Dura-Craft Colonial

[Miss Kitty]

Has anyone built a Dura-Craft Colonial CH-300?  I'm considering buying a kit from EBay. I've done a couple of searches in the Forum and Galleries and haven't found many references. 

[rodentraiser]

The Duracraft Colonial to me is the easiest of the Duracraft house kits to put together and I've always liked it. I'd just replace that front door, though. LOL

The only thing to remember about these kits is the walls slide down inside the corner channels. The plus side to this is your house is sided as you're building it. The downside is the channels will protrude out of the inside walls, making baseboard and ceiling moulding difficult to put in - well, it won't be difficult, but they won't make a continuous run around the room.

I'd do a google image search for Duracraft interiors and see if that's something you can live with. Most people don't mind it and if it really bugs you, you can always get some 1/8" plywood from Home Depot or somewhere and cut out walls to fit the inside. That will make your channels flush with the walls and also give you thicker house walls if you want to replace the windows, as well.

That's a lot of extra work, though, and while it's something I'd probably do, I don't think anyone else would.

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, rodentraiser said:

That's a lot of extra work, though, and while it's something I'd probably do, I don't think anyone else would.

I'd do it too, Kelly.

I love Dura-Craft Dollhouses... I don't know why but they just... speak to me.

I have 3 so far... but not the Colonial, so I can't tell you much about it.. I'd get it though if they shipped to Australia (I feel like now that I've got 3, I need to complete the collection... lol).. so I say go for it. :D

[Miss Kitty]

10 hours ago, rodentraiser said:

The Duracraft Colonial to me is the easiest of the Duracraft house kits to put together and I've always liked it. I'd just replace that front door, though. LOL

The only thing to remember about these kits is the walls slide down inside the corner channels. The plus side to this is your house is sided as you're building it. 

Do the channels make moving walls more difficult?  And does "siding the house as you build it" mean I can't substitute another exterior, such as brick?

[1martinimomma]

I am building the Duracraft San Fran 555 and I don't think you could brick the outside of the house.  The siding is milled into walls of the house.  It is  smooth on the interior but milled on the outside.   The siding looks like this.

   

You can move the interior walls quite easily.

[KathieB]

If bricking it is really important to you, I suppose you could put a layer of Spackle or wallboard mud over the siding to make it smooth and then brick over that. Or glue a layer of paperclay over the siding, indent brick shapes into it, and then paint it.

[rodentraiser]

Interior walls are easy to move as Colleen says. For exterior walls, if you thought out your plan carefully, I would think it would be an easy house to modify. All you have to do is move those channels to where you want them. The siding panels are a little hard to cut with an exacto blade, but they can be cut. The only thing is, you're only given so much in wall panels. The last time I needed extra, I was able to call Duracraft and order some. Can't do that now, of course.

As for bricking the exterior, wow, I don't know. RGT houses have very narrow and shallow siding which I would think would be easy to cover up with spackle (I'm planning on doing that for my basement), but the Duracraft siding is pretty wide and I think it might be too deep to spackle or paperclay. I don't know for sure because it's been a while since I've had hands on a Duracraft house. I may be remembering the siding as being wider than it really is.

If Kathie thinks it can be done though, it probably can.

 

[KathieB]

52 minutes ago, rodentraiser said:

As for bricking the exterior, wow, I don't know. RGT houses have very narrow and shallow siding which I would think would be easy to cover up with spackle (I'm planning on doing that for my basement), but the Duracraft siding is pretty wide and I think it might be too deep to spackle or paperclay. I don't know for sure because it's been a while since I've had hands on a Duracraft house. I may be remembering the siding as being wider than it really is.

If Kathie thinks it can be done though, it probably can.

Confession time: Kathie hasn't ever dealt with Duracraft house siding. Her pontificating was pure speculation based on something she would experiment with in that situation.   If the siding is really deep, the additional weight of Spackle or paperclay might be a deal breaker.

[havanaholly]

Once the walls are in place in their channels it would be possible to spackle/ mud over the milled in siding, if one must.  Probably the reason most of the houses I build have non-clapboard exteriors is because of my first two houses being Dura-Crafts with the milled-in siding.  I have finished a few other houses with individual siding strips and I far prefer those for doing clapboard; I am just not a huge fan.

[rodentraiser]

I had another bright idea, although it would certainly take some work. You could cut sections of wall from flat wood and slide those down between the channels replacing the siding panels, and then save the siding for another house or sell it on eBay. I don't know what width wood you could use between the channels - I don't know if it would take 1/4" thick wood. If you could fit that in between the channels, great. If not and you have to use 1/8" plywood, then I might consider cutting a second set of walls to place on the inside to support the house.

But if you did this, you'd have a flat surface to attach the bricks on the outside.

 

[Miss Kitty]

Thanks to all for your suggestions.  I'm not hung up on making it brick.  I can build a Willow with a brick exterior (listen to me planning all of these builds when I haven't even completed construction of my first one!)  My grandparents' house was built in 1941 and was a brick Colonial, and I'd like to recreate it at some point.  I love the Willow because it has an upstairs hall for the staircase, but it doesn't appear to have room for a dining room; the Dura Craft Colonial looks like it has a dining room, but I would need to change the stairs to achieve a similar upstairs hall.  (I hate when the staircase ends in a bedroom (or worse - a bathroom) because that doesn't happen in "real life," which is why I am changing the stairway in the Glencroft. that I'm currently working on.)

[havanaholly]

I use sandpaper for "bricks":

[rodentraiser]

I just keep stumbling on these things.

Robin Carey took a Duracraft Southern Mansion and said she "filled in the sides with joint compound" to make them into stone sides. I bet if you emailed her and asked her how she did it, she'd tell you. She doesn't say in her blog that that's a Duracraft house, but take it from me, yes, it is.

http://robincarey.blogspot.com/2011/02/southern-mansion-dollhouse-with-summer.html