Tapewire the Beacon Hill

[amiraya]

Hi

I'm about to build a dollhouse for my two girls (3 & 5). I'm all newbie to this and have just bought the Beacon Hill kit and a Cir-Kit tapewire kit

In a day I've managed two finish the main structure of bare plywood (subassembly A+ B). I'm planning to tapewire, prime and paint / put wallpaper on the walls and glue flooring to the floors.

I now have some questions I cannot find answers to as I do not want to make any mistakes.

• Is it better to put the tapewire before or after I prime the walls ?
  
• It looks like the spikes to the power outlets etc are too long to match the thickness of the plywood. I'm planning to put distances or are there any other ways to solve this problem ?
  
  
  • I'm planning to connect the floors by using the stairwell. I plan a tapewire run along the right partition wall behind the stairs. Is this possible ? Will the stairs put too much pressure on the run ?
    
  • Any suggestions how to best fasten the outlets (wood glue ? melt melt glue ? epoxy ?) as I doubt the small spikes will be playable.
    

  /Lars

[havanaholly]

If your girls are only 3 & 5 and the dollhouse is for them, why are you putting tapewire in it now?

[KathieB]

Holly has a good point. At this age, you'll want to make a house that is child-proof, and an electrified house definitely is not.

For preschoolers and elementary age children, I'd

• leave out the windows and doors (they'll want to reach through them)
  
• prime and paint all of the surfaces (they'll decorate with crayons, magic markers, paint, etc) Forget wallpaper
  
• reinforce the build with staples at the joints and square dowels in the inside corners (one of them or their friends will use the house as a ladder to climb up on something)
  

Maybe you could make a smaller house for them (like an Orchid) and make the Beacon Hill for yourself?

[havanaholly]

I would most definitely build the Beacon Hill with electricity and go all out with furniture and decor, and when your daughters are, respectively, 10 & 12 and sho an interest in something so elaborate, let them join you in playing with it.

[amiraya]

Hi

Thanks for the advices. I have this project with my girls and the plan is to make it playable (walls, stairs, flooring, paint / wallpaper etc). As they are quite young I'm opting for sturdiness, at this moment we are not planning to decorate the outside, install windows, doors, interior trim etx. Those things will come later. As of sturdiness in the frame I'm planing to reinforce parts that are too weak. We choosed the Beacon Hill as it fits nicely in one of the rooms and it had all the musts my daughter asked for (real staircase & 6 rooms)

Back to my questions, I realise this is quite a project and I do not want to do things over, as I'm planning to prepare electification at a later stage, and the tapewire is to be installed under the wallpaper, which in som cases needs to be installed during the build process. I'm now asking questions concerining the best practice in how to install the tapewire.

/Lars

[havanaholly]

Lars, if you make templates of your walls and paint or wallpaper them and install them with double sided tape or spots of a weak adhesive they will be easily removable at a later date to install the electric.

[CindyLee]

Its best to add tapewire before priming & painting, you can paint over it. And As Holly said, make templates of all the rooms & where the wiring is for reference later. I did not glue down my outlets, once they push into the wall, they're fairly sturdy as long as the plugs won't be repeatedly removed and replaced. The I used Goop glue to attach the light fixtures once they were wired in. I managed to only have a couple splices in my tapewire for my BH, it took alot of drawing to figure it out on paper first. I also ran some wire up along walls and cut holes in floors to bring it to the next level. Some lights I wired in on the floor above so it was easier, then the flooring covered up the wiring.