Beacon Hill Dollhouse Construction: Progress

Here's the progress so far!

I can't get over how quickly this house is coming together!

First of all, I married a good man.
On a scale of 1 to 10, his excitement over the girls' dollhouse was a 0, when it first arrived.
Because he's a great guy, he started helping me construct it in the evenings, just so that we could see each other. He understands that I have a bit of a time crunch because I want to finish it by Christmas. I can't find any other people out there in the big wide world who constructed the Beacon Hill, as their first dollhouse, in under 2 months. I stopped looking after a while because it made me depressed.

Because I hope am going to finish it by Christmas and I want it to remain a surprise until then, I have to work on the thing in our dark, scary basement. AND only at night after the girls go to bed. I hope my little ladies appreciate this!

Living room flooring made from skinny sticks

Anyway, my wonderful husband has been helping me and because of his help, there's been tremendous progress on the house! I'm really feeling encouraged now. If you're reading this because you're thinking about assembling this house but aren't sure if you'll be able to finish it in a reasonable amount of time, go for it!   It really isn't that bad. And that's coming from a woman with the attention span of a ...what's that over there? SQUIRREL! plus the follow-through of a...[Come up with something witty to put here before publishing post].

 See what I did there?

I've primed and papered all of the first and second floors and have installed most of the flooring.

For the living room, I really wanted a hardwood floor but disliked the peel and stick fake wood, so I made a (removable) wood floor out of skinny sticks. This was luckily a great decision for a couple of reasons.

First, it's removable and pretty flexible, so I can switch it out in the future. I should be able to slide it in and out even with the trim in place. The second reason I like this flooring is that I was able to do this during the day, right under their adorable noses, so that saved some time.
Without context, the flat skinny sticks glued to a funny shaped piece of paper looks nothing like a dollhouse floor.   My girls are very accustomed to seeing mommy work on strange craft projects so there were very few questions asked. They even helped a little. Muahahaha!

The kitchen flooring still needs to be glued down.

 I made the floor by cutting out a sturdy piece of paper to fit the floor exactly. AND I MEAN EXACTLY. I used watercolor paper because that's what I had on hand.  (Afterwards, I realized that a flattened cereal box would have been cheaper to use.)
I then glued the sticks, in the desired direction, to the paper with wood glue. I chose to place the sticks with the boards running the same way as the longest wall-if this makes sense. See pictures. I did this for no other reason than the flooring installer for our real house said that was pretty standard.
 I made sure to stagger the sticks like they would with real boards in a real house. It sounds time-consuming but the laying and gluing process really only took about a half hour. Use sharp pruning shears or a utility snips tool (I think that's what its called.) to cut the sticks if you're doing this yourself.

 After the glue dried, I applied wood putty over the entire thing and scraped off the excess. After the putty had dried, I took my power sander to it until my arm was tingling from the elbow down.

Then I stained it and placed it in the house. It isn't glued in at the moment. I'm trying to decide if I should stain it again before varnishing. Um, thoughts? Indecision is the only thing slowing me down, as usual.

I plan on putting wood flooring in the entry/dining room and maybe the second-floor hallway. Who am I kidding? The second-floor hallway is getting carpet. It's waaaaay easier. I already installed the stairs. 

The bathroom wainscotting was accomplished using the same skinny-stick on paper method. I applied skinny sticks horizontally for the chair rail and the trim. I primed and painted them without using wood filler.

Bathroom wainscoting made from skinny sticks

One area where I ran into a bit of a hiccup was the stairs. The treads and risers are different sizes on different floors. It says specifically in the instructions not to mix them up. Guess what I did?
It took a lot of time to re-separate them out by dry fitting and trial and error. I still ended up with one short stair tread on the top of the second-story staircase.
Also, if you're making this house, don't forget to stain the underside of the treads if you're going the staining route.

Up next: I need to glue the third floor and decorate it.








I'm doing it! I'm really doing it!







Here's a link to previous posts on the Beacon Hill projects:

Beacon Hill box has arrived!

Beacon Hill Construction DAY ONE post

Additionally, here are some great blogs I found with more details on building the Beacon Hill.

https://jennsminis.wordpress.com

http://mysmallobsessionminiatures.blogspot.com/2012/04/beacon-hill-dollhouse.html?m=1

http://minisontheedge.blogspot.com/2009/06/beacon-hill-dollhouse-day-1.html?m=1

http://moreminis.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-beacon-hill-dollhouse-blog.html?m=1

And of course, I can't leave out the Greenleaf site,  http://www.greenleafdollhouses.com/forum/

The forum has been very helpful!

Beacon Hill Dollhouse Construction: Day One

Okay, so I was too excited to take pictures of the process of putting the first two floors together. Sorry.  If you want to know how, YouTube it.  I’m super helpful. You’re welcome. hehe

I was shocked at how quickly and easily this came together. I have maybe 3 hours in it so far and it already looks like a dollhouse! I'm feeling encouraged.  Maybe I will be able to finish it before Christmas after all.  The hardest part thus far has been keeping it a secret from my girls. They're starting to ask questions.

Apologies for the terrible camera-phone picture.

Yes...I put furniture in it. I couldn't help myself. I'm having fun. That's the whole point of dollhouses right? Plus, I wanted to see if the furniture I bought the girls would fit. That's a much more respectable reason. I should have led with that. 

Ways I can actually be helpful to other would-be Beacon Hill-ites:

-Read the warm-up sheet. I giggled when I saw the instructions had instructions, but they're included for a reason and are very helpful.

-When it says to dry fit, dry fit. When it doesn’t say to dry fit, dry fit. A throwback to the Simpson trial: If it doesn’t fit, you must a quit. Oh man, that was bad. Yes, I know what acquittal is. Anyhoo, dry-fit!

-DO NOT use hot glue to glue your house together. If you're like me and have spent time stalking professional miniaturist blogs, you already know this. I had to include it though. Hot glue will make things move along faster but over time your house will fall apart! Don't be like the 2 little pigs. We all know what happened to them. Build your house to last.

-Do not jump ahead! Be patient grasshopper. You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow this opportunity comes once in a lifetime...

-Be careful punching these puppies out but don’t be afraid to sand the bejesus out of them to make the slots fit.

- If you’re not careful while punching these puppies out because it’s 3 in the morning and 'nuff said. Don't panic. It can easily be fixed with wood glue and patience. 

Here's the glued foundation waiting to dry.

-The foundation section of the instructions seemed a bit confusing to me at first. I thought it was upside down... because it was. You have to flip the board upside down to glue the underside of the foundation. Once I started using common sense, otherwise known as my husband, it started to come together. 

I've been wallpapering before gluing the walls together in a lot of the rooms because I personally find it easier. This is because I'm using very cheap thin scrapbooking paper. If you're fortunate enough to have actual dollhouse wallpaper or cardstock scrapbooking paper you could probably paper the walls after assembly. It appears to be a personal preference thing.

List of supplies I’ve needed so far:
-sandpaper variety pack
-exacto blade
- wood glue
-masking tape
-pencil
-t square
-primer
-courage

Supplies that aren’t necessary but made it easier:
-wood carving knife
-block sander
-measuring tape

-self-healing mat (This is useful when cutting out the stubborn pieces and rotary cutting wallpaper.)

-rotary cutter
-wallpaper

-some type of adhesive for wallpaper (I used matte mod podge because I happened to have some.)




Much, much more to come...

Our Beacon Hill Miniature House has arrived!

Today’s the day! It has arrived!
Through perilous journey, the box survived!
Trumpets sound, symbols clashing!
Ripping tape, teeth gnashing!
Look inside, nothing’s broken.
More shocking words n'er were spoken.
Imagination, awake anew.
Let miniature obsession ensue.

Oh. Yes. 

It was that exciting. It needed a poem.

I’m  The girls are getting a miniature dollhouse for Christmas (provided I can assemble the glorious thing in time).  To all those not in the know, Greenleaf dollhouses can be a bit...challenging. Is that fair to say?

 But I do enjoy a challenge! 

And I'm not about to break my streak of biting off more than I can chew. 

I’ve always had an affinity for teeny tiny things. When I was little my dad would sometimes take me to a nearby miniature shop and we would spend a long time looking, with fascination, at all of the miniatures. It's such a nice memory. He would always let me pick out one miniature to buy. While I demolished an abundance of my plastic toys, I cherished those delicate little miniatures. I still have them today. 

So when my oldest daughter started showing the same interest, you had better believe I was all over it. It didn't occur to me until after I purchased it that she might be young for a miniature dollhouse, but she's an extremely conscientious young lady. She has always been very careful with her toys so I'm not worried about it. My two and a half-year-old Barbie decapitator will need to be watched...

I spent an extravagant amount of time deciding which dollhouse to buy. Sadly, I spent less time deciding on my real life house. Erm. That’s embarrassing. 

Anyway, of course, I wanted to buy the Grandmomma of them all, the majestic Queen Anne by Real Good Toys (grammar cringe). Alas, I have neither space nor moolah to spare for her. After stalking hobby shops and deciding on the Greenleaf brand, I vacillated between the Garfield and the Beacon Hill for an inordinate amount of time. The girls themselves made my mind up. 

Grab the popcorn and pull up a chair.

I was literally moments away from pulling the trigger on a Garfield. I had been ignoring my husband for two nights in order to find the best deal. I had found it. Someone an hour and a half away had admitted defeat after a decade and posted their “complete unassembled Garfield kit” to Craigslist.

I had drafted an email. I even found a backup and had it sitting in my cart, should the Craigslister prove himself or herself a fraud. There was also the very real possibility that my husband might have contemplated divorcing me for being crazy enough to drive that far for a dollhouse and I would have to abandon the plan. I needed contingencies. What I'm saying is, it was going to be purchased. 

Here’s where it gets good.  I had a show on TV in the background and the girls happened to wander in. The show may or may not have been suitable for children. 

Okay. 

It wasn’t.

Not even a little.

But I couldn’t, for the life of me, find the flipping remote.  Who has the time or brain space for keeping track of remotes during the house buying process? 

Anyway, I got lucky with the TV show because it was a particularly boring scene. Their little eyes glued to the take-it-or-leave-it scene and wouldn’t you know it, the Beacon Hill was sitting in the little girls' room on TV!  When it flashed on the screen, both of my girls gasped.

Message received.

I deleted my email, emptied my cart and began my search for the cheapest Beacon Hill I could find. Divine intervention? You be the judge. 

Oh, I get chills. 

Fast forward to today and here she is. It’s like a fairytale, isn’t it? 

Stay tuned.