These are pictures of the finished Mckinley! The Greenleaf houses are loved by many great miniature Artists. There are so many things you can do with a Greenleaf kit. They are lighter in weight but sturdy when assembled. They are simple to cut (I only used my hobby knief for this. All you have to do is think outside of the box. If you dream it you can do it! Have fun & feel free to ask any questions you may have.












You can see more pictures of the Mckinley by clicking here:

http://www.greenleafdollhouses.com/forum/i...&album=1947

I used a mixture of hard wire and tape wire to light up this house. Because this house is flat back and will hang on the wall, I fed all of the wires to the back of the house by clipping off the plugs and feeding it through holes I drilled into the back of the house.. After that, I added a 11" strip of tape wire and took the plastic cover off of the tape wire. I then took the wire, and split the two wires about half inch down and then added one side on each side of the tape. Do not let the two exposed hardwire touch each other when you lay them down. I then took some masking tape and tacked it in place so that I could do all of the wires this way. Once all wires were added, I then took my soldering iron out to heat it and while it was heating, I added soldering flux (just a little touch) to the exposed wires (All of them) so that the solder will adhear to the wires to the tape wire. After that, I add some solder to the tip of my soldering iron and then to the exposed wired to affix it together. I do this to all exposed wires. Here are the pictures to help you with the visual side of it.

After that, you can remove the little pieces of masking tape you use to help tack down the wires and keep them in place while you solder them in.





After that, I taped down all of the loose wires and labeled which room each wire it for. You can also add more lights & outlets to this later on if you like.



To see more tips on the tools I used, go to this blog entry: Electrifying tips

I then added the Junction Splice and put one prong on each side of the tape wire. Then you add your transformer lead in wire and transformer and You have Electric!

I started with foam core just to see if this design would work and if it would look really nice. I ended up cutting the roof height (on the raised roof side) down to 8" high. This is what it looked like in the beginnning:



It took a while (3.5 hrs. ) to get the angles right because I found out that this house needed a little more support now that I was bashing it away from how it should have been done.




This is after I added the wood roof & attic parts. It was level on one side and not the other and zi went around and around with the leveler I did finally get it right . After I got it to the point I was satified with, I added sandpaper and painted it black to give the "Asphalt" roof look then I added the Chimney stack :



I wanted to add roof trim to give the roof more detail. At first I started off by using the kits trim:



I ended up using some iron railing for the widows walk instead.



I aged it with a seafoam green paint:

This is the close up of how high the attic wall would have been. You can see where I added the extension here:



This is the way the stairs & fireplace originally look.



I decided to add an extra wood storage shelf I also added stones on the fireplace:



After that I started trying to figure out where to add the porch light. I found out that the area is too tight to add a light next to the door but, you can add the light above the door.




I also wanted to make a pointy tower roof as i had with my Pierce that I built last year so I did this by cutting wood in long triangle shapes to make the roof pointy I would have added a weather vane but decided that a tower cap would look good to.

This time I am only blogging the changes that I made to this Gorgeous doll house kit. The Mckinley has been my favorite since Lisa from Greenleaf asked me to make one 4 years ago. This is something that a newbie can do if they have the patiance but, this blog is really for the advanced builders who can look at these breif comments and make the changes.

I started the building of this house a few weeks back. I started out pretty much like everyone else. You'll notice easily that I did start a little bit out of sequence. When I have built a kit several times, I don't view the instructions as much. I have been wanting to bash (Alter) this kits' design since I completed my last one . I started on the back wall since I knew I was going to bash it by extending the roofline. I took wood that Greenleaf uses for their kits. They sell extra sheets but you have to call them for plain sheets that are not punched out yet.




When the original roof is finished, it is only 4" high. Mine right now is bashed to have a 9" high ceiling.

The next big change was that I wanted to change the kitchen wall so that the opening would be in the front of the room, not the back. I did this by cutting this wall into three sections so that most of the tabs would still be in most of the right parts of the floor for stability. I figured this out through trail and error and it took me over an hour to get it staright & right. I also moved the kitchen wall over by 1" to make the kitchen larger.



I then had to attach it to the rest of the structure that I had already assembled:



It ended up looking a bit like this:



My next change was to alter the look of the Mckinley's front door. I did this by using 2 strips of wood that is 1/16" x 1/4" x 36" . I then added a lion head knocker to it that I hand made.

These are the last 2 pics. I will be adding more accesories in time.

These are the pictures I took before the house fell off the wall.
The whole house:

These are pics of the final steps we did to finish this house. It is currently finished and hanging on my livingroom wall. My son keeps walking by it and saying "thst's so cool" and turning the lights on, looking a minute at it and turning the lights off.

Well, The attic needed some type of light, Since I decorated it to be int progress of being remodeled, I thought a hanging bulb would be nice.



When I put this piece of trim on the top Of the shingles, I noticed a gap. I needed something decorative to cover it. Ahhh, some leftover pieces from an old house, (sweetheart), that I did not use.



Finall the side of house uder the porch needed a little something so it was rocked to match the side under the kitchen.



Ohh and a little bashing before appling therocks, and it because usefull space, instead of wasted space.



Will have pics of the house set up as soon as i get the camera downloaded and the pics resized.

Melissa

Time to wallpaper the rest of the tower room. This room is a bit tricky because of its angles and the tower room itself. To get my first cut, I actually took the wallpaper and laid it on the outside of the house at the tower, face down, and made a crease to show me how the tower goes into the floor and around the tower, and then I cut along the crease. I then took the paper and laid it into the house. I also discovered that it was easiest to lay the house on its side to wallpaper this area. This area is also a lot of lay the paper down, make a crease, take the paper out, cut it, put the paper back in, make a crease, take it out, cut it ...

Once I have the paper laid against the back wall, I again rub the paper down against the tower, just running my finger and fingernail along the curves, which makes creases in the paper--and that's how I know where to cut the paper.



I then begin creating a line along the ridge at the top of the tower. This line is important, because it'll be a guide when actually gluing the wallpaper in. I take my fingernail and run it along the ridge at that line. That gives me a crease in the paper and again shows me where to cut it. When you turn the paper over after you've made your creases, you can see where the paper needs to be cut. Then I just take some scissors and cut it.



Now I've got my paper pre-cut and it's ready to be glued in. I will need to move and manuever this paper around a bit to fit into all its little nooks and crannies, so I liberally apply wallpaper paste to both the walls and the paper using a sponge brush.



One of the tricks to putting in wallpaper is--weirdly enough--to have a straight line to guide you. Remember the ridge cut? It's my guide on this particular piece of wallpaper. I lay the paper onto the wall, and then move/slide it down so that it covers that ridge.



I then check all my lines and smooth the paper down, just using my hands to rub it down a bit, covering all white areas (paint). I like to take a dry washcloth to finish rubbing the paper down to smooth out any wrinkles and/or air bubbles.



There! The hardest part of that room is now done!

Compliments of LPCullen

Jimmy has finished modifying the roof line for me, and I've primed it for wallpaper.



Jimmy also assembled the drawers for the bottom and installed them. He has to go back and get them to move in and out more easily though.



I'm still not quite sure how this house works, and I don't know if it's owner plans on hanging it on the wall, so I didn't want to put wallpaper on the back walls, so I painted them. I've chosen the wallpaper for the bathroom, and have a portion of it in.



Compliments of LPCullen