Other Work ~

Hello to my newest follower Laurie!  I hope you enjoy it here!!! :)

Thank you very much for all the wonderful compliments on my mom's Bungalow... :)

After going through photos and then trying to find some, I realized quickly that there is not much left I have to share.  The photos of houses I had that I sold, I subsequently deleted from my stash of photos.  It stinks because thinking about it over the last couple days I wish I still had them to look at even for myself.  :( 

I decided to show you a collection of my favorite photos ~ 

The 1/2scale Country Farmhouse:

Crown moulding on the staircase

Bay window w/seat cushion

Dry-fitted with some of my furniture pieces

The Woodstock

My favorite photo, the window that I created!

(from what I understand this is my own original design)

and I STILL LOVE IT!

My kitchen set

All my lovely Lee's Line

The very first dry-fit!

Another sign of "something to come"??? ;)

So I told you in a previous post that I found a great dining room set for my Woodstock...

Well, I found a few more pieces!!! :)

A sideboard that matches the set!!! 

And...

Two (more) Side Chairs!!! :)

P.S. I just ordered the two new walls for my Mansard Addition...so I'm very excited!!! :)

Making "Preparations"

I have to admit, at the prospect of "resurrecting" the Woodstock, I am as giddy as a young child at Christmas!!! :) 

I have told you previously that I keep a binder, a tip from a miniatures book I read once, and I must say that it's very handy to have.  This binder is probably so complete that it would make the most dedicated miniaturist roll their eyes at me.  However I hold no shame because I believe you really need to be prepared in some aspects, and I figure that I now have all the bases covered!!! :)

For me, it is important to determine a layout for the house, right now that is stamped down in writing, (literally).  Each room is written out onto a separate piece of graph paper, and each graph paper contains the following information:

Which room it is and it's location (there is also a date, in case I change my mind on design)
The Wish List - what I don't have for the room that I want to purchase
The Decor List - wallpaper colors and flooring preferred, etc.
The Component List - defines out an interior door, a single window, a bay window, etc.
The Furniture List - lists out the furniture I own, that will go into this room, (so I don't duplicate or not use)
The Light List - the fixtures I have that I will use, or that I want to order and where and how much they are
A Floor Plan - a rough idea of where I want pieces of furniture to go, really just highlights where windows and doors are...

Yeah, I know, a little too much, but with a house of this size, I find it necessary... it can get very confusing, at least to me, and being a big list person already, this is second nature to me...(you should see my RL house binder!!!)

This also takes away the "impulse" buying, and trust me, I'm famous for it!!!  It keeps a hold on everything and helps me keep track of what I don't need to spend money on and what I do. 

One Step Closer... (to my Woodstock!)

I have been working on finagling a way to start possibly buying up the milled plywood walls of my Woodstock kit as we can afford them...(in exchange for moving my craft area back down to the basement my husband finally agreed!!! :)

Ultimately he wants the house to stay down there, and I really don't blame him, as there is no room on our main floor.  We have a gorgeously finished basement, and I'm not too bummed about being down there, because as the weather gets nicer, it's much cooler down there, so free air conditioning!!! :P 

He agreed recently that I can go ahead and purchase the two walls of the Mansard Addition kit that comes with the Woodstock kit.  I need only the side wall and front wall, as the ceiling, floors and second floor walls are made up of plywood already.  I went ahead and requested the order from Real Good Toys, and I'm very excited for their anticipated arrival... My opinion on this is even though it's only two rooms, I will be able to build SOMETHING for this house!!! :)

So while I await their arrival I am cleaning out, organizing and pairing down my miniature collection.  I have a way of figuring out what I have, where I will use it, what I won't ever use, and what I want eventually to purchase. 

I am jumping on a brand new journey...and I hope that you come along with me!!! :)

Real Good Toys Facebook Build-Along

If you are a fan of Facebook, (like me), you may already know about the Real Good Toys Facebook Build-Along.  For any non-Facebookers out there, this is the 2nd time that RGT has done this, they provide a basic kit, that's rather affordable, and you build and decorate along with them.  You are able to provide pictures and work with and share along your progress.  This year's kit is rather unique as it's not a "traditional" kit, but rather a puzzle, meaning you are given a bunch of blocks and you put together whatever your heart desires...

Check out the link below for more detailed information...

http://www.realgoodtoys.com/store/productview/117326//The_Puzzle_Dollhouse_Kit

I must admit, I appreciate this much more than I do the contests.  I am that creative, think-out-of-the-box, so being able to see what others are doing, get ideas, help along the way, seems like it would work out the best for me.  So I've decided to take the plunge!!! 

A sales associate at RGT inspired me with a great idea.  She is currently creating a garage to go along with her house...well, that inspired me to create something for the Woodstock...

I don't want to do a garage, (not yet, and not out of this kit), but one of these puzzle kits would be the perfect size for a shed!!!  So I think that I've decided to create a shed for the Woodstock out of my kit... Check out my design inspiration...

I have a large amount of ideas for this, what I want to do, and how I want it to look, I'm only hoping I can pull it off with only one Build-Along kit!!! :)

*Please note on the Build-Along kit, that doors and windows are not included, it is just a box of blocks... :)*

You Never Can Tell...

So you know the other day, when I was telling you about the great dining room auction that I won on Ebay, and how I wished the seller had had more chairs to go with the set? 

Well, I messaged the seller asking the exact question and they informed me that they had posted an auction that for more chairs, (the last of the bunch) and guess what...I won!!!

So, I'm now the proud owner of 4 side chairs, 2 arm chairs, the table and...ta-da-da...

A matching hutch!!!

I needed the hutch like I needed a hole in my head...but it went with the set right?  Because we devoted sick miniature-people do things that make sense only to us...like buy an entire dining room set without really having a dining room to put it in...

P.S. the first set, the two arm chairs and side chairs and table arrived, and I was worried they wouldn't match well, they match perfectly!!!

An Early Sign of Something To Come?

First off, a belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to my followers!!!  Having a toddler in the house around the Holidays makes for difficulty finding time to do anything, let alone mini!!!

I didn't get any mini's for Christmas, but I did get some wonderful things from my husband...he definitely spoiled me this year!!!  I'm very lucky to have him!!!

I guess maybe because I didn't get anything mini for Christmas, I decided to treat myself to something special...

My beloved Woodstock kit might be stuck on an upper shelf in my basement, but it is not even close to being forgotten...

Poking around Ebay for the last few days I found these beautiful armchairs that I had my eye on for a dining room...



I was lucky enough to get the side chairs that match...

And I scored the dining table also...

I'm a little worried, they were all separate auctions and I'm concerned that the table will not match the chairs, but I am being optimistic about it as they look pretty similar...and I just love them!!!  I wish the seller would add two more side chairs...but that's probably too much to hope for.  

So my problem with the Woodstock might be solved a lot sooner than I thought...it will be a while before I can further elaborate, but please stay tuned for some more on this one... ;)

A lesson learned the hard way…

I have certainly learned my lesson.  I will never again purchase a house with any parts of MDF in it...just when I get back started blogging and getting serious about this dollhouse this time, I get hit with some disappointing news. 
 
I sort of explained to you the situation with my MDF exterior walls and the problems that they are creating with these "divit" things, well yesterday after a very disappointing dollhouse-filled day, I finally had to admit defeat. 
 
I had previously put DAP onto each and every clapboard, painstakingly sanding away at my DAP covered walls and then yesterday I finally decided that I wanted to see some of the glory of my hard work.  I cleaned up one exterior panel and went to work priming!!! 
 
Talk about counting your chickens before they are hatched!!!
The walls are still just as bad, almost as if I had done nothing at all to them. 

As a result of this, I am super upset and super frustrated, I refuse to keep sanding, and I refuse to do anything else but replace these walls.  I truly do not want any of this MDF anywhere now.  I’ve put money into it, and planned out everything so nicely, that building it in it's current condition would be very depressing to me.  So now, no matter how much I sand and sand away, I’M always going to know that it looks this way, and I'm too much of a perfectionist to put it together looking this way. 

The cost of new walls is very far out of my budget…it’s not even a possibility at this point.  So my husband and I sat down yesterday and had a long discussion about it, probably a longer discussion than a dollhouse, namely this one, deserves!  We finally came to the only solution we could, put it away until maybe my daughter is a few years older, and old enough to help me work on it, and then, maybe we will be able to spend the money to purchase the better walls.  So I guess that until then it’s going to be stored away. 
 
Very sad, and a very hard lesson learned… :(

Sanding stinks!

I love your comments, and I hope you don't think I'm rude not to respond...for some reason I can't!!! :P  So if you ever have a question or comment, I do read them, I appreciate them very much :) and I will answer in the next post... :)

I told you about my mistake of a lifetime with this house...NOT double checking that all of it was MDF!!!
I place blame else-where because I'm too immature to accept it myself... :P

Anyways... I showed you previously that my house looked like either the neighborhood children hate it and throw their baseballs at it, or one day maybe the owner got mad at it and started hitting it with his golf club, or like a fellow mini-blogger commented, "maybe it was in a freak hail storm!"

Just a refresher of what I'm dealing with... 

No matter what the cause...it had to be fixed...I felt that it just wasn't good enough to sand it and pretend that it didn't exist...if I'm going to spend the money on the kit and I'm going to put the work into it that I plan on, this exterior look was completely un-acceptable to me!

I had contacted the company and requested a price on replacing all the MDF walls w/milled plywood walls...well, out of my budget... so the really only other solution was to DAP each clapboard with a thin layer, (a steel spatula tool worked the best for this) and then sand it back off again...

I used DAP that goes on pink and dries white

as everything was primed before I encountered this problem,

made life easier!

*Sorry, the camera lens was fogged up because it spent the night in my cold car!

This is what it looked like once it was all dried...:P

I'm now at the point of sanding all of this back off again

...and it's soo much fun!!! :P 

NOT!

*but...it does look really good... :P

I have a system going at this point, sand 7 clapboards, vaccum up the dust, go back, touch up, vaccum...I could go into business with this new talent of mine, do you think there's a market for DAPing dollhouse walls?

I will end up replacing some of my pre-painted walls...4 at this point, with the milled plywood versions.  They are just beyond repair.  I'm waiting until I finish sanding all the walls and get a coat of paint on them...once I see the final finished product and depending on the final outcome...I may have to breakdown and go for all the walls... :P



Here you go... ;)

Alright...here you go "Honey"... ;) 

I don't have too much to report...(I'm still slaving away at sanding each and every clapboard on each and every single wall...and it's painful to my arm and incredibly time consuming...)  

I had mentioned previously my intention to replace the standard front door with one with side lights.  I knew going into this kit that changing the front door was completely necessary, it was just to blah for a house such as this.  I don't know why, but ever since my very first dry fit, the foyer called to me for sidelights in the front door.  I caved...I ended up with the Houseworks Sunburst door, just slim enough to fit into the tiny alloted space and allow for exterior lights. 

My dh finally got around to cutting out the new door opening for me, and I'm pleasantly surprised at how much I actually like it!!!  It fits perfectly even and allows for me to have the exterior lights that I want...

You can see from the photo that I have some work to do at the very top where the "sunburst" that I cut out would go...I chose not to cut out this opening on the interior, so I will fill that gap that remains from the inside...

While he was at it, he also cut the third floor side windows for me... I also knew that I wanted to put a window into each side of the third floor.  I am not using this as attic space and being a HUGE fan of natural light, it, to me, achieves just that.   

Finally...I had needed another of these third floor windows (shown in place above), while poking through the store website, I came upon this style, (shown below) and ordered enough to replace the ones shown above, 1 dormer and 2 side-walls.  I will cut the pediments off of these as I did with the main house windows and I think they will fit in much better with the theme of the house. 



A Permanent Residence...

A few (old) posts back, I may have mentioned I was working on my craft-room...well, it was finally finished during my leave of absence... ;)  We re-painted the walls, and all the coordinating trim in the room, and set it up to create a beautiful play area for my daughter and a nice space for me to craft in.

The house is comprised of the RGT Hawthorne house and the RGT Mansard addition for one side.  On it's own the house is substantial.  After a trip to the RGT Clearance sale, and a great deal, I might be adding a 2nd addition kit to the other side, (eliminating the side porch, stay tuned for more on this...it's still up in the air).  I had intended to build the mansard addition to be separate from the house, (and just push it against the house), making it much easier to maneuver.  With the possiblity of adding this second addition kit, this is even more necessary. 

However given that when all of this is put together it is  going to be rather substantial, so finding a home for it became rather necessary.  My original idea was to use my sofa table and create a base for it under that.  However, as my husband explained, (and even though I don't want to admit it, he's right), it's depth is not really there. 

So I ended up picking up this table at good ole' Walmart for under $40.00.  It's looks small in this picture, but it is just wide enough and just long enough to support the weight of the entire structure.  I still intend to create a base for the house, as I would like to make a "yard" of sorts... but it works for now.  It folds in half for storage, and very versatile, so we can use it for something else if necessary...

Necessary, but boring!!!

I first off want to say thank you to those of you who sent lovely comments and emails...they are greatly appreciated!!! :)  I also wanted to add, that I should have written in my opening line, that although I have left you in the past, I don't intend to do it again.  Of all things that I enjoy keeping up with online, my blog is one of my favorites, and I've chosen to leave some of the others behind for it.

My mini hobby is going to be in full swing now, I live on the east coast and we got dumped on this weekend...26+ inches of snow & rain & ice...it was a good thing, for me, that it didn't cause a power outage, like the ice-storm in 2008, (we were out of power for 15days!)... check out some shots to share... (I totally make fun of people who live on the east coast for taking pictures of snow too!!!)

The tracks are from my dog at midnight,

(I couldn't get him past the door to go to the bathroom)

This is from my front door, looking into the door to my garage

(that is my husbands work truck, he took his Jeep to go plowing all night)

This is my back deck!  My garden is GONE...

(typically we have at least 2-3wks before snow, so I hadn't winterized it yet... :(

 Moving on...

I have no pictures to share really... I've only been painting, priming, sanding and other completely boring, but very necessary.  The ledges and facia for both the addition and the tower are now done, and I have one more step to complete on the main windows and they will be finished. 

I intend to have all my doors, windows and other components done before I start the main structure.  I got this tip from one of my favorite bloggers who has built almost every single Greenleaf house on the market...and it's a great one!!!  I did this for the 1/2scale Bungalow and it just makes it that much easier.

I ended up doing a color change about a 1/4 of the way through the DAP process...I got completely tired of the color I think, from sanding and painting and sanding and painting it!!! :P  As a result I do need to change the color of the front door and because of all the difficulty I had getting it to the black I wanted, it's not going to turn lighter very easily.  So I am in need of a new front door, (not a different style, just a new door, I've sanded and worked the one I have to oblivion!!!)... I'm super excited about the color prospect so I hope I can get the components done soon so I can show off!!! :)

After another long hiatus...

O.K., I've left you twice now, and for that I'm very sorry to my loyal followers...but a recent set of events have created the need for me to find a new outlet other than the forums in which to share my goodies... :)

I don't have a whole lot more to share with you...I've been working diligently in repairing my exterior milled walls.  I didn't realize at the time that purchasing the particular kit I have meant receiving it with MDF walls.  For some other people this might not pose such a problem, but for me, a perfectionist of sorts, it presents a rather large one...

I had primed, sanded and painted my first wall and ended up with this...

When you got up super close to the house, it had, what I will call, "divits" in the siding...so in mini-world, the owners look like they took their baseball bats to the siding!!!

I had to correct this issue...so I have spent many hours applying DAP to each and every rung of siding, sanding it off and re-painting...I'm ending up with something more to my liking, but still not perfect enough...it's going to have to do at this juncture in my life, because purchasing all new walls is severly out of my budget!!! :P