The Walls Are Going Up !!!!!

For me, one of the most exciting parts of building a new dollhouse, other than the actual acquiring the house in the first place, is putting up the first of the walls. Today, I erected 2 walls, the front wall with the main door and, around the corner, the front left wall. I did take a photo, but will post that at a later date; it's just not all that pretty right now, not that that really matters.

I'm going to stop with the walls at this point and decorate the first floor section of these two before I move on...I'm ready to wallpaper here and put on the bead board: it'll be easiest if nothing else is in my way. I have my wallpaper cut..remember the printie I showed earlier?, but have a few more pieces of the bead board to stain and varnish. ( I DID go back to Hobby Lobby to catch the last of the 1/2 off sale, purchasing more trim and bead board. There wasn't much left of anything.)

My sheets of small circle ceiling arrived earlier than I expected, plus Fed Ex made a shipping error and delivered a package from Miniatures.com that belongs to a dollhouse enthusiast in Honolulu...got to get that straightened out ASAP. Kathleen, I promise it'll get there!!!! I need to pick out the paint I'll be using for the ceiling after I get the ceiling glued to the underside of the 2nd story flooring. I don't care for a stark white, but will find an off-white that'll work soon.

I'm so tickled about having the 2 walls up....it just isn't as much fun until I get to that point for me. I like to think I have patience, but not always. From now on, I'll be spending a lot of time just standing there and staring...letting the imagination run wild.

The Garfield Manor's 2nd Story Floor

The second story floor to Garfield sits wet from varnish on the work table, looking beautiful, however, unfinished. After piecing together the flooring sheets, I glued them all to the wood provided in the kit, taking care that the tabs and holes were not covered. ( Lots of sanding, cutting, and whittling away to make that happen.) I dry fitted all the slots to make sure of proper fit and then sanded it all well, cleaning the dust by vacumning, air blowing, and wiping off with a damp cloth, then brushed on 2 coats of the Cabernet stain, matching the staircase. I have but one coat of the varnish on at this point, but will lightly sand, clean, and apply one more coat. The floor has a deep rich color to it and a shine that glistens, but does not glare. After letting it sit for several days to completely dry, I will flip it and work on the ceiling for the first floor. That will end up with the ceiling sheets of small circles, which are ordered and on their way to me. While I am waiting for delivery, I think I will start with the wallpaper for the walls in the main room on the first floor. I am still a long, long way from fitting the pieces together to make it look like a house.

Planning Ahead, Buying Ahead

I just love a good sale and Hobby Lobby is having one on dollhouse miniatures and accessories, all half off !! My local store does not stock very many different things and few of what is available. I was able to stock up on trim pieces...crown molding, baseboard, bead board, and hardware. I, also, picked up 1 small circle ceiling sheet and 3 of the wood flooring. A good solid $50 was spent, providing a savings of a good solid $50. When it comes to building a dollhouse, we all know that it's a pricey hobby and every penny saved helps.

Almost everything was sorted out and stored for later, except for the flooring. I decided to use the wood flooring for the 2nd story. Originally, I was just going to score lines in the floor and, then, stain it. Using the sheet of floor saves me a lot of time and aggravation ( a fact I have learned from the past ). I have cut down the 3 sheets to fit the floor and am about to dry fit to the walls to assure a neat joining. I do know already there will be some trimming/sanding down for the floor and walls to fit precisely.

I will go back to Hobby Lobby in a few days, just in case they restock their shelves, but I'm doubting they will. In the meantime, I will prepare an order for more of the ceiling sheets that I will use for the first floor and work on the flooring to get it ready to stain and glue...something still days away.

The Garfield Dollhouse Walls

After over a month of working on my real house, I am able to return to work on the Garfield. The first step was reorganize, as I had moved things around so much in my spare room that I felt lost.

I am at the point on the Garfield to install the walls, but wait.......there are many "must do's" before I reach for the glue. The front left corner ( the entry area ) on the main floor of the house will be very difficult to reach if all the walls and flooring are assembled. I must do a lot of the interior decoration first, THEN assemble the walls. On top of that, I wanted to paint the exterior before assembly, in order to assure complete coverage. So now, I will confuse you, as I have confused myself. This is not as simple as following the directions of construction, but I will try to keep things in some semblance of order.

The interior of the entryway, the living room, and the room, called in the plans "dining room", will all end up as one large room with like design. I have chosen a wallpaper from a "printables" site, an art nouveau print with doves on it in mixed colors of blue ( shown here ). I want the top third of the walls to be the wallpaper with the bottom two-thirds a stained beadboard and trim . Just in case there are gaps in the beadboard, I stained the walls that will be behind the beadboard the "Cabernet" stain, so the gaps will not show too much. After that dried, I flipped the walls over and painted the exterior of the house a dark tan color ( "Executive" from True Value ), putting on two coats.

That is where I am sitting right now and, before I move on, will do a bit of cleanup on the walls, removing the paint from the edges and slots so they'll fit smoothly, and sand any spots that may need a bit....I know there are a few, since I painted outside and got a few cottonwood seeds stuck in the paint.

Still to do before trying to put things together, think and think.......I know I must wallpaper at this point, but I also must prepare the 1st floor ceiling and the 2nd story flooring before assembling. This is where it seems to be so much to think about...the "which comes first" for Garfield. Well, no hurry. While I read somewhere it only takes 20 hours to build this house, the painting, etc. was not included in that time......just finding the right plan of action takes a long time. Perhaps those of you that have built the Garfield before me will offer some hints, as my mini-friend, Sumaiya, has done......you are more than welcome to, please and thank you.

Trim piece prep

When I first purchased the Garfield, from Goodwill, it was obvious that someone had attempted to build it and stopped, dismantled what had been put together with hot glue, and crammed it back in the box. Many of the pieces had already been punched out, but not marked. It took me some time to take an inventory of what I had available and order what was missing. I did not have the luxury of all the pieces being on their numbered sheets. I now have everything arranged in some semblance of order. Once each sheet was identified, I lightly sanded all of them on both sides. This removed most of the tiny splinters.

Building the foundation was pretty confusing. Not only did I have to find all the right pieces, I had to clean off the hot glue from most of them, sand each piece and then assemble. After finishing the foundation, I glued the floor paper for the entry, parlor, and dining room. I will be doing something different for the kitchen. I then worked on the first and second floor staircases. Each piece was sanded and stained first and, then, glued together according to the directions in step B. After assembly was complete, I stained one last coat ( Cabaret by Varathane ) and applied 3 coats of varnish. I have not added the newel post caps yet. I am waiting until it is time to install the staircase. I plan on using some ornamental touch. I will, also, be adding a baseboard around the staincase and a final varnish of the staircase after installation.

Right now, I am stopped from assembling any parts, due to my own home redecorating. My building space is full of boxes and other things from the lifesize living room. I am able to do prep work, though, and only require a small area for the parts.

After labeling each part, I carefully punched out the pieces from sheets 1,8,9,10,11,12,13,14, and 18, according to the directions in part C. These pieces are the walls and partitions of The Garfield. I am now in the process of sanding each of the many, many pieces. I first use a coarse sandpaper and then a finer sandpaper for a neater finish. It's long and tedious work, but it's something that can be done while watching a favorite show/movie. Once the walls and partition pieces are sanded and cleaned of dust, I will move on the door and window trim.

I must THINK ahead here. The rooms have to be planned, at least those that will be difficult to reach in the depths of the house; colors, stains, and designs have to be decided. I will have to decorate some parts before assembly or not be able to reach them after the staircase is installed. There is plenty of time to do that thinking as I continue to work on the sanding.

Any comments, questions, ideas, and hints are more than welcome. This is truly a think as you go project and I will not apply glue until I am sure it is time.

A Little Background

I bought this great house from my local Goodwill for $45...what a steal. Once opened, I learned that some of the instructions and diagrams were missing, but Greenleaf Dollhouses was so kind to supply them for me. OOPS! Now I learn I am missing parts and, again, Greenleaf supplied them for me, but this time at a price of $95, still a bargain, at half the retail price.

I am delighted at the invitation to brag about my work. What is already shown is about 1 month's worth of mostly sanding and sanding. The next stage is all about doors, windows, and walls, which will be many more hours of sanding. Progress is at a pause while I remove a million splinters.

The First Level Floor

Hi, there are only 3 photos that would be of interest and even those are not so exciting...I omitted those of the house in the box and pieces lying out being stained...those will be going into a scrapbook. Anyway, this is the progress so far. No, the stairway is not attached yet, just testing. The floor is a herringbone patterned paper that was varnished with 4 coats for a high sheen. Now mine sits on hold, as I'm working in my real living room, cleaning, packing, getting ready for my floors to be sanded and varnished and the walls to be painted. It'll be at least a month before I return to Garfield. Kathy