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Newbie with No Idea Where to Start


Morjem911

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Hello! I came across this unfinished dollhouse this weekend, and even though I've never done anything of this sort, it was only $15 and I thought, I have to have that and fix it up! So I loaded it into my car and then thought, "now what"?!

There are some doors and windows inside, all in pieces, and everything has old hot glue on it, so I figured I'd buy new and start from scratch, but with the shell put together, where is the first place I start? Painting? Sanding? Windows? Doors? I just have no clue! I'm really excited to get started though! 

Also, what would be the best supplies to have on hand?

It's so cute, I just really want to do it justice and do everything right.

Thanks in advance!

Erica

IMG_20150810_142740-min-min.jpg

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Hi, Erica, and welcome!  :D

That's a great deal at $15!  If the house is put together with wood glue (hot glue is not recommended for longevity) and is solid, I would leave it as is.  If it is put together with hot glue and seems shaky, you may want to consider taking it apart and scraping away the glue, really starting over.  Wood glue or Aleene's white glue or Weldbond are all good glues.

As for where to start after that, what would you like the house to look like?  I'd start by looking at photos and gathering ideas.  A lot of times, the finishes you want will dictate what you want to do first.  I would recommend leaving the doors and windows off until you've figured out what finishes you want inside and out.  The doors and windows are installed to cover any seams or edges from siding or wallpaper, plus, you'll want to paint/stain those components before you install them anyway.  No matter what, you don't have to buy everything all at once.

Take a deep breath, take your time and have fun.  We're here to help.

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Thank you! It seems very sturdy, I feel like they just glued the pieces of the doors and windows with the hot glue (I hope just those things). I kind of have an idea of how I'd like to go with it, so I guess I'll just dive in! Lol! So, is painting the entire thing an ok first step?

I just really don't want to mess it up! I'm known in these parts for my disastrous projects lol!

 

Thanks so much again!

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Priming would be a good place to start so your final paint has something to stick to.  And, we've all had disasters.  Sometimes a happy accident will occur from an unforeseen event.  :D  Just about everything can be fixed.

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One reason NOT to paint first is if you plan to have a stained wood finish in the end. 

A good scrubbing might be the first thing I'd do to get dust, grime and grease off before anything else. 

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First of all I hope you will post an introduction in the Newcomers' Forum. 

I would suggest you do a search through the archives for topics on getting started and tool lists, but since we're struggling with a brand new site upgrade I don't know if the bugs have been worked out yet.  I find that a heat gun is a whiz at disassembling hot glued dollhouses, but it can melt the windows if the inserts are plastic; a hair dryer might be a gentler, kinder way to go.  I use an old metal putty knife to scrape off the old melted hot glue because the hot glue sets up nicely on the metal and pops right off.  I would also mark your edges where you will be gluing things back on and mask them before you prime and paint or stain.  I find that gluing bare wood to bare wood holds a whole lot better than gluing painted surfaces together.

Don't hesitate to ask any questions that you have.  I started building dollhouse kits before we had this forum, so I have a dandy fund of "how-not-to" to draw on.

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Neat house and I love your enthusiasm! Lets start with the ceilings. Not to overwhelm you but if you decide to electrify your house youll be wanting to make some decisions about that soon.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks so much everyone! I finally got the nerve to start and found the whole thing was in fact put together with hot glue! So I've spent the last week with my hair dryer taking everything apart. I've now got it in pieces and am trying to get the residual glue off all the pieces . 

When I bought it, it was full of "broken" and incorrectly put together pieces. I sorted through and salvaged all the windows and the front door, all Victorian style. Front door needs the pin replaced, but I think I can do that.

My problem (see pic) is when I took the dormers off, I was left with these really tall openings with pointed tops. The whole opening is about 2 1/2 x 7 3/4.   Planned on replacing dormers to start with because they were homemade and all funky looking, but then when I found out the openings weren't normal size I was going to just work with what I had. However, our dog took one of the dormer sides off the table and chewed it up! So... I figured out the front of the dormers fit into the pointy spaces at the top of the window openings. This area will be covered by shingles, so I used wood glue to put the pieces back in place, then wood filler to fill in the little gaps around the edges. Do you think this was a mistake?

I am wanting to add lights. I've read so much about both the tape and the round wire my head is spinning. What are your thoughts? I'd rather do tape, since this is my first time and it seems easier, but I worry about bulges behind wallpaper,  not being able to fix problems, and I don't like the idea of all lights onon or all lights off. If I do round wire, I thought I'd add siding to hide the wires since I doubt I'll be very good at hiding them otherwise. 

Lastly, I'd really like to add stairs, but I'm unsure about cutting holes in the floors. By unsure, I mean I know I wouldn't cut a hole lol! Do all houses with stairs have holes going to the next floor? Would it look super weird not to have holes?

Ok, let me get back to scraping glue...

 

Optimized-IMG_20150825_134750531.jpg

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Wood filler is fine; my coverup of choice is spackling compound, but whatever does the job is good to use.  I think you are off to an excellent start!  I find that when replacing  dollhouse parts making a cardboard mockup of what the house wants not only gives me an idea of what will work, but I can recycle the piece into patterns to make the finished product in wood.

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Hello Jona,

great find. If you decide to use stairs, it would look rather funky if you didn't have cutouts between the floors. One possibility to avoid that is adding to the open back of the house (like a balcony) and use stairs there. This is sometimes used in wall hanging houses. The "balcony" is added to give the rooms more depth. It would be an add-on and leave the basic shell as it is now. 

The add-on is not much more than 3 to 4 inches which gives you enough space for stairs. To show you what I mean with the add on here is a photo of a wallhanging house:

90600 Wandhaus.JPG

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