The westville wooden dollhouse

[Grandmshouse]

Hi there.

I have inherited my grandmas old dollhouse and it's in a pretty bad shape, so i've desided to renovate it. I've nerver tried to build a dollhouse, so i have a few questions that i hope some of you can help me to answer.

1. The front door has come of, can enyone tell me how to put it back on so it can still open and close? The same thing has happend to the toilet door.

2. When my grandma build the dollhouse, she desided not to put the shutters in and the plastic glass, in the windows, does enyone know how to do that, on an allready build house?

3. Does enyone have some good tips on how to put in new wallpaper and floors?

4. Is there enyway you kan renovate the bathroom in the house?

I really hope someone can help me and thank you kindly!

Amalie:)

[havanaholly]

If it's a Greenleaf or other tab & slot die cut kit and your grandma used hot glue to build it I would suggest taking a hair dryer or heat gun to it to separate the the window parts (gently; a metal putty knife or spatula dedicated to the job will help considerably); once you have installed the acetate inserts with a clear drying tacky glue you can reassemble the windows and doors properly with a good carpenter's wood glue and clamps. It is also fairly easy to make new doors from basswood and windows from stripwood.

I hope you will take the time to introduce yourself to all of us over in the Newcomers' Forum.

[KathieB]

Hello, Amalie, and :welcome: to the forum. What a wonderful project to rehabilitate your grandma's dollhouse. There are several ways to approach the repairs that you mention. Each one depends on the state of the house as it stands. If you can post some clear photos, it would help us to make appropriate suggestions.

Just off the top of my head,

1. It may be possible to pin hinge the front and toilet doors with some minor carpentry or add a chamois or cloth hinge to the front door.
2. Adding the shutters and window acetate depends on the current window frames and siding. It would help to see what it looks like now.
3. There are several ways to approach new wallpaper and flooring. Again, knowing what's there now would be helpful.
4. Not sure what you mean by "renovate the bathroom". Are the fixtures glued in place? Do they need to be replaced?

We do love to see older houses brought back to life, especially ones with sentimental attachments. Any details you can add will help us to help you.

[Grandmshouse]

Hello kathie and havanaholy

Thank you so mutch for your replays. I'll give the house a good clean and post some Photos of it, for you to see. I can't finde the newcomers forum though, where is it?:s

[KathieB]

I see you found the Newcomers forum ... just 2 more posts and you can start an album in your gallery.

[Selkie]

I added some ideas in your newcomers post.

[Soapz]

Amalie,

I don't have a Greenleaf house, but I assume they use the double window frames where you sandwich the plastic between and glue it together. Under the best circumstances you might be able to remove the window, heat it up and separate the two frames.

If all fails, you might consider removing the doors and windows and replace them. There are kits for both available.

Removing old wallpaper: I use a damp sponge (not too wet so the wood doesn't warp) and just go over the paper and remove it. Like real-life wallpaper.

I use a bookbinder glue (I think they sell something like "bogbinder lim" from Hobby & Kunst) - it is a white paste. I use an old creditcard to spread it thinly on the wall. When you spread it it gets warm and thins out and you can get it on the wood really thin. You can also you wallpaper glue from any baumarkt.

If you are decided on the floor - I would use pattex for real wood floors. If it is paper floors - either wallpaper glue or bookbinder glue.

Bathroom renovation - I think we need to see that and you need to tell us what you want to do with it.

[havanaholly]

Chris, the Greenleaf window frames are a bit different; the part with the mullions is in the house wall. You glue the acetate inserts to the smaller sash frames and glue one to the outside upper half of the window, and the other to the inside of the window's lower half and then gllue the surrounding frames to both inside and outside of the window. I'd be sorely tempted to locate enough replacement Houseworks working windows in a close size and when they arrive ewmove the frames and place the replacement windows over the windows and trace around them and recut the openings to install the new windows. The trimmed off wood or skinny sticks can be used to shim for the extra thickness.

[Grandmshouse]

Hey guy, just trying to poste something so i can uploade some Photos for you in my gallery:)

[Soapz]

Well, you did it - upload away...

[fov]

Thanks for posting the pics, that helps! The windows should be easy. Whenever you're ready to wallpaper your rooms, when you're done with that, glue the acetate either to the inside of the interior window frame and glue that in over the window hole. Or you can glue the acetate to the wall over the window, and then apply the window frame on top of it.

For the shutters, you can glue them directly to the house beside the exterior window frames, or on top of the horizontal edges of the window frames, whichever you prefer the look of. (For the bay windows I think you need to glue them onto the frames in order for them to all fit, so you might want to do it that way with all of them...)

For hinging the doors, take a look at the threads here and here. Gina has a great hinging guide on her blog here.

[KariW]

Good for you!!!! Upgrade and give it new life!!!! I love it!!!

[Grandmshouse]

Does enybody has eny experiense in putting in extra walls in a woodville house and maybe a stair?

[fov]

I added a Houseworks simple staircase and enclosed it with walls made from plywood. I had to add a strip of wood to the wall between the kitchen and living room to prevent the stairs from sticking out (I also added wood to the top to make it a proper doorway). And I had to enlarge the stair hole slightly since these stairs are wider than the ones that came with the kit. Alternatively, you could sand the top step a bit to make it fit.

Here are some pics.

I used a Handley House narrow door for the closet - with the trim cut off it just fits in that space.

I also added a bedroom closet made from a door and a piece of foam core. More details are here: http://www.emilymorganti.com/blog/?p=2341

Just yesterday I posted some pics of my Westville in its current state here, you can see some more pictures there.

[Grandmshouse]

Thanks a lot Emily! What did you juse to carve the plywood with?

[fov]

A table saw for the big pieces that formed the new walls, and the smaller pieces that went around the doorway were kit scraps that I cut by hand with a utility knife.

If you don't have access to power tools to cut the wood, you can use foam core, matte board, thick cardboard -- anything that's the same width as the kit wood and easy to cut by hand. Once it's glued in and covered up with wallpaper you'll never be able to tell that it's a different material.

[havanaholly]

Amalie, I used foamcore to make a wall for the side of the upstairs I made into a bathroom: http://www.greenleafdollhouses.com/forum/index.php?app=blog&module=display&section=blog&blogid=10&showentry=391

[Grandmshouse]

That's really Nice too, what did you juse the original bathroom for then? I really can't deside if i wonna make more rooms:s does enybody have some good ideas for the addic an the original bathroom?

[fov]

If you're talking about the area under the stairs, I think most people just use that as a closet (clever to make it a bathroom, though!)

A lot of people use the smaller upstairs room as a big bathroom, but I like the idea of splitting that into too rooms for a smaller bathroom and something else.

I wasn't planning to put any bathroom in my Westville. Leaving it out used to bother me but I've gotten over that as I've built more dollhouses...

[havanaholly]

You can make the attic into a nursery and playroom, a child's bedroom and extra bathroom, or whatever. You can cut away a small part of the attic floor to insert stairs from the second floor.

I agonized over whether to divide the side I made into the bathroom into two rooms, but since the house was sold before I ever opened the box and the buyer wanted the kit pretty much "as is", i left it up to her whether to further subdivide it.

[Grandmshouse]

Hmmm i could make the attic in to an extra bathroom, not a bad idea:) but how did you make the whole in the floor, for the stairs?

My grandma jused the room, under the stairs as a bathroom, so i thought that was the point (is that the right word?) hope you know what i mean:)

I really like what you did with the house too holly, but you didn't make a bathroom in it then?

[Grandmshouse]

Just wondered if i could get the sink out of the bathroom, just touched it and...i could

[Anna]

Amalie, sometimes things just work themselves out the way we want them to!

Hugs

[havanaholly]

Amalie, I made the space under the stairs into a utility closet with mops, brooms and buckets. I didn't make a hole in the second floor, but you could do so with a utility knife or a coping saw, once you figure out how you want to do stairs. Elsewhere Emily (fov) posted a tutorial link for making spiral stairs out of a filigree fan.

[Grandmshouse]

Thanks alot of good ideas!!