2022

Has it really been about 8 years since my last post?  

I have a hard time believing that it's been that long because while it seems like it's been forever since I posted, it also seems like just yesterday.  

I've dealt with many changes over the last 7 years, but one thing that has always remained the same is my love of miniatures......and well, the fact that "The Lily" is still not finished.  

When Covid started I found myself with a lot of downtime, and sort of dove back into the miniature pool so to speak.  I found an old "Beacon Hill" Dollhouse on Facebook marketplace and rescued it from a life of hiding in an old storage locker.   I thought that maybe I would have a better chance of finishing a dollhouse if it was already built and all I had to do was a little Reno work and decorate (which we all know is the best part), but that too stands unfinished.  

I find myself at a point in my life where I have not only the time to work on these houses, but also the money.  We all know that this is not an inexpensive hobby.

So, maybe there will be more posts as I work on stuff......and maybe not......but one thing I know for sure is that whether or not I blog, I will still love miniatures as much as I always have.  

If I can share a bit of my mini life with you.....then that is just a bonus.  

On to better things in 2022......stay safe and healthy everyone.

It's been over a year now.....

.....since my last post, and so much has happened.  I have moved which is the primary reason that my blog was put on the back burner.  I have a super craft room now, but I just have to get it a little more organized before showing it off.

I was hoping to have my Lily dollhouse finished by now, but yet it sits with half finished walls and cob webs in the rooms.  Last night, I decided enough was enough.....no more procrastinating.

I got out my swiffer duster, and defeated the cobwebs.  I even glued some trim and door frames in place (that's my way of showing my commitment to getting this done).  So now my goal is to get this house done before the beginning of December.  

I don't think that is completely unattainable.  Just need to commit to doing it.  Which I have.

So last night I took all the painted window sashes and glued in the "glass".....tedious but needed to be done.  So now I will get all the windows on the house.   Yay, something done. 

If you are reading this....yes you....anyone....anyone....then you have my word that I will be posting here a lot more with progress not only on my Lily but my other two large dollhouses.

Maybe even posts on other projects that I have done over the last year.

Stay tuned.......

Walls are up

In my last post I mentioned that I got the rest of the interior walls up. The kitchen is walled in and so is the bathroom. Here you can see the Kitchen glued and taped to dry. And here the kitchen is with the wallpaper up. I really like how it turned out. It was a little awkward to paper because of the back of the stairs sticking into the room but I am impressed with how well it went together.....I usually make a mess of tricky stuff like that. The walls for the bathroom are up and I wallpapered the other side of the walls (the bedroom) before I installed the walls. It was a mistake because I made a large boo boo with the wallpaper as you can see in the second picture below. I'm going to put some corner moulding on that edge to make it look nicer.

Finally....progress

I got quite a bit done on the Lily today. I finished wallpapering the foyer. The kitchen is now all walled in. The bathroom walls are up and the 2nd floor bedroom is finished being wallpapered. I had pictures but can't get them off of my blackberry.....which is a long story that no one wants to hear. Tomorrow I will get some pictures (with an actual camera) and post them. I felt very productive today :)

Finished Window

My only work on the Lily today was to put in the foyer window. I really like the windows on this house as they are double hung windows. The foyer is starting to look finished.

Now I see the progress

I've done a bit of work on the Lily in the last few days. I've wallpapered the 2nd floor bedroom and the living room. They turned out nicely. The first picture shows the bedroom. It's a nice pink colour. The second picture shows a picture of the living room walls. You can see the foyer through the archway in the far wall.











I decided to go ahead and put the last partition on the main floor. This was such a pain in the you know what. It's a wall with tabs, that is being placed where there is only room for the wall without the tabs. I had to use a hammer to slowly get it into place. It really mucked up my floor. Times like this make me thankful that I decided not to stain the floors and put the floor in later.











Now my foyer is closed in and I can only do work on it from the front door. Which is kind of tight. I'm glad I put the ceiling paper on prior to adding the last wall. I do have one small part to wallpaper still but that won't be a problem. I have to put flooring down, trim at the ceiling and baseboard, and put in the window. Then the foyer will be done. For some reason there is a little gap where the stair meets the floor but it doesn't seem to be putting any other walls/floors off, so once I put baseboard it will be covered up. It's really moving along now......

Progress

I don't feel like I am getting anywhere with the Lily. I work on it a little bit every day but I just don't feel any further ahead. I did wallpaper the living room and one of the bedrooms last night, and today was mostly painting the stairs and the parts for the foyer window.

I have realized through all this that I really do not like to wallpaper. It seriously stresses me out. That's why I tried to get as much done as I could last night. There is still a lot to do but I figured I would do as much as I could with a little walls up as possible. Cramped spaces make it hard to wallpaper.

Sorry no pictures today. I'm just very sick and tired this evening. Hopefully will get some up tomorrow.

Till then.

Moving Right Along

Hi everyone! Well I was feeling a little better today and decided to work on the Lily for a while.

I finally finished the second staircase....man that thing gave me so much trouble. Nothing seemed to fit properly. Thankfully you really don't see the stairs of this staircase. You mainly see the back and side. Not that it doesn't look good, but if there are any imperfections, you won't really see them. I really like the built in shelves in the back of the second floor staircase.


I put in a partition on the main floor between the foyer and the living room. It gave me a bit of trouble getting it in the slots but it looks great now. It's starting to look like a house.


I got up the courage to wallpaper today. Because the foyer will be closed in soon, I have to complete that room before I can move onto the rest of the house. I had to first make sure that all the windows were painted inside and out. This house (unlike other houses) the windows are set on the outside of the wood. Other houses, the windows are set inside the window frame. This means that the wood would show through the window, so I had to make sure that all the wood was painted in the window frames.



Then I wallpapered the foyer......there still is another wall to close in the foyer but I am going to paper it before it goes in, and make sure that the whole foyer is done before I do that. I like how it turned out.


While I was on a roll, I decided to wallpaper the second floor hallway. It was a big space, and I needed to match up some areas which I found challenging......(wallpapering is NOT my thing...LOL) I eventually got it done, and I like how it looks. I can hardly see the seam.


I've been painting the stairs to prepare them to put in the house. I've nicknamed them the straw, 'cause they just suck up all the paint. It's going to take many many coats of paint. See you all tomorrow :)

Planning Day

I woke up this morning with a sore throat, so I don't much feel like building today. It will be more of a planning day. Before I can proceed with any more of the actual house building (still have the other staircase to do), I have to know what I am going to do with the foyer. The next walls that I put in will shut it off, and that's that. So I need to do as much in there as possible before I can go any further.

I decided that I wanted a pink and green shabby chic look for this house. Something really girly. I'm very excited to start doing some research. I also decided that I wanted to use scrapbook paper for this project because there is not much out there that I like in the way of dollhouse wallpaper. Even though I am not feeling great I decided to venture out in search of what I wanted. I looked at so much paper today.....exhausting, literally because I'm not feeling well.

My last stop of the day was Walmart, so I checked the scrapbook section and I found the perfect paper. It's a big paper pack by K&Company, it's their classic paper. It's perfect. Each sheet is more like cardstock than paper, and double sided. 36 sheets per pack, so I got two at $10 each. I should have plenty to complete full rooms, and many of the patterns are small enough for 1/12 scale walls. As well, my house is going to have a nice flow with all the coordinating patterns.

I will have to go through the packs later and decide which paper I like for which room. Once I have decided I will post better pictures of the papers that I choose. What do you think of the paper choice ?

Stairs

Well, today I decided to tackle the job of putting the stairs together. There are two sets of stairs in the house, from the first floor to the second floor and the second floor to the third floor. Seems simple enough, BUT...I have been doing some reading online and have read many horror stories about the stairs. Knowing that I can't really proceed until the stairs are in, I can't put it off.....I tried stalling. Noticed there were some gaps here and there and decided to do some spackling. I love the spackle that I have. It's called DryDex and it goes on pink. Then when it's white, it's ready for sanding and painting. I mostly love it because it's pink.........


.........anyway, the stairs. So I started punching out the pieces for the stairs, and of course they are not all on the same sheet.....they are all over the place. I felt like I was on a treasure hunt, I've never been so excited to find a piece of wood, but honestly it's like an Easter egg hunt. Did I mention before how horrible the wood is....well actually most of the wood for the stairs was in good shape, except the risers. They were bad. Here you can see how splintery it is.


Putting the stairs together is time consuming and you have to try to keep it square while doing it. While it was drying I placed it in the house where it should sit. I figure that ought to keep it square enough.


After lots of sanding and gluing and taping and waiting, the first set of stairs are done. This literally took me hours....and it was not even a fraction of how bad I thought it was going to be.


My plan was to start on the second set, but as I was punching out a riser, a splinter of wood hit me in the eye. That kinda killed the mood......until next time.

Construction Begins.....

I've always been a very impatient person. Miniatures is no exception.

So here was the box (very large and heavy), sitting in my dining room just waiting to be opened.


Once open I sorted through 17 sheets of very rough splintery wood. I renumbered the sheets with a black marker because the perforated numbers are very hard to see.



I decided not to follow the instructions as they are. They called for window making and attachment as the first step. I like to do windows last because it makes it easier to wallpaper the interior. I would not suggest everyone do this, but because I have made houses before I just know that for me this is easier.

I decided not to stain the floors in the house. Mainly because the wood on all three floors are clearly different. Staining it would have created different coloured floors and that would be something that would drive me insane!! So I went ahead and sealed all the wood.




Before actual construction I made sure that I had my building permit on site. Don't want to get into trouble with the city. As well, made sure my fire extinguisher was on hand. With all the heat that is being created by all the sanding going on, better safe than sorry. Which brings me to sanding.....and sanding....and sanding.....I have come to the realization that there will be no end to the sanding. Once I think I have it all nice and smooth another splinter pops up. So there comes a point where I have to stop or I'm going to be sanding till there is nothing left.

This is day one of this project and I am already exhausted.....I mean just putting the body together you need to be a 8 armed contortionist.....it was like a giant wooden pretzel. I had to get my mother to help me. There was glue everywhere....even on my arms.....MY ARMS !!!
I thought it was going to take a miracle to put this thing together, when suddenly everything just clicked. All the pieces snapped into place. And it was time to stop for the day. I'm exhausted.

Decided to move

I've been working on my Vermont Farmhouse Jr (which will be referred to as the VFJ for the rest of this post) for 5 years now, and I just can't seem to finish it. I love the way it looks on the outside.....but the inside has been bothering me for some time. Here are stock pictures of the exterior and interior.



See, the outside is very nice, but the inside is so boxy. There are no hallways, the stairs only lead to the second floor. The attic has three rooms but they are not full rooms and there are no doors. All things that really do bother me. How am I, (If I were living in this house) suppose to get to the top floor/attic?? I want my houses to have a bit of realism. This is not real to me. This was great as a beginner house, but I think I need something more.



Then a couple of years ago my husband (before he was my husband) got me a lovely house called the Acorn made by the Little Dollhouse Company. Much like the VFJ made by Real Good Toys, this house is a very well made sturdy house......but......again, like my VFJ lacks realism.

I like that it has a hall/foyer from the front door, but it goes all down hill from there. There are no stairs at all in this house.....so the top floor is useless. The rooms on the first floor are a great size, and I love that, but the top floor/attic is horrible. The roof is so low that there is not much usable space up there. So like my first house. This house remains unfinished.

After much thought and lots of research I decided it was time for a move. I need a house that has everything that I am looking for. A nice foyer, stairs throughout the whole house. Great size rooms and no half attic rooms. Rooms that actually have walls and doors. Is that really too much to ask ?? Finding a dollhouse with all these characteristics on an tiny budget is not that easy. I however, don't give up easily......and days of online searching I found the mini house of my dreams....for now anyway. The Lily by Greenleaf.




While the house layout is a dream for me, the wood used in construction, NOT SO MUCH. I think I got splinters just looking at the 17 sheets of raw crappy wood. Not looking forward to all the sanding that I am going to have to do. I'm hoping that the finished product will make it all worth it.

So far, I've opened the box, checked that all the sheets were there, and closed the box. It's very overwhelming. Anyone who has built a dollhouse can vouch for that, but when it's a Greenleaf house.....the stress level rises.....that being said, I go into this knowing full well that the wood is crap, that it's going to take a lot of love and work to make it look as nice as it does on the box. I will suffer many injuries in the way of splinters and I just need to keep in mind that I knew what I was getting myself into.

Construction starts sometime this weekend.....can't wait to see how it goes. Stay tuned !