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Six different views on building the Westville Dollhouse

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bays, kitchen, and siding

I have been playing around with the Westville all week (and by "playing around," I really mean "staring at it dreaming about how it'll look when it's done..."), but today I finally took pictures and got a bit more work done.Last week, while sitting around dreaming about how it'll look when it's done, I decided to buy a door. I always have trouble with doors because I want them to open and close, but the hinges you can buy don't look realistic. I checked the latest HBS catalog but all the House

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day 2

I took a break to finish something on another house. I had catriona take the walls outside and spray them with kilz primer.I stained the floors a natural stain and let them dry a few days agoso today I decided to see how far I could get!the ease of this kit made it go together so quickly I had to make myself stop and let the glue dry and take photos. I spent about 4 hours on this house yesterday. I am to the stage of the house where I have to decide....sidding or paint. I am leaning twords c

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7.) Kit bashing for larger house

I bought 1/8” Baltic Birch for the new sections (from Michael's).The new exterior:-- 10” added in length with a new window on ground floor front. End wall still has the bay.-- Porch will go across new section also.-- 1” removed from lower edge of front roof sections to move the edge further from porch roof.-- Full length exterior chimney on living room wallNew interiorFirst floor:-- The main floor is a completely open plan-- Commercial staircase facing rear and ending in a small hall on second f

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6. ) Working on the exterior

Test fitting the porch railings Working with the Greenleaf siding and HBS cedar shakes. The roof and the siding will be grey (various color samples being tried), and the trim will be white (I think). I am using Aileen’s Tacky for the siding and shakes. I put the house edge trim on first, but I have decided to put the window and door trim on after the siding.This is a start to the living room area. The walls are a light yellow (didn’t show properly). I had stained the plywood and was going to use

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Nutti's Westville

Well tonight I had a sleepless night and got started on My Westville.since it went together so smoothly I didnt stop for photos till I got the first part of the shell togetherI wanted to add some tips that help me.I always read through the instructions at least twice.than I take everything out of the box.2 reasons. 1st so I can make sure I have all of the sheets mark them with a black marker so I can see easily which one Im looking for. I also keep the house parts next to me standing up. easier

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Step C

I completed Step C tonight, but before I get to that, here's one picture from the Step A adventure of last night.Not all that exciting, I know, but I inadvertantly turned the flash off on the camera, which sets it for "nighttime" and leaves the shutter open longer, which makes the pictures come out really fuzzy. This was the only halfway decent one of the batch. Oh well.(For those of you who are curious, that upside-down box in the background is one we took from the trash area of Geoff's old a

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(almost) instant gratification

I'm too sleepy to load up pictures right now, but I'm happy to report that I got through all of Step A tonight. Which means, essentially, that I have a house! Instant gratification. B) First, I enlarged the kitchen window hole to make it wide enough for the casement window I bought, and filled in the gaps at the top and bottom. (The original hole is a vertical rectangle, and the casement window is horizontal.) I also enlarged the stair hole for the Houseworks stairs I'm going to use (just t

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dry fitting

Calamari was right... this house is a b*tch to dry fit!But I did it anyway. I have plans to make a few modifications to the house and I want to make sure I know what I'm doing (and what needs to be cut) before I glue any walls together. I have had experiences trying to enlarge window and door holes on a house that's already assembled, and it's not easy!I'm getting ahead of myself, though. Here's my workspace on Day 1 of Project Westville:As you can see, there's not a ton of desk space. My ot

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5.) Sections D&F. Bay Windows & Porch

Section D. Bay Windows & Section F. Porch Before beginning, widen all slots and make all tabs narrower. Bricks and large cans of tomatoes make good weights.Also, if you are going to wallpaper the Bay, wallpaper the pieces before gluing the bay together. I doubt that you can get in there with wallpaper after it is glued in place. Spray the wallpaper with sealer so that the paper is not damaged if you have to clean up glue drips inside.Section D. Bay WindowsWell, I had some real manipulation p

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4.) Section N. Roof and Trim

Section N. Roof and Trim1 I will not add the trim in this step. All I want to accomplish here is a sturdy, squared house.2. There were no big problems here. I had to pull at the Center Wall at the attic to straighten the wall, but other than that, everything fit where and how it should: a perfect roof. I am using lots of masking tape to hold the roof together until the glue dries. I used a “set square” to make sure walls were vertical as I put the attic floor and the roof in place. 3. Now

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3.) A & C - Walls & Floors

If joins are stubborn, a LIGHT tap with a hammer can often fix this.After gluing, quickly clean up any excess glue with a damp paper towel or rag.Doing the Walls & FloorsSection A. Walls and Floors1. I removed the pieces for A from their sheets. They removed very easily with just an occasional help from the craft knife in the perforations. I sanded any rough edges. The plywood was smooth and needed no filling with spackle or wood filler.2. I have not decided what I will use on the floors. Si

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brainstorming

I'm not quite ready to start building my Westville yet, but ever since Calamari posted those links to other people's Westvilles I have been brainstorming what I want to do with my own. I have always loved this house for its realism... it really does seem to belong to Anytown, USA! Last year I bought some Nutshell News back issues off eBay and stumbled across a couple of great projects for 1950s-style furniture. Somehow I got it in my head that the furniture would look great in the Westville.

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2.) Before building starts- Some comments

1. Supplies to be used: Aileen’s Tacky glue to glue house together, craft knife with sharp blade to cut through perforations, masking tape, paper towels and bowl of water for cleanup, pencil, level, sandpaper, electric sander, newspapers to cover work surface, cutting mat (or heavy cardboard) to protect table surface when cutting plywood, wood filler, spackle, hammer (for LIGHT tapping into place), MinWax Golden Oak stain, Mineral Spirits (the stain is not water cleanup), low-gloss, water cleanu

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1.) The Adventure Begins

The box arrived! This is very exciting. I always love a new house.1. I opened the box and checked that all items were there and that the wood was in good shape. I put the siding and roof shingles in a separate box. I saved the window “glass’ in a folder and put it in a safe place. 2. I quickly reviewed the instructions (detailing comes later). I wanted to get the “lay of the land”.3. I then went through all the wood sheets against the schematics and marked the sheets with their number and major

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