Retrofit the Kit Tudor Dollhouse: Part 11 Button It Up- Real Good Toys Country Tudor CC15

Spoiler alert! This is the second to the last post covering the construction of my Barton Tudor. Yes, I've named it the "Barton Tudor" as it will house my English Barton Tudor 3/4 scale furniture. Just seemed the thing to do!

 

The roof goes on...

 

INSTALLATION DEVIATION: the roof installation. The roof panels were shingled first, then are installed to the home.

The roof pieces are glued and nailed on to the back body peaks where I left openings in the rows of shingles. The front roof pieces are glued and clamped, I didn't want to nail them to the front peak for fear I would break the peak off.

After gluing the top ridge to the top of the roof I finish gluing the last row of shingles on the installed roof, butting them up to the top ridge. I also shingle the roof openings I left open for nailing to the home's peak.

Here I'm gluing and clamping the decorative trim to the front roof edges. I have used scrap trim underneath these new "eaves" to achieve the spacing between the peak and the eave trim and to insure the eave trim is square to the edges.

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Hinging the Door Wall... 

 

INSTRUCTION DEVIATION: I pitched the hinges and clasps of the kit's, bought more decorative hinges and clasps and added an extra hinge as well. I also purchased little screws to attach the hinges.

I bent the tip of one side of each hinge so it curled around the trim on the outside edge of the home.

Well, I'm sorry, I was bad, I didn't take any picts of gluing the feet on, the hinge placement and the drilling of their holes and screwing in their wee screws. 

For the Door Wall attachment, I put the home on its back, set the Door Wall on, making sure to adjust it to fit properly and had at it! I did make sure the three hinges were space evenly to each other.

I then cut some trim and trimmed out the sides of the home and polyed the whole thing, even the shingles.

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Sooo..... if you haven't already guessed, I'm done!

I haven't taken the final picts yet but be sure I will. 

So the next post and last post will be the unveiling of my completed Barton Tudor!!!

Yay!!!

Retrofit the Kit Tudor Dollhouse: Part 10 Roof Roof! - Real Good Toys Country Tudor CC15

Gettin' close now. Every part of this project I've had nervous tummy but for some reason this is up at the top of tum tum list. A lot is goin on, the skylight cutout, the Greek art transfer, the shingling, the chimneys' location and installation! Enough beer... gee, I have a lot to think about!

Prepping the Attic ceiling.....

 I painted the two sides of the Attic ceiling the Attic wall color and the roofs a wash with brown. I figured if there was any spaces between the shingles, I wanted it to be dark.

 

Here I'm preparing the vintage Greek art transfer for the Attic ceiling. I've marked out my corners on the dry, painted ceiling and I'm readying the transfer for its 10 second bath to activate the adhesive. The insurance card is to squeegie the excess water and bubbles out once the transfer is set. Its very delicate. Once it dried I touched it up with a gold pen and gave it a couple of coats of polyurethane.

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Finally, the Roof!

Prepping the roof...

I followed the spacing given in the directions and laid out the lines for the shingle placement. 

INSTRUCTION DEVIATION: Instead of putting the roof on the house, and then shingling the roof, I've opted to shingle the roof on my work surface, for more accuracy and control.

Clamping a straightedge to my guide lines has made for a even, easy placement of the shingles. I used my regular Aileen's glue to attach the shingles, I didn't feel confident with a glue gun. On the far left you can see I've left a shingle out so I can still nail the roof section to the house sides. The shingle that is place horizontally isn't glued in, it just hold the shingle up for proper alignment.

After a few more rows of shingles, I glue in the skylight (a House Works 8 divided light). A couple of pieces of house trim is used with clamps to firmly set it in place. The chimney is glued in and I carefully cut shingles to glue around it.

I give each row of shingles about a 1/2 hour to dry. Slow going but I can get dinner done or do a load of laundry. Multitasking is the dollhouse way!!

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Feets

OK, so I know the title said "Roof Roof". But for some reason I thought the dollhouse would be more functional and cute with some feets.

I found an awesome set on eBay for about $9, including shipping. Swankie! They came extra quick.
An easy stain and ploy mini project.

Well, next time the roof will go on!

Retrofit the Kit Tudor Dollhouse: Part 9 Push On - Real Good Toys Country Tudor CC15

Continuing the Door Wall...

 

Adding the Side Trim Of the Door Wall

INSTRUCTION DEVIATION: I added a small piece of trim to flesh out the thickness of the Door Wall side trim. The Door Wall sides' trim depth needs to equal the kit's included trims' depth plus the depth of the trim I added over the wallpapers. This extra trim insures the Door Wall will lay flush to the home's body.

• Upper pict: The extra trim piece and side trim glued and clamped to Door Wall sides.
• Right pict: The sides of the Door Wall after clamping and gluing all the trim pieces; side, extra and front trim. The front trim goes beyond the wall, it will be cut off.
• Bottom Pict: Slicing off the extra length of the Door Wall's front side trim with the angle of the Door Wall's roof peak (The kit's instructions don't show this, but it's advertising picture does). Careful!

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Prepping the Roof Parts

 

Preparing the Chimneys

INSTRUCTION DEVIATION: Tossed the included chimney parts and used a Houseworks set.

• Left pict: Painting the chimneys. Dan cut the proper angle off the bottom of the chimneys for me. This is very important or the chimneys will stick out like big ears!
• Bottom pict: Gluing the brick paper to the chimney using Yes Glue. The brick paper wasn't quite the full widths of the chimneys, so painting the side edges of the chimneys made for a nice, crisp look without having to cut the paper to odd size bricks.
• Right pict: Slicing the excess paper off.

Finished chimneys, polyed and drying.

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Shingles and My Kitchen Sink

 

Note the stainless steel sink. If you use an enamel sink, you'll have to bleach it to regain it's color. DON'T EVEN TRY A PLASTIC SINK!!! Remember, you can always use a big bucket!

• Left pict: The hottest H2O, salt, vinegar, 1 black, 2 brown and 1 gray Rit dye. This dye mixture was a big guess, and all the dye I had! Oh and rubber gloves! I had to soak the shingles about 2 hours, stirring every now and again.
• Right pict: The shingles dried and counted into 5 lots of 100 count one 38 count pile (538!). I needed to find out the count to insure enough for all three roofs!! This pict also shows figuring the size of the shed roof for the Door Wall.
• Bottom pic: My trim cut tool taped to 1/2". This makes the under layer of shingles easy to cut and consistant. The under layer of shingles go under the first row of shingles to provide the correct depth so they lay properly.

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Finishing the Door Wall

 

INSTRUCTION DEVIATION: Of course the bay and it's roof continue to be an instruction deviation. The whole Door Wall is one!

• Upper pict: I had to cut and glue little triangles to both sides under the bay roof to cover the open space where the shed roof meets the bay.
• Bottom pict: Applying the bay roof shingles and the bay side and bottom trims.

A few more pieces of trim and the Door Wall is basically, done (!). I will be adding the transom window over the door, curtain rods and a couple decorative circles from the fabric wallpaper.

Finally I am onto the big roof! So close now!!

Retrofit the Kit Tudor Dollhouse: Part 8 Details, Details - Real Good Toys Country Tudor CC15

Finalizing those detail concepts that have been in my head:

Window and Door Glass...

 

INSTRUCTION DEVIATION: The kit has plain "glass" and mullions to suggest divided lights. Of course the 2nd floor windows were completely blown out to accommodate the bay window.

• Left pict: Checking size and placement of a diamond pattern printed from the www.
• Middle pict: Plastic window anchored to pattern and metal tape applied over pattern lines.
• Right pict: Completed windows. Trims anchor the windows in their openings.

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 ... and Finish the Door...

INSTRUCTION DEVIATION: Replaced the kit door with a Houseworks Dutch door (the kit door was used earlier to create the stair landing).

• Left pict: Purchased crossbuck Dutch door, Houseworks.
• Middle pict: Crossbuck and mullions removed, hinge side swapped and door stained.
• Right pict: Bottom Dutch fitted out with trim to cover crossbuck area.

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  Working On the Door Wall...

A piece of trim is placed under the Door Wall for needed clearance. The Door Wall will be on side hinges.

So now it's just putting into practice, once again, methods developed, to finish that fourth wall, the Door Wall. Inside and out.

I try to keep steps in order for this massive Door Wall of three floors and an outside:

1. Install 1st fl. crown with Door Wall taped on (left upper pict).
2. Mark final base molding and 2nd fl. crown lines (middle upper pict).
3. Untape Door Wall. Gather courage.
4. Glue and set in the bay (see picture at bottom of list).
5. Paper the inside walls based on marked lines and the wainscotting height.
6. Paper the outside where needed (the door and window trims should cover the raw edges when installed) with brick wallpaper using Yes glue (right upper pict).
7. Set and glue the door (it's trim will cover the wallpapers on both sides).
8. Install the wainscotting and trim of all floors on the inside wall door, overlapping the wallpapers and such.
9. Poly the entire inside.

Gluing in the bay window before trimming the inside.

Ta Da!! The finished inside of the Door Wall!

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Stairs: Finishing the Banister... 

 

INSTRUCTION DEVIATION: Replaced the kit's banister with a Houseworks banister set.

• Left pict: Measuring, creating a template, gluing and clamping.
• Right pict: Polying before installation (and a couple of extra items).
• Bottom pict: Banister installed on the outside of the stairwell with glue.

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Installing the Back (yay!)...

The back is glued and carefully nailed into the sides and floor. Finally!!


OK, good enough for now!