Chalk and Cheese...

I've been busy since my last blog; wallpaper has been ordered, I'm getting an idea of what the exterior colours will look like and I have been thoroughly enjoying myself making up the staircases. However, as happily as the first floor staircase went together, the second floor staircase was (to put it politely) a challenge!

Some of the pieces I had duplicated from the replacement window sheets so I never envisaged any problems, but the main back piece (where the shelves go) was snapped on one sheet and the wood on the second crumbled whenever I went near it - I cut and punched the pieces out as carefully as I could, but sanding proved even more damaging. The fronts of almost all the pieces were damaged too but the back of the pieces was a much better quality wood, just a lot darker. In the end I glued everything together to avoid any more damage, trimmed the excess on the tabs etc with a hacksaw blade and then filled, filled and filled some more.



I drove my very patient family mad with two days of obsessive filling and sanding but I'm pleased with the results. By putting the filler on with my fingers I was able to manipulate it easily and rub off any excess straight away, and then I sanded with a very fine paper just before the filler went off, which is easier and results in a very smooth finish. Both staircases, Chalk and Cheese as they are now fondly known, are now being painted white. Mental note to self for the next time though, paint the interior piecess of the (oh so teeny, tiny) shelves before gluing them all together!

Well, I've finally uploaded some photos...

The first is of the dry fit - a very shaky affair! We did eventually put all the tabs in and she looked much better, but it was a tight fit in places and last thing I wanted to do was snap a piece of wood just for the sake of a test run.

I also, as I've only just noticed, had dry fit Lily together handed, I was testing the stairs earlier this evening and turned Lily round to see the front, it was only then that I noticed that the doors were on the right and not the left! No wonder no chatting has been done, Lily's all back to front!

The doors and windows are safely tucked away; the front doors are black and the back door white (which will need filling, it didn't fit together as well as the front ones did). All the windows are white.

And finally, the stairs (D in the instructions). One of the backers was damaged when I punched it out so I turned it round when I glued it to the side panels. It came from one of the darker boards and the rest of the stairs are a pale blonde wood, but as they will most likely be painted white I'm not too concerned, even if I stain the stairs instead, the piece is the underside slope and in shadow. I decided to build and then paint/stain the stairs, firstly because it would be a lost less fussy and secondly because I guessed correctly that some filling would be necessary and I'd prefer to paint over the fully "finished" stairs. The stairs went together very easily (apart from a couple of comedy moments with the first two backer pieces). A couple of risers were a little too narrow but the pieces held together with a little masking tape till they dried.

Still at a loss on the wallpaper... far too much choice out there! I'm going to look in my local scrapbooking shop at the weekend, the paper may not be exactly 1/12th scale but I think I could find some really interesting options.

People say that dolls houses talk to you as you build them, but Miss Lily is obviously feeling particularly reticent at the moment. I've spent the last few evenings sat on the floor, lovely boyf chuckling at me, moving walls and measuring gaps and trying to gather some sense of whether or not to make any alterations to the original layout, what each room should be and how I would like to decorate it; basically any clue as to what I should be doing...!

I think the only thing I'm certain of is that I'm going to do exactly what the instructions say I must not do and make a few things out of sequence. The stairs, for example, should help me get a better feel for the flow of the left hand side of the house.

In the meantime, miniature catalogues are arriving thick and fast and thanks to the wonder of ebay I have more mouldings than I will probably ever need but which were half price: £8.73 postage included :) Even for an admitted "non-miniaturist" I can see how this could get addictive....

My very first blog...

and a thank you to shineynewthing and her Willowcrest blog which inspired me to do this; a great blog and a wealth of tips and information that I intend to make the most of ;)

It took over a year to decide to buy the Lily dollhouse, having discovered Greenleaf/Corona Concepts a couple of years before, and eventually wittled my choice down. Since then she has moved house twice and kept her spot under the bed. To be honest, I'm not sure why I bought her as I'm not a fan of minatures, I have just always wanted a dollhouse of my own and I think the birth of my daughter gave me the perfect excuse! I had made a tentative start on the windows about 4 years ago but became obsessed with making them look "perfect" and probably did more harm than good! They were lost in the last move and back under the bed went Lily. I eventually ordered new windows from Corona and under the bed they went too!

I don't really know what's changed now (one toe stub too many??) but the new windows are now painted, as are the doors, and I've learnt from my mistakes. Everytime I try for "store-bought perfect" I look at my daughters (lovely) Sylvanian dollhouse and know that this dollhouse is not the same thing; Miss Lily will be a testiment (good or bad) to the time I spend on her and the thought I put in.

I will post pictures soon but in the meantime, I have a very wobbly dryfit frame looking at me and far too many decisions to make: lighting, wallpaper, finishings - I'm confused, somewhat bemused, and discovering whole new worlds - minature shops...blogs...Hobbycraft...!