World War II is Done! (Part 2)

This house is just too cute!

BEFORE: Beaten up and showing her age.

AFTER: Cleaned up and restored to original colors.

When we sanded the red and some of the white off that the customer had painted on as a child we discovered the original colors underneath!  When we mentioned it to the customer she did recall the green trims and light green steps so she opted to have them repainted back to whatever we found under the white and red.

The interior was straightforward.  Clean up, touch up, remove faux wood contact paper floors and replace with real wood floors, remove wallpapers from top back room and from under stairs on bottom floor and wallpaper those areas with new papers.  Once work started customer decided the Living room would look better with all the walls papered and the dining room (and living room) would benefit from some trim to make it look more finished.  And I think the trims did make it look fresh and crisp!  I'm glad the customer added those little extra work orders at the end: I love how it turned out!

The faux wood contact paper floors were to be

BEFORE: Needs some TLC.

removed and replaced with real wood floors.
The bottom checkered floor was to be cleaned. But even after cleaning, the red/cream flooring was still looking dingy and old.  So we discussed options with the customer and she opted for wood flooring in that lower left room too.

The lower right room (dining room) was only getting a floor replacement at first.  But then customer decided she wanted that room to look more elegant so per her request we added white trims to that room.  I think it really added a fresh and crisp look to that room.  Such a simple fix completely changed the look of the room!


AFTER: All cleaned up!

Matching the paint colors was the hardest part of this renovation.  Several trial and error mixes were tried, but in the end I think we did a decent job of matching the 65+ year old paint colors:

BEFORE: White paint drips on the foundation.

 

AFTER: Matched the back ground paint color to blend the spot.

 

Some more before/after photos are in our "2014 Repairs & Construction" photo album on our facebook page:  Happily Ever After's Facebook Page!

I hope you enjoyed the World War II British P.O.W. dollhouse as much as I did!



World War II is Done! (Part 1)

The WWII POW dollhouse is finished!  What a difference!

More photos will be added in a post tomorrow but wanted to post a quick note saying that it is finished (Both excited and saddened by that -- it was so much fun to work on and I'll miss it! Yet I'm excited by how cute it turned out!)

I have to admit I went a bit overboard.  Customer wanted to focus on fixing up the house and since the roof was passable she did not want us to fuss with it too much.  We were only hired to repair a corner or two and maybe finish off the trim.  But I went ahead and did some extra on the roof to help it blend in better with the overall "fix up" of the house.  I matched the paint color and painted over the bare spots on all the roof edges at the top. I think it looks a bit fresher this way . . . .



BEFORE: Corner where roof peak met.

AFTER: Rough spots still there, but all is painted.

BEFORE: Raw wood exposed all down the peak of the roof.

AFTER: Painted along the ridge cap to match.

Overall I think the roof blends nicely with the upgrades/work that was done for the entire house!

AFTER: Still shows her age, but a little "facelift"
put the roof on par with the sprucing up the house got.

An added touch: Customer recalled that the lower back two rooms were next to impossible to access as a child (probably how the mullions in the windows became broken was from hands trying to shove pieces in those rooms).  The one is accessible by the side door (a narrow opening, but still feasible for getting small bits of furniture or accessories into the room).  And the black/white checkered floor room (designated a kitchen) was only accessible thru the dining room archway from the front of the dollhouse.  When repairing/replacing mullions, I purposely created the kitchen mullions to be removable so that the customer can more easily arrange furniture and items in this back room now.  Yet the mullions fit snuggly enough that it is not noticeable when viewing the house that they can be removed.

With mullions securely in place.
Bet you can't tell which window it is! :)

With mullions removed.

Check back tomorrow for more details and pictures of the finished project!

More WWII Work

Snow storm slowed my progress on the WWII British P.O.W. dollhouse. But I did "finish" the left front-opening panel (I say "finish" because I still want to go back and touch up small spots, but overall its done).


Left Front Opening Panel when customer brought it in: as a child, customer had painted
over the original green paint with red paint. Mullions werre missing from windows above.



Left Panel In Progress: Red paint
was (mostly) sanded off (revealing
green paint underneath which was
then (mostly) sanded off too.
Also discovered some mullions were
previously repaired/replaced with
paper - so those were removed. 



Left Panel "Finished": Green is on!
Trims that were green have been
restored to green again.  Mullions
were repaired with wood. Exterior
is completed painted white.

Now on to the mullions (the wood bits that create the "panes" on the windows).  At first glance, the house was missing a lot of mullions.  But once I started to work on the house, I realized that almost all mullions were missing!  Someone along the way had "repaired" missing (or broken) mullions with strips of paper.  Once I removed those flimsy replacement parts I had to cut new pieces out of wood strips. In addition to the windows on the Left Front-Opening Panel that I replaced/repaired, I have created the mullions for one full side so far:



The left side of the house as it was when customer
brought it in to us.

Left Side of the house: Mullions have been created for all the windows!
(I still have to give the house body another coat of white and paint the trims green).

In searching on the internet, I did discover a reference to a WWII German POW in a Gainesville, TX P.O.W. facility that built furniture (crib) and dollhouses!  I was completely stunned by this as I was unawares that there were WWII German POWs on USA soil during the war!  I have learned something new.

I still have to create more mullions for the other 2 sides of the house, paint the trims all green and fix up the "yard" a bit.  And then the customer has added some minor interior work to be done.  So it will still be another week or two of work.

But that is the current status of the WWII British POW house!

Repainting History: Customer's WWII Dollhouse

Customer brought me her "WWII British P.O.W. dollhouse".  I was intrigued by this description and have searched for information about these houses, but have come up empty.  Customer recalls that her mother bought the house for her when she was child (maybe 5 or 7?).  A British P.O.W. built the house: but she is unsure if the P.O.W. was an Italian or Germany POW in a British camp or a British soldier in a camp.  Either way, it is a mystery how this dollhouse came to be sold to the customer here in the USA.

The customer does not want me to touch the removeable roof.  But she would like me to restore the house back to it's original green trim paint colors (which she painted white and red when she was a child) and to repair/replace the missing mullions in the windows.  I will repaint the exterior white and spruce up the "yard".

With the roof removed, you can look down into the top floor's 4 rooms.

The front doors swing open to reveal 4 rooms.

With the front opening doors and a removable roof, it will be easy to clean these interior rooms.  The bottom floor's back two rooms however are inaccessible and will be difficult to work on.  Customer wants me to clean the rooms, install real wood floors in the rooms she put down faux wood drawer liner papers and install wallpaper on the top floor's back room.

The oldest house we have renovated as of this point was a 1947 "The Birches" house by the Keystone Company (Keystone's "The Birches").  Now, if this dollhouse really was created during WWII by a P.O.W., this house would be tied or possibly even the oldest dollhouse on which we have worked.  If any of you have ever heard of a WWII P.O.W. dollhouse, I would love to hear more about these dollhouses!

Playing hard

Even with temperatures dropping to 0 and below with wind chills into the -20s, customers are still braving the elements to bring me fun things on which to play. Er, I mean, fun things on which to WORK!

I cannot find which Honeychurch dollhouse this is but having worked on that manufacturer's doll houses before, I know this is one of theirs. Customer has asked me to wallpaper the interior.

Like a bad penny, I'm back!

I decided I'm no good with guilt, and I felt very guilty at how infrequently I posted on my blog.  But it was only about my Mansion, and I don't get to work on my Mansion often, so therefore I didn't post often.  But I was am still very involved in miniatures and working on things!  Just not my Mansion.  So I have changed this blog ("My Miniature Mansion") to be about ALL my miniature works (including the projects I work on for my job at a miniature store)!

Thank you to Linda who emailed me about my Grand Stair in my Mansion!  Your email has motivated me to return to this blog and to update it!  Mansion is still in progress (I know, you're all shocked by that).  Here's a photo of my playing with my Bespaq Grand stairs which came in the Majestic Mansion's Palace kit (for Linda):

The faint line on the wood above the stairs is where the steps must go to, so I have to add a stair or two to the bottom -- which will also help it clear the doorway opening that is under it too (see top photo).

In the past year, my Dad also built me a base:  The base in the photo below is for under the main house (another one is being made for under the addition part of the house). Yes, it is just as large, if not larger than, my coffee table and longer than my dog (who I think is trying to chew on it already!) Luckily Dad put it on caster wheels so I can roll it around cuz it's gonna be huge! The open space will be divided into kitchen and staff rooms!

I'm glad to be back - and now I can tell you about all the projects I have in process and not just this one that I dream about . . . .

Holidays brought windows and doors!

Thanks to the holidays I made progress on the Mansion.  My husband (with help from my parents) bought me most of the windows needed for the mansion and my in-laws gave me cash (which I promptly spent on the Majestic Mansion's Pollinade French Doors needed for my mansion's ballroom).

I plan to have two of these (along with one single Pollinade French Door) on the side of the Addition so that the little dollhouse people may exit the ballroom out to the terrace.  I am such a sucker for Majestic Mansion windows and doors! http://www.majesticmansions.com/

Now that I don't have to worry about paying off all these windows and doors without my husband realizing how much money I spent on miniatures, I am getting excited again about working on the mansion.

My father, in addition to cutting me some base pieces which will become a basement with servants' rooms and a wine cellar, took two pieces of the addition home with him to route out a notch at the bottom so (since he works slowly) the project was on hold for a while.  I am hoping the mild weather we had this week will prompt him to take the saw and router out and work on them.

My very good friend sent me my Christmas gift and in amongst the chocolate was a gift certificate so that I could purchase this for my lady's bedroom (or the Morning room):

I love this floral arrangement!