A Return to the Non-Colonial Colonial

Late last year we worked on an adorable little green house (Customer's Non-Colonial Colonial) replacing some railings and shingles and cutting an archway from the kitchen to the dining room.

Customer took dollhouse back home and removed the old wallpapers and prepared the ceilings so when she brought it back to us, we could install new papers and glue the arch trims in place.

Last year the kitchen looked like this:

Rocking the retro look?

We cut the archway.

Then, after customer removed papers and returned it to us, we installed the arch trim on either side of the archway.

The raw edge of the wood wall between the arch trims looks uneven and nasty.  Even if we were to paint it, it would not look as nice as I'd like.  So in went the wall spackle fill . . .

In the photo above the wall spackle is still wet which is why it is slightly pink (I use the spackle that goes on pink and turns white when it's dry and ready to sand).  Once it was sanded and smooth, it looks so nice:

The other part of the house that turned out nicely was the living room.  Customer picked a blue paint for the top of the room and a stripe wallpaper for the bottom part.

You can't see it in the photo above, but the hardest part papering in this room was going up the stairs:

Papering and painting around all those non-removable stairs, door trims, window trims and baseboards was tricky but I think it all turned out nicely enough in the end!

Another fun room was the bathroom/upstairs hallway:

I am glad the customer took our advice and went with the same paper for the bathroom and hallway: all we did was cut the border off for the hallway walls.  Tied the two rooms together yet kept the bathroom a separate space.  This area was too small to do two separate color/coordinating papers so this was a nice compromise.  Customer wanted to keep the original yellow tile that had been in the bathroom so we thought the ducky paper went well with it.

Here are photos of the rest of the house:

Girl's Bedroom

Dining Room

Master Bedroom

Attic rooms got a fresh coat of paint.  Overall, this house is going to make a little granddaughter so happy when she gets it for her birthday!  What a great gift!

BEFORE any work was done

AFTER: A bright and cheery home ready for play!

And another dollhouse survives, passed down to another generation, for hours of enjoyment and play!

Pink House; Deja Vu!

So we had this pink house dropped off for a good cleaning for a child's birthday on Feb. 21st.  Owner didn't know much about it; it was her childhood dollhouse that she was now passing down to her own child.  Wasn't even sure if the person who made it for her had built it from scratch or from a kit.  She suspected it was built from scratch.  It was constructed with 3" high siding strips glued to corner pieces (which is why at times you can see gaps or separations where customer's relative did not have them lined up exactly right).  Staring at it pricked at my brain, making me think I should remember something.  But, it was a simple job to just clean the outside, wash the curtains, and to glue the broken railings back together and onto the house.  So I ignored the nagging voice in my brain (not an easy thing to do) and got to work . . . .

Before: Dirty and missing railings on the top porch.

After: Cleaned up and railings are glued back together and onto the house.

Before: All the railings and porch posts on the second level were broken to pieces and missing off the house.

After: Railings were glued together and reattached to the house.

Before: Filthy, filthy.

After: a good scrubbing makes it look so much better!

Before/In Process: Cleaning the house.

After: Railing on side porch is repaired too.

It still bugged me though.  That voice in my head would not shut up: Something about this house was so familiar.  Then it hit me: We've worked on this type of house before!  Our first repair house was this same style house, only in a black and white color scheme, back in 2004.

Before of 2004 Repair Job

After of 2004 Repair Job

Two separate houses with the exact same layout and construction method.  And, yesterday I found a third one of these homes for sale on Craig's List.  This was definitely not something the customer's uncle/father/grandfather threw together for her - not unless he made 3 of them and I happened to have found all three within 11 years of each other!  Must be from a kit, but what an unusual kit that you construct using siding strips!  I have tried researching this house (as of yesterday) but have not discovered (yet) who created them.  They are cute though!
And if anyone out there knows anything about this house and/or any kit it may have originated from: please let me know so that I can ignore the "continue to research it until you find answers" voice in my brain.  It needs to be silenced so that I may enjoy the "have some more chocolate" voice instead.

Harborside Wrap Up.

Harborside Manor was picked up almost a week ago and I miss it.  Not that the worktable is empty now: there is a green house we worked on previously (Non-colonial Colonial) that has returned for wallpapering and a blue Holly Hobby house that is being electrified and finished.  And, as always, my friend's Contemporary Ranch kit is partially assembled/painted and waiting for my attention.
But before we move on, I wanted to officially have closure on the Harborside Mansion . . . here are the before and after pics (with a brief recap of work done) of this beautiful home.
Starting at the top with the 3rd floor:

Before: Attic Left, removed wires from back walls and installed décor.

After: Attic Left, now a laundry room and bathroom.

Before: Attic Right, removed wires across back wall.

After: Girl's Bedroom, sconce wired to bathroom wall and décor installed.

Second floor is next - all lights had to be wired to a new tape run installed on 3rd level floors.  Glue spots had to be removed/chipped/sanded out.  And décor was installed in all rooms.

Before: Study/Office, wires moved from ceiling to floor above.

After: Study/Office

Before: Hallway

After: Hallway

Before: Bedroom looking into Bathroom, that glue spot in the back corner was killer to remove!

After: Bedroom

After: Looking into the bathroom from the open end of the dollhouse

After: Bathroom as seen from the front of the house when bay door is open.

First Floor: again, wires were moved from ceiling to floors above.  Kitchen wall was glued in place.  Arch way was cut from Kitchen to Conservatory.  Décor was installed in all rooms.

Before: Living Room

After: Living Room

Before: Kitchen

After: Kitchen

Before: Conservatory, here you can see what a difference that arch makes!

After: Conservatory

Extra photos just because:

After: The Bay, with door open, looking into the Bathroom and Dining Room.  Those angles needed for the trims were a headache!

After: looking from the kitchen into the dining room - sorry it's crooked!

Before: Whole House

After: Whole House, love those floors!

After: Whole House.

Although it had it's moments of frustration (don't all projects?) it was a beautiful house!

Harborside Bliss!

After checking the continuity of the power and disconnecting the switch from the tapewire, I finally determined that the issue was a short either in the wire or in a fixture.  But I had no idea how to figure out which fixture or where in the wire the short was located.  Luckily I have become good friends with Carl of Creative Reproductions 2 Scale (I'm sure many of you have seen his real working fan light).  So after I reinstalled the switch to the tapewire under the house, I called Carl and picked his brain!

He instructed me to remove all the bulbs in the fixtures on the 3rd floor.  Then he told me how to use his tester to check to see if the short was in the wires.  No short in the wires!  And, my CirKit tester was now lighting when I tested (before it was dimly lighting before immediately turning off)!  This is progress!  So to determine which fixture had the short, I reinstalled the bulbs, one bulb at a time, one fixture at a time, across the 3rd floor.  When I hit the bulb that would make them all go back out: that's the fixture that has the short.  Simple.  Brilliant!

Each bulb lit as I reinstalled them!  I am thankful that no wallpapers, floorings, or trims had to be ripped out or replaced!  I kept testing the house all day long and every single time it lit up, all three levels!  I sometimes even left them on for minutes just so I could stare at how pretty it all looks . . .

3rd floor lights are working!

Such a pretty house!

Crying over Harborside Mansion

So, Harborside Mansion came together beautifully! After some frustration with the warped baseboard and crown moldings from England, and a few hiccups with the arch (new arch did not fit the opening we made and the hole had to be enlarged), and momentary heart failure when the stairs didn't fit correctly (spent an hour or so sanding and chiseling away at stair hole opening), the day is finally here when the customer is coming to pick up the house!

Colors and papers the customer picked out are lovely, archway is amazing, floors are stunning (especially with the stairs!) and all that is left to do is to cut crown molding for the dining room and bathroom! I go in to work an hour early to cut those pieces and glue them in so it's all ready for the customer who will arrive just before lunch. She will finalize some baseboard decisions in the library and kitchen, leave to have lunch, and while she is at lunch I will cut the baseboards and install them. I love having a plan!

Living room looking great with lights on and stairs in place!

Arch really adds a nice architectural detail to this conservatory!

Until that plan blows up in my face.

Arrive at work early and realize the dining room and bathroom are in the bay part of the house. Baseboard was cut at a 22.5 degree angle for these rooms and did not fit exactly perfect, but with a tiny bit of spackle and paint it blends beautifully. But the crown is thicker and 22.5 degrees isn't working at all! I cut a dozen pieces without one fitting quite right. I'm pulling my hair out in frustration. Dad arrives and offers his sage advice: it's not a 22.5 degree angle; it's a 30 degree angle. My hero: Problem solved! He starts to cut me pieces as the customer arrives.

While showing the customer her house we turn on all the lights. The house lights up beautifully (as it had in the weeks prior as I was working on it, including that morning when I turned it on to show another customer how pretty the sconces are in the attic). Then after a brief moment, the lights all flicker and act strange before going out. Transformer overloaded? I count the bulbs; no, we are at 49 bulbs and 12 outlets for future lamps and the transformer is rated for 64 bulbs so we should be fine. Long story short: lights on first and second level eventually come back on, but third floor is still dark.

Attic Bedroom all finished except now light is not working.

All the pretty sconces will be very dramatic with the mirrors the customer has for between them.

I don't know if any of you recall, but this house was wired originally by someone else. We moved the outlet level runs up (had been 1/2" off floor and impeded the baseboard installation so we moved outlet runs up to 1" off the floor) and we removed the tapewire from the ceilings and put tapewire on the floors above for ceiling chandeliers. Where the power comes into the house someone wire with these absolutely wonderful switches that operates on each level:

Wires going from the back of the switches (located on the exterior foundation) to the runs of each level.

But I'm not sure what the red wires are leading from the switches to the tapewire. Are they rated for the proper amps needed for a dollhouse to operate? Yet, it all worked in the weeks leading up to the customer coming to get the house. I am hoping that if I replace or repair the red wire for the 3rd floor (notice it is spliced in the middle there for some reason - wonder what that is all about because it was like that - I haven't repaired anything yet) it will all work again. Right now when I test the tapewire labeled 3rd floor, the tester glows very faintly before clicking off (like a short maybe?) so I know there is power there, but it's weak and turns off quickly for some reason.

Wiring under the house: I'm hoping the problem is here because I don't want to rip up wallpapers and floors!

I am trying hard not to cry (as I'm sure the customer is too as it is heartbreaking to not get her dollhouse like she thought she was -- but I can't send her home with a house that doesn't light on the 3rd floor!). And I am scared to death that the wiring issue will involve ripping up wallpapers or floors to find the source of the trouble: something I do not want to do seeing as how pretty everything is right now (plus all the time it would take). If anyone has any ideas I am open for suggestions, because I am stumped and only have 2 more days to find the problem before the customer returns to get her house!