Thursday, June 13, 2019

Another Duracraft Farmhouse #500

Broken by movers, this Duracraft Farmhouse #500 was brought to us to be glued back together.
Doesn't look bad - just a few porch posts missing

So it didn't seem that bad at first glance.  Just a few porch posts and railing that needed to be reattached.  But at other angles and from the interior, more issues became evident...
Oops - yeah, the roof is missing above the jut-out double windows.
Oh dear, the entire wall to the right of the side door is missing.
There appears to be some interior walls and stairs missing
Luckily the customer had most of the missing parts and pieces.  We just needed to piece them back together like a puzzle.  Some pieces, like baseboard trims, were split down the center so we had to find the shards of wood to glue them back together.
Living room wall, shows not only the entire house being loose at joints, but also how baseboard near corner is split
Hit a bit of a snag when we did discover that the customer was missing one critical piece: a porch post.  Thankfully it was a simple block post and we were able to cut and paint it to match.  As long as we had to paint match, we also touched up some oddball mis-matched pieces (such as that one white porch corbel that didn't match all the other corbels).
New post on left, door in the middle, existing porch post with white corbel on right

All painted to match door
We glued the chimney and the corner porch shingles and trim on.  We fixed the front door (which was completely off it's hinges).  And now the house is glued back together, on it's base, with all missing parts and pieces properly put in place:

Roof, porch posts, and railing back where they had been! (I won't say back where they belong because whoever assembled this kit put some railings in different spots than where the directions say to put them.)
Interior walls, stairs, and exterior wall by side door are glued in
Stair back in and baseboard fixed; entire house glued back to base
And as odd as it was to work on THIS Duracraft Farmhouse #500 right after having finished up the white Duracraft Farmhouse #500 last month, nothing is as odd as having another customer bring her project in (a kit to be assembled to the shell stage) and it's (YOU GUESSED IT!) another Duracraft Farmhouse #500!!!!  What are the odds of that happening?  Apparently pretty good since it did happen.  So stayed tuned for yet another Duracraft Farmhouse project!