Moving Faster....Tower, Kitchen Bay, Tower Shingles

Now progress is easily seen. The crawling of window frame preparation, and the time-consuming items such as the week i spent on the 1st to 2nd floor 3-section stairway are behind me. Still lots and lots to do, but now things are moving and I feel more confident of finishing. Here is the inside look at the 3rd floor (attic) tower room. The room now has a tower top which will stay removable for access by "Princess" to whatever furniture she places there. The floors are in in the tower part of the 3rd floor.
This is a view of the 2nd floor master bedroom tower area to show the view from inside.
Here is the tower top with the 1st side shingled. The shingles I am leaving natural and will provide to Princess Mom & Pop a number of spares for when accidents occur!
The opposite end of the house and the 2nd tower which is actually a bay for the 1st floor kitchen and 2nd floor kids bedroom. The tower stops at the 2nd floor instead of topping the house as does the main tower.
Other completions today (in spite of the addition of a pesky cold....my 2nd in a month): Flooring complete on 1st and 2nd floors including the kitchen bay and the bedroom bay. Tomorrow I tackle the dining room doors and its extended entry onto the porch. This will be followed by beginning the roof install which is 5 steps in the construction. It is a complicated roof with lots of gables, etc.

Saturday will be a busy day as Duchess and a friend of ours will be addressing both some paint touch-up on the house and making cushions for the chairs of the dining room and library plus the living room couch, and a bedspread for the master bedroom.

I also did the grandfather clock today....well, I finished it. Printed the clock face with roman numerals, plus the pendulum and chains for the lower window. Looks good to me.

Hope you all have a quite nice Thanksgiving! We are cooking here for one daughter and her fiancee plus grandson, my brother and the parents of daughter's fiancee. Cajun turkey!

More later folks!

Duke

Tower Time!

Next step.....3rd floor attic is in, and now the tower which is three stories with a quite large room in the attic. The tower is 7 parts forming an octogon. For those just confused, the 8th part is the access to the tower room.
The windows were pre-installed and painted (by me of course). As one can see there will be a lot of patch and fix to do when construction is complete.
I keep having flashes of what furniture should go where, but that decision will be made by Lauren, the owner, upon delivery Christmas morning! (Yes, there will be pics of the 1st view, the unwrapping of furniture, etc...actually I plan a book of pics and a disk of the complete picture set to her parents for future presentation to her.)

For those who might feel I am nearing completion.....The HUGE set of instructions has sections A thru V. The tower is F. Got the picture? Of course, the steps are not all as large and complicated as these at 1st. (I HOPE!)

It goes on!

Duke

We Are Movin-Movin!....3rd Floor (Attic) In; Much More!

Movement quickly now as the job seems to be going smoother....or perhaps I am just getting more knowledge about what I am doing! This post is again sort of in reverse for purposes of allowing my viewers to see how things come together. This is the current dollhouse (not really as I have added the last wall (kitchen wall) today already and am flooring again.
This is a picture of the front corner of the house. When adding floors, one begins at this corner...working the walls and floors together until it all fits. The process can take quite some time. This shows both the glue in the corners, and the small "Princess" picture I placed in two-sided form in the upper oval window. It is actually last Christmas' picture of my Princess in her red velvet dress...at age 5. I am, as I have mentioned, trying to personalize this house to her.
When placing the floor I have learned that just setting the piece in place, not really attached, and then allowing it to "settle" by not doing more for an hour or two seems to work wonders. If it sits there the parts seem somehow to then fit better when I actually begin the glue process.
MESS....Yes, even at this point in construction the mess on the day bed in our small bedroom is considerable. Remember, I am now working in two spare bedrooms. The small one for actual construction and the corner bedroom (as we call it) for assembled parts and furniture.
The project has literally taken on a life of its own. My life will pretty much be the dollhouse until mid-December when it will hopefully be completed.

While having the walls in place may seem a lot, let me list some of the jobs remaining....

Flooring on the rest of the 2nd and all of the 3rd floors.
The three-story tower section must be assembled and sealed.
The kitchen bay, just two stories, must be assembled and sealed.
Then the porch and its railings and trim, the roof and its trim, and a few hundred wood shingles to be manually installed one-at-a-time!

In addition, there is paint touch up where construction marred my original paint, or where slots in the walls now contain unpainted, or not-finished tabs which must be smoothed and painted to match.

Lots to do, but I now feel I have a pretty good chance of getting it done.

I may have to take the following month off, however!

Duke

2nd Floor/Stairway installed & More Flooring

Installing the 2nd floor in my dollhouse...which involves also matching and installing the massive stairway simultaneously...proved to be job any 8-armed wizard could handle easily. For we mortals, it proved a challenge. The job is done, though I have not yet applied the glue gun as I am making final adjustments. Here is the look, post install, with some flooring ready for the living room/front hall area.
A closer look at the flooring being readied, plus the stairway in place. Now the actual size of this thing seems even more massive than I had anticipated. It is a good thing I measured the rear door on "Sideroad Suzie", our tow vehicle in which Princess Castle will ride from Tampa to Texas for Christmas. The thing would absolutely NOT fit in through the door of our motor home, "Road House"....
Fitting the "wood" (actually vinyl) flooring for the living room. The stuff can be cut with scissors and comes with some really, really heavy-duty glue on the back. When I pulled off the paper covering, the boards separated, and I ended up installing most of the floor board-by-board!
Here is the finished flooring. The large area was easy...the front hall more of a challenge.
Here is the front hall. As you can see from the picture there is a passageway beside the stairway from the dining room to the front hall. Laying that tile was also a bit of a challenge.
Now in the weekend, I am down to about a month to complete the project, and lots to do. Work will be on-going daily!

Duke

WALLS...Plus a Floor!

These pics reflect my construction as the walls are being raised...this is a bit into construction as three wall sections (plus Kitchen wall divider) are in place...NOTE: I am amazed as I look at the pics and find the colors of various walls appear different...probably due the use of both incandescent and photo flash.
This is an outside view of the 1st 2 sections in place.
This is kitchen flooring, plus front wall, plus kitchen wall...
This is the kitchen in place with wall for front also around. The basic beginning....actually these pics should be reversed, but....
It finally begins to be a dollhouse. Please excuse the walls leaning out, and the disconnected pieces in these pics....the process is....glue the 1st floor, wait for the arrival of the 2nd floor and placement of it, then glue next level...so some parts are quite loose at this point.

HOWEVER, there is progress, and the shape begins to emerge....

Duke

9. Major Move Ahead....Walls Ready to Go UP!

Busy-Busy! Completed walls and windows this morning...took a long time and many days to get this part done as windows had to be inserted, sills, frames, inside and out. All my construction has resulted in temporary takeover of an additional bedroom for a "completed parts table"...
This shot is of the completed primary tower sections. The added arches at right are for main entry and dining room entry.
Wall sections that have been papered. From lower left and going clockwise they are; Living Room where 1 of 2 fireplaces will be located; then the Master Bedroom (home to Prince & Princess, of course); top right is the children's bedroom, and lower right the kitchen wall.
Furniture, both completed and under construction. This is parts of three rooms with three more to complete after these. The gold brocade cloth is for dining chair seats, and possibly table cloth, plus seat and back for desk chair (larger chair in back).
Michael's Craft store is home to many of my purchases for wallpaper, cloth, etc. The wallpaper is actually from their scrapbooking area...the cloth they sell in 21 inch squares and they have hundreds of them.

Now busy using cast-off wood pieces to perfect my glue technique before I raise the walls. I'll do a lot of pics as I place walls so one can get the sense of the sequence involved....and it is involved. Once the primary walls are up and glued at the bottom, then the staircase and 2nd floor have to go in at the same time as they are interconnected. A challenge in which Duchess will be quite involved.

6 weeks til Christmas....

Duke