Windows for the Lost Cause

I not only talk to the dollhouses I work on, but I give them nicknames.  Sometimes the name is boring and obvious, like the "Pink Farmhouse" or "Brick House", but sometimes the name has layers of meaning, like a cake (or an onion -- Shut up, Shrek and Donkey: have that argument on your own time!).  And sometimes the nickname is like a super hero's origins story...

One of the customers' houses we have in right now I refer to as many things, but in the beginning it was the Lost Cause. Originally the customer had brought it to someone else to be refurbished.  After stripping out the old wallpapers (one of the dirtiest and hardest jobs, in my opinion) the person informed her that the dollhouse was beyond saving and recommended she just trash it.  But this house has tremendous sentimental value to the customer: her father built it for her from scratch in the 1960s, I think.  After several moves around the world, it is what she has left to remind her of her childhood and father.

So the customer contacted us about this Lost Cause of a dollhouse.  Upon seeing the house we determined it was not a Lost Cause; poor thing was just showing her age.

We have spent the last couple of months doing the boring part to get down to the bare bones before rebuilding.  Sanding exterior paint off, removing all old trims and a few scraggy bits of old papers, counter sinking screw and nail heads, putting wood fill into dents and holes, priming everything with KillZ primer, installing wallpaper liners to achieve smooth interior walls for painting, etc.  Now comes the transformation!

First up are the windows...

BEFORE

Before, the window's various pieces of strip wood had been chipped or broken over time.  Plus, the double layer of trims (around the window on the exterior as well as around the inset of the window opening hole itself) made the windows seem smaller than they really are.

AFTER Exterior Side

Kept it simple with just one trim around the exterior of the window.  The wood strips I used to create the window still needs to be painted (it is just raw wood right now) so none of these pieces of wood are glued in; they are just wedged in place for the effect, so later I can remove them to paint them.  But it is coming together slowly but surely!

AFTER window on the Interior Side

None of the windows are perfectly straight but they look much cleaner and streamlined now.

AFTER Large Bedroom Window Exterior

AFTER Large Bedroom Window Interior Side

Also, all interior walls and ceilings have been painted per customer's request in colors she provided (to match her real life house).  And we are working on the floors.  Most will be Red Oak strip wood flooring, but the kitchen she wanted a tile that was similar to her real life kitchen floor.  And nothing has the variation of colors that her real kitchen floor has so we are making her kitchen floor out of popsicle sticks....blog update on that coming soon!

This little childhood dollhouse arrived in such sorry shape and is undergoing some intense face-lifts so that it will emerge a stronger, eye-catching, power house!  You go, little Lost Cause!