McKinley

[mysallyb]

I am starting my McKinley and having trouble deciding on a 'theme' for it. I am considering leaving off the tower, bashing the porch trim and omitting the 'gingerbread'. but the house is really Victorian so I am afraid it will look weird. I want to paint it yellow and white. Any ideas?

[havanaholly]

Emily has done the McKinley & had pictures on her photo site.

I shall tackle this one as soon as the Haunted House is finished so I look forward to seeing what you do with yours. My first kit was Dura-Craft's San Franciscan and it was a lot of house for a newbie to try, but I did it, tower & gingerbread & all. Go for it, Martha!

[mysallyb]

Thanks Holly!

My first real house was the Annabelle/Pierce. I'm just kinda tired of sooo much Victoriana. But this one keeps speaking to me that it wants to be Victorian. Sometimes I just don't listen.

[havanaholly]

That's OK, Martha, These little houses sometimes have definite ideas about what they want us to do with them. My Glencroft didn't want to be a respectable cottage, so it's a pub. The Haunted House I started wants to be cute, NOT haunted. The Dura-Craft Cambridge (my second kit) wanted to be French Colonial. Go figure.

In its way the Westville was easier because the prospective owner told me what she wanted & the rest fell into place; not how I would have built it for me, but she loves it.

[Minis On The Edge]

I also did not want to have a Victorian Look to mine when I built my first one. Here is a picture of the front and you can see more pictures of it in my webshots folder:

[Nameless1]

Martha, I don't think the McKinley is all that Victorian once you eliminate the trim. Some Greenleaf/Corona models definitely belong to a single style (the various Tudor houses like the Glencroft, definitely the Willowcrest and the Brookwood!), but a lot of them are essentially a set of rooms with a lot of trim that defines the style. This is a good thing (I think!) as it means that without the trim, the shell is yours to restyle as you see fit.

So with your McKinley, you have your basic four rooms-plus-attic, with two steep gables and a cross-gable. That's potentially Victorian, but it's also a common enough early 20th century design, done with siding but without most of the elaborate trim. Use stucco, and you have the look of dozens of new tract homes out here! You could leave the tower on, do stucco and dark shingles, modify the porch, and call it a 1920s fairytale cottage.

Turn the roof into solar panels with cedar shingles, skip the tower, do a rustic porch, and turn the bay into a giant flat window instead -- voila! 1970s ski-house-in-Colorado modern!

[mysallyb]

Wow, you guys are a great help. Now I just have to decide. I have time tho cuz I need to buy primer first and have to wait til payday! I may just go for it and do a very formal Victorian since this hous is so small, it would be more affordable, not like the Annabelle which still stands pretty empty. I may leave out the hallway. Seems that I always have to change something.

Thanks for the picture, Tracy, at least I know that what I was thinking can be done.

Hugz to all of you

[havanaholly]

I look at the picture on the box & at Tracy's picture & I think: William Morris. Too over-the-top?

[fov]

Sorry for the late reply - I've been on vacation.

Here is the link to my site, which Holly mentioned. I am redoing a McKinley I bought already assembled. Haven't worked on it in a while, unfortunately. The outside is still pretty ugly but I have big plans for it! I am doing the inside of mine in a modern style. The outside will probably have siding and porch trim that's like the Victorians you see in San Francisco, maybe in a peach / salmon color scheme.

Also, one of the mini magazines featured pics of a beautifully finished McKinley recently. I think it was the September issue of Dollhouse Miniatures but my room's a mess at the moment so I can't find it to confirm...

[havanaholly]

beautifully finished McKinley recently. I think it was the September issue of Dollhouse Miniatures

It's on page 9 & it is beautiful.

[mysallyb]

Okay, she's going to be Victorian cuz that's what she is telling me. I love Victorian, just have been wanting something different, but I will save that thought for when I get another house which, I hope, will be the Westville and I will do it in a 1940's theme.

I am happy now. The pre planning is always the hardest part for me. I know I want it yellow cuz it's going on my office wall and this room will be mostly yellow, so probably yellow with white trim and some little accent color like blue or green.

Hopefully I can get started this Saturday. So far I have the back glued together and that's all.

Love you all

[havanaholly]

You do well to listen to these kits, Martha. If you try to make them what they don't want to be they get ornery.

[mysallyb]

Well I know Holly! We just think we own them, but it's really the other way around!

Now I have a question, not sure if this is the right place for it, but it is my next step here. Here is where I am.

Ready to prime/paint my floors. I want to score/stain my living room floor, but need to prime/paint the underside. If I prime the underside only won't it warp?

I hate warping!! But of course will have to wait til the primer is all dry b4 I do the other side.

I know this is really dumb but I don't know what to do here.

[fov]

Martha, I'm doing my Westville in a 1940s/50s theme! We must think alike. You can see my early progress in the Westville blog but I haven't updated it in an embarassingly long time. I'm hoping to get back to working on it this week, now that I'm back from vacation...

[LPCullen]

You do well to listen to these kits, Martha.  If you try to make them what they don't want to be they get ornery.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Ain't that the truth!

[Minis On The Edge]

Welcome Back Emily!! We missed you!

Martha, I can't wait to see it!

[LisaN]

Sometimes you have to listen to these little houses. My Arthur is screaming, make me Tudor country please! So I have listened, which is actually more fun, and a great point you made Sally is it is more affordable. That way I can afford the expensive sink I want for the cottage kitchen! I have some pieces that I have collected already that will go cute in the house too.

I too am curious to see you on your McKinley--and since it's Victorian, why not try two different shades of yellow, and a cream for an accent color? Sometimes I have noticed that pure stark white is too harsh on these little houses, so I use white, white as an accent color. Also brass fixtures would look great with the yellow.

[havanaholly]

Martha, as a scriber & stainer of floors, I go ahead and do the scribing and staining. As soon as the stain is dry I seal or prime the other side (seal for the first floor, prime for subsequesnt floors since those surfaces will be ceilings). I have not had any problem with warping because of it. Do let your stained/sealed/primed plywood dry absolutely flat.

[darrellandmelissa]

Hopefully, Friday, my Mc Kinnely will be here. I am thinking of making it a formal type home. I am not sure what to order or to do to it exactly until I get the shell built and can measure the window, door frames, and walls to see how muchor which doors, windows, siding, molding, wainscoating, baseboard and crown molding to order. I plan to use this house to display some of my better pieces, so the furnishing may be sparce for a while.

Melissa

[havanaholly]

Martha, FYI I noticed the McKinley blog is up so there will be entries coming up soon to help inspire you.

[mysallyb]

WooHoo! Thanks Holly. I been busy getting the shell put together, waiting on more wallpaper now. Have not done anything to the exterior yet, but this house is so easy to work on cuz you can lay it down on its back and it doesn't even fuss about it. I will check the blogs for sure

[darrellandmelissa]

the house arrived today. I am in the process of manhandling the interior walls together. Me and this house may be fighting but I WILL win. LOL

Melissa

[darrellandmelissa]

Another heads up.

If you're building the McKinley and planning on electrifying it, I have a suggestion that would help a lot. Sure wish I had thought of it BEFORE assebling the shell.

The instructions have you put the two parts together to make the back portion that hangs on the wall and then attach the walls, foundations, etc to this. You build the shell mostly with the house laying on it's BACK.

Here's my suggestion. After you have the back parts together and still laying flat, measure and roughly sketch out where the walls and floors will be.

Then BEFORE attaching ANYTHING else run some tape runs over this back wall. Just be sure not to run the tape across any of the slots you'll be inserting a wall or floor into.

Then later, when you want to wire your house completely you will have ONE connection to this grid which will put electrical access into EVERY SINGLE ROOM of the house with no difficulty of getting it from room to room. A problem I'm dealing with now. LOL!

Here's a quick (and approximate) sketch. Dark heavy lines are the shape of the BACK. Light lines are where the walls and floors WILL be. Heavy red line is a suggested area to run electical tape wiring.

Sure wish I had done this. But I didn't.

Darrell (who's helping mel build this house)

[Minis On The Edge]

Thanks so much Darrell for the help!! I see how that can and will be a problem.

I must say though that I still don't understand the tape wire method (Yet ;) ) but got the hard wire down pretty good.

I know this will help a LOT of people!! You are a Gem!!

[darrellandmelissa]

Tracy,

Exactly what is it you're having trouble with understanding about the tape wiring? I've done both and think the tape method is TONS easier, much more "flexible", and lots easier to hide. The ONLY part I ever had trouble with was those teensy little brads, but Cir-kits new tool along with making a pilot hole with the punch, pretty much took that problem away.

I also LOVE it that I can run a tape around the inside wall of each and every room centered one inch up from the floor. Then later if I want to put a lamp ANYWHERE in the house, I just hammer in one of those plug sockets centered one inch up from the floor pretty much any place, I can plug in my lamp. Can't do that with wires without finding some of the wiring and splicing into it.

The one drawback is also a plus. In later years Cir-Kit changed to use two colors of conductors in their tape. This is helpful to make sure if you add a tape run in years later you won't get your "wires crossed" if you make multiple connections on your new run (which does happen) and cause a short. Always connect dark to dark and light to light and you're ok. Down side was that if you then tried to cover the tape with a thin wallpaper that was lightly colored (or white) then the darker color could show through. Not good. Solution is to just slap a bit of white piant or sealer over the tape before installing the paper and it hides just find.

Incidentally, painting sealer over the tape isn't a bad idea anyway as it creates a moisture seal covering the tape which will minimize any remote possiblity of high humidity eventually causing any corrosion in the connections.

If you're not sure and want to be sure you can do it before putting it into a house, just grab a scrap of wood, and run about 18" of tape down it. Put a junction splice at one end to plug the transformer in, and along those 18 inches, install a lamp or two, a socket to plug into, a fixture connected straight into the run, (as a wall sconce or ceiling lamp might be) and make at lease ONE extra piece of tape run off to one side and connect something to that one to test your ability to make a good connection from tape to tape.

Now EVERY test part (with the exception of the 18 and small side tapes you ran) you used is still good and the whole thing can be dismantled and installed into your dollhouses. And I guess if you were really careful you COULD even reuse the tape itself but it would have to be glued as it would no longer stick very securely but frankly I don't think tryin' to save that would be worth the effort. But hey... if like ours the budget is super tight... LOL!

Darrell