kerreberre Posted February 10, 2007 Share Posted February 10, 2007 Hello to all, My name is Kerri. I just received my Pierce dollhouse kit by Greenleaf as a gift. I have lots and lots of questions about how to get started. is the anyone out there who wants to help?? Let me know Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wenlaine Posted February 10, 2007 Share Posted February 10, 2007 Hi Kerri, I can't offer any help on building the Pierce, but I would like to say hi, and welcome you to the forum! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uppitycats Posted February 10, 2007 Share Posted February 10, 2007 Welcome to the forum! The Pierce is a great house! I'm sure folks will be along who have built that model. Feel free to ask questions; the folks here are very friendly and love to offer sugestions and ideas. Have fun with your build! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kerreberre Posted February 10, 2007 Author Share Posted February 10, 2007 thanks for the welcome's. My first thought when I opened the box of my kit was " Did I really say I wanted to do this?" I laughed when the warm-up instructions said "Don't Panic" Because I was beyond Panic.... My husband's Grandmother bought this kit for me after I said that I wanted one.... I have no choice but to try to build as she lives with us and will be checking on the progress... I am a hobby starter and never a finisher. Last year I bought all the stuff to scrap book and never opened a box. I guess some of the questions I have are Can I seal the wood on the sheets it come on? Can I build with out gluing and then remove to decorate and then glue? Is a hot glue gun Ok?? Do I really need the tools like the pin vise and such? Those are just a few to get started. I am going to Michael's today to look at some tools, wall paper and stuff. Wish me luck!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LaurentiaFletwick Posted February 10, 2007 Share Posted February 10, 2007 ;) So nice to meet you, kerreberre! Though I've not built a Pierce - yet ;) - you'll get lots of answers to your questions here in the Forum, from others who have. Everyone is very forthcoming with helpful hints and tips. ;)Donna Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LaurentiaFletwick Posted February 10, 2007 Share Posted February 10, 2007 Hi Again kerreberre! I just read your latest post and see that you asked about hot glue. That is definitely something you DON'T want to use!! I really messed myself up by doing that when I built my first house - the Willowcrest - so I'm speaking from experience! ;) ;)Donna Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kerreberre Posted February 10, 2007 Author Share Posted February 10, 2007 why is hot glue not good? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minis On The Edge Posted February 10, 2007 Share Posted February 10, 2007 Welcome to the Neighborhood Kerri! No Hot glue gun is the best piece of advice so far! If you seal the wood first, you can not stain it (But you can still paint it so don't seal what you wish to staine. You can dry fit but I would not add lights and some other permanent fixtures until the house is glued together ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minis On The Edge Posted February 10, 2007 Share Posted February 10, 2007 Hot wood glue comes apart after a while so your house will fall apart after a few years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CJEP Posted February 10, 2007 Share Posted February 10, 2007 Hi, Kerri, and ;) ! Can I seal the wood on the sheets it come on? NO!!! As Holly mentioned in a previous post do not do this!! Otherwise you will have a very difficult time getting the pieces out. Can I build with out gluing and then remove to decorate and then glue?You can dry fit it but you will find it easier to do some of the gluing as you go along. If you are planning on wiring it for lighting you will not want to decorate first, but if you are not going to wire it for lighting you can decorate it before gluing. Is a hot glue gun Ok?? Wood glue is much better. If you do not have clamps you can use masking tape. Do I really need the tools like the pin vise and such?No, see my previous answers. I don't have those tools and am building my third and fourth dollhouses. Those are just a few to get started. I am going to Michael's today to look at some tools, wall paper and stuff. Scrapbook paper makes great wallpaper and sometimes flooring. I usually get three pages of the same print to be able to do a room's walls. Michael's doesn't have much for dollhouse stuff anymore, but AC Moore or Hobby Lobby do. There are also great on-lines resources (that I find cheaper and have more plentiful choices). If you look through the posts you will see that there are a lot of talk about glues, finishing and resources. Wish me luck!! Good luck! If you click on the Gallery button and search for Pierce, you will see several pictures of Pierces people here have built or acquired. I'm not sure if anyone has blogged their work on the Pierce but you may want to check there as well. My mother (and I sort of) built a Pierce when I was young. It is a great house. I want to do another one some day, but first I have to finish the two I have started and the three kits I have in my closet. Hope this helps. I think there have been several people saying they are starting a Pierce as well. You may want to do a search and see what comes up. It might be nice to talk to someone who is going through what you are. Good luck!! ;) Carrie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anna Posted February 10, 2007 Share Posted February 10, 2007 Hello and welcome to the forum Kerri, I see you have got some great answers allready and I do hope you will have a lot of fun building your Pierce. It is such a beautiful house!!!! And just you aks any and all questions you might have underway, there is always someone around to answer! Mini-hugs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueUni47 Posted February 10, 2007 Share Posted February 10, 2007 Hello and welcome Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havanaholly Posted February 10, 2007 Share Posted February 10, 2007 ;) to the forum, Kerri, we're glad you chose to join us! Deb has built the Pierce, as have several others, so by all means check the Gallery albums & the blogs for pictures. To answer some of your questions: the warm-up instructions said "Don't Panic"Even if you don't look at another instruction (I recommend reading the instruction sheet at least three times before starting, whether you end up following them or not), DO follow this one! I am a hobby starter and never a finisher.Building dollhouses is a good hobby for you, then; I don't think any of us is EVER truly finished with a dollhouse ;) Can I seal the wood on the sheets it come on?As Tracy pointed out, not if you want to use stain on it. Stains do NOT like glue or sealer, so if you want to stain, do it first. Holly mentioned in a previous post do not do this!! Otherwise you will have a very difficult time getting the pieces out.We have at least three Hollys on this forum; if Carrie was quoting me I was referring to a can of opaque white sealer/ primer I accidently bought and used to seal a Buttercup kit, and it got into the diecuts and between the wood swelling and the viscosity of the product that dried to cement-hardness I did turn the air blue with the *magic* words I used to cut the kit pieces out! It taught me to read thoroughly the info on the labels! I do stain while the pieces are still in the sheets, ditto with the CLEAR sanding sealer back when I used it. Whether you use stain, sealer or primer, DO lay your sheets perfectly flat to dry and when one side is thoroughly dry, turn it over to do the second side; this will minimize/ help prevent warping. Can I build with out gluing and then remove to decorate and then glue?By all means do a dry-fit before committing yourself to glue, some kits don't have you gluing everything to everything as you go, so you will want to check first for tabs that aren't too big and slots that may not be big enough. Is a hot glue gun Ok??For what? Actually some people who have better control with it than I use hot glue to apply shingles. The even more manually dextrous use minute dabs to hold edges together whilst the glue cures & dries; I, being me, use a heavy-duty Stanley stapler, one of the better investments for me, personally. We are all individuals. Back when Dean's granddaddy was writing the instructions for many of the original kits, hot-glue guns used a very high-temp melt glue that I guess for safety reasons was removed from the market in favor of the lower melt temp guns & gluesticks available now; but it makes the "hot" glue unsuitable for assembling a dollhouse if you're going to all the hours/ years of invested time & labor and love to build one of these beauties. I use yellow carpenter's wood glue (Probond) and masking tape/ clamps/ heavy-duty staples. Do I really need the tools like the pin vise and such?Start out without any tools but your bare hands and then find out what works for you. I found out right away that a craftknife is much too lightweight for me, so I got a utility knife (boxcutter with retractable trapezoid-shaped blade, which I change as soon as it begins to slow down; nothing is more likely to slice you open than a dull knifeblade). I keep at least one roll of 2" masking tape in reserve, and in addition to various spring-type clams I have "C" camps and bar-clamps (full-sized honking big bar-clamps, none of the cute little prissy "mini" bar-clamps) and a few pony-c;amps for right-angle gluing jobs. I also have a magnetic gluing jig (I make some of my furniture, but it's also great for trim and stairs) but you can make one with Legos and a cut-down copier-paper box. The pinvise is VERY nice for drilling starter holes, especially if you build a kit from MDF instead of wood. There are posts listing tools it's nice to have and tools you probably want to go ahead and get (I have two full-sized hammers for "coaxing" stubborn pieces to fit...) Mostly you have fun, and once you get your Pierce decorated & electrified (should you so choose) and furnished & peopled (should you so choose) you'll be ready to start planning your next dollhouse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newt Posted February 11, 2007 Share Posted February 11, 2007 hello, and welcome! you've got a super wonderful house. congrats! we'd love it if you post photos of your progress. and once you've made five posts you can have a photo gallery on the forums here. do you know yet what you'd like to do with colors for the house? take your time and have a grand build. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LPCullen Posted February 11, 2007 Share Posted February 11, 2007 Hello and welcome to the forum! All of us build houses differently, so it's kinda difficult to say what is best and what is not--other than the hot glue. I am in the South, where humidity is a constant, so hot glue is not good down here because it doesn't like humidity. If you go into the various blogs for team and community builders and look at some of them start to finish, you may be able to get some good ideas on where you may want to start with your house. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kokkie Posted February 11, 2007 Share Posted February 11, 2007 Welcome Kerri!!! I have build a Pierce some years ago in about 3 weeks and I am not so handy at alll, dryfitting a lot and sandpapered and very good woodglue, have fun, Wilma Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamie Posted February 11, 2007 Share Posted February 11, 2007 Hi and welcome The only thing I can add is the advice not to use a hot glue gun. I used it on the base of my Garfield and the results where a disaster. I had to break some of it apart and redo. :wub: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiniDoxLuvr Posted February 11, 2007 Share Posted February 11, 2007 Can I seal the wood on the sheets it come on? No, I would not advise it. Take them off of the sheets, and prime them if you liek. But if you paint one side, turn it over and paint the other side as well as this is 1/8" plywood that will warp from the water based paint. Painting both sides right after another will eliminate this. I normally prime AND put a second coat on walls BEFORE putting together. The downside to tihs tho is you might have to sand the tabs and/or slots if the paint makes them a bit thick to fit, but I do that all the time anyway. Can I build with out gluing and then remove to decorate and then glue? This would be near impossible I think. Most of these houses that are tab/slot assembly don't fit together perfectly and it takes some ingeninuity to get them to stay together with clamping/taping so I doubt that you could dry fit the whole thing and it actually stay. It is honestly easier to just dry fit in sections as you go along. Is a hot glue gun Ok?? No, no and NO! Hot glue breaks down over time and is NOT a strong or desirable glue for these houses. the best glue IMO is Aleene's tacky glue altho any wood glue will do. Tacky glue yields less drippage. Once you are finished with the construction hot glue is good for touch ups and such Do I really need the tools like the pin vise and such? I have built four houses and on my fifth and have never owned or used a vise. Duct tape is my friend and the only clamping I have ever used and all of my houses look pretty decent! Those are just a few to get started. I am going to Michael's today to look at some tools, wall paper and stuff It is easy to get overwhelmed. I would not buy interior decorating items just yet, it helps to ease the stress if you concentrate on decorating and finishing the exterior then moving to the interior. Micahels has crapbooking sheets that I use for my wallpaper. Many of the prints are small enough scale to fit perfectly in a dollhouse and it is acid free, high quality paper. Works beatuifully at a fraction of the cost. And Michael's hutches for a $1 a piece can't be beat. I kitbash them and have made a bathroom wall cabinet with attached towel holder, dressers for kids rooms, desks, etc....they can be stained or painted and have so many uses! I have a bag of them upstairs as we speak unpainted and just there in case I get a brainstorm LOL The Pierce is a lovely dollhouse ! Congrats ! You said you are not a project finisher - these kits take a lot of perserverance and I would suggest that when you have had your fill and your back feels like it is going to break, put it safely away somewhere and come back to it once you have relaxed. Dollhouses have this way of making us forget the hardwork it took after a couple of weeeks. Everytime I finish one i say "wow I don't think I am doing that again" and in a month or two the bug hits me all over again. After I finished my Gingerbread Arthur (and I put that one together and had it fully decorated in two weeks to be able to have it on display for the holidays, so that was a unique story altogether) I said that I would wait about six months and have a break before starting the Vermont Farmhouse and BLAH what did I do? Started the vermont two weeks later bwahhhhhhhh.. LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havanaholly Posted February 11, 2007 Share Posted February 11, 2007 pin visenever owned or used a vise.FYI, a pin vise is not a vise to clamp things, it's a holder for wee tiny pin-sized drill bits for drilling itty bitty holes like in MDF for the weeny brass brads for tape wire.scrapbooking sheets that I use for my wallpaperThe fuzzy kind also makes carpeting and there are some 1:1 wallpapers with designs small enough for 1:12.Michael's hutches for a $1 a piece can't be beat. I kitbash them and have made a bathroom wall cabinet with attached towel holder, dressers for kids rooms, desks, etc....they can be stained or painted and have so many uses! I have a bag of them upstairs as we speak unpaintedI have made "necessaries", armoires, kitchen sink cabinets and Murphy beds out of some of mine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TinyJudi Posted February 11, 2007 Share Posted February 11, 2007 Welcome to the forums. As you have already found out, there are a lot of answers here. Good luck with your Pierce and please post pics when you can. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nuttiwebgal Posted February 11, 2007 Share Posted February 11, 2007 Welcome to the forum! you have picked a great house for your project. and have gotten lots of wonderful advice.....and here is my 2 cents kilz spray works great for priming.....and you only have to spray one side if you want....not wet enough to warp the wood ....well unless you saturate it with the spray...I just lightly spray my walls and stain the kit floors. also the instructions tell you to put on the windows first DO NOT DO THIS the "windows" are easily scratched and once you muss them they look awful. so I like to do all the windows LAST inside and out. putting the window trim up first inside also makes it "fun" to put wallpaper up...NOT but as in all things you have to find the method that works best for you. oh and DO take photos of your progress....when you are finished you will enjoy looking back at the photos and remembering! and of course sharing with all of us who must have our eyecandy :welcome: Happy Building! nutti ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ilovecats Posted February 11, 2007 Share Posted February 11, 2007 Hello and welcome to the forum! Congrats on your Pierce! Remember to take lots of pictures!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This house is still on my wishlist! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shakyshaky Posted February 12, 2007 Share Posted February 12, 2007 Hi and welcome Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shy Spirit Posted February 12, 2007 Share Posted February 12, 2007 Welcome to the forum - all the answers so far have given you plenty to start with ... I would just add that any mistake can be fixed/disguised/adapted or even sometimes, made much of! Some mistakes add character to the house. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annette Posted February 12, 2007 Share Posted February 12, 2007 Hi and welocme. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.