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Dura-Craft Cambridge


HeatherY

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Thought I’d chronicle my work. Can’t post pictures yet.... hopefully soon! 

I saved up to buy the Cambridge when I was around 10 years old. My dad wasn’t so thrilled. My mom found it in the garage and sent it to me. It was all there. 

Ive built the base and floor. I’ve dry fit the first floor walls. Now I need to paint them before moving on. 

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If anyone is reading this, 

what do I do with the insides of the walls? Since it’s tongue and groove they are not flat. Spackle? Or is coving with thin cardboard better? 

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Either spackling compound/ joint compound/ drywall mud and sand it baby's butt smooth when it completely dries, or thin cardboard, whichever floats your boat.  A trick I learned with the brick mix is to use equal amounts of brick powder and Elmer's all-purpose white glue and enough water to the consistency of frosting.  Another thing that helped was to work in small sections and not to wait but a minute to remove the stencil paper.

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It is looking good Heather. You have 5 posts, so you can start an album. Here is a thread about how to make an album, sometimes the site is picky if the picture file is too large.(there are various ways to resize the file) You will run out of room if you put pictures directly in your posts, but if you link them from an album you will be okay.

http://www.greenleafdollhouses.com/forum/?app=forums&module=forums&controller=topic&id=40441

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I would probably suggest you use thin card with your wallpaper/paint etc on that.  I am getting better at spackle but if you're a perfectionist like me, it takes a lot of practise to get it right!  I know Holly is Queen of Spackle but for us mere mortals it's a tricky material to work with!  :D   If you look at my Apothecary all the walls are panelled which means that every wall has been covered in card.  Now it's not overly thin as I needed it to stand out - especially the panelling, however it does show how it can work with card. 

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If you aren't good at doing the spackling, there is another option: wallpaper liner paper! 

I grew up in an old house and every time my mother had a room papered, they would use this heavier paper liner over the wall first to smooth out the imperfections in the 100+ year old plastered walls.  Spackle first the best you can...and then apply the liner paper like you would regular, RL wallpaper.  Once it is dry you can now paint it (yes! it takes paint very well!) or apply your mini wallpaper.  :) 

**Note: one roll purchased at a wallpaper store will last a miniaturist FOREVER!  LOL  So share the love with a friend :) or use it on your RL house!

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13 hours ago, Shareb said:

I would probably suggest you use thin card with your wallpaper/paint etc on that.  I am getting better at spackle but if you're a perfectionist like me, it takes a lot of practise to get it right!  I know Holly is Queen of Spackle but for us mere mortals it's a tricky material to work with!  :D   If you look at my Apothecary all the walls are panelled which means that every wall has been covered in card.  Now it's not overly thin as I needed it to stand out - especially the panelling, however it does show how it can work with card. 

Spackle is not easy and if you try a new one like I just did it can really be a bummer. The house I'm doing now I'm calling it the old world texture. I would not recommend the it drys fast and no shrinkage type. WHY because it has some type of plastic in it for the no shrinkage and is really tough to use. Though it is feather light.

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2 hours ago, jbnmini said:

If you aren't good at doing the spackling, there is another option: wallpaper liner paper! 

I grew up in an old house and every time my mother had a room papered, they would use this heavier paper liner over the wall first to smooth out the imperfections in the 100+ year old plastered walls.  Spackle first the best you can...and then apply the liner paper like you would regular, RL wallpaper.  Once it is dry you can now paint it (yes! it takes paint very well!) or apply your mini wallpaper.  :) 

**Note: one roll purchased at a wallpaper store will last a miniaturist FOREVER!  LOL  So share the love with a friend :) or use it on your RL house!

I've never heard of this Jackie - so I'm not sure if it's available here.  I have decorator friends so I'll have to ask them next time I see them!

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There are two types of spackle; the white fluffy kind and the creamy gray kind. The grey kind is like drywall compound. The white fluffy kind is the worst thing to use for full coverage. This is why I only recommend drywall compound and never recommend spackle.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I’m in paint hell. 

 

I decided to to skip the interior walls. I’m getting very annoyed with the five thousand edges of everything so I rigged this up today. I dipped the parts in the van and brushed them off. It seems to be going ok  

 

And I fitted all the walls together. Yay! 

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41 minutes ago, HeatherY said:

Third floor! 

These windows are really supposed to open and close?!?! *eyeroll* Mine might be glued shut...

They open & shut a whole lot better than the ones on the SF555.  That sliding door, on the other hand...

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Oh no. 

I need to sand a ton to even think about them opening. How bad is the sliding door?!?! 

I don’t really like the porch railings that come with the kit. Any suggestions where to buy replacements? I’d rather have a stick railing than this curly fleur de lis style. 

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The problem I had with the sliding door was to keep it squared in the opening so it would slide.  It fit loose in its track.  If you want a simple railing you might consider getting some dowel lengths and cutting them into sections the height you want.  Hobby shops and the big box hobby and hardware stores are my go-to places for dowels.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Double hung windows are all in  I figured out it wasn’t the windows but the opening itself wasn’t big enough. Lots of sanding  

Slider door was easy fortunately. 

The bay window directions were incomplete so that was fun but I figured it out. 

The swinging windows..... what a pain. Massive amounts of sanding. 

Also, the front door opening is waaaay too small. Asked my husband to bring his dremel up to widen it. 

 

I see why people get into this. I already want to build another one to fix all my mistakes in this one. 

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It’s probably not a bad thing to start out on a harder build as you will learn lots of stuff you wouldn’t on an easy small build. And it looks pretty good from what I can see from the photos. Opening windows aren’t a deal breaker for me it’s something else to go wrong!

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10 hours ago, HeatherY said:

Really? In what way? 

The walls are in solid pieces, for starters.  The windows are simpler.  The wood is thinner, so if the house wants something different it's 'way easier to bash.  I started out building two Dura-Craft kits (the Cambridge was my second one) before I discovered Greenleaf and Corona Concepts.

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