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I bought a dollhouse...again!


stickyfingers

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Hi everyone! Long time, no see!! I haven't been around in months...lots going on with family, work, spring, etc. Anyway, bought this TLC Dura-Craft Bayberry off of a Facebook posting. I'm pretty sure I paid too much, but I thought it was harder to find kit, and I really like the roofline. It also came with a box of tacky furniture, but most of it I think I can do something with. Anyway...the house. It came with all of the broken off pieces, but it may be easier to just recut the porch roof out of new wood, than to try and scrape those shingles off and start over. The shingles are badly done and some are broken, so they'll need to come off of the whole house. The wallpaper was peeling off, so I removed it yesterday...probably the easiest fix ever, as they had primed with glossy white paint, so I just misted it and it scraped right off.

I have no plan for the house, as much as I stare at it, no clue where I want to go with it. Scrape off the brick and do a stone foundation? Different porch supports? What to do about the windows...they're kind of badly done, and they're red, so....?Christmas house? I have no clue. Anyway, will start an album for it. Oh! I also bought a  Cambridge kit at an estate sale for next to nothing. I think it's missing a few pieces, but nothing I can't replicate or do without.  

 

   

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Sounds like lots of fun. I love the Bayberry. Most pf the Duracraft ones actually, so I look forward to seeing what you do to this. I am sure the right idea will present itself - don't force it, it will come in its own good time!

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So, after I posted this, I ended up in the garage picking at the house and thinking about it. I am NOT taking all of those shingles off. Whatever glue they used has them attached forever, so I'll have to work around them. The house came with a small bag of leftover shingles, so I'll patch and trim and repair as best I can. maybe add copper flashing to cover the gaps?

I was scrolling through my newsfeed and came across an article that had a picture of a similar house, and it gave me an idea for a color scheme. Leave the red windows, leave the shingles, white trim and paint the siding a deep tan color. Still haven't decided what to do about the foundation brick. It's that magic brick, and it's mostly intact, and doesn't look horrible, but I don't like the wide mortar lines, and I don't like the solid red color. Maybe do some washes of gray and brown to make it blend in and look a little more natural?

No ideas for the interior, other than I think it needs wood flooring. All of the second floor roofing was kind of badly installed, so there's lot of gaps in the ceiling. Will have to come up with a plan to fill all of that in. No clue on décor, but that's a long, long ways off.

  

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Holly, that was my initial plan, but after looking at the house again, contemplating how much work, time and money it would be to basically start over, for no appreciable difference in the finished product, I decided against it. It's always an option, but I think I'll try the patch, mend, and cover idea first.

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 What a great house! You'll have fun with that.

I had to replace about 40ish shingles on the Victoria's Farmhouse I did last month. What ended up working very well for me was a hair dryer and a flat head screw driver. And a lot of patience. Of course the success of that depends on the type of glue used. 

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I think they must have used some super-strength wood glue for this! My original plan was to remove all of the shingles, pry off the errant roof pieces, place them properly, reglue, and reshingle. Really, I don't think any of that is possible (or necessary) without damaging the rest of the house. It's MDF, so where it's glued together, it's REALLY glued together. besides, after taking the other yellow house down to the studs, so to speak, I have no desire to do it again. Really, I think some patching and filling and carefully placed flashing will cover a lot of sins, and in the end, no one else would be bothered by it except me, anyway.

I think I have a theme...Americanna!! Was thinking about the house, the architecture, who would have lived there if it were a real house, and it came to me. Not kitchy Americanna, but a subtle nod to red white and blue, American furniture and design. A flag on the front porch, deep navy front door, white porch furniture, etc.

I need to go through the box of furniture again. I did a rough sorting (trash, Goodwill, ebay, keep) the other day, but I've already forgotten what I kept. This house will have to wait for a while, as I have other projects that need to be done, but I like to start thinking of the finished product early.   

 

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Yes, Americana! Although I'm not going to decorate a whole house around those red windows. I've looked at them several times, and they're working windows, with the casing firmly glued into the window hole and the top window firmly glued into that. Other than breaking them out and replacing them, I think they're in there to stay, and they're probably staying red. 

Looking at the house again, that faux brick has to go. The scale is off, and it's throwing off the whole look of the house. It has those big Dura-Craft shingles and those wee tiny bricks!   

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Holly, that's a great question! I'd love to hear any suggestions from anyone that's removed them. I did think about keeping them, doing color washes, etc., to make them look more natural, but it's the scale that's bothering me the most. It's not a small house, and those old cedar shingles are big and thick, so I think it needs the balance of something more substantial.

Thanks Samantha! I toyed with idea of a vintage/period theme, but pretty much all of my houses have some element of that, so I'm wanting to do something different. The house came with some pieces of furniture that I think I can makeover, and I have some things in my stash, as well. All of my spring magazines are featuring front porches, and all of the patriotic décor of summer just gave me some inspiration.  

Having fun researching Craftsman style architecture, too! The house isn't purely a Craftsman, but has enough of those elements that it can pass for that era of American housing. I'm enjoying letting this one come to me in waves...I bought it simply because I had never seen it before, on ebay, Craigslist, here, in books...it seemed an unusual find, and a nice compromise to the old Fantasycraft house I'll never own and the RGT version.   

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Thanks, Holly! I had some regret the minute I bought it, and almost turned the truck around to take it back. Got it home, put it in the garage to give it a really good look over, and then REALLY had some regrets. It was worse than I thought, I had zero plan or inspiration, and it was going to be a lot of work. I dug through the big box of furniture, and it was mostly junk. And broken. But like any house, when you quietly sit by yourself and start picking at it, it all starts to come out. I won't have time to really work on in earnest for who knows how long, but figure it needs enough picking and scraping for now to give me something to do when I have 20 minutes to kill. I've started a notebook, so all ideas, inspirations, plans, lists, etc. are already going.  

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