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Total newbie from Germany here


MiraPrincess

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28 minutes ago, MiraPrincess said:

...For the shops, the idea of building dozens of product boxes is a little scary. Is there a simple way to do those?...

Whilst waiting for paint & glue to dry I stocked a general store with printies:  

ready to move in.jpg

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Just wanted to say I'm sorry for the confusion had with the Glencroft. I worried when I first read your post that there was a mistake somewhere. The Buttercup is one of my favorites of the small houses. Would make a cute candy shop. 

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16 hours ago, MiraPrincess said:

You made me cry, lol! I went back to the item description and you're right. It's a replica of the box ... Now I'm really sad.

OK, since I need a new dollhouse to start out with... which is a cheap one that's easy to assemble and a great starter? Maybe 2 rooms to begin with that I can turn into the pub "The three broomsticks"?

I'm so sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but better you should know before the tiny package arrives, Of course you realize that once you have the lovely little replica of the box, you must build a hobby shop for it or at least a house with a craft room. :D Trust me, many houses have been created around lesser inspiration items!

As for a starter house, look at the Greenleaf Orchid. It has movable interior walls that can be configured (or left out) to form one large room on the ground floor for the pub itself, and one or two rooms upstairs for a storage area or even a little apartment for the pub keeper. And it has a fairly steep roof, dormers, and a nice little entry porch. It's a nice first build. Several of us here cut our miniature teeth with it.

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1 hour ago, KathieB said:

I'm so sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but better you should know before the tiny package arrives, Of course you realize that once you have the lovely little replica of the box, you must build a hobby shop for it or at least a house with a craft room. :D Trust me, many houses have been created around lesser inspiration items!

As for a starter house, look at the Greenleaf Orchid. It has movable interior walls that can be configured (or left out) to form one large room on the ground floor for the pub itself, and one or two rooms upstairs for a storage area or even a little apartment for the pub keeper. And it has a fairly steep roof, dormers, and a nice little entry porch. It's a nice first build. Several of us here cut our miniature teeth with it.

Mereike, the general store is what the Orchid kit I built for the Team Orchid building blog wanted to become.

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18 hours ago, KathieB said:

I'm so sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but better you should know before the tiny package arrives, Of course you realize that once you have the lovely little replica of the box, you must build a hobby shop for it or at least a house with a craft room. :D Trust me, many houses have been created around lesser inspiration items!

As for a starter house, look at the Greenleaf Orchid. It has movable interior walls that can be configured (or left out) to form one large room on the ground floor for the pub itself, and one or two rooms upstairs for a storage area or even a little apartment for the pub keeper. And it has a fairly steep roof, dormers, and a nice little entry porch. It's a nice first build. Several of us here cut our miniature teeth with it.

Yeah, I was already thinking that one build has to have a crafting room that has that box sitting there. Maybe I can find miniature house bits so that it looks like someone is building a dollhouse :)

The Orchid being modifiable is great! I had decided against it because of the small downstairs rooms. Can you also leave out the big window on the side wall? I’d like the bar to be on one side and a fireplace on the other

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6 hours ago, MiraPrincess said:

Yeah, I was already thinking that one build has to have a crafting room that has that box sitting there. Maybe I can find miniature house bits so that it looks like someone is building a dollhouse :)

The Orchid being modifiable is great! I had decided against it because of the small downstairs rooms. Can you also leave out the big window on the side wall? I’d like the bar to be on one side and a fireplace on the other

You can trace pieces off of the schematics sheet in the kit and make patterns to cut parts from card and paint them to look like wood.

I once turned the bay window from the buttercup into a fireplace; no reason you can't do the same thing with the Orchid's bay.

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7 hours ago, MiraPrincess said:

The Orchid being modifiable is great! I had decided against it because of the small downstairs rooms. Can you also leave out the big window on the side wall? I’d like the bar to be on one side and a fireplace on the other

Holly's suggestion of making the bow window into a fireplace is a good one. Easy enough to run the chimney up the outside of the wall. It will cover the window opening on the upper floor, so simply don't punch it out to leave the wall solid.  A skim coat of polyfilla/Spackle/wallboard mud will cover the indentations the define the window. It also makes a nice plastered-wall effect.

The bar could be on the right side, with the stairs to the upstairs behind the bar so as not to give access to the patrons. I can see this shaping up in my mind's eye already. :D 

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5 hours ago, KathieB said:

Holly's suggestion of making the bow window into a fireplace is a good one. Easy enough to run the chimney up the outside of the wall. It will cover the window opening on the upper floor, so simply don't punch it out to leave the wall solid.  A skim coat of polyfilla/Spackle/wallboard mud will cover the indentations the define the window. It also makes a nice plastered-wall effect.

Aaaah see, I thought it would come with the window already being cut out. If I have to punch it out myself I can just not do that. Good to know!

I spontaneously decided on a smaller project. I was out buying crafting materials for my students when I found this beautiful wooden lantern with tree bark on the roof and I immediately thought miniatures! So I'm thinking about doing a mini scene inside of it. I have a few ideas and don't know yet which way I want to go. There are so many great ideas if you google or look through pinterest. But it would give me a chance to test the materials. 

Would you recommend modge podge for the wallpapers, or is there a better glue?

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Hogs head would be great with all the descriptions there are in HP books, I like the cellar with beer barrels, maybe some fire whisky too lol.  The sweet shop would be marvelous if you like to make tons of tiny clay candy, I haven’t done much of that but I can picture it in my mind, with cockroach clusters and lemon drops!

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1 hour ago, MiraPrincess said:

...Would you recommend modge podge for the wallpapers, or is there a better glue?

I'm fairly simple minded; I use premixed wallpaper paste from the hardware store to hang wallcoverings, and carpenter's wood glue to assemble the wood kit parts, and clear-drying tacky glue to install the clear acetate door and window inserts.

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16 hours ago, MiraPrincess said:

Yeah, I was already thinking that one build has to have a crafting room that has that box sitting there. Maybe I can find miniature house bits so that it looks like someone is building a dollhouse :)

 

I purchased this workbench and the tools from one of our members, MikeUk and made a dollhouse workshop out of a Primrose in the Corona Concepts line from Greenleaf. I didn't use the second floor so I could have more ceiling height.

http://www.greenleafdollhouses.com/forum/?app=gallery&module=gallery&controller=view&id=126976

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Hello Mareike,

sorry to hear the Glencroft didn't work out. If you are looking for solid house kits, I would suggest to check out dolls house direct - they will offer a Harry Potter themed kit soon. I believe it will be the Great Hall? And also maplestreet. Both are in the UK - so the shipping might not break the bank. I'll post the links to their websites for you:

Maplestreet

Dolls House Direct

 

And a picture from the prototype:

Great Hall

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On 10/22/2017, 12:32:18, Soapz said:

Hello Mareike,

sorry to hear the Glencroft didn't work out. If you are looking for solid house kits, I would suggest to check out dolls house direct - they will offer a Harry Potter themed kit soon. I believe it will be the Great Hall? And also maplestreet. Both are in the UK - so the shipping might not break the bank. I'll post the links to their websites for you:

Maplestreet

Dolls House Direct

 

And a picture from the prototype:

Great Hall

OMG I checked them out and they're fantastic! The Great Hall would be such a fun project to do!!!!

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Hi Mareike, as you are in Germany you might want to check out Dolls House Emporium  for things.  Postage from DHE is not bad,  I  had a dollhouse shipped to Emmen in Holland to my granddaughter and it was very cheap from the UK to Holland, I find Dolls House Direct is a bit pricey for postage.

There is an ebayer in the UK called nicksandbits he does some really good mixed lots of preowned dolls house fittings and he is very reasonable.I have bought lots of things from him. If you light your house make sure you buy your transformer over there as they are different to the US ones.

Another one is Melody Jane, I think that is right and she ships free,

I am English by the way although I live in Canada I still have lots of stuff shipped over.

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Just wanted to give you a thank you and a pat on the back Marike

I had completely forgotten about this sale which I was waiting for, I rushed to the site ,I  read that  it finished at 11.59pm tonight,(1st)  I rushed through as fast as I could to pick up all the stuff I had on my shopping list , it was lots of bits and pieces and seemed to take forever .I  hit pay,  it accepted it, I looked at the time on my laptop and it was 11.59. I must have made it by seconds.

Without you mentioning I would have not got in on time, you saved me $43 that will go my Givings account. Thank you

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  • 3 months later...
On 11/2/2017, 8:28:40, Thimble Hall said:

Just wanted to give you a thank you and a pat on the back Marike

I had completely forgotten about this sale which I was waiting for, I rushed to the site ,I  read that  it finished at 11.59pm tonight,(1st)  I rushed through as fast as I could to pick up all the stuff I had on my shopping list , it was lots of bits and pieces and seemed to take forever .I  hit pay,  it accepted it, I looked at the time on my laptop and it was 11.59. I must have made it by seconds.

Without you mentioning I would have not got in on time, you saved me $43 that will go my Givings account. Thank you

I'm glad it worked out for you!

I have a story to tell. My Orchid never arrived. They had shipped it separately and the glue and all made it just fine. I was hoping it was just held back in customs because of the size, but I had planned on putting it together over Christmas. Well, Christmas rolled around, no dollhouse. New Year's, no dollhouse.... at the end of January I contacted them because it still hadn't gotten here. They were so kind to send out a new one (and shipping to Germany is outrageously expensive, which I realized when I had to pay for shipping for my first order), and it finally got here today! 

Unfortunately I'm stuck up to my neck in work, so I won't be able to look at it until Easter, or maybe even summer....

 

Oh, second part of the story: the barrel I've ordered is actually made by a German company in Germany.... at least I now know where to look for decoration!

Edited by MiraPrincess
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Hi, fellow european here! I've recently ordered a house from the Greenleaf shop, takes a bit longer to get here because of customs clearance but it's well worth the wait.

All those look like good choices to me, I like the storybook cottage for a shop because of the bay windows, they're really cute! And you could place a shop sign over the door on that roof easy :) 

If you need materials for decorating, wallpapper, etc, I'd recomend you check Sabine's shop from Germany at Small Dreams. I've been a client for a while and she's super nice and can help you find some products from overseas, I usually order Itsy Bitsy wallpapper from there to avoid custom fees. 

Have fun!

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