It's hard to believe that I've been working on this house for over 15 months now. On the other hand, I'm about where I thought I would be at this time. I only have a few more hours of work left on the flooring. I have about 90% of the kitchen tile work done. I need two pieces of styrene to finish that portion and grout it. I should have the entire floor done by next weekend (1/10/10) and glosscoated. I'm attempting to finish the 2nd floor deck framing tonight so I can align it with the 1st floor
So I was planning the next few steps of construction and came up with an idea. I created an itemized list of steps needed to complete the house. I'm only 512 steps away from finishing it! I have a stockpile of materials and a solid idea of what I want most of the house to look like. What I don't have is much time. I only get to work on it in the evening after the kids have gone to bed. The down side to having this list is that it identifies the parts of construction I can't wait to get to,
I haven't done much with the house after moving to the new apartment. I have been installing the outside trim to the base, but it isn't as good as it should be. I think it will be possible to remove the three sided trim and replace it with professionally made pieces later on without damaging the house/yard. I just can't afford what will most likely be several hundred dollars worth of finish carpentry.
I have assembled the back panel for the base along with the countersunk power s
I have a few details left to finish in the secret room/wine cellar and the final installation of the sliding brick wall, but the rest of the basement is finished. I have removed all of the underside supports and attached a 2' X 6' base with two support beams underneath so that picking up the house won't be too difficult. I have also built the "box" around the basement so that the house will appear to be sitting on an eight inch pedestal with finished wood trim when viewed from the outside. I'm s
I don't know how I'm going to get this thing done. I wrote down all of the major steps needed to build the entire house-276 major steps. I'm so ready to build the next level (1st floor) but I just can't get more than an hour a week to work on it. I did get the second column glued into position and two of the arches glued in, but no mortar. If I get an hour or two this weekend to work on it I might get the final basement wall installed. So far the brick count is up to about 11,000.
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Well, I should have the 1st floor nearly complete, but it isn't even started. Between work and the birth of my son, I haven't had much time to work on the house. The basement is nearly complete, but I need to finish a dozen or more details before I can begin work on the 1st floor. I did finally pick up some mini wine bottles, so I am currently working on the wine racks for the secret room (pics coming soon). But I still need to finish the secret passage that leads to the room. I also need
I finally went shopping for building materials today. I have the needed lumber for the basement flooring and much if not all of the 1st floor framing and walls. I wish I could say that was $200 well spent, but that is a lot of money for a hobby in this economy. I also have 4,000 more bricks and a dozen other mini components for the house waiting for pickup at Tina's Dollhouses. By the beginning of next week I will have spent over $300.
I will hopefully be assembling the basement thi
Progress has been slow for the past few weeks. I have been putting lots of hours in at work the past few weeks, but the holiday schedule cut into my pay since I wasn't able to work any over-time. Ironically, about $40 worth of wood planks needed for the basement flooring is holding up the building of the main structure.
I have been working with the supplies that I do have. I have also produced a list of house components I can work on when I don't have the budget for supplies nee
My back order of bricks arrived on Saturday, so I had almost 5,000 bricks, but I have already used about 2,000 of them. I have nearly all of the basement brick work completed. The only brick work left in the basement is the chimney shafts, which are built up to the ceiling of the 1st floor. I expect to run out of glue by tomorrow, so I may end up idle until Friday. I have also picked up some electrical supplies and a few lights for my wife and I to agree on.
The secret room is
I got several calls today from the suppliers I work with. 3,300 bricks will be arriving at Tina's Dollhouses at the end of the week with 4,000 more on back order. The wood supplier, Magnum Wood, just received a shipment and will be ready to custom cut the base trim pieces, and I have 4 different stains for the parquet flooring. I have all next week off from work, so my only problem will be deciding what to work on first!
I figure the first thing I will need to do is build the framin
Since my hands haven't been working on the house, the gears in my head have been turning at full speed over the past few days.
I will still have the recessions and arches in the secret room, but they will be wallpapered, wainscotted and fitted with wine racks within the recessions. It still seems strange to make a small, windowless room in the basement so lavish, but a security room for such an average size house wouldn't have been any less out of place. I know of a RL large, ol
Not necessarily a fan of blogging, but I'll give this thing a try.
In early October 2008 I began sketching ideas for a scratch-built doll house for my now 7 month-old daughter (and wife too, since she has always wanted one) when I settled on a modern Tudor with Gothic features. About a month later I began building the basement of this future behemoth. Like my first house, I intend to use real materials and building methods throughout the construction of it.
Currently I
