3rd time's a charm: Another Duracraft Farmhouse #500

I have been swamped with work, trying to inventory and pack up the brick and mortar shop as I transition to online only.  I was so busy I forgot to post this blog update when I finished it a month or so ago.  Oops!  The third and final Duracraft Farmhouse #500 for this year is done.  We were hired to assemble the kit to a shell stage (no windows or doors installed), cut an extra stair hole opening to the attic, and install wiring.

So many little pieces

Every wall had to be constructed one piece of 2-1/2" strip of wood at a time.  Very time consuming and incredibly flimsy wall structure.

Gluing the pieces together

One wall fully assembled

Luckily the walls fit into corner pieces which gave them some stability. But still feels flimsy to me.  It really made me realize how amazing it is that so many of these survived from the 1970s and 1980s!

There were also many warped pieces.  Most we could straighten or replace with similar pieces.  However, the porch support was a specialized piece, cut with a bevel and angle cuts on the ends.  Under our time constraints we had no choice but to use the warped piece.

This piece was warped side-to-side as well as up-and-down

With enough clamps, glue, and wood fill, it turned out pretty!

Ready for the customer to paint and shingle!

Interior has wiring put across ceilings and in some rooms at outlet level

Three more customer houses to complete before we go online only.  Realistically only two will get finished by our closing date in December.  The third one will most likely be finished at my house after we have gone online only.  There's just not enough hours in the day to do everything.

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!

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.