Windows

With all of the talk in my previous post about house colors and window trim colors, I figured it was time to show you how Rosie's windows are coming along.

Rosie's windows are a great project for working on in the evenings after work. The pieces are small, take up very little room and can be worked on one at a time, so they make a great mini project when my brain is tired or I don't have time or energy to pull out tons of supplies. What I didn't realize, however, is that Rosie's windows are a major project overall.

The original owner had primed most of the windows and I think they were put together before the paint was completely dry because in attempting to remove the window panes from the frames (which you are supposed to be able to do with working windows), the majority of the windows broke apart - and not in one or two pieces either - many of the frames broke into 4 pieces, and that doesn't include the window pane frames (2 per window)! There are over 20 windows in this house, and having so many pieces that would need to be sanded & glued back together (something I'm not necessarily very good at) seemed like a very daunting task.

Some of the partially repaired windows

 
In addition to the window parts, there are window headers and window sills for most of the windows that will need to be painted as well:

Truthfully, I wasn't sure if I could get them all put back together, at least not well enough to be happy with their appearance. And let's be honest here, if this is going to be my "forever" house, then I'm not aiming for "okay" I'm shooting for damn-near perfect! So for a little while I was unsure of whether or not I would continue working on the house - more of my "all or nothing" attitude that I'm constantly having to work on...

What I ended up doing is working one step at a time - doing each small step and focusing just on that little step, not concentrating on the big overwhelming picture. And although it has taken me weeks to get to this point, I am thrilled to report that the windows are coming along nicely. I can indeed glue window frames back together - sometimes I have to redo them because they aren't glued straight, and sometimes I have to use a little spackle to fill in tiny gaps - but with enough sanding and painting (3 light coats of paint on both sides of the frames and both sides of the window panes)these windows are starting to look pretty nice. Not perfect mind you, but damn-near!

Selecting Rosie's Colors

Who would've thought selecting paint colors for a dollhouse could be such a frustrating process? From the first time I saw Rosie sitting in the driveway of the original owners home, I envisioned her done up in pink... Why pink, you ask? While I can think of all sorts of plausible answers, like "that was my vision for a victorian painted lady" or "I wanted a house in pretty, feminine,soft colors" or even "pink would compliment the color scheme of the room she will be displayed in", the truth is I pictured her in pink simply because I like the color pink. It's one of my favorite colors and much to my friend Kelly's dismay, painting this house pink was the one thing I wasn't willing to budge on.

 But while I envisioned Rosie done up in pink, I didn't really have any clear plan or thought on how to come up with a color theme that would compliment her architectural lines without making her look like a play toy or like she's painted with Pepto-Bismol. So first I needed to select a pink that wasn't so pink that it looked childish (think bubblegum or cotton candy - and they actually do have paint colors by those names!), but at the same time, a pink that would stand out next to whatever trim colors I chose. This turned out to be harder than I thought it would be. I ended up borrowing a historical paint color sampler from Kelly and going to Home Depot and getting all the little pink paint sample cards to compare it with and finally selected "Royal Silk" for my pink.

Main house color

Once I settled on my shade of pink for the main body of the house, I had to select the main trim color as well as secondary trim colors. I wanted an antique white or off white for the main trim color - but this antique white would have to do double duty - besides being the main exterior trim color, this antique white will also be carried into the house interior, and used for any painted woodwork. So in addition to needing an antique white that would look good with the pink exterior, this antique white would also need to compliment the wallpaper colors that would be used on the interior!

 Don't ask me why I decided to paint the interior woodwork rather than stain it - I don't have any answer other than if there's a harder way to do something, I'm pretty good at finding it! Eventually found an antique white that I thought would work for both applications and started painting window trim with it. This is when I discovered that the color on the paint card doesn't necessarily look exactly the same on what you're painting. Silly me for thinking it would... The soft, mellow white on the paint card looked way too white on the window trim. So it was back to the store to pick out another antique/off white that would work.  I finally settled on "Creamy White" which to my eye looks more like an antique white than the one that was called antique white.

Main trim color

 Once I had the main house color & the main trim color selected, I needed to select a secondary trim color to highlight the exterior window trim. I really wanted to keep with the pink theme on the house exterior, so I purchased a sample pot of darker pink & tried it out on the window pane frames. Even I, pinks biggest fan, had to admit that sometimes too much of a good thing is pretty awful. Pink trim inside of white frames on top of a pink house is enough pink to make you gag. So I needed to pick out a different color to compliment the pink. I went back to the color sample of historical Victorian colors and selected a pretty blue to compliment the house. The first blue I picked looked great in the paint can but took on a purple hue once it was too close to the pink house. So back to Home Depot I went and picked a much lighter blue sample pot. I can't believe I'm admitting to all the time, energy (and obsessive concentration) that went into selecting the perfect colors for this house!

Blue trim color

The Entry Hall & My Introduction to Power Tools

Originally Rosie had a large arched doorway between the entry hall and living room.  I purchased a resin arch to trim this doorway, but when I placed the trim against the wall to see how it would look I discovered I didn't particularly care for it.  What I really wanted in this doorway was a set of french doors with lace panels.  Only problem with this idea is that the arched doorway is too wide and too short for french doors. Not to mention arched...

I don't like power tools.  Let me rephrase that: I very much appreciate what power tools are capable of creating in the right hands - but my hands are not the right ones...  Power tools, such as jigsaws, intimidate me. 

Add to this the fact that not only am I incapable of drawing or cutting a straight line, but no matter how many times I measure something, the measurements of my final project always end up a little bit off.  Knowing all of these limitations about myself, you would think that I would have picked a project with less potential for bodily injury or damage to the dollhouse shell.  But I was a woman with a mission and I wasn't going to let a little thing like inexperience stand in my way of getting the doorway cut!

I pulled out the jigsaw, plugged it in & went to work trying to cut out the outline I had drawn on the wall for the french doors.  And promptly broke the blade.  Now, I could've given up there and just waited for Kelly to come over next weekend and rescue my poor house by cutting the doorway herself, but once I decide to do something - for better or worse I do it.  So I taught myself how to change the blade & went back to work on the wall.

Before I show you what I ended up with, let me just point out that spackle is your friend....

As you can see by the photo, I still cannot cut a straight line; however, (patting self on back now) I am proud to announce that the doorway, such as it is, is now large enough for the french doors!  Once I sanded the jagged/lopsided cut and filled in the side of the doorway opening (where it's too wide for the door) with scrap wood  it was ready to spackle & prime.  After priming the wall, it looks (almost)as good as new & ready for wallpaper.

Primed wall

The Hallway

With all of the talk in my last post about the second floor hallway, I figured it was high time that I share pictures of this area with you.

While looking at the photos please keep in mind that I'm still in the 'design' stages of creating the hallway.  Neither the stairs or the majority of interior walls on the second floor are glued in at this point.  At this phase of the build you are apt to see gaps, a few rough edges, and perhaps even a crooked wall or two.  Pay these no mind.  There's nothing here that a L-square, a bit of spackle, touch of glue and a coat or two of primer can't fix.

Here's a peek through the bathroom door.  This view shows where the stairs come up from the first floor:

Here's a peek from the doorway of the little girl's room.  Her room looks across the hall to the doorway of the room that leads to the third floor:

And my favorite view of the hallway so far is the one that looks towards the bathroom.  It doesn't look like much right now, but I'm picturing it in my mind all wallpapered & decorated:

I still need to fill in some extra space around the stair opening and then sand some rough wall edges in the hall, glue some walls in so they are stationary & prime the entire second floor - but I think I'm close to being able to wallpaper the hallway, which has me both excited and nervous at the same time!

Wish me luck!

The Perfect House...

I'm going to apologize in advance for using this post to organize my thoughts, but I've been struggling with maintaining my enthusiasm for working on Rosie for the past few weeks and I'm trying to figure out why. 

When I first saw Rosie I thought she was as close to perfect as a dollhouse shell could get.  She was fully enclosed, had a realistic room layout, and would make a perfect addition to my ever-growing dollhouse collection.  It didn't really matter that the rooms were on the small side and that there weren't enough of them to include everything I wanted in one house.  After all, I had several dollhouse shells & kits and it wasn't a big deal if there wouldn't be room for a nursery or pantry in this house because I could have those rooms in one of my other houses.

I was very excited to begin working on Rosie.  I had no real plans for her and didn't really visualize what direction I would go with her decor, but that was irrelevant - she was going to be a beauty & that's all I needed to start this house!  Or so I thought...  It wasn't until I actually started inventorying her supplies and priming walls that I realized what sad shape the house was really in.  Feeling very discouraged and intimidated by what I had initially thought would be a good project for someone with limited qualifications as a miniaturist, I set the house on a table in the corner of my hobby room, vowing to "get back to this one" when I had a little more experience working on dollhouses.  With visions of *easier* and *better* houses to work on, I went in search of the new perfect house and promptly forgot about Rosie.

Almost two years later I found myself in a position of needing to downsize my miniature collection significantly.  While the reasons for this downsizing aren't important to Rosie's story - my reason for selecting her as the house I would keep is.

When I found myself in a position where I had to select one house to keep (okay, two, but the other house is not a 'forever house' and it's a story for another day)  I had to carefully look at all of my houses and determine which one would most closely fit my idea of the perfect house.  I needed to select one that had the best room layout, the one that had the most potential for the "wow" factor, and the one that I could pour all of my creative energy into.  A house that would not be a quick project, but one that I could work on for years, building experience and turning it into a real showplace.  The house where I could use all of my best miniature supplies and furnishings, the things I'd been saving for the perfect house.  In short, my "forever house".  The one I would never get rid of, no matter where life led me. The one house that I could be happy & content with, even if it turned out to be the only miniature house I ever owned and kept. 

Despite all of her imperfections Rosie won hands down.  Truth is, it really wasn't even a contest.   Of all the kits & shells I've ever owned or seen, Rosie had the most potential to be my forever house.  So after making my decision, I promptly gave away & sold all of the other houses and brought Rosie into the dining room, placing her on the dining room table so that I could begin working on turning her into the perfect house.

When I finally sat down to work on Rosie, the first thing I learned was that the second floor rooms would need some renovating if I was going to be happy with this house.  There wasn't really anything wrong with the rooms the way they were, it was just that they wouldn't work with what I wanted to do with them.  I had previously acquired a gorgeous bathroom kit that I had been saving for my forever house and the finished kit would look awkward in the bathroom as it originally was built.  Same thing for the room that would be a little girl's room.  I had always envisioned a built in bed and that vision wouldn't work with the way the room currently looked.  And last, but definitely not least was my concern over the second floor landing.  I wanted to somehow separate the actual second floor landing from the stairs to the third floor without compromising the realistic look of the second floor.

While I was able to envision what I wanted for each room, I wasn't able to make it happen.  I knew what I wanted, just not how to get it.  This is where my best friend Kelly comes in.  She has this amazing talent for looking at a room and figuring out how to get exactly what she wants out of it.  Somehow she is able to create floor plans and blue prints in her mind and knows how to take that vision and make it real.  I envy that talent.  So with Kelly's help new walls were cut, old walls were bashed and stairways were moved & the end result was a configuration of rooms that would do exactly what I wanted them to do!

Now, you would think this would've made me happy.  And the truth is, it did.  I was ecstatic, moving full speed ahead with my plans for the house, happily ordering wallpaper, spackling gouges in the wood and spending quiet evenings priming walls.  Until one day I looked through one of the doorways on the second floor and got a really good look at the interior hallway.  I had seen this hallway before, as the rooms were coming together, and had been very excited with the view of it through the various doorways.  It looked like a real hallway in a very old house, complete with turns, corners, nooks and crannies and I was beyond excited with how realistic it looked.  Until now...  Looking at the hallway through the eyes of someone that would need to wallpaper and decorate it, I felt a bit intimidated.  Okay, I felt a lot intimidated...  With all of the walls in place on the second floor, how in the world would I ever fit my hands into all of the small places, all of the nooks & crannies, to wallpaper and decorate & add lighting?  It didn't seem like it would be possible & I started feeling discouraged.  And as I continued looking at the house through those discouraged eyes, I began seeing all of the other faults and problems with the house again and started second guessing my plan to make this my forever house.

I mean, this house has definitely seen better days.  Every time I think I've repaired the last section of delaminating wood, I find another area that needs repair.  The hinged exterior walls are all warped enough that they don't shut properly when they are attached to the house (I have them currently removed) and these enclosure walls are one of the things I liked most about the house.  The interior stairs need major repair - all of the spindles will have to be replaced because the originals were broken and many were missing.  Normally this wouldn't be that big of an issue, but with the change in the second floor and the new stair configurations, the new spindles will not be glued on to the same side of the stairs that the old spindles were.  Which creates a problem in staining the stair treads because the old stair spindle holes are unsightly...  And of course the problem that started all of this negative thinking: how will I ever be able to access or see all of the hard to reach spots to wallpaper and decorate the hallway in a way that I'll be happy with? 

The more I dwelled on all of these issues, the more discouraged I became with the house.  I had made a mistake.  This wasn't going to be my forever house after all - there were just too many problems with the house - problems I was not equipped to tackle... 

While in the midst of this negative mindset I stumbled upon a picture of a dollhouse called Nob Hill.  I immediately fell in love with the house and found myself thinking that a house similar to this would be the *perfect* one.  There would be enough rooms to have all the different rooms I wanted, a hallway could be built into the center of the house, giving it a realistic room layout, and I could start from scratch - with new wood - and build it from the ground up, making it exactly what I wanted in a house!

I started to get very excited about the idea and even went so far in my planning as to seriously consider giving Rosie away to the first person that would take her, keeping her windows and doors for this new perfect house.

I spent several days plotting & planning this new house and Kelly went to work designing a floor plan for it.  I was so excited at the prospect of finally having a house I could be truly happy with that I even considered buying a table saw and learning how to use power tools so that I could help in the actual building of the shell.  I spent all of my free time thinking about this new house and babbled on about it to anyone who would even pretend to be interested in hearing about it.

If you haven't figured it out yet, I have a tendency to be a bit obsessive...

I stopped working on Rosie completely, and started trying to envision all the plans I'd had for her being used in a new house instead.  A funny thing happened when I did this.  With the new house still in the 'idea' phase, I began finding fault with it.  I decided that Rosie's windows & doors wouldn't look right in it after all, so I would need to find different ones that would suit it better.  I couldn't settle on room sizes for the new house either.  I thought the rooms in Rosie were on the small side, and I thought bigger would be better for the new house.  But how big would be big enough and what would be overkill?  How much room did I really need anyways?  And then I found myself struggling with the idea of having square and rectangular rooms in the new house.  Rosie's rooms had more twists & turns and were very appealing.  How could I give the new house that kind of appeal? 

The more I thought about it, the more I started questioning the idea of getting rid of Rosie.  She really was a beautiful house - imperfections & all...  Maybe I could keep her and just stick her in a corner somewhere until I was ready to work on her again...  Perhaps I could go ahead with the plans to create a new forever house and just keep Rosie around for *someday*.  Maybe I could just have two forever houses...

Which brings us here to today.  When I ask myself what I truly want, I know that I don't really want (or have the time, energy or resources for) two forever houses.  I only want and need one.  I know myself well enough to know that I could be content with one perfect house.  I'm not talking about "perfect" in the literal sense of the word - I simply mean a house that's perfect for me.  A house that I can work on and be happy with the way it is turning out.  A long-term hobby project that I'm doing for no other reason than it makes me happy.  Something that will make me smile when I look at it and say "I did that".  Something created out of my vision for what it could be. 

A house just like Rosie.

I've learned something important today.  Rosie's imperfections and complicated floor plan aren't the problem.  I am.  Rosie is absolutely capable of being everything I want in a 'forever' house.  The only thing stopping her from becoming one is me.  Or more accurately, my insecurities and lack of faith in my ability to accomplish what I want to do with this house are all that's preventing Rosie from reaching her full potential.

I need to learn to be happy with what I have.  I need to stop looking for the 'perfect' house and start having confidence in my ability to achieve it with the house I already have. 

I can do this.  I can take this warped, delaminating dollhouse shell with all of its difficult to reach corners and many imperfections and turn it into my idea of the perfect dollhouse.

With a little bit of self-confidence and a whole lotta glue anything's possible!

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.

La Vie En Rose

Also known as the Shadow Cliff by Lawbre.  I stumbled across La Vie En Rose about two years ago on Craigslist.  A gentleman had posted the house for his wife, who had purchased it more than twenty years ago and then promptly went on to other hobbies.

I, of course, was absolutely thrilled with the opportunity to own a Lawbre dollhouse!

The house came with the windows, exterior doors, exterior trim, stones and, well, according to the included inventory shipping sheets, it came with everything the original purchaser ordered except the pocket door (and wall) that goes between the living room and dining room.

When I picked her up I thought she was perhaps the most beautiful dollhouse shell I'd ever had the good fortune to own!  Once I got her home, however, and took a close look at her & went through all the supplies that came with her, I realized that the poor house had definitely seen better days.

 Some of the wood on the walls is delaminating, one of the porch posts is broken and feels like it is disintegrating, I don't think that all of the stationary walls are perfectly square, much of the wood feels overly dry, most of the spindles on the interior stairs are busted in a way that they will need to be replaced, several of the window frames are in pieces and the exterior hinged wall panels are all a bit warped and don't shut or hang properly.  Must've been wearing my rose colored glasses when I initially saw her, hence the name La Vie En Rose, which translated means "life in pink" or "through rose colored glasses".

I can't take credit for the beautiful name for Rosie (her nickname because let's face it, La Vie En Rose is a mouthful!); I was struggling with what to call her that would make her mine.  I knew that I wanted "Rose" or some variation of rose in her name because I intend to carry a rose theme throughout the house, but beyond that I was at a loss. I asked for help on the Greenleaf forum and among the many wonderful suggestions that were shared with me, La Vie En Rose was offered up.  While intrigued with the name, I wasn't completely sold until I came back to the draft of this post & re-read how I described initially seeing her through rose colored glasses.  Then I knew, La Vie En Rose was her name all along, she was just waiting for me to figure it out!  Sounds a bit crazy, perhaps, but other miniaturists will understand.

At any rate, while it's definitely going to be more work than I anticipated to turn Rosie into a showplace, I still think I got a great deal on the house.  I just hope I'm up for the challenge!