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I always enjoy the home renovation threads on DIY & Hobbies and now that I’ve got some free time I wanted to begin my own home renovation. But this is a bit different as the home is a dollhouse. Background When I was around seven years old my dad built a dollhouse for me. Until around 11 or 12 I played with this dollhouse every time I was over his house. In the nineteen years since he built the dollhouse, my dad has moved multiple times; he is also a fairly heavy smoker. Needless to say, the house is well loved, but it is in need of quite a bit of repair. Last year he gave me the dollhouse to store in my apartment. Now that I have the dollhouse – and some free time – I’d like to restore it. I’m not sure how long this restoration will take. This is the first time I’ve ever tried something like this, so I’m trying to be as careful as possible. Day 1 (04/14/2014) The dollhouse is around 3 1/2 feet tall. It’s fairly large – it has seven rooms total, but one is already disassembled.  Here’s the roof, you can see that it’s pretty badly stained and grimy. There’s also a weird brownish purple smudge. I don’t know what it is.  The walls, furniture, and kitchen floor are all stained from nicotine and much of the furniture is broken. If you’re wondering, the plastic bag contains additional furniture.  My goal is to completely renovate the dollhouse while using materials identical or similar to those my dad used. Any furniture I can save, I will. Demolition Today I wanted to take apart as much of the dollhouse as I could.  Here’s the dollhouse cleaned and ready for demolition. The square on the third floor is a paper sheet from the 7th room. I began with the roof. Originally, I was taking each individual peg off (you can see one on the top right of the roof in the picture above). However, I took one off before I realized just how time consuming this was and how great the potential was for it to rip a good chunk of the roof off in the process. Using a diluted water/vinegar mixture, I sprayed at the edges of the roof. With time, the mixture, patience, and elbow grease, I was eventually able to get the roof off.  Once I had the roof off I took all of the pegs off of it. My original goal was to stop at the roof, but I felt like I was on a roll. I next worked on the top floor. The large white lines on the third floor are where the roof is nailed to the main structure. My dad built this thing to last. When I was able to figure out where the nails were it was a little easier to work out the best way to take apart the house. While I was working on the third floor, the first floor loosened up enough the remove the divider between the two.  Here’s where I am at the end of day one. The divider and staircase both came off the first floor with minimal resistance, I managed to get the roof and most of the third floor taken apart, and I removed the trim and windows on the right half of the dollhouse. I also found out that my dad started out using a different wallpaper in the kitchen, which was a neat discovery.
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Apr 14, 2014 20:06
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| # ? Apr 26, 2024 11:44 |
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Ok that is pretty loving fun.
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Apr 15, 2014 06:49
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You should add an addition (twice as big as the original house) to increase resale value. Don't forget to insulate under those stairs as well. (honestly, this is so cool, I can't wait to see what you do) Suggestions: Install LED lighting and make a chandelier for the dining room (fake jewelry could be used to make the fixture). Fireplace and stone chimney (exterior wall). Have an LED behind some crumpled orange and yellow cellophane to mimic a fire. Mount the structure to a base (plywood) that is 2-3" larger so you can add a path and some landscaping (shrubs, etc.) Keep us updated.
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Apr 15, 2014 14:56
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Blistex posted:Install LED lighting and make a chandelier for the dining room (fake jewelry could be used to make the fixture). Thanks for all the suggestions! I will definitely add lighting and the base. My dad is visiting this weekend. I told him about my plan to restore the dollhouse and he is going to help with disassembling it. Hopefully it will be fully taken apart by Sunday. Once it's apart I can work on the logistics of LED lighting as well as gather wallpaper and new flooring for the rooms that need it. I was also considering replacing the window panes and staircases. I'm excited to be started. This is a project I've wanted to start for quite some time.
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Apr 15, 2014 17:20
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The only restoration on this forum to match kastein's in terms of demolition.
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Apr 15, 2014 17:46
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Slugworth posted:The only restoration on this forum to match kastein's in terms of demolition. Not quite as extreme, as 95% of kastein's house appeared to be mold and termite feces.
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Apr 15, 2014 22:02
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This is when it would be great to have a 3-D printer.
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Apr 15, 2014 22:15
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I'm totally pumped for this! Are you gonna get fresh wallpaper or paint the walls?
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Apr 16, 2014 02:54
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Prince Reggie K posted:I'm totally pumped for this! Are you gonna get fresh wallpaper or paint the walls? Fresh wallpaper on all interiors. I was thinking of adding clapboard siding on the exterior.
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Apr 17, 2014 11:54
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Wainscoting in the kitchen would look nice, and give the living room some crown moulding. Maybe a trellis going up the side of the "tower" without windows to hold some vines. You might be able to get some ideas from the Scale Modeling thread (in this subforum) as there is a guy building a scale city scene.
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Apr 17, 2014 14:21
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Don't forget to add raceways not only for your current networking needs, but to provide an easy access point for any future upgrades like fiberoptics. Or do dolls just leech off human wifi?
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Apr 18, 2014 00:21
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Mister Kingdom posted:This is when it would be great to have a 3-D printer. Whoa. This is a great idea. The handmade dollhouse furniture people would scream in agony but it'd be cool.
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Apr 20, 2014 00:53
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Today I was able to begin work on removing the porch. I ended up purchasing a heat gun earlier this week, as my dad forgot to bring his up. Then I just needed to wait for a pause in the rain. That pause finally occurred today (it's pouring again). Here's where we last left the house. After the last update I removed the interior portions of the windows and the base board.  The heat gun made short work of the shingles. Unfortunately it reeked and now I have a headache. I'm going to purchase a respirator today for future heat gun work.  The whole roof took around 30-45 minutes.  The heat gun had loosened up the glue holding down one half of the roof, so I was able to pry it off along with two columns. As you can see, the rain decided to pick up again, so I called it a day.  Here's were I am now. Once I brought it inside I was able to remove the two columns in the front.  While I'm waiting for the respirator to come in I'm going to begin wallpaper removal and take care of any additional work that needs to be done on pieces already removed from the dollhouse. The next time I use the heat gun I'll be focusing on fencing and the trim. Once those are removed it shouldn't be too hard to remove the second part of the porch roof. Once the house is disassembled I'll begin gathering flooring, siding, and wallpaper. The plan is to do LED lighting, but that needs to be laid out before anything goes in. I've got a good idea of what I want to do on the exterior (I'll include that in a future update), but I'd be glad for any suggestions on the interior.
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Apr 26, 2014 15:40
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I'm gonna have to have the roof on my realhouse done like that in a few years. I guess they'll bring in a 15-foot heat gun on a crane, huh?
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Apr 26, 2014 16:31
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slap me silly posted:I'm gonna have to have the roof on my realdollhouse done like that in a few years. I guess they'll bring in a 15-foot heat gun on a crane, huh? I read it three times, and it was only the last time before I didn't parse like this.
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Apr 27, 2014 01:49
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Not an Anthem posted:Whoa. This is a great idea. The handmade dollhouse furniture people would scream in agony but it'd be cool. Is there a dollhouse police?
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May 9, 2014 03:16
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Mister Kingdom posted:Is there a dollhouse police? I would be more worried about the doll house inspectors. That poo poo isn't cheap.
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May 9, 2014 03:39
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JEEVES420 posted:I would be more worried about the doll house inspectors. That poo poo isn't cheap. I think you can get your inspector's license at Toys R Us/Build a Bear and then you can pass whatever you want for free! I had to do that when the inspector had issues with the number of cannons on my Lego castle (said one every 2 nubs was too much). Pfft! Got my license and now I even have cannons on the balconies and on islands in the moat. 
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May 9, 2014 13:49
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Oooh I think you should do an led porch/entrance light, that would be super cool! Why am I so excited over a dollhouse?
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May 9, 2014 16:19
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Blistex posted:I think you can get your inspector's license at Toys R Us/Build a Bear and then you can pass whatever you want for free! I had to do that when the inspector had issues with the number of cannons on my Lego castle (said one every 2 nubs was too much). Pfft! Got my license and now I even have cannons on the balconies and on islands in the moat. Is that a sufficient amount of insulation under the stairs?
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May 9, 2014 23:15
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dreesemonkey posted:Oooh I think you should do an led porch/entrance light, that would be super cool! Oh! I like that. I will definitely do my best to incorporate a light over the front entrance! Sorry everyone for the delay in updating - the last few weeks have either been cold, rainy, or busy. Not today though!  Here's where we left off. Half of the front porch was removed. Today's goal was to remove the rest. Regarding lighting: I decided to go with wiretape copper lighting. From what I've read wiretape appears to be the easiest way to install lighting in a dollhouse. Given that this lighting needs to be installed prior to putting down flooring and wallpaper, I won't really do any demolition beyond what was completed today.  I didn't take many pictures today. Here's where I ended up on the exterior. Removing the front porch wasn't too hard. What I was thinking of doing was installing new wooden flooring and new columns. I'd like to keep the fences removed in order to have the porch more open in appearance. Once the flooring on the exterior is removed the exterior will be sanded and I will apply a coat of primer to it. I'm hoping that I will reach that point by this time next month!  Here's how the interior looks now. I removed all of the wood flooring. As you can see, the bathroom had checkered flooring originally. Here's what's next on my list (in no particular order): 1. Remove wallpaper 2. Remove flooring 3. Remove porch flooring 4. Remove any remaining roof tiles 5. Sand interior and exterior so it is nice and smooth and pretty 6. Prime it Once both interior and exterior are primed (and the third and fourth floor are reattached) I can begin laying down lighting. When the time comes to actually put in furniture, my boyfriend wants the dollhouse to look like a Nutshell Study of Unexplained Death. While I agree this would be neat, I am a little torn on whether to turn my childhood toy into a murder diorama.
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May 18, 2014 19:12
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Any updates on this?
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Jun 14, 2014 05:58
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