Trimming out the second floor......

This has to be one of the slowest and most boring parts of building a dollhouse in my opinion. When it's done, it does make a HUGE improvement, but it doesn't give the instant gratification that so much of the rest of it does. Still, trim is a must for a finished look. Without it, your dollhouse just looks unfinished an sloppy.

So, yesterday was trim day. Here are the results....


The master bedroom Is now ready for varnish and it's doors and then glass (after a good cleaning, of course).


The second bedroom is ready for the next step as well, but this room made me giggle yesterday. As I was trimming it out, I got to the closet and in the upper right hand corner I noticed a small bug. Now when I say small, I mean SUPER TINY! I had to get a magnifying glass to see what it was. Well, there in the corner was a spider web that was maybe an inch round and invisible to the naked eye, and right in the corner was a itty bitty spider. Now don't get me wrong. I am one for details, but that took it to a level that I wasn't quite ready for! I hate spiders and they scare the crap out of me (I was bitten by a brown recluse once) but this one was so tiny that even I wasn't threatened, so she was relocated to my garden. I did find it funny though that she was in perfect scale to my dollhouse, and I have to wonder if she realized where she was.


Bedroom #3 is coming out amazing. I have to say that I am really liking the blue and the whole tropical feel of this room. This one is going to be extra fun for me to decorate! I will keep with the feeling and probably use lots of plants and stuff for decoration.

Now the bathrooms are not ready yet. When I do the trim in them, I also have to put in the fixtures at the same time so they can look "built in", and well, I don't have them made yet. So the bathrooms will have to wait for a bit, and I will varnish the pieces before I put them in.

Today I will start varnishing. Once everything is cleaned out, and all the dust is removed, I will set out to get the first layers on the entire second floor. I'm excited. It's the varnish that really makes everything "pop". So, with that in mind I am off to work.

Until next tomorrow....

Doing the walls....

Wow. I almost hate to post the pictures from yesterday since they look bad, but I'm going to hope you realize that once all the trim is in place, it's going to look amazing. This level of the dollhouse is just one of those things that gets a lot worse before it ever gets better. We, we are at the worst. LOL

Yesterday I found a small bucket of drywall mud (joint compound) to cover the unsightly plywood. With a sponge I gave a light texture to the surfaces. This seemed to work beautifully and gave a great undercoat to the paint.

The master bedroom is getting it's trim. This is where I left it yesterday when it started getting too dark to see. I've decided to do this whole level in greens and blues, so I started here with a green "woven" look wallpaper. There is a super light green wall adjacent to it, but from this angle you can't see it.


To complement the green in the marble wallpaper in bedroom 2, I have chosen a darker green accent wall. I then added the super light green for the inside of the closet. I do like greens and wood tones together. It really seems to bring the outside in, and with all the glass in this house, the outside seems to have become the theme naturally.


For bedroom 3, I decided to try something a bit more bold by adding a large print, green on blue, wallpaper to a smaller wall and bring out the blue in the background with a blue wall. I painted the inside of the closet a super light blue. The blue wall has a crackle finish on it, and I will be going over it with a gray wash to simulate the crackle finish in the background of the wallpaper.


For the master bath and closet, I chose the super light green since I had the green in the master bedroom. For the main bathroom though, I went with the light blue. The rest of the upstairs will just be varnished once the trim is in, so that the natural beauty of the woods can show through.

So today will be all about trim. I really would like to get it all in place so that I can start with the varnish. I'm on my way now. Until next time....

The walls are in! The walls are in!!!

Good morning. Yes, I know that I normally do this blog in the evening, but since no one seemed to notice that I didn't get a blog up for almost two days when our internet was out, I'm guessing that it doesn't really matter when I get this up. So, yesterday when I finished doing what I did, rather than grabbing the camera, I found other things to do, and took the pictures this morning.

Well, yesterday was another busy day for the dollhouse. That made me feel a bit better since I didn't get anything done on it the day before. Now the last of the interior walls are in. Yay, me.

In this picture, you are getting a view of the master bath and closet, the main bath, and the master bedroom. It's a bit better view of the walk-in master shower. That will look like more when the glass is added! The walls need finishing badly!

From this view you can see that the third bedroom finally has it's walls, and you get a tease of the master balcony.

and here is the master balcony.... railing in! Whoo-hoo.

I know this all looks like a huge mess, but it's really not. Today I am going to venture out to the local hardware store and see what is available here to coat the really poor quality plywood. I'm thinking like a plaster of some kind. With that I could do some interesting textures as well, that could really add to the aesthetics of this house. The big question though is what can I find in a small enough amount to work. This isn't like doing this in the States where I could run to Hobby Lobby or Michael's and pick up a pound container. Here I have to depend on a hardware store.... and in a third world country, at that. So, we'll see what I end up with. One thing I have learned here is that you just make things work. Tim Gunn would be proud.


And for my last picture today, you can see the frame I will use for the wall that will open. In this picture I have it taped and clamped to the place where it will fit when it's finished, to insure that it laid flat against it while drying. It would really suck if I had gotten it all put together and then found out it had tweaked or warped in some odd way and didn't lay flat! It's tight fit is crucial to the finished look of this house and to top it off, it's in the front! From here I can fit in the outside walls and whatnots to insure a perfect fit when opening and closing. It has be be exact for the inside as well as the outside to look right when it's done. It almost has to fit together like a puzzle piece.

So, that's where I am right now. I'll post this and get to work on the next step. So, until next time....

Two days in one...

Early Tuesday morning...

Hi. I know I normally do this blog every evening, but it was getting late by the time I took the pictures, and THEN the internet went down. It does that from time to time here, as well as the power, the water and the cable. Nothing is real reliable here, that’s for sure, but then on the other hand, it’s never boring either.

Well, yesterday was super hot and SUPER humid. Right now is right in the middle of the summer here in Belize. From mid February to the middle of June are the hottest months here, and yesterday didn’t disappoint. I think it was one of the warmest and most humid so far this year. That’s not really a huge deal ( I actually love the heat just not the humidity) except that things that normally take about an hour to dry, suddenly take three or four. This slows down progress even more. At this point it becomes an exercise in patience. Leaving things alone until they are completely dry is not my strong suit on a normal day. Yup, it’s true…. I’m one of those people that just has to fuss with everything and try to make things happen before they are ready. I am guilty. –hangs head in shame- LOL

So, there isn’t nearly as much to see today as I would have liked. Still, I have a little progress to show you.



Once again, here is the front of the house. As you can see, all the clamps are holding the beginnings of the support system for the “opening” wall I will be adding. I got the rest of the uprights done, and once they were secure, I added the top bracing that the wall will somehow attach to. I still haven’t worked out all the details of this opening wall, but I do know that however I do it, it will have to have good solid support behind it. I sure don’t need ANYTHING coming loose or rattling once the wall is attached with all that glass in it.




In this next picture, you can see that I put in a few walls. Like I said, it was late when I took these pictures, so I was too lazy to climb the ladder and get good shots from above, but I think you can still get the idea. From the front right moving left, you have the master bathroom, the master closet, and then the bathroom for the rest of the house. They still don’t look like much, but this is the rough layout. I know the main bathroom is still missing a wall, as well as the wall between the closet and master bedroom, but as I said, I spent lots of time waiting for things to dry yesterday. The side walls and support were among them. Maybe I can get them in today. Hey, a girl can dream!

Now, as you may have noticed, some of the plywood used in some of the walls is anything but pretty. I am thinking that a nice coat of paint or wall paper will help with that! This is just one of the things that have to be dealt with when using left over scraps from a furniture maker. If they were nice big beautiful pieces, he would have used them himself, and they wouldn’t have been scrap. So goes life when you are poor and building a “recycled” house. I think if I ever do another house, I will take up a collection first. LOL

Also, in related news… my friend that builds the furniture said that he can probably get my band saw blade from his supplier. Now, I’m not holding my breath since things here are seldom that easy, but it was a glimmer of hope to brighten my day. Actually, now that the weekend has passed, most things seem a little better. That’s good since it is super hard to be wonderfully creative when you are depressed and everything seems to be going wrong.

Tuesday evening….

Today got super busy, and I really didn’t get a chance to work on my house, but I did get to go raid my friends scrap pile, so I have fresh supplies and will be ready to hit it hard in the morning!!
Until then……..

The building continues in-spite of deversity .....

This has just been a crappy weekend. If it could go wrong, it pretty much has. I haven't been this blue since before I left the States. Still, the dollhouse provides a wonderful escape for me, even if it is slow and clumsy going without my band saw (which you can see in the background of the first picture).


I started today by moving the house away from the wall where it was. This way I can get on both sides of it. It doesn't make for as pretty of pictures, but I'll worry about beautiful pictures when it's all finished.
As you can see, I got the rest of the flooring in, and spent a large part of today sanding. I'm going to wait to do the varnish once all the walls are in so that I can get them done at the same time.
I have decided to try and see if I can get the whole wall on this side open up (put it on hinges) so that I can access the stairs, hall way, both bathrooms, the master closet and the third bedroom. I will have to build the whole wall in a frame, and hang it from a support brace across the top. It should be interesting to see if i can pull it off.


In this picture you can get a better look at how the layout is looking. The second and third bedrooms are closest to you. Many of the walls are still missing, but I'm concentrating on getting some nice heavy supports in so that I can get started on that front wall. There are only two of those in so far, but they'll be in tomorrow, and that will give you a better idea of where I'm going with this.

Now, if you look at the top right of the picture you will see a small section of flooring that is going a different direction. If I had thought to get a close up of that, you would see that it's actually lower than the rest of the floor. That is going to be the master shower. You'll be able to see that better tomorrow too.


From this angle you can get a look at the early stages (framing) of what will be the door from the master bedroom out on to the master balcony.


This picture is taken from the master bedroom end. The blurry wall right in front is the wall between the bedroom and the bathroom. This looks out on to the stair case coming from the first floor.
and this is a closer view. I still need to trim out the opening, but this gives you the idea.

Well, that's it for tonight. It's a slow process, but one I am enjoying.
So, until tomorrow.......

puttin' up walls.....

Well, I have to start this blog with a note of sadness. My blade on my band saw broke today. The really sad part is that I am pretty sure that I won't be able to find a blade for it here in Belize. It was hard to find one for it in the States. I know this probably doesn't mean much to most of you, but that band saw worked as hard as I do. It is the one tool that stayed plugged in at all times in my work shop. About 95% of all the cutting I do, I did on that saw. I will miss it! From now on, I will be cutting by hand.

On to happier things....

I've got walls!! Well, at least some of them anyway.



^Here is an overhead view....

and here is an explanation of what you are looking at V


Kind of cool, huh? I'm still working on laying the floor, but this thing has gotten big now and I couldn't reach. So, I'm going to finish what I can reach from this side (which is the back side), then I'm going to have to turn it around. At this point, turning it is going to require help.

So, let me show you some other angles.



This is the master bedroom to the right (where the floor is), and the master bath will be to the left. On the distant right (before the end wall) will be the master balcony with a glass door leading out to it.



This is the second bedroom. The plywood I used for the back wall was rather nasty on one side. To me, that means it needed wallpaper!


This is the wall between bedroom 2 and 3, looking in to bedroom 3.

and this is looking into the closet in bedroom 3.

Things are progressing as you can see. More to come tomorrow!! Until then.........

Movin' on up.....

The beginnings of the second floor have started to happen.... at LONG last!


Yup, that is the sub floor for the second floor of the doll house! I was starting to think I was never going to get to this point. Don't you just love how I hold it down tight until the glue dries. You just stack a bunch of heavy crap on top of it. LOL


This is the start of the floor in one of the secondary bedrooms. I'm going to try and do the floors a little different in each room. We'll see how that turns out.

This one is the floor in what will become the master bedroom.


Here you can see the two rooms together. Cool, huh??


And my last picture for tonight is looking down into the stair case.

Well, tomorrow I'll take all the crap off of the top of it, and really get the floor going, so more and better pictures tomorrow night! Until then.....