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Repairing an old Van Buren


Rebecca Williams

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Hi there all if you smart mini lovers!

1) Any suggestions for removing the clear window so I can paint the grids behind it without taking off the whole window trim? How would I get it back on? In?

2) when gluing the walls together do you recommend I let each wall set separately to ensure stability?

Any suggestions for matching the mahogany color that went with the House of Miniatures furniture? I can’t seem to get it right, try as I may.

Thanks y’all!

Rebecca

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If the windows were assembled with hot glue you can use a blow dryer to take them apart.  If the house is very old you might want to invest in some transparency sheets/ report covers and make new inserts.  When gluing exterior walls together I stabilize the corners with strips of masking or painters' tape; if I'm going to flip the shell around whilst decorating its insides I also reinforce those corners with a few steel staples along the edges.

I never used the stains that came with the kits, just Minwax, and that way I knew I could match whatever.  If you can find some transparent water colors and mix your shade you can thin it with gum arabic to work as a stain.

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If you're going to cut the old acetate out, how do you expect to insert new?  I can't imagine the windows looking "right" if they're just tacked in place at the corners with a dab of glue (which will still show).

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I'm confused; on the windows in some kits the mullions are printed on the plastic, so if it's the printed lines that have yellowed, yes; paint over those.  If your windows have the wooden mullions as part of the wall then you can cut away the old plastic, repaint your wood mullions, and run a thin bead of Elmer's all-purpose white glue (NOT "school glue") on those when they dry, aas well as the edges of the window opening to hold your replacement piece.  The Elmer's white glue dries clear.

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On 2/1/2019, 10:38:05, havanaholly said:

If you have the doors and don't want to pin-hinge them (you'd probably need to trim & sand them if you did) you could cut a piece of chamois into strips 3/16 wide and fold them in half lengthwise and glue one half of the strip to the hinged edge of the door and the other to the edge of the door opening and then glue the hinges on for decoration, but the chamois strips would actually be the hinges.

If you can fix the ruined floors without replacing them and they're already stained you can use the iron-on veneer.  I get the red oak and cut it into 6" lengths and 1/4" widths.  As long as you keep the glue for a temporary hold to wee drops and don't get any glue on the surface they take stain wonderfully.

Hey! I’ve got a question... I’ve spent allllll day trying to use the “new” door hinges I bought to put up my doors. Well, all but 2 doors got ripped off but some of the old hinges and nails were there so I thought, heck I’ll try and reuse those first! Well, the hinges that were original to the dollhouse were a better quality and the nails were twice as long which was awesome! But then I found that I didn’t have all the nails. So I attempted to use the new nails with the original hinge. Those squatty barely hold on to nails wouldn’t fit in the original hinge holes. So then I thought darn, I’ll have to use the new ones. They would not stay to save my life! The nails were so short and the hinge holes were almost too big that they were kinda floating around and coming loose. So I tried gluing after they were in and it looked awful! So I thought okay... I’ll use your trick with the chamois. Figured that out but then you suggested that the hinge could then be glued to cover the chamois. When I attempted to do that it’s like it’s too thick and the door won’t close. I am exasperated with this step!!!! Should I paint the chamois brass color! Haha 

OMG this day was ridiculous!!! 

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That’s why I don’t use the doors that came with the kit. Hobby Lobby has doors but you might have to resize your opening. 

People have had better success with the white envelope packaging Fedex uses. It’s thinner and doesn’t stretch like chamois.

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I thought your hinges were on the door face (as I have seen done on dollhouse doors, rather then flush-mounted in the edge, like a 1:1 door).  If you glue half the lengthwise folded strip of chamois to the edge (side) of the door and the other half to the edge (side) of the door opening, it won't show when the door is closed and you can omit the hinges, or mount them to the face of the door if that's where they were in the first place, and they will not be "over" the chamois.

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28 minutes ago, havanaholly said:

I thought your hinges were on the door face (as I have seen done on dollhouse doors, rather then flush-mounted in the edge, like a 1:1 door).  If you glue half the lengthwise folded strip of chamois to the edge (side) of the door and the other half to the edge (side) of the door opening, it won't show when the door is closed and you can omit the hinges, or mount them to the face of the door if that's where they were in the first place, and they will not be "over" the chamois.

So the hinges are hudddn when the door is closed but can see the bound ( ?) part of the hinge which means you can see the edge of the chamois. Have you found this stretches? I cannot believe how long and frustrating this has been. 

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6 minutes ago, Sable said:

The white waterproof envelopes. Normally sandwiched in between the inner and outer doors and the frame. But since I haven’t seen your door this point is probably mute. I’ll look for a photo of it.

I’ll send a pic in the am I haven’t posted any of the doors! 

Thank you

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9 hours ago, Rebecca Williams said:

I’ll send a pic in the am I haven’t posted any of the doors! 

Thank you

Good Morning!! Here are a couple of pics of one of the doors. Also Holly I wanted to tell you I did my windows and they look amazing! I used a product my son’s gas for Baseball pics preservations called top loafers and cut from a 5x7 and although it was thick it really is much nicer than a flimsy piece of plastic! Anyway hopefully I can decide today what to do with these doors ( and hope it won’t take all day again)! 

13EDE707-7765-488E-8BD9-B307CF3F7B46.jpeg

02FC9D8C-3167-480C-BD7D-B269419795FD.jpeg

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