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Garfield noob questions


tp1

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Let me first come clean and state that I'm a 28 year old male :p

I cant really say what compels me to want to build a doll house. I per fur to think of it as a model house LOL. Ive been building 12 scale model cars for about 11 years now so when I saw the Garfield It somehow compelled me to build it. Not just build it but build the Garfield to end all Garfields wood paneling and all.

Anyways Ive had my Garfield on order from flebay for about 3 weeks :angry: While waiting on my kit (which dragged on and on) Ive depleted the local hobby lobby of their doll house building supply. Well on to my questions now....

#1 Is the house a 1/12 scale or a 1"

#2 Would anyone have the exact measurement of the front door. Would a door 10" in height fit?

#3 I see many of you have installed hardwood floor before you installed your outer walls. Does the outer walls sit on top of the hardwood floors or must they mate up to them?

I also plan to add a gazebo to the top tower and I know I'm going to have to trash the stairway and outer porch. I have included a pic of the gazebo I plan to model after. Im thinking access will have to come from the lower floor Ill have to fabricate a staircase. I haven't made my mind up on the windows as really I haven't seen any I like. I really like the windows that come with the kit but unfortunately their of poor quality.

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tp1,

I too am kit bashing a Garfiled, look below for my posting with some pics a few days ago.

#1. The Garfiled is 1" scale house

#2. A 10" door will not fit unless you raise the porch roof to make room. The ceiling heights are about 10.5" on the first floor and 9" on the second.

#3. Some of the outer walls do sit on the floors. I will install my flooring after I have completed the construction. - Especially since I am making changes as I go.

I too have changed the tower. I opened it up so it is easily accessible from the attic. I am trashing the staircases, windows and most of the gingerbread trim. I have expanded the front porch about 3 inches all around to actually reflect a correct size in real life. The windows I have chosen are slim victorians from Minature House. They do not have the arched top or the gingerbread on them. But with the added gingerbread I am putting on with the porch and in the gable ends, I don't think people will notice.

Matt

(I'm 40 and have been building dollhouses since I was 16!)

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Hello, and welcome to the community! Seems to me we have quite a few new males who have joined recently, and it seems there have always been really talented males here, so you're in good company. :p

#1 Is the house a 1/12 scale or a 1"

1:12 is 1-inch scale ... just as 1:24 is 1/2-inch scale.

I really like the gazebo on top the tower ... there are some good examples here of Garfield builders who have used creative ways to give access to the tower room. I'm sure you'll figure out something really grand. Have fun with the build! :angry:

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Welcome to the neighborhood tp1 !!

When I do my heardwood floors prior to adding the walls, I stop before I get to the spot where the wall goes. My reason is because very minor things like this can cause the kit to not assemble correctly. It may not show on the 1st or even second floor but you can get to the third floor and then Bam!! Just like that you notice (Well after the glue is dried) that your floor is what cause the gap where the roof and wall meets (ask me how I know and how long it took to find this out :p :p )

I LOVE the house you are gonna model your Grafiled off of and I can not wait to see what you do. Please keep us informed with eye candy! Some of the greatest miniaturist are Men! Bill Lankford is even featured this month in the American Miniatures magazine. Rik Pierce and Jamie Carrington and Mark Turpin are just a few I can think of off the top of my head. Hold your head up high. We got a lot of guys even here donig minis (Glen, Ed, Andrew, Greg Matt and Brandon are some I am thinking off right now :wave: Hope you get your house SOON! :angry:

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My siding is regular 3/8" lap clapboard you can find at any miniature store. The shingles, they are 1/2" scale from Earth & Tree Miniatures that are going on one at a time - Talk About Time Consuming! But it all looks more authentic for a Queen Anne Victorian.

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That's a really nice door and I loved the one with the stained glass window :angry: You can cut and make the door opening large but I am not sure how much space you have to do that on a Garfield. Maybe our Gardfield builders will know :p

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Welcome, tp1. I scribe my floorboards directly into the plywood and stain them and finish them off, so the wall fit isn't an issue. When I want to lay strip flooring (hardly ever) I wait until the shell is built. You can see what I did with the second floor of my "dressing Maggie" album.

I very much like the idea of the gazebo bash on the tower.

If the door you have selected is too tall, is it possible for you to make a door similar to what you want? If it's to be stained you can buy basswood in very thin boards and build up your architectural features. If it's to be painted, so much the better, you can start off with a 1/4"-3/8" piece of basswood and add your architectural elements in cardstock. You can use Peggi's pin-pivot hinging method, too (see her entry with how-to in the Team Coventry Cottage blog).

Tracy left out Dan, Cory and the two Peters. You are in very good company.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Well my Garfield is taking direction. Its going to be a china shop on the first floor and living quarters on the second and third floors. Heres pics of the very slow process. I also decided to void the staircase after measuring the house. There simply isn't room for it for what I want out of the house. Im also thinking the house will be painted pink.

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There is a component kit that used to be available at mini shops with special designed windows for the Garfield and for the Pierce. The windows open and close. The doors you will have a problem with as the openings are not tall enough and the ceiling is only 10" anyway...... Houseworks has some lovely doors that can be added.

By the way, welcome to the forum!

Wolfie

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Did you make your awesome chinaware showcases? Here's a link to white metal minis you can prime & paint for porcelain figurines, Toby mugs, etc. You can paint the Chrysnbon dinnerware to look like porcelain and they also have a lot of appropriately colored "Depression glassware" items. It wuld be temmpting to have a tearoom on the second floor with the tower gazebo as an al fresco dining area and just have the living quarters on the top floor. Thank you SO much for sharing your progress pictures, I can't wait to see more!

I also wish you'd come introduce yourself in our newcomers' forum.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi Everyone!

My name's Muriel, I live in the UK, and am hoping to build a Garfield house as soon as I can.

At the moment I'm trying to get hold of a kit, though its not straight forward getting one to the uk!

In the meantime I'd love to get a start on designing and thinking about how I'd like to decorate my rooms. I was wondering if anyone has a floorplan of the house, or even some simple sketches of the floorplans with rough dimensions. I have an architect program on my computer so can design the house on it.

I would be grateful if anyone could help.

Muriel :banana:

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Hi Everyone!

My name's Muriel, I live in the UK, and am hoping to build a Garfield house as soon as I can.

At the moment I'm trying to get hold of a kit, though its not straight forward getting one to the uk!

In the meantime I'd love to get a start on designing and thinking about how I'd like to decorate my rooms. I was wondering if anyone has a floorplan of the house, or even some simple sketches of the floorplans with rough dimensions. I have an architect program on my computer so can design the house on it.

I would be grateful if anyone could help.

Muriel :)

Hi Muriel :) welcome to the forum. I haven't built my Garfield yet so i can't help with the floorplan. I hope you get a Garfield soon and look forward to seeing pictures of your house!

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I decided to fabricate a smaller staircase. Its more of a Real Good Toys type staircase. To me it looks a whole lot cleaner than the one that came with the kit its a beautiful staircase but unfortunately it took up too much room for what I wanted. I also visited a doll house shop while I was in Florida www.tinasdollhouses.com They have everything you could possibly want and the lady that runs it is very helpful. I purchased 14 pieces of 3 1/2 by 24 inch siding and some windows. I thinking Ill need probably 14 more pieces of siding to finish the project I not planning on siding the gables.

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Let me first come clean and state that I'm a 28 year old male :drool:

I cant really say what compels me to want to build a doll house. I per fur to think of it as a model house LOL. Ive been building 12 scale model cars for about 11 years now so when I saw the Garfield It somehow compelled me to build it. Not just build it but build the Garfield to end all Garfields wood paneling and all.

Anyways Ive had my Garfield on order from flebay for about 3 weeks :hmm: While waiting on my kit (which dragged on and on) Ive depleted the local hobby lobby of their doll house building supply. Well on to my questions now....

#1 Is the house a 1/12 scale or a 1"

#2 Would anyone have the exact measurement of the front door. Would a door 10" in height fit?

#3 I see many of you have installed hardwood floor before you installed your outer walls. Does the outer walls sit on top of the hardwood floors or must they mate up to them?

I also plan to add a gazebo to the top tower and I know I'm going to have to trash the stairway and outer porch. I have included a pic of the gazebo I plan to model after. Im thinking access will have to come from the lower floor Ill have to fabricate a staircase. I haven't made my mind up on the windows as really I haven't seen any I like. I really like the windows that come with the kit but unfortunately their of poor quality.

I'm an 18 guy and m i feel the same way about my garf, its been a year and its almost halfway done,tons of work still, oh i built a basement in awnser to your questions

#1 Is the house a 1/12 scale or a 1" its he same thing

#2 Would anyone have the exact measurement of the front door. Would a door 10" in height fit? No 9 inch max

#3 I see many of you have installed hardwood floor before you installed your outer walls. Does the outer walls sit on top of the hardwood floors or must they mate up to them? It slots into eachother

hope this helps!

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I also visited a doll house shop while I was in Florida www.tinasdollhouses.com
Is Tina selling out of her house now? We stopped by the shop in Starke one day & her stuff was 'way picked over, she was off at CIMTA and her mom told me she was letting the lease lapse on the building and moving the stock to her garage & the internet. Mini thanks for the link, http://www.tinasdollhouses.com , which I think is now clickable.
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  • 2 weeks later...

Made some progress over the last 3 weeks. Well I took a couple of steps back too... Namely Mayberry Street miniatures flooring is so inconsistent that out of 20 sheets only 8 remain in the house. Yes I had the bottom floor installed but there were a couple of areas that were nagging me. Big mistake! The problem with Mayberry street flooring is that its inconsistent. Half the the time the flooring isn't hard enough to stain. Whats worse is that you only find this out after youve installed the floor. One side will look good the other side will look rubbery almost like Balsa wood. So yeah Im scratching my head now. On the up side I got the walls up and the gazebo. Im really trying to rethink what I can do as far as sourcing good flooring.

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