My Mom's Half Scale Bungalow...(part III)

More on my mom's 1/24 scale RGT Bungalow ~

We are moving on up to the second floor!  Some additional changes that I decided to make in the Bungalow were to add some windows to the second floor.  I thought that the house lacked windows and looked very plain.  I found some Houseworks 1/2scale windows at HBS and chose them as they were the closest thing I felt that would stay within the over-all look of the house...

Be careful when you let your husband cut up your house!

These are the windows that I chose...fit perfectly!

More realistic feel in my opinion...

Assembling the bay is no easy task, I found that my glue jig helped out immensely when doing this. 

 The triangles(in the center) come with the kit for this purpose, to use as supports

Once that was glued in place I dry-fitted the second floor with the roof, to make sure I knew what was coming next...

The wood "beam/knee wall" you can see here, (separating the roof from the floor), I stained to match the floors instead of wallpapering..

Another dry fit picture...

I opted not to add a railing on the second floor, as I felt it took up space... you can see below the hallway, trimmed.  I used some spare smaller moulding to trim around the stair hole. 

Now, I have to file the next set of pictures into the category of what was I thinking!  Let me explain.  I had a total idea for where this house was going.  I picked out some great wallpaper, (at least I thought it was great) and someone else that is on my miniature forum told me (in no uncertain terms) that it didn't reflect the "Craftsman" style at all... (I still love it!)

I really let that person's judgement of the choices I was making affect me, and I was frustrated because that was a HUGE part of the rest of the color scheme for the house...as a result when it came time to attach the wallpaper to the second floor I grabbed whatever was in my scrapbooking pile, and ended up with these colors...

Bedroom

Bathroom

I have to give credit to my mom because even if she does dislike them as much as I do, she won't say.  I've begged and pleaded for her to give me the house back so I could re-do what I don't like now, (I think we would all do that though)...but she won't, she insists that she loves it.  In her *possibly color-blind defense* the colors photographed a LOT lighter than they really are...

She opted to put the Avon Victorian Memories furniture in the house, (because it's so Victorian huh?) (slamming hand to forehead)...this is the furniture I had planned for it...(still do if I ever get it back to change it!)

Maybe if I start collecting the furniture kits, (as all the furniture shown above is in kit form) she will see it and let me at the house!!! :)

Tomorrow ~ The Exterior and Landscaping

My Mom's Half Scale Bungalow...(part II)

WOW...thanks so much to all of my new followers!!!  If I missed you I'm very sorry, I had a SURGE! :)

Dora Hed

Carmen

Sharon Larkin

Lara

Teresa

Madelaine

Josje

Cristina F

Maria Ireland

Now, on to more on my mom's 1/24 scale RGT Bungalow~

I had decided early on that I would alter some of the pieces to give the house more of what I thought it should have.  That included opening up the first floor...

Here is the original wall piece

 This is my modified wall...



And here's what it looks like in the house...

(this is the living room, looking into the kitchen)

Here is the finished living room

Trimmed out with the windows and doors in place

(the stairs and furniture are just placements at this point)

Here is the finished kitchen

Trimmed out with the windows installed

(again, furniture is just placements)

And this has to be my favorite part of the house...

The trimming around the stair hole

It took the longest to do, for me to figure out the angles, but I love it!

Monday ~ The 2nd Floor!

My Mom's Half Scale Bungalow...(part I)

So the first thing I will do is show my mom's 1/24 scale RGT Bungalow that I made. 

I will start with some construction photos, so if you are about to work on this house, you can get a feel for some things I encountered...

Look how small!!!  This is the front wall panel, right out of the packaging!

My next few photos will show the importance of dry-fitting!

Here is the foundation...(assembled with wood glue)

This is how it attaches to the first floor...

This is how you fix it when you've stained the first floor when glue won't stick to stain!

This is how you fix your porch and attach your walls when you realize it's all part of the first floor...

*Tip: a well used dremel gets the stain off, and then your walls will glue in place!

This jumps ahead a bit, but it's to highlight the same issue...

Same thing with the 2nd floor...

If you can't tell I jumped like 5steps ahead and started staining the floors before doing a dry-fit.  And this particular house is a great example of why that's such a bad thing.  Unlike other RGT houses this one builds on itself, parts need to be glued onto other parts to construct the house, and glue does not stick well to stained/poly'd pieces.  So be sure to dry-fit, at least once, so you can get an idea for how the build goes together. 

Here is the first floor assembled with some trimming taped in place...

Here are some of the components that came with the kit, and some I added...

Here is the trim pieces that I pre-stained waiting for me to use them...

Windows and doors that I added that were not part of the original kit

Two interior doors with hardware that I added 

New front door

It was hard for me to believe that all these pieces...

 Would turn into this...

Tomorrow ~ First Floor

Monday ~ Second Floor

Just A Quick Note ~

Well, I'm humbled...I just got a surprise *glowing* review from my mini-friend Audra (well, she's not just a mini-friend, she's a friend) I figured I had to send out a little note.

I took it as a hint, O.K., more of a shove in the hallway! to get some pictures of my older work up on my blog for all to see.  So, I promise that on Thursday you will see a collection of photos of work that I have done so far, and then maybe a post or two on what's to come. ;)

So, don't forget...check back on Thursday!!! :)

A Solid Foundation...(is a good place to start!)

It was quite rainy and miserable part of last weekend so I coaxed my dh into helping me work on the Newport foundation.  Don't tell him I told you, but I think he quite enjoyed himself!

They say work from the bottom up, so that's where I started.  The addition foundation was first. 

I had done a number of dry-fits of the all of the foundation pieces already, so I knew what I was dealing with.  I ran into a small problem during assembly and ended up taking about 1/4 of an inch off of two of the pieces that make up the addition foundation. 

*I would not recommend this if you are new to dollhouses, or if you have other options.  The reason behind doing this for myself was completely asthetic.  In the end, I'm happy with the result.

Once the walls were up, we added the floor...

Finished!

 Adding some glue to the seams...

We next assembled the main house foundation, (remember, both are being built separately).  The front and back wall foundation pieces were really bowed/warped before we installed the floor to the finished foundation, the bow had to be corrected. 

If you look at the two middle pieces, you can see where they gap to the front and back pieces
(the bay is not attached at this point)

Extra glue, tape and a couple nails will help correct the bowing...

Once that was done it was time to put the first floor on.  The floors of the kit are all wood, (nice wood too!), in fact the only MDF on this is behind the bricking and some of the roof sections.  The instructions do not say to use nails to attach the first floor to the foundation, however, with the warp being as bad as it was we made the decision to add nails to help stabilize and correct the warp.  I had to make sure that my dh positioned the nails where they will be hidden and not to interrupt decorating later. 

With the floors attached and both foundations finished, I next dry-fitted the nosing.  Upon doing so, I realized that I need to pre-finish the foundation first, so my next step is on hold for a bit. 

Give-Away's...

I've decided to put my hat into the ring on a couple give-aways this year. 

Being that I might actually have a dollhouse to put these specatular things into, I've opted to have my name included on two, (so far!)...

The first is Audra at Honey I Shrunk The House... while there, venture over to her AMAZING Glenwood by RGT.  I love her color palette and how she's done her yard.  She's doing the coolest thing I've seen with dollhouses, and mimic-ing it to her own RL house!!!  Take a peek at how realistic she's getting into it...her son's golf bag, her father's apartment...and her basement!!! :)

The second is Keli at ISeeCerulean...while there, check out her Fairfield... I'm in awe on her ability to make her own 1:24 scale furniture, her kitchen table, cabinets, you name it!  Just gorgeous.  I cannot wait to see what she does with the 2012 Greenleaf Spring Fling Kit this year...WOW!!! :)

The generosity out there right now is rubbing off on me, and I'm trying to figure out what I want to do for my give-away...I'll keep you posted!!! :)

Dry-Fit #1!

I have been patiently waiting(alright, maybe not patiently) for my 2-story addition kit to arrive so I could finally do my first dry-fit of the house...and it did!!!

I was finally able to start the dry-fit process.  Dry-fit is where the house is built without glue or nails or anything permanent at this point.  It is important to dry-fit so you get a feel for how the build of the structure goes together, what you do wrong at this point can still be corrected.  Doing a dry-fit is great to get some perspective on the house.  For me, I'm still playing around with where the addition kit will go, where the garage will go, and if I want to flip the house entirely!!! :)

Here is the first floor with the addition on the right side, as opposed to the left shown above...

Here is the second floor...this is as far as I've gotten so far.  The addition kit is moved away from the house at this point, and the side walls to the right are missing, as they are comprising my garage. 

I'm very happy with the proportion of the garage to the house.  I think it came out perfectly.  I can't wait to see this a bit further along!!! :)

You will also note that there is no foundation yet.  I am undecided on how I want to finish the foundation at this point, and whether or not the garage will even have a foundation.  I intend to build the house, the garage and the addition kit as separate pieces, not all one unit, so they can be moved around with ease later. 

I still have much more to do, the house is still kinda talking to me, telling me what I should do, what I should change, keep, etc.  In the meantime, I have been keeping myself busy with priming and sanding...there is very minimal sanding and painting for me to do (as compared to a house where the exterior is not pre-finished), so I'm trying to get as much of it done as possible.

This build is very interesting once you get down to it.  It's a system of wall sections and connectors.  These connectors must go in the correct direction or it will throw the entire house build off.  If you are working on this house also, please reference the directions as much as you need to in order to ensure the proper direction of the connectors at all times. 

Here are some of the connectors...

Looks like that's all for now...stay tuned for more... :)

The Conservatory... (Part I)

I had opened up the box of parts for the Foxhall Conservatory and was a little disappointed when I really looked at them.  Unfortunately my big plan of making a conservatory on the side of the house off the kitchen, (to make into a dining room), is just not going to work. 

The walls of the conservatory are on the left and the Newport side wall is on the right...

The difference in the wall heights are way too much for me to figure out how to work with, so back into the box the conservatory went.  I've decided to come up with a new plan.

Last year my DH had me order a garage door kit for my *surprise* Woodstock, thinking I would turn the Mansard addition into a garage/man cave for the house. 

Ultimately I wouldn't have done that because my floor plan called for a different room using that addition kit, so the garage door went into the "To-Be-Sold" pile.  While it didn't work out with the Woodstock, it might work out with the Newport.  

I've done some poking around online at different bricked houses while in the planing stage, trying to get a feel for the contrast colors I want to use and any inspiration I could come upon.  I kept going back to the Home Alone movie house as my inspiration.  I know that there was a garage with this house, but it's not really featured too well. 

So I did some more digging online and found a great inspiration photo for my garage online...I like this all bricked one, thinking that it would be great to try to reproduce.   

While I intend to create a garage, I am not going to exactly replicate this one.  I have no intention of peaking my roof, (it will be flat) and I don't want a 2nd floor on it.  I do like the side door and pathway, the window, the transition in front of the garage door, the all white trim against the brick and the grayed shingles.  These are elements that I fully intend to incorporate into my design. 
So we are back to the drawing board, how to create this?

In the build of the house on the right side, (looking from the front), the walls are shorter than the left side walls.  I quickly found that if I took these two shorter walls, (first and second floor) and put them together, it would give me a side and front wall for a garage!

Shorter side walls used as front and side wall(and me propping my garage door!)

Front of garage

I am happy right now with the proportion of the door to the wall siz, however I need to complete the first floor dry-fit, (which I haven't gotten to just yet) to make sure I'm happy with the proportion size of the "garage" to the house...I also need to plan out a roof and floor...(which will probably be plywood from Home Depot.  I'm hoping that it will size up nicely and compliment the house well. 

What the interior will look like... (my DD likes it!)

However because these walls are rather critical to the actual build :P  I need to reorder them from the manufacturer.  Trying to mimic them or re-create them in any way is not going to work for me, as I'm too particular!!!