Welcome to my life . . . .

This is a blog about my passion: dollhouses and miniatures. This particular blog was started to follow my miniature dream: to create a Victorian Mansion. But work on my Mansion is slow. Very slow. Sloth slow. Ice Age glacier movement slow. Why? Because I am easily distracted by other personal miniature projects (I have 50+ roomboxes and 15 dollhouses in various stages of incompletion) and because I work for a miniature shop and am often up to my elbows in miniature projects that aren't mine! So, I thought, some artists work in a particular medium (woods, watercolors, clay, oils, etc.), I work in progress . . . .

Saturday, May 18, 2019

Little Rehab (Duracraft Farmhouse)

Last summer we were hired to build and finish a Vermont Farmhouse Jr. kit (I know the title of this post is "Little Rehab (Duracraft Farmhouse)" but this is the back story of how we came to work on the Duracraft. Plus I have to post the pics of the Vermont Farmhouse Jr. now that I found them on my phone again! LOL).  The customer lived in California and her youngest granddaughter had recently moved to Northern VA.  It was to be a surprise birthday present.  Grandma had provided the other granddaughters with dollhouses but the family moved from CA to VA before Grandma had a chance to make one for the youngest granddaughter.
Vermont Farmhouse Jr.
Vermont Farmhouse Jr. Interior
We finished the house to the lady's specifications and it was then ready for the birthday!
I didn't post about it at the time because it was a simple, straightforward project and with everything else going on (Trade Show, school starting, etc.) the pictures were forgotten on my phone.

Until the California Lady called us a few months ago to say that she felt badly that the eldest granddaughter got a "fixer upper" many years ago at a garage sale.  Grandma had promised to fix it up with granddaughter when she was old enough to help; but they moved.  And with the other granddaughters having fresh new dollhouses, she wanted the eldest's to be spruced up to look as new as it could be. So Grandma wanted to know if she could have the house brought to us for fixing up.

The Duracraft Farmhouse #500 dollhouse was in pretty decent shape! (For a tiny bit more info on the Duracraft Farmhouses, read this previous blog post.)
Some window mullions and shingles missing
Up close photo of broken/missing shingles
Some wallpapers were beginning to peel off and some electrical wasn't working
Porch swing held up by velcro

Interior Floors are large laminate tiles cut and glued in place
We had to remove the old flooring and remove the old wallpaper.  Then we checked and repaired the electrical before installing new wallpapers and floorings. We also put the porch swing on hooks (it was previously held up with Velcro) and we put the doors on hinges: originally the front door did not open at all and the side door was on a Velcro hinge.  Missing window mullions were replaced.  And now the house is ready for pick up!

FINISHED: Exterior of house
FINISHED: Interior lights all working again; new papers in
FINISHED: Interior floors all installed
The interior is so much brighter, lighter, and airy feeling!
Replacement shingles are a bit darker than original but we were unable to find an exact match of paint
Up close interior photo
Up close interior photo of stairs
Up close interior photo
Up close interior photo
Last Up close interior photo
Porch swing now on hooks
So now we move on to the next customer's project...which, oddly enough, is another Duracraft Farmhouse #500.

3 comments:

  1. Nice work! It is wonderful that the granddaughters want to continue the tradition.

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  2. Hi, Lori - I love your grandmother/granddaughter dollhouse stories, and I love the handsome dollhouses that you've built/renovated for them. You've done beautiful work on both projects, but the porch swing for the Duracraft Farmhouse has stolen my heart! You've hung it so realistically on its chains - it's the perfect finishing touch for the house!
    Marjorie

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