Top 5 Pet Peeves

[Just One More]

The MDF stairs are awful. I've tried sealing, painting, sanding and they are still somewhat fuzzy. The scale is good. Carpeting is about all I could do. If they face the front door it's not so noticeable.

[Alamom]

1. I like the kitchen to look fully functional, no matter what time period. The kitchen is my favorite room, so it has to have everything that it should.

2. There has to be a bath or an implied bath of some sort.

3. I love stairs, but if they take up too much space, or the kit ones look like crap, out they go. I absolutely hate stairs that are barely more than a ladder.

4. I hate furniture and accessories that are out of scale and unrealistic looking.

5. I love drapes and curtains, but if they don't look "real", I don't. I guess that's why alot of my houses don't have drapes yet.

[MerriMagic]

Well, let's see...

1. First and foremost..I absolutely HATE IT that I can no longer craft anything that doesn't look perfectly finished. (my photos are blurry and I'm grateful for that..what I do looks much better in them, than 'in person')

I'm working with one hand, and a variety of contraptions that have pinchers that look like (heck, they ARE) roach clips..because I need to have a 'spare' hand to replace the one that doesn't work. Those things leave tooth marks..and if you pad them, you squash the wood because the clip is then too tight. Or I wedge stuff into a corner to work on it. Or pin it down with a piece of wood pressed down by my elbow. Or I use my teeth and mouth as a hand...I have broken my front teeth, and will need dentures because one is so badly chipped off. I haven't gotten those yet, but I'm dreading getting them.

Sometimes it takes me longer to set up the means to do a project, than to do the project itself.

So no matter if I buy some really nice furniture..this house is always going to look like it's been through an earthquake..It'll never be perfect like the pics in the mini mags..and that makes me nuts. I used to be a really good crafter, well able to turn out quality work. Now I struggle with the simplest of projects grrrrr.

2. Wallpapering..that's what I'm doing now, and it's doubly awkward for me..I detest wrinkles in wallpaper, so I put the paper on poster board first. It's taking me forever to get each wall in position..and I've used tacky spray adhesive because if I use wallpaper paste, my good hand shakes ..and in spite of my good hand also being my dominant hand.. I get the stuff all over.

3. I MUST have a bathroom, a WARM one. Probably because I need a bathroom so frequently in real life, and because our bathroom has no heat, save a tiny ceramic heater.. LOL!

Moggie Manor is geared to look like one half of a British townhouse, with doorways to imaginary halls in the landing of each stairway, to give the illusion that there is more to the house than just the visible rooms. The kitchen would be towards the back of the house, so I don't have it represented in Moggie..but I HAVE to have a bathroom, and I'll make it much nicer than the one I have in RL. Right now it will be pretty basic, but I'll be nibbling at it for as long as I'm able

BTW I grew up in a teeny house where one had to go through the master bedroom to get to the second bedroom...and through the second bedroom to get to the bathroom. In Baltimore's old lower class rowhomes near Baltimore Harbor, where the dockworkers originally lived..the bathroom and kitchen beneath, were both actually just tacked onto the original homes..sometimes quite precariously. Except that they are full sized, these homes are true dollhouses in their own right..only one room wide and originally, 1 room deep on the first floor, with two tiny bedrooms above. That they still exist, is to me, amazing. You have to be a real minimalist to live in those houses now. No hoarding allowed!

LOL, oh btw, AmyD...I'm like you...if I watch a show on hoarding, I panic and get up, and clean. It can be three am and I'll start cleaning..and I am NOT a hoarder...but one look at my cluttered workspace/living room, and I'm afraid of becoming one!

4. I MUST HAVE CHIMNEYS. Nothing is more annoying than a fireplace to nowhere. I have added a second fireplace on the opposite side of Moggie, so that there can be fireplaces on both sides of the house. I can suspend reality only so much, LOL.

5. Curtains..ack..and pleating. Thank goodness Moggie is a front opening house...curtains aren't as critical as they are in a back opener..just a suggestion of drapery will do. But pleating for beds? I haven't gotten that far yet, but I dread it. I want my beds to be dressed as beautifully as Jo has dressed hers..but I'm not sure I'll be able to do it.

6. Dolls...Usually I'm not a fan of dolls, but I've fallen in love with dolls like Jo's. I really wanted to make my own..but I can see now that I'm just too clumsy, and the fimo is too soft and delicate..my hand slips too much. I know that now. So I'll have to buy my dolls..and YES, they will be properly bendable! No stiff legged corpses in my dollhouse.

7. Finally...I HAVE to have a theme and story that goes along with the house, or I'm just not inspired to give it life..it would feel dead without a storyline, and I want mine in print, as well as in my head..so I keep a log of my homes' residents, their likes, dislikes, appearance, etc.... My stories are complex, but I've always been a writer..it's my way of daydreaming in print. I get great consolation from my imaginary families..they whisper in my ear, and tell me what's up..and it's very entertaining. Ask me about them and I'm only too delighted to spit out what's going on with them.

So that's about it, for now. This is a fun thread!

[Bea Killion]

Jeanne, I think you do beautiful work. I loved the stonework you did on your Chantilly. It was perfect in my eyes..

[Merry]

Just remembered one more....

Stair "rails" that aren't pointing exactly to the north. They're turned a bit sideways.

YUCK-A-DUCK!

[Gee]

i agree with Amanda.

an over accessorized house is a no-no.

i like it when there is enough to look at, but not all stacked up with minis.

my stairs are made of MDF and I agree with Pat, they look hideous.

i am going to try to veneer them in time but if that does not work i will replace them and make my own.

[pdlnpeabody]

I don't deal with furnishing houses, I just build them, but the house must be to scale and believable!

1. I don't mind stairs (it explains how one gets from one floor to another) but they must be to scale! In 30+ years of looking in old houses I have only seen one with a 2' wide staircase and it was for the children to get down to the kitchen without interrupting the adults. So why put a 1" or 2" wide staircase in a dh?

2. Narrow porches. It has to do with scale again, but I have never seen a 1 or 2' wide porch anywhere. I understand the value of decorating space inside the house, but what about the outside? A house should be a complete feast for the eyes ALL THE WAY AROUND, which leads to:

3. Houses that look like a box with holes and a roof. There are some kits that look like the exteriors were just an afterthought. I believe that an area that has been overlooked during construction will be the biggest distraction and most looked at area after the piece is finished, lowering the overall value of the house.

[Scotty]

Only 5, huh?

It took me about 2 years -- half-way through building my Garfield, my first house,-- to finally understand that it was my house..that it didn't have to look exactly like the box, and I didn't have to build it exactly like the instructions called for....freeing me up to go on building the next and the next, and now, while re-furbishing the Garfield, finding things I would have done quite differently had I understood that when I started!

Ann, I'm still grappling with the idea that I can do anything with a house!

[Pat]

Thank you for the inspiration. I have a 1940s Rich tudor with 2 chimneys but no room for fireplace.....I love the thought about furnace. Thank you. One more problem crossed off my list. I may be able to put a tiny fireplace in upstairs bedroomn????

[Just One More]

Thank you for the inspiration. I have a 1940s Rich tudor with 2 chimneys but no room for fireplace.....I love the thought about furnace. Thank you. One more problem crossed off my list. I may be able to put a tiny fireplace in upstairs bedroomn????

Is it made of masonite and put together with screws? I have a Rich Tudor from 1932. It has one chimney with an S on it. It's more 3/4 scale than 1/12. It's yellow with painted bushes. I want to put in wallpaper and shingle it. I have a picture in my gallery somewhere. I'll have to find it. I'd like to see a pic of yours. Mine still has the Rich Toys label on it and Clinton, Iowa.

[havanaholly]

Five pet peeves?

1. Scale issues; I had to make furniture for five Fairfield rooms because all the items I'd gotten for them from HBS' 1/2"-scale section were more like 1:32, including the diningroom I'd stitched an Aubusson carpet and matching chair seats for.

2. Realism; this is why I wound up making my own dolls (poseable, and I sculpt them to resemble people I see), furniture and accessories. I don't care for lights in the dh, so nonworking light fixtures are OK for me, and easier to make than to buy.

3. Fireplaces/ chimneys; if the kit comes with a chimney I'll make it fireplaces; if there's fireplaces, making a chimney isn't difficult.

4. Handmade vs "homemade" is NOT an issue for me, if something I try doesn't look right to me I just start over; what really irritates me is when I want to make something and the store I used to find materials in (michael's, etc) no longer carries them.

5. The disappearance of brick & mortar dollhouse shops.

...Stairs, I agree with you. A lot of times there isn't enough room. I would rather have them in a house, but I also want to be able to use the space for other things.

A house doesn't seem right without a bathroom, but that is often the last room that I think about. I was working on a one room school house and bought a outhouse for it...

You can give the illusion of stairs and bathrooms, or they can be located in the part of the house you can't see (it really bothered me that there was no way to fit a set of stairs into the Coventry Cottage!)

I cannot believe this, but my pet peeves are changing!!

...I used to really dislike dolls in dollhouses, but I have changed...even bought a doll recently and I am enjoying the stories I am hearing in my head that she seems to be telling me (yeah, I know they commit people who hear voices!)

I too wish the finished? product was what I actually had envisioned, but the houses seem to take a life on of their own. I am learning to enjoy where it actually goes...

The Glencroft build taught me that the kits do talk to you, and things turn out a whole lot better if you listen; in fact, I find that if a house wants bashing, it'll even tell me how to achieve what it wants. So does the clay, when you make your own dolls.

...I LOVE to create illusion...perfection is a given...Not that it transfers from the goal to the reality, but I keep trying! And it's lots of fun to keep trying and keep improving one's skills...

Illusion is everything, in minis! Especially in working with a kit as a basis.

...someone here did a neat thing where they added a room divider to the upper stairwell to give some privacy...I am also sick to death of brass...

The first house I built that the public stairway finally blew my gaskets was when I built the Westville to sell. Since then, a privacy wall goes up. Although Maggie's family has to walk through the kids' bedroom to get to their bathroom, no stairway comes up there.

...those dolls with the "big hair" just won't cut it...men dolls that are nothing more than women dressed in mens clothing, or boys that are girls dressed in boys clothing. Or men dolls that are really boy dolls in mens dress... Don't doll manufacturers know that men and boys look different than women and girls???? ...

That's why I started making my own people to live in the houses.

...Sometimes, just because they make it in miniature, doesn't mean it needs to be purchased...

Amen. And a lot of things that are available just aren't as good as what you can make yourself.

[Caseymini]

#1. People that don't understand that dollhouse building can be a grown up hobby. I hate it when someone looks at one of my houses and asks, "Who is the lucky little girl that this was made for?" I usually tell them that I am the lucky little girl and they look at me like I am an alien from Mars.

#2. I am with Holly and the others on the scale issue. Please, manufacturers, try for some semblence of reality in scale. A chair seat is usually about 18" high in real life. I have seen very expensive chairs that are anywhere from an inch from the floor or up to two inches.

#3. I learned,when I was spending a lot of time in a mini shop that the first two things that kids look for in a dollhouse is a bathroom(A toilet is a must have) and stairs(How are the people going to get to the second floor?) So, I do have to have those two things in a house unless there is an explanation like "no indoor plumbing" or "they are witches and they zap from one floor to the other". As long as there is an explanation for the missing items, I am ok....I guess i am saying that every scene needs a story to go with it. I dislike rooms or houses that are just "there". They have to tell me a story.

#4. The word "can't" and people that say, "I can't do that." Teaching minis for years has taught me that usually people can do minis if they really want to. "I can't do that" really means I don't want to do that. Why not just say, "I am really not interested in doing that."?

#5. Several people mentioned red mahogany finish. I am with them on that one and I will add the black shiny finish on some of the Oriental pieces. Finishes should be to scale as well as furniture. Both of those finishes are just plain too thick!

OK. That's my five.

[rbytsdy]

1. Stairs. Have to have some logical path from the bottom to the top. I didn't make a way to get to the attic in my Westville build (or my recent Buttercup build) and it still bothers me. Besides, I enjoy building stairs.

2. Gaps/unevenness in my trim. Still working to improve on that one.

3. Those printed white lines on the window transparencies. I have been painting over them with black enamel or covering them with strips of wood.

4. Doors opening the correct way. I made the Lily, Pierce, and Orchid with front doors that swing outward and that also still bothers me. Also, for the past few builds I have found myself compelled to use the full complement of nails in the little hinges!

5. Exposed edges of diecut pieces. I find myself using more stripwood trim with every build.

[sharon]

1. Using real life carpeting in a dollhouse that is too thick.

2. Curtains that really are really puffy and stick out from the windows.

3. Gaps that I have to cover.

4. Male dolls in general. Unless you have a lot of money the less expensive ones look like girls a lot of the time. The father dolls look like teenagers. They look like they are wearing their dad's clothes and the buttons on the jackets would be huge on a real life garment. The grandfather dolls just have gray hair on their head and no character.

5. Not having enough time to work on all the ideas I would like to do. Real life gets in the way.

[MerriMagic]

"Real Life gets in the way"

AMEN, Sharon! :hug:

[Angieaug]

I agree with everyone who mentioned bulky fabric. I learned from looking at some of my own earlier photos (the photos never lie) of how unrealistic bedding or dishtowels look when they stick straight out and don't drape properly.

On a similiar note, rugs that don't lie flat also ruin the look of a room. I've learned to place a dab of mini wax on each corner of my rugs so they don't stick up.

I also hate the gaps in my trim, especially baseboards! Because of my wiring, I always have a bit of uneveness on my floors which means that the baseboards won't sit perfectly flat against the floor.

Another thing I hate is how the camera ALWAYS seems to pick up, without fail, some little thing that I missed that's out of whack, like a crooked lamp or vase, or a big glob of glue, or something.

That's only 4, but that's all I can think of. I don't care at all about missing bathrooms or stairs and stuff like that. In my Beacon Hill I have a fireplace on an interior wall and the chimney is nowhere near it, and I did briefly consider a different location for the fireplace, but in the end it just looks better in the room where I have it, so I'm ok with it.

[havanaholly]

Ah, Casey, you hit my #1 all-time "sends my bloodpressore over the top" with the "I can't". It can also be a deprecating moue (which used to send my personal role-model, Lillian Gilbreth, through the roof, too), which is someone's way of trying to get you to build them up by running themselves down. Don't we have enough of that c**p from other people, without doing it to ourselves? For goodness sakes, STOP it!

<crawls back down off the soapbox and goes back to my corner with the cookie I snatched on the way).

[Caseymini]

Holly, I do hope that wasn't the cookie that I was saving for Tessie. I won't be able to keep her from coming after you if you took her cookie!LOL

[havanaholly]

No, it was one of my own cookies I keep stashed away for when I have to go into my corner!lol