DC Farmhouse Nightmare!!!

[Lynette Smith]

I went to get the wall sections and discovered they're missing! So much for thinking I had found a mostly complete kit.

The siding pieces glued together give me a guide to the size of the pieces, except for the gabled portions which are shingled. The gables have an extra piece which raises the wall even with the siding; I don't know if they sit flush or if there is some overlap. I don't know what thickness the pieces should be. I think I can extrapolate the pieces, but its going to be a headache!

Any Farmhouse builders out there who can give me some help?

[Corwin]

My only suggestion ifs once you find the exact deminsions, go to a hard ware store, they will cut the wood for you, not windows or angles but manageable sizes., Then cut away, I paid about 50 for the shell of my basement of my garf this way..

[rodentraiser]

Do you still have the pieces that the wood slides down in? The ones that go at the corners and hold the walls? Because you can get a piece of 1/8" wood very cheaply and cut it with an exacto blade fairly easily, and that wood will fit in the grooves of the corner posts. You might want to get a larger piece of 1/2" to cut on as well. Then you can slide those cut pieces in in place of the missing walls. They don't have to be cut perfectly, because the wood ends will cover any imperfections. And look at this as your opportunity to put window and doors in where you want them!

[Minis Over The Hill]

I made my Duracraft Farmhouse about 30 years ago and gave it away, but the owners have it (not in good condition) sitting on their porch, so I will try to take a picture. My Duracraft Farmhouse had a tower at one end over a nice sized room I used for the kitchen. I took that off, b/c it was too big for me (48"). I know I spent over several thousand hours on that house, the sides themselves had to be constructed. Just separating the pieces was daunting, but in the end I loved that house. Good luck!

[chesterfieldzoo]

I have one, but it is buried and not reachable. All I can suggest is get as far as you can and look for pics of other peoples houses.

[Lynette Smith]

The pieces were removed from the original sheets, so that isn't an option. I started assembling the siding and I'll make tamplates off those and the gable pieces. Some of the front I plan to bash and add a bay with a porch ontop, so that it looks like the house my Mom built, so I was already going to flex my creative muscle - it'll just get more of a workout than I anticipated!

I will dry fit the siding in areas to be changed to make a template of what it should before I bash. I also planned to move the front door to where it can be seen, like the 505. As long as I'm getting creative, I'll move the staircase too, so it comes up in a hall, rather than in the master bedroom!

I was kind of freaked out when I saw that major pieces were missing, but the peculiar way the siding is done first and applied to the fascade will keep me sane (I hope).

Keep your fingers crossed for me. My initial reaction was to dump the farmhouse as the gift and do a nice little Orchid, but that wouldn't be special in the future heirloom way. My Mom built that house before she died, and lived there only 3 months. Another house just won't do.

Thanks for the helpful advice and keep it coming! I'll post pics as the house progresses.

[havanaholly]

If you have those original sheets you can trace the shapes of the punched out pieces for templates.