ilovecats' Blog

This house is getting closer to complete! sorry for the bad photos...the exterior stonework actually looks alot better in person...the flash really washes out the color.
 
i need to paint a few more of the stones, i missed them when i did the painting. at some point i'll add landscaping and fill in the cracks with moss. I still need to shingle, touch up stain here and there on the inside, polyurethane all wood on the inside, low gloss finish to the painted trim on the outside, fix the dormer window, and do something about the red paint on the wall in the bedroom. i was using the utility knife to file down something and got scuffs on the wall. haven't decided if i will try to color match it to repaint or just use a wall hanging of some sort to cover it.
 
i pretty much made this house the exact way that i did with my first chantilly. i like the wood ceilings that i included this time and my stonework is better. this is one of my favorite dollhouses, i love the staircase!

First off, sorry for all the blurry photos. i did take them quick and i didn't look at each photo before i took another. i didn't get a shot of the whole top floor as the cat was occupying 2 of the rooms. lol. I have been working on this house and and off for a very long time. i don't know why i can't stay focused on it. but, it's slowly coming along. i'm going to have to touch up the exterior paint, or possibly repaint the whole thing. it's been moved around so much the paint just doesn't look as nice. it need ceiling paper thruout, and the 3rd floor needs to be done completely. i will put in kneewalls before adding wallpaper. i will have a window seat in the second floor hallway alcove. the exterior needs trim/porch rails/and landscaping to help cover up the warped edges. I need waiscoting in the bathroom and trim/baseboards thruout. still need to get the wood flooring laid. This is the first house i've used 5 panel doors in. love the look! i modified the house...i didn't like the way the staircase took up space where i wanted a fireplace and i loved the other room for the living room. so...i didn't want the front door to open directly into the kitchen so i built a room to make a foyer (no photos, forgot to take them)...you won't really be able to see much of it, but i like that it's there. i like that it will be a country kitchen with the stairs in it. no it has unique shape and a cubby under the stairs.

It's hard to believe i bought this kit about 4 years ago. i had wanted to wait until i could buy all the exterior trims/windows before starting the project. Which to me makes no sense now as that is a huge expense to anticipate at once. I got the building bug to work on it last weekend, so i got it done!
 
This past week i've ordered some shingles, but i know it wasn't going to be nearly enough, but at least i got different styles for the different areas i will be working on the exterior. It was an awesome surprise to find 3 bags of hexagon shingles yesterday (1000 pieces each no less) and another back of rectangle shingles....in addition to another bag of pointed tip shingles that i found the other day. I do believe i have most of what i want now! and PLENTY to do my project!
 
Overall, i have plans to shingle most of the exterior of the house. from pictures of real victorian houses i have seen this effect and love it. i did want to do siding on the first floor of the house but undecided as i've used siding before and haven't been happy with the results. the clapboard siding sheets overlap and jut out too much over each layer and you can see where each layer is applied. can't find anything on the market to use single pieces of siding. i have my greenleaf siding, but it's not the look i want to use on this house....so still debating on shingles for the whole exterior, stucco for the first floor or siding. I will have a stonework foundation.
 
i'll be deliniating each floor with strips of wood to break up the facade of the house, as well as a fascia all around the top with decorative trim of some sort.
 
The windows i used in the photos are swiped from another project that i'm working on, but this is the type of window i will be using.
 
I haven't attatched the addition at this point as i know i will be moving the house upstairs to my dollhouse room where all my building supplies are kept. it will be easier to transport. it fits really well together, it shows a gap in the photos, i didn't have it butted up against the house all the way. I haven't glued on the tower roof either as i want to shingle that sitting down, so i don't have to stand the entire time working on it. shoulda done that with my Queen Anne, but didn't. i'll deal with that house another time!  The ceiling for the 4th floor rooms needs to be shaved down on length about 1/8 of an inch on both sides. when i put it in place it has to be manipulated and bows, so obvious too long for the space. on the 4th floor i'm going to extend the wall to the room on the left side so that i can put in a doorway to close that room off. I don't think i will do that with the other wall.
 
Anyway, finally sharing photos of my progress. the house is going to be massive.

Next step will be the dirty wash and deciding on how/what shading to do for the stonework. I will have exterior wood detailing in the places that don't have the paperclay.

I've been wanting to do a tea room for some time and i've been wanting to build my Celerity Corner Store kit for some time. I had the idea last night to make it into a tea room and possibly gift shop. we shall see about that last part

I was really excited that this double front door fits perfectly. I ordered two bay windows for the first floor and victorian windows for the rest of the house. I still need to select some doors. On the first floor I will have the tea room. I decided to add a little room (small kitchen) for a stove, sink and storage items. I will have a wall cabinet of some time to display the tea sets that i have. that is where i got the idea that i could be a gift shop as well. it will depend on how much room is left after the table and chairs are in place and the size of the wall cabinet i will use. since i added the tiny kitchen I won't have as much floor space so we shall see how the gift shop part pans out.

Anyway, the story for this dollhouse it that a single lady lives in the upper stories of the building. it's her tea shop. it will be old timey, but i don't know what time frame yet. anyway, i will do a victorian theme just cuz that is what i love. I envision some brickwork to the exterior made of egg carton. not sure how high up the walls i will take that..probably just the first story. I plan on doing egg carton stonework for the sidewalk. I love the exterior of this building. The exterior staircase access to the living space is really a neat idea.

anyway, not sure what furniture will go in this building but i used what was handy for photos

The second floor will be a kitchen and a living room, the 3rd floor will be the bedroom and bath/dressing room

I bought this house off of ebay about 4 or 5 years ago and it has been in the basement since then. I have been working on it on and off for the past month or so. Exterior main color is blue and it will have creamy white trim/windows etc. I finished painting the windows today. the house has had 2 coats of paint but i may add one more. I have also painted the interior doors and the staircase yay, love finishing those types of items. The staircase just needs one more coat of paint. I chose wallpaper today and I have cut it to fit in most of the rooms, just need to do the upper floor rooms
I made some changes to the floorplan. I wanted a fireplace on an outside wall so my options were to move the staircase or leave the stairs out altogether. I didn't like that idea much..lol. so...i didn't care for the position of the staircase anyway and i like the idea of the bay in the living room instead of the kitchen...so i decided to reverse rooms. Then came the issue that the front door opened directly into the kitchen (i didn't like that idea for whatever room that was going to be)...anyway the option that worked best for me was to make and totally enclose the front entry to make the kitchen space more of an individual room. I'm not bothered by the staircase in the kitchen as it seems like a country style staircase with the railings that came on it. (came prebuilt with the house). So i have a unique kitchen floor plan. The stove will most likely be on the left wall, the kitchen sink along the front wall by the window and a cabinet under the staircase along that wall.  I will have a round table in the middle of the room. Hope that all makes sense. I threw some furniture in a couple of rooms for photos. I will probably be using different furniture for this house, but this stuff was readily available.

lots of progress on the willowcrest since last night. i still need to finish the 3rd floor stuff before i start fine tuning the opening i cut for the second floor staircase, it still needs some work but at least it's mostly done. Next will be priming, then i'll install the staircase...i didn't want to put it in place for photos because i think i'm going to have to coax it a bit to go into it's place and i want to get wallpaper hung first. what a shame you can't really see that upper hall. i love that space. After putting the second floor staircase together I realized that i didn't stain the treads, so as soon as they are done i'll glue them in place


The kitchen addition is pretty straight forward, just a box shape really. I didn't want to do a major bash on this house but i couldn't deal with the tny original kitchen. So, in the end this was a simple addition. I sold my beacon hill dollhouse this past summer, there were alot of things that i loved about that house including the kitchen bash that I did. I may decorate the Willowcrest almost identical to the BH kitchen. I won't be using the furniture for this house that i placed in the photos, it was handy for photos so i could get an idea of my space when i look back at the photos.



i'll work on this house on and off. i still need to shingle the Glencroft and i'm wanting to get some work done on the Foxhall and the Queen Anne. I've got some great kitchen ideas for the QA and I think i'm ready to start putting them together!

I just need to find some doorknobs that i like, add curtains and then decorate!  I got a start on the shingles, but i still need to shingle most of the roof. I also need to install a little bit of exterior trim and this house will be done!

Some of the photos are pre-polyurethane. I love the look after the polyurethane has been applied, it brings out the lovely color of the stain.I'm loving how this house has turned out. Still disappointed with the interior stonework tho. I was dumb and applied a dirty wash after I had finished my stonework, it really changed how it looked. oh well, i'm not going to do anything to change it..once it's decorated it will distract my eye I love the butterfly pictures for the living room. I will be changing the ribbon color as the current one is not going to match.


This is Amelia Thimbles house. She is a 4 inch ball jointed dolly. I have included some photos of her!

Finished the kitchen tile. Painted the eaves, stained some baseboards and trim. Painted a kitchen cabinet.