Cream, Greens, and Yellow (Victoria's Farmhouse)

Customer brought us her Real Good Toy "Victoria's Farmhouse" kit to assemble and finish for her.  We assembled, painted, shingled, and finished the interior.  Did not run into any real issues; just a clean, simple project to share with you!  Lots of pics (and some personal life stuff at the very end):

Started with the new year -- January was the painting and assembling month! My parents took the exterior pieces home to paint cream during the first week since space is limited in the shop.  They returned them painted and I started to assemble:

Pieces were painted ahead of time to give it a better finish once assembled

Almost looks like a house! LOL

At home during the first two weeks of January I painted all the trim bits and pieces (shutters and spindles for rails)

Shutters, hand rails, posts, and doors: some in Lemon, some Dark Green, some Light Green, and a few touches of cream color.

Painted and assembled windows too

In early February we hit pause on the project as weather and customer illness prevented her from coming in to pick shingle dye color and wallpapers....but by March we were back up and running with the project:

Shingling started...she picked my favorite: our Golden Oak shingle dye color

Roof is done - just need to put on the top row to match up with the back

Started to seal the wood floors and make templates of the rooms floors

Finished it up just before my kids' Spring Break started in mid-April.  Waiting for customer to get a moment to come by and pick up her little beauty!  Hope she and her daughter (who gave her the kit many, many years ago) are pleased to finally have it together and finished.

Exterior View Front

From the left where side access panel is located

Right side of exterior

Overall interior picture: papered, flooring, baseboards, and crown molding in all rooms

Side Access panel open

Here are close-up interior pictures of the rooms, starting with the top attic rooms and moving left to right down the levels:

Top left attic room: Little Girl's Bedroom

Top right attic room: Little Girl's Playroom/Nursery

Left Middle Level room: customer is not sure what this room will be (music room? study? sewing room?)

Right Middle Level rooms: background is Master Bedroom; Foreground is bathroom

Left Lower Level room: Parlor/Living Room

Right Lower Level Rooms: background Dining Room; foreground Kitchen

Now we have just started our next customer's project (a DuraCraft rehab) and hope to finish it up quickly in the next two weeks!

Personal Life (skip this part if you only care about minis!): Last week was consumed by my eldest teenager's Spring Break social life and my 10-yr old daughter's newest hobby (baking and cake/cupcake decorating).…

Decorating her Spring Cake

Decorated some Spring Cupcakes

And had to make some cupcakes for a friend's birthday too

Did I mention that I gained 4 pounds over Spring Break? LOL   And this week started with a family gathering for Easter at my house (which forced me to address the Elephant in the dining room (aka the Mansion)).  And now this week has been non-stop work practicing and preparing for my other teenager who is performing in her school musical Hairspray Jr. this weekend.

Dress rehearsal last night: My daughter is in the center, blue plaid dress, standing in "jail"

BUT after this weekend: I'm getting back to my Mansion!  Covering it up for my family's Easter dinner on Sunday made me so sad (but I had to protect it from all the nieces and nephew coming over) and it has motivated me to get back to working on it!  So all this Spring-time energy is going straight to finishing the exterior...right after I recover from Orthodox Easter this Sunday!

Identifying Dollhouses

It all started when a customer brought in a dollhouse that she thought was custom made. I had worked on one before so I doubted the "custom made" label. But I had no information to offer the lady as my google searches did not reveal any pictures, details, or manufacturer name for the house. Eventually, after working on the same style house four different times for four different customers, I discovered it's manufacturer/name (Woodline Victorian Dollhouses)! And I began to wonder how many of the previous homes have I worked on have been custom vs. manufactured?

Here are some past dollhouses that I've worked on that I did not know at the time what they were....But I know now, thanks to this (new-to-me) 1980 catalog book:

This one we worked on twice and although I suspected it was a Walmer, I now have proof:  

First time it was in for exterior repairs and to paint the inside (shown here after we completed work)

Details from catalog book

Next time it was in for wallpapers and wiring repairs

Interior is a match!

We wallpapered this for a customer, and now I know it was called the Plumbrook Cottage (plans sold by Plaid Enterprises):

Cute little house!

Unique front opening access to that room

Open back (attic roof lifted up to reveal 2 rooms up there too)

From catalog book...

This Townhouse was in twice (first to fix electrical, then again to install the hinged exterior panel that son had broken off of house):

Complete with the hinged panel wall that son had broken off (seen here needing to be repaired still)

Such a stunning townhome!

It does appear as though the front door was replaced with a different door and that balcony above the front door is slightly different than the one pictured in the catalog book, but I do still think it's the same house.  Or maybe a later version of this house from the Superlative Doll Houses company.

The next house looked similar to Walmer's Brookshire...

But it had a mansard roof:

As it was when customer brought it to us

After we had done the renovations

Thanks to some google searching, I was able to determine it is a Walmer dollhouse that was called Old Town (also found it spelled Olde Town too).  But I could not find it in my 1980 catalog so I think it must be in one of the earlier or later catalogs (I will have to track down all the catalogs over time :) )

And, as fate would have it, we have two houses in right now for renovation/repairs that were from the same kit. They are the Duracraft Farmhouse 500.  (Not to be confused with the Dura-craft Farmhouse 505 which looks similar but has the front door on the front of the house and 2 single windows instead of double windows).

Grandmother brought us granddaughter's house to be fixed up

Interior will be re-wallpapered and new flooring installed (lighting will be checked too)

This Dura-craft was damaged in a move.  We'll glue it back together.

Dura-Craft in for repair work

Customer added the base this house sits on, but it is a Dura-Craft Farmhouse 500

Interior is mostly fine except the interior walls on the first floor need to be reinserted/glued

I will continue to identify houses I've worked on as I recognize them....

Little Spaces: Part 1 of 6 (or so)

Late last year I came up with an idea to create multiple holiday scenes. But it was holiday season and I had no extra time to do any miniatures. So I dreamed, schemed, and took notes...and now it's time to create/play!

I want to create 6 (or maybe more...we'll see if it grows beyond the 6 in my head) different settings decorated for the season.  And it works out perfectly because I have 8 plexi-covers I'm currently not using so they can cover the scenes!  (So, yes, it can grow by two more scenes! LOL)

My first inspiration came from a friend's Facebook post of her awesome real life living room:

I love Carol's real life living room!

And, as luck would have it, I had recently come into possession of this NAME project someone had put together that looks very similar to the built-in in my friend's picture.  This was gonna be an easy-peasy, super quick project! (HA! Famous last thought!)

Window seat needs to be higher for a TV

So I think all 6 scenes will have common things: all will be the same size space, with 2 walls (a back and side wall) and a floor, a fireplace of some type, all will have a reindeer somewhere in the scene, obviously greenery and candy of some kind (chocolate or candy canes), a seat or sofa, and a window.  This first scene would be the "city Christmas" scene - with the built-in TV cabinet to replicate my friend's living room.

When I was first brainstorming, I thought the window would go on the back wall.  However, the cabinet is too long for the side wall so the cabinet HAS to go on the back wall.  But if I am putting the TV in the center nook of the cabinet to replicate friend's living room, I'll block the window that was planned for the back wall.  Where would the window go?  So window got moved to the left wall.  And now I needed to find a scene for out the window...This is beginning to sound like a miniature version of "If You Give A Mouse A Cookie" (If I use the NAME project cabinet, I have to remove the window seat and raise the counter for a TV. If I put the TV there, I have to move the window.  Once I have the window in place, I need a scene for out the window.  Now that I have a TV cabinet along the back wall and a window on the second wall, where do I put the fireplace?)  I need a cookie now.

Window seat gone and now I can raise it up for the TV

I really wanted each scene to have a fireplace of some sort.  But with the cabinet taking up the entire back wall and the side wall dedicated to a window, there appeared to be no more space for a fireplace.  So, as you may have guessed, if the TV is up on the cabinet, why can't the fireplace go underneath?  This is a city apartment so they wouldn't have wood burning fireplaces; but they could have an electric or maybe even a gas-operated fireplace!  Flip a switch and instant fire.

Creating the electric fireplace and higher counter for the TV

Small 90-degree angle trim inset to hold plexi front in place

Painted interior black and exterior the same color as the cabinet

Can see better without the backing on.  Flames are way to small for this fireplace....

Unfortunately I still wasn't happy with the scene.  The TV still looks too low and there's too much dead space above the TV.  And flames need to be longer.  And I definitely need more cookies.

Still needs adjusting.

Found an old fireplace fender made out of flexible thin metal that I could cut with scissors!  I could put this under the fireplace, helping to raise it up, and it would look like those fan grates that circulate the warm air from the fireplace!

Just have to wrap it around a block of wood under the fireplace

Got longer logs and tested it with the higher height...

Better, but still not quite what I envisioned

Added one more shelf and now I think it looks right...

Wires for fireplace logs will be hidden once it is complete

Now it's all painted and I can start to add the Christmas décor (which I still have to make).  And I decided on a window scene and using spray adhesive I attached it to posterboard (so if I change my mind I can slide it out and change it).

And I had to replace the solid bulb that came with the fireplace with a flickering LED light so it would look realistic:

So my quick, easy-peasy project took over 2 weeks and I'm not even half done (as I still have to wallpaper, paint window trim and the small side table to match the cabinet, create curtains, install flooring, find/make all the remaining accessories, etc.). But at this rate, I may actually finish this 6-part (or more) project in time for Christmas 2019!