The Arthur is finally here! It came on Friday, but FedEx delivered up the street, so the lady it was delivered to brought it down to our house on Saturday. I was out of town until late Sunday evening, so we are beginning today, April 18, 2005. This is the front of the box, a little worse for wear I think …The first thing that we do is that Jimmy breaks out the boards for the main shell, meaning the sidewalls, front walls, back walls if any, interior walls, floor boards, and any base support boards. We then sand the areas of those that we can get, such as window openings. Sometimes Jimmy sands, and sometimes I do it. I usually like to do the floor boards myself, because I like doing those. Jimmy likes to use a 150 sandpaper, and I prefer 220.My sanding of those basic pieces is now done, and my floorboards are prepared to be stained. I really like hardwood floors, and I have discovered that the best, easiest and cheapest way to make hardwood floors in the dollhouse is to simply stain the floor boards.For these floors, I am using Minwax Wood Finish brand, and this is Golden Pecan. This is an oil based stain. I had begun using water based stains, and although the water based stains don’t smell bad, I just don’t like the way that they penetrate the wood, so I have switched back to oil based stains. I like to apply the stain using a sponge brush. I usually do stair openings first, and then around the sides of the floors, and then I lay the floors flat and stain themIf I am not sure that I will add another coat, I put my brush into a sealable sandwich bag. Here is a picture of the floors with the first coat of stain on them, and they are still wet so the flash glared a little.I usually work in my dining room, and I currently have another house on the dining room table, so I can’t put the Arthur there. We have made a small area to work on the Arthur near the dining room table. Part of the reason why I like the dining room is that there is a ceiling fan in there, so once I have applied a coat of stain or a coat of paint, I turn the ceiling fan on so that it will dry quicker.Complements of LPCullen