Posts to Come - Tips

Suggestions for Tip Topics are Welcome!

It has been said that the world wasn't created in a day... and neither will this blog!

This posting is meant to provide readers with some insight on future posts that I'm thinking about making on this blog.

Rough Draft /Outline for Subjects I’ll likely write about

1. Going to Build a Dollhouse? What’s your Plan?
1. The importance of having a good plan and how it relates to both the amount of time your project will take and the overall quality you will achieve when you are done.
2. The makings of a ‘good’ plan
3. Understanding trade-offs related to differing orders of doing things
4. Pros of the divide and conquer approach
5. Doing things in bulk / Doing things in stages
2. Glues and their applications
1. Yellow wood glue
2. White Tacky glue
3. Hot glue gun
4. Wallpaper paste
3. Part Prep
4. Flooring – Things to Consider
1. Materials
2. Installation
3. Wood Floor Finishing
5. Roofing
1. Roof line layout and shingle under color
2. Need to sand shingles?
3. Stain, paint, other finishes
4. Adhesive of choice
5. Cutting shingles to fit
6. Electric
1. Tape vs. Round Wire
2. What’s the plan, and when in the build process should you have it?
3. Wiring in stages throughout construction vs. wiring after main construction is complete
4. Electrical outlets – Types and Locations
5. Electrical Connections
6. Multiple power feeds for future capacity and/or redundancy
7. Ceiling Fixtures
8. Power Sources
7. Wallpaper
1. Materials
2. Tools
3. Glue paper or wall?
4. Fitting (in general and those odd shaped pieces)
5. Clean up of paste that is squeezed out
6. Wet glue interaction with electrical tape connections
8. Exterior railings
9. Interior stair case railings
10. Exterior Trim
11. Making miniature framed pictures for your room décor

Common Questions

Top 5 questions I get from people who have not yet had the 'I built a dollhouse' experience:

Q: How long does it take to complete one of these dollhouses?
A1: Forever (if it stays in the family or with a close friend).
A2: First time around, for a 3-4 story Victorian, I would suggest you plan on about 200 hours to account for build, finish inside and out, and a reasonable amount of electric service throughout.
A3: Much like a real house, it seems like there is always more you can do. Having a deadline, of when the house must be delivered by, can be helpful in making the decision that you are done with that particular house. I think it is more a decision that you are not going to do anymore than it is a decision that you are done. Differing levels of detail and customization take differing amounts of material expense and time. But it is these customizations that make a house unique / truly one of a kind. If I were to build 10 houses all from the same kit, no two would be looked at as being the same thing due to customizations.

Q: How much does it cost to build one of these dollhouses?
A1: Might be more than you think.
A2: Again, like real houses, the range is pretty big. You can readily spend from a couple hundred dollars (USD) to well over a thousand dollars just for a kit. It's pretty easy to spend another $200 on the supplies you will need that are not in the kit and at least another $100 if you put electricity in such that you can readily install lighting fixtures at a later date. If you want some upgrades on trim, windows, doors, etc. beyond what is in the kit, you'll need to spend some more. Keep in mind that the overall dollhouse market starts down at well under $100 plastic toys (to much nicer plastic toys like the Playmobile 'Grand Mansion') and moves on up through wooden and other building material dollhouses extending all the way up to collectables valued at 10’s of thousands of dollars. (I would not be surprised if there are some valued over $100,000.00 (hope that includes furniture)). I’m trying to operate in a segment of that market that I’d like to describe as pretty high end toy / lower end collectable / and definitely family heirloom meant to last and be enjoyed for generations.

Q: So, if it really takes that long and costs that much, why do it?
A1: To truly understand my answer to this question, you would need to build one, be happy with the finished house and then see what I've seen. When the house goes to it its new owners, nothing really needs to be said. The joy and pleasure that can be seen in the faces of the little girls, the moms, and the grandmothers say it all.

Q: Where do you get all this stuff?
A: There is an entire world of miniatures out there that I had no clue ever existed. This ‘little’ world spans the globe with countless enthusiasts, companies, and organizations. By and large, for furnishing and decorating a dollhouse (both inside and out), if you can think it, someone has likely already made it. At some point (soon I hope) I will start and post a list of links to some of my favorite suppliers.

Q: Did those roofing shingles go on one at a time?
A: Yes
Follow on Question: How many are there?
A: The houses I’ve built so far have had between about 800 to a 1,000 roofing shingles depending on the house. (Given all the practice I’ve had, I’m getting real good at it!) Roofing tips is on my list of things to write about here.

How I got started building dollhouses

When folks see some of the houses I've built, many will ask how I got started building them. The very short answer is "it is my wife's fault". My wife has a weekly woman’s group that started out as a 'knitting' group but 'knitting' does not even begin to describe the types of craft and community service projects they have undertaken. It has been said that they could run a small country (and just for the record, I would agree). So when my wife found out that there was a dollhouse kit at a friend's house that had been started, (barely started as I later found out) packed up in a few boxes, and not touched for several years due to the lack of someone to build it, my wife told her friend bring it over and we'll have the Tuesday night girls do it. She went on to say I'll have my husband 'electrify' it. Later she told me about it and asked "you CAN put electricity in it right?" To which I replied "Sure, I am an Electrical Engineer... I can put electricity into most anything." It wasn't until the boxes of parts came to my house that I realized that yours truly was about to become the general contractor (and all the sub-contactors as well). Every week, when the women came over for their weekly 'knitting', they couldn't wait to checkout the progress I had made since they saw it last. Given all this encouragement, I continued to plow ahead. Somewhere about half way through construction I realized that you can build a dollhouse kit and have it look like crap or have it look pretty darn good. It is the attention to detail and precision work that determine which way things will turn out. By the time I was making the final finishing touches and getting ready to let this house go to the owner's granddaughter that it had always been intended for, I knew some day I would built another one. I just didn't think it would be so soon! About a month later I was coming back from a business trip in Europe and my wife picked me up at the airport. There was a brand new dollhouse kit in the back of the car. Part inventory started that night and part preparation started the very next day. As I write this, I've completed four dollhouses, have a fifth house in the build process and most of the materials for a sixth house.