up! It's a fun little house to try things out with, and it doesn't take much furniture to fill it up. 

Almost forgot! If you want to look at the whole process of building the house, you might try the More Minis blog, where she details the build. She also does a few things in a different order than the directions, and I think her process works a little better for the way I conceptualize a build. Start at the Day One entry (URL is http://moreminis.blogspot.com/2007/04/orchid-day-1.html#.V-Pvpjs4l-W if that link doesn't work) then hit the "newer post" link at the bottom of each page to go through step by step.

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