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 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 3 It Arrives - Real Good Toys Country Tudor CC15

It has arrived!

A present arrived in the mail in a large box, from myself. Gee, I hope I will be happy!

So now there are no excuses, as in doing and inventory...

Using painter's tape to label the parts listed in the instructions.

Oh my! A lot of parts but labeling gave me a good sense of control! All the little like parts are bagged together, so I just labeled and kept them in their bags.

I learned the door was missing, but that worked out well. I contacted Real Good Toys© by email and they more than promptly sent one out. Now that's service!! They did appreciate I had done inventory. Let that be a lesson to us all!

You can see the instructions with their inventory list at http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0164/0860/files/CC15.pdf.

Testing the floors, their changes and measurements...

I've already decided I'm lowering the ceiling of the 2nd floor. Even at full scale (1:1), it will still be believable and 1" scale furniture will fit. So I draw preliminary lines that I'm sure will change as I continue the process!

 

Testing the plan for a bay window...

These will be the pieces for the bay window, two Concord room dividers (in different colors) for windows and a disassembled thimble display that will act as a bookcase between them. The bay will jet out from the outside wall about an inch. I'll have to strip the finishes and try to stain them all the same color.

Disappointment: Two different plywood wood types and ...

Since I have limited fabric to use as wallpaper, I was hoping to emulate wainscotting using the kit's wood veneer inside surfaces of the sides, front and back. Unfortunately, the inside front and side panels have different veneers and the back is masonite. Oh well, now I have plan on buying something to create the uniform wainscotting I'm looking for.

Left: front inside panel stained. Center: side inside panel stained. Right: masonite and peak backs.

 

 

INSTRUCTIONS ALTERATION:

The last panel is the new back, now one piece instead of two.

Straying from the directions and parts components, I bought a half sheet of 1/4" aspen plywood that my husband cut a new back panel from. It incorporates the kit's 3/8" plywood peak back and it's back 1/4" masonite panel. Since I'm lowering the 2nd floor ceiling, the kit's back peak will come up short anyway. Keep your fingers crossed it will all work out!

I've taped off the areas the new wainscot panels will go and painted the remaining areas an off-white satin finish. I'm toying with removable wallpaper panels.

...waiting (again!)

So, after much calculation and price configurations, I've ordered 4 sets of precut paneling with chair rail from my favorite dollhouse supply vendor, Manchester Woodworks at http://manchesterdollhouseandwoodworks.com/. Good prices, quick, combined shipping and great communication. Very dependable too.

A #WC1/4 set description from Manchester Woodworks:

• Seven pieces wainscot panels and one chair rail per order.
• Each panel measures 1/16"t x 3-1/2"w x 2-7/8" h. (2mm x 88mm x 73mm).
• Chair rail measures 1/8 x 1/4 x 24" (3mm x 6mm x 609mm).
• 7 panels end to end equal 24-1/2" in length.
• Made of unfinished basswood.

That gives me 28 pieces of precut paneling and 4 pieces of chair rail. Plus I ordered some lovely "Lace Weave" molding (CLA78173), I'm going to use for crown on the 1st floor ceiling.

Retrofitting thoughts:

1) Move the stairs from the 1st floor to the 2nd. More space on the first floor.

2) Some sort of treatment of the floors (even though I have planned paper tile for the 1st (it is removable anyway)).

3) The attic space will be an art studio (oh boy! What am I thinking??).

Oh! I can hardly wait, again!! Get here soon wainscoting and trim!