jdodyd

Last Saturday I attended my first meeting of the Midwest Miniature Guild after joining in August at a miniature show. I had a wonderful time - everybody was very friendly and seemed to think it was great to have a new member. There was a display of projects that club members had done, a "free table", a catered lunch, a business meeting, and then what they called a "garage sale." The garage sale turned out to be a number of tables of dollhouses and miniatures from collections of members who had passed away or members who just had lots of excess miniatures, dolls, fabric, lace, lighting, etc. they wanted to sell, So, a garage sale that was ALL MINIATURES!!! Prices were unbelievably low and I got some really cute things. Spent all the money I had on me and went home happy knowing I had found "my people." The meeting was in New Brighton, Minnesota (suburb of St. Paul) and the Midwest Miniature Guild covers Minnesota, Iowa, North and South Dakota. Highly recommend if you live in those states.

I've made four of the regular Realife kits (living room, dining room, kitchen, and nursery/kid's room) plus the "American Country Bedroom Kit". I didn't notice any difference in the "Country" kit from the other ones. I only had a few minor problems getting the die-cut pieces out and was quite happy with the results, especially the kitchen. It's not as good quality as the House of Miniature kits but less expensive and more furniture for your money. I'm sorry to hear that it didn't work out so well for you.

I braced the corners on the underside of an "Arthur" kit I did because it seemed that it needed a bit more structure to keep the walls together - I just used blocks of woods with wood glue. Have never painted the underside but I do usually put the name of the kit, my name, the date, and location on it. I also mostly just stain my floors on all levels.

The only thing I would suggest is a search on e-bay for "Duracraft VH600 dollhouse kit only" and then hit "Save the Search". Then e-bay will notify you by e-mail if a kit shows up for sale. Good luck!

I used the ruler/utility knife method to score 'planks" in one of my dollhouses. Then I used a pencil to darken the lines and also to put in "nails." It actually looks more realistic than you might think.

You might already know this, but here's a tip. You can save your search on eBay for the Addison dollhouse kit and then you will automatically be notified of when one shows up for sale. This is how I got my Worthington dollhouse kit. It took me five months but I finally was able to get it. Good luck.

I've made four of the Realife kits (but not the one you got) and I really liked them and liked the results. You'll be fine. P.S. Holly is right about the staining first if you want a wood look, then gluing. She is also right about the magnetic jig - although for many years I used lego blocks for right-angle corners.

The tabs and slots help you line things up - but BE SURE to dry fit the house together using tape to help you understand how the walls and floors fit together. Take your time and mark pieces left or right or up or down as you need to. Sometimes the tabs and slot opening need to be slightly adjusted to get everything together. Glue goes on the whole edge of piece. Good luck - you'll have fun.

Happy New Year to all from the frozen north of Minnesota.

Right now I am building a RGT kit called "County Tudor" that has a front opening. I haven't done the hinges yet for the door and that looks like it might be tricky to do to get the front to hang evenly. One advantage is that furniture placement is pretty easy since you don't have to work around windows (the windows are only on the door side.) A disadvantage is that the rooms are quite dark because of having no windows. I agree with havanaholly that front-opening dollhouses are much more characteristic of English styles. As far as displaying back-opening dollhouses, I have one on a old kitchen microwave cart (has four wheels) that turns around easily, and another on a round end table that the top rotates but the legs are fixed. This works pretty good for me. Good luck with your Orchid.

I have a RGT "Simplicity" dollhouse - the floors are fitted into grooves similar to your house. The width of the walls and the slope of the roof look like typical RGT houses. The front door and 2nd floor window/shutters are identical to the ones on my house (and I have an old RGT catalog that shows them.) The dormer windows are identical to the ones on RGT houses. On the other hand, the first floor three-sided windows don't look like anything RGT makes and the placement of the stairs is odd (RGT houses typically have staircases directly in a line going up.) Having three, rather than the two typical dormer windows, is unusual. Maybe a basic RGT house that has been very much customized?

I will get the vaccine as soon as my health provider offers it to me. Until then, I will social distance, wear a mask when out, and stay home and finish the Tudor dollhouse I'm working on and then drag out my big "Worthington" kit (now hidden under the couch) and start on it. That's my plan and I'm sticking to it.

I just watched a six-minute preview of this show. I found it streaming on Amazon Prime and then had to download the HGTV app. It is called the "The Biggest Little Christmas Showdown", showing Friday night, Nov 27, 9/8c. It is Christmas-themed with the three teams of contestants with two people each had a month ahead of time to prepare for it with partial builds, then they have 12 hours in a Santa's Workshop-type of setting to finish their work. Oddly enough, the first challenge is for a Christmas-themed Hawaiian cottage. Not quite what we do here but it looked interesting enough to be worth a watch.