Newberg build - back at it after a long hiatus

I have a tendency to work on certain hobbies at certain times of year. Beads in the summer. Minis in the winter or early spring. Clay in fall. I haven't forgotten the Newberg - just last week I cleaned my dollhouse table so I could get back to it. I also have a future build (plus three more) in case I ever finish this one. Husband bought me a 1:24 scale Fairfield

 because I'm largely obsessed with the Old Hickory / Knox

house in Coudersport, Pennsylvania and the Fairfield would make a great start for a old junky imitation. I'm so excited about it.

But anyway, back to the Newberg. I've been working on brick work for the foundation.

And I moved the staircase landing because a staircase in what is obviously a kitchen is unacceptable. Now we'll switch temporarily to the captions being under the photos to explain how I moved it. 

As the kit is designed, the stairs would be in the kitchen going from the back of the house to the front. 

I marked off the dividing wall with a light score with a craft knife.

Positing the punch out from the stair case where I'd like them to be, and trace around it, making it fully square because I don't have to account for the notch for the support wall below. 

Put the punch out back in it's original place, flip the board over so it's bottoms up, and add a line of wood glue around the punch out lines.

When it's almost dry, add a couple strips of masking tape just for extra security and flip it right side up.

Add wood glue into the lines on the front, and the number inside the punch out that marked the sheet number.

Handy tip: if you sand while your wood glue is still wet, it makes excellent wood filler and takes care of the gaps while you work.

The new lay out as I chose it to be. The stairs will come down in front of the door so someone coming in will either go straight upstairs or to a room on the main floor. It's more realistic and my tiny kid will still be able to reach in and maneuver her dolls around.

In addition to that, this morning I started cutting porch planks and numbering them on the back so that after I finish painting and grouting the foundation, I can go straight to laying the porch planks with only a few small modifications needed to fit them around the door jamb and porch rails. 

Newberg Dollhouse build - Phase One

I was initially apprehensive of getting an old dollhouse kit that had been opened, but to my delight every single piece was present and well packed.

So here are the updates over the last week or so with progress up to this morning :-)

Phase one begins with putting the floor and the floor splice together with a brace that goes underneath. High-tech weight systems in place

Next comes the base. Anyone who has built this kit before will recognize that I have the right front bay corner put together incorrectly in this photo. I had to take it apart and fix it.

The next photo shows the inside of the bay window, without foam core. Dura-craft kits are notorious for having large gaps in between the pieces, and though I didn't have to put the individual wall pieces together like is required for some kits (the San Franciscan, for instance), it's still pretty rickety and unstable.

So I cut thin foam core pieces to line the inside walls. 

This not only adds stability, but it gives a smooth surface for wallpapering, and with a little spackling, takes care of the uneven support post joins in the corners that aren't a realistic part of an interior of a house.

                                      


I chose a bright yellow wallpaper for the inside of the bay window, largely because I don't plan to wire this house since I'm giving it to my four-year-old. The yellow should keep the far recessed parts a little more easy to see as the second floor and surrounding walls are added.

The green was chosen just for fun, shown here freshly pasted before I trim the edges and cut around the window.

This one shows the inside walls without the second floor or windows added in yet.

As of the time of writing, the far right side wall is in place, but not completed. There's a window box as part of the kit but I don't like it much so I'm debating how to replace it with something better. 

New Additions

I acquired a Dura-Craft Newberg for a steal this week that I plan to put together for my girls. If you've been keeping track, I now have the Newberg, the San Franciscan, the Worthington, and the HBS Garage Kit. I missed the deadline for the garage kit by... oh, the project isn't even half finished.

I worked on it a bit this week as it's been promised to a forever home upon completion, and I cleaned my dollhouse table over this week and hung a new supply shelf.

Truthfully, I hung two shelves but since I can't reach the higher one without a step ladder, I put all the collectibles from a studio bookcase up there to make space for all my paints and varnish and things I need easy access to, but don't use often. 

So as soon as I finish a beading project I need to get done in the next few days, I'll be back to my houses with lots of time. 

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner

Keli Minick is fairly well known in the miniatures world for her hyper-realistic work. She has a blog here where she posts her build progress and some how-to's thrown into the mix. In January she did a giveaway for a shelf of canned goods and to my complete surprise and utter delight I won a shelf. Yay for me!

They will be perfect for the kitchen of my San Franciscan, or maybe in the kitchen of the Worthington since it houses a world famous chef.

Doorbell

I realize that I haven't posted here in forever and that is because, in short, everyone in my house has been disastrously, deathly sick and it's been the longest three months of my life. The houses are all exactly as they were when I last wrote, except the Worthington was moved to the basement to make room in the midst of all the chaos.

HBS has recently announced the Creatin' Contest kit for this year and... I hate it. It says two possible things to me and I'm afraid that 90 other people will have very similar ideas. So I'm going to pass unless I get some stroke of genius inspiration. I'm okay with not participating this year because I still have at least three other houses to work on, including last year's competition piece that I never finished. That piece has a forever home though and will be finished at some point. I will write a separate blog post about where that started and where it is now pretty soon.

Anyway, hopefully things will be rolling again soon.

It's alive!!!

After a couple days staring hopelessly at the Worthington, it's started telling me what it wants to be. It isn't whispering - it's shouting so loudly I can hardly think straight.

There is a famous chef married to a well-known author and they have a couple teenage kids. They bought the house for cheap and have spent the last few years restoring and modernizing the interior. A state-of-the-art kitchen with a bay window breakfast nook, an entertainment parlor with old-fashioned marble fireplace, a library with a fireplace and a book nook, a master suite, a guest suite, a rounded southern portico with widow's walk, a solarium, a small attic storage place, and a mud room / laundry room. I am kicking around the idea of a servant's staircase and a dumb waiter.


As for now, this is the color scheme and general idea for the kitchen.

Rockin'

I've spent a large portion of the last couple weeks working on laying rocks and grouting. This isn't the clearest picture, but it gets the idea across.

If you're wondering, the candlesticks were regular brass. I painted them with self-etching primer from Rustoleum (wrap the electric parts in masking tape first), then coated with matte black, and a coat of matte sealer. Later I dabbed them with a mixture of Americana acrylics in Bittersweet Chocolate and Fawn. I still have to work on the candles themselves, but I had to let the sticks dry for a couple days without touching them so all the paint wouldn't come off.

The wire that is hanging down in the firebox is from one of the candlesticks. It is now routed through the wall and taped down. To do the grouting and painting around the candlesticks, I left the wires loose through the hole so I could slide them in and out as I worked. By now, most of the interior walls are painted and sealed. I still need to seal and grout the base of the firebox before I can put the fireplace in permanently. As soon as it's glued in place I can add the side bricks before painting and sealing and grouting. After the grout is dry, I will cover the whole thing with matte sealer before I begin work on the second floor.