Bashing Rosie

Because Rosie is going to be my "forever" house, the one that I put all of my effort (and time, money, etc) into, I have a lot of grand ideas for her.  Some might think the ideas are too grand and complicated, considering my lack of experience & talent when it comes to miniatures - but hey, if you're going to dream - you should dream big.  At least that's my philosophy!

Rosie is going to be a grand Victorian with all the elaborate trim befitting a house of her style.  Think "shabby chic" before it turns shabby.  Picture a house that is pink, frilly, feminine and filled to the brim with roses and you'll get an idea of where I'm heading with my plans for this house.  She's going to be an over-the-top painted lady!

While I think that the original design of the Lawbre Shadowcliff is beautiful, in looking at the house and formatting my plans for it, I knew I was going to have to make some big changes to the rooms on the second floor.  In the world of dollhouses, these structural changes are known as "bashing".

Originally the rooms on the second floor were all square.  I needed to change the walls inside the bathroom a bit to accommodate a bathroom kit that I really want to use for this house.  With my wonderful friend Kelly, who is not intimidated by power saws and has a great eye for seeing how to make a room come together (she should've been an architect!), we've come up with this floor plan for the bathroom:

Also on the second floor there will be a little girl's bedroom.  I love the look of built-in beds and want to try my hand at making one for the little girl's room, so we bashed the square bedroom to look like this:

The floor plan for the little girl's room is almost identical to the floor plan for the bathroom.  Just the dimensions are different.  You can't see it in this photo, but the little girl's room is on the back side of the house, adjacent to the tower - so there is a tower room area to the left of this photo that is also part of this room.

The library will be on the second floor - in one of the front facing rooms.  It is staying almost as it was intended originally.  The doorway has been moved slightly & the back wall has been moved in a bit:

And finally on the second floor we have the small room / stairway leading up to the third floor. This area is still a work in progress.  We still need to cut a wall to partially enclose this room to close it off from the hallway.

Once this is done I can begin working on the interior of the house, figuring out the layout of the lights.  I'm a bit nervous about how I'm going to be able to decorate the hallway on the second floor... With all of the room modifications there are lots of turns and small areas that may be difficult to access once the walls are in place.  I'll have to brainstorm a bit and come up with a plan before all of the walls are glued into place.