New to dollhouses, a few questions?

[Monkey4162]

Hello, so a few days ago i was looking at getting my 3yo a dollhouse off a fb page. After some contemplation I realized that really I'm the one who wanted a doll house! So I proceeded to watch youtube videos. I decided I didn't want a massive house... Although now that I have it my husband is saying I should get a bigger one, I think because this one is going together so quickly. I got the Fairfield house a day early yesterday. I have everything up until the staircase. I would have kept going but figured staining it would be easier to do before it's installed. SO I then stained every entryway and door. I now realize that there is only one staircase, and no interior doors. I knew that the videos some had added doors onto the top in place of a window.

 

How can I find a matching staircase? I would like to have it look very similar and I will probably place it just above the current staircase. Or maybe a spiral staircase in the corner??? 

 

Second is that there is no way to hinge the doors(included)? I have read about using the sturdy envelopes? how long do those last? Support wise? I don't really plan on it being opened very often, but wondering their durability. 

 

I have also seen some pictures where the attic is separated and turned into a bathroom? Is there a video somewhere as to how to add a room in an attic? Should I try and attach it before I put the roof on or after? I think I would much rather have it in the attic... long way to travel for first floor occupants though, lol. 

 

Lighting? I ordered a kit, and have decided to light the place up! In the attic will probably just use floor lamps, one lamp space for each room and one off the ceiling on the two first floors. I have seen some videos and tutorials. My question, some of them installed the celing lights up through the floor above, and some just attached from the ceiling? What way would be better? would it really make a difference?

 

Another question!! I have been alternating between hot glue and wood glue. THe stairs I did a combination of the both. Since I have never made a dollhouse before I am wondering what glue will hold up longer? We move fairly often because of the army. But I would like it to be able to survive being moved at least 5 times(usually cross country). 

Thanks I'm sure I'll have more questions later! 

[DocGreen]

Do not use hot glue as it will not last. You can buy packs of hinges for the doors. Also you can do pins in the top and bottom on one side if you don't want to get hinges. If you have left over pieces of plywood big enough you can make your own interior doors or you can buy them aftermarket as you can stairs. I made a trapdoor on one of my houses and made a ladder for attic access. It's in my gallery, The Willow if you would like to see it. Some folks come thru the ceiling and then hide the wires under carpet or faux floors which can be removed for repairs if needed. Just personal preference. Hope this helps a bit.

[havanaholly]

Welcome to the little family, Jessica.  I used the kit stairs to trace and make stringers for a second flight of stairs for one of the two Fairfields I built.  I left off the roof when making the third floor of the tower into a utility room and bathroom; I also made the smallest room on the second floor of each FF into a bathroom.  I made a paper pattern of the gap between the tower walls and the attic and cut and spliced scrapwood to fill the gaps.  Since the attic is a nursery and servants' quarters, I just hung a sheet across the opening.  I used strips of chamois to hinge the doors.  Remember those pieces of wood you punched out of the door openings?  They become you room doors.  If you have a source of supply for 1/16" basswood you can cut strip and squares to make your doors paneled and also to sandwich your trips of chamois or Tyvek.  I use Probond to glue wood parts together and regular clear drying tacky glue for the acetate window and door inserts.  My Fairfields are halves of a Bar Harbor summer cottage, so I built one of them inside out and made a whole lot of changes.

If you want a bigger house, why not go for one that's 1:12 scale?  I ended up having to make all the furniture and dolls for my Fairfields.

[CheckMouse]

:welcome:   Jessica

Glad you could join us. I haven't built the Fairfield so can't offer any advice. But I know you will have fun with it! 

[Monkey4162]

Thanks. I was thinking of tracing the outline of my stairs actually. Just not sure if I could do it with wood. Maybe my husband will cut it. Im not really sure I want a large house. I would like to have several small ones. Easier to store. My kids are young so I can't really have them out unless I want broken things. Husband just said I should get a bigger one so it would take longer to build. I am finding it difficult to find variety of things to furnish with though... so maybe I will do the next one one inch. I do have the door pieces that were there even labeled them, I may need to trim them down tho a tad.

[dedem]

Just a bit of advice- I read it on a blog of someone else doing the fairfield. 

 

Get all your trim and windows out of the way now. 

 

Trust me, I did the fairfield, and it didn't come out to great compared to the masters around here. You're better off doing all the trim NOW, before you get all the walls up. 

[Monkey4162]

Put the trim in? I was just going to stain it while I stain the stairs. Was going to either paint or wallpaper first so I can have it under the trim.

[Selkie]

I think she meant painting or staining it to get it out of the way as a task on the list of things to do.

You DO want to paint and walllpaper before closing in windows and putting up trims.

[havanaholly]

Go ahead and paint or stain your trim and doors and assemble the windows and set them aside.  I go one floor at a time and when the downstairs wall treatments are done the windows and doors go in; then the net floor, then its windows and doors, and so on.  II ended up making all the furniture I put into my Fairfields; some from kits, some from how-to articles and some I reduced the dimensions of 1:12 furniture (1/4" graph paper is great for this).

[DocGreen]

As far as kids and dollhouses and broken things, it happens. I have built several really nice dollhouses for my granddaughters and spent a lot of time doing it. They loved them and played with them much to my dismay as they were not as careful playing with them as I was in building them.  They would bring parts and pieces back to me to repair. I could have fussed and bitched but I just smiled and fixed the broken parts and mended not just the dollhouse parts but the grandfather and granddaughter parts! It hurt me that they were so rough on what I had put so much love in but they were just being kids and enjoying what I had made for them. Just gotta put sh. . .uh. . .stuff in perspective sometimes.

[Llilith]

As far as kids and dollhouses and broken things, it happens. I have built several really nice dollhouses for my granddaughters and spent a lot of time doing it. They loved them and played with them much to my dismay as they were not as careful playing with them as I was in building them.  They would bring parts and pieces back to me to repair. I could have fussed and bitched but I just smiled and fixed the broken parts and mended not just the dollhouse parts but the grandfather and granddaughter parts! It hurt me that they were so rough on what I had put so much love in but they were just being kids and enjoying what I had made for them. Just gotta put sh. . .uh. . .stuff in perspective sometimes.

This is the sweetest thing I've read all day... What a great grandpa!