Friday 1 January 2010

Day three, we have a house !

Finally this is starting to take shape !



Lots of photos here so you can see how the house is constructed.
The plywood sides have grooves in them and the mdf floors are glued into those.
Mine did not want to go into the grooves but a wee bit sanding , a hefty dollop of wood glue and a bit of elbow grease eventually got the floors into the right side of the house and the left side was a much better fit.


The back went on perfectly and in less than half an hour my house was really starting to look like a house !
It is a lovely size building and already my mind is ticking over planning how I will decorate it inside.
The internal walls simply slide in and out making this a decorators dream. The stairwells are fairly small and would be very tricky to decorate otherwise .






The hole you can see in the bottom of the house is for the turn tablewhich is fitted last of all.
Once the base is glued on a plug is inserted through both holes to recieve the turntable screw .


Here you can see the house with the base attached. I can't yet decide wether to use paper or actual tiles for the pavement.
Although I am using real brick and slate for the walls and roof I think it will be easier to either use a paint effect or paper for the curved pavement area at the side of the shop.
Plenty of time to think of that later though as it will not be done until all those wee bricks have been attached !







My trusty drill came in very handy again for the roof hinges. Within minutes I had my roof panels hinged together and ready to atttach to the house.












The back of the roof was glued and pinned onto the back of the house.
The front of the roof lifts up for access to the attic and 2 top rooms.
I especially love the attic section of this kit, although small it has a sweet little trap door and I will probably use this to store old toys :0)

Here I am fitting the trim to the roof which simply glues into the slots provided and finishesthe roof off beautifully.








This bit is a little trickier as the front of the roof is rested on the top floor of the building with glued edges and then the roof is lowered down to fit over it.
I did a dry run first and was surprised as what looked very tricky in the instruction book was really quite simple.
In no time at all I had a lovely roof !





















You can see here how the entire roof section lifts for access to the top floor.
Once the windows are in and the trim glued around the openings this is going to look just perfect !







Belle's Toy Emporium is really starting to take shape now !
julie xxx



5 comments:

Michelle said...

It looks really great! The way the house and roof goes together is like my Sid Cooke Edwardian house. You found what we did, a tight fit in places and thus it needed sanding to make it fit together! If it was my choice, I'd opt for real paving slabs, but you can buy fibre glass sheets (the pattern is embossed so that it gives a 3D effect) that is so much more realistic than paper, but you have the ease of paper to lay and fit. ;o) I love the turntables with these kits too!

Michelle xx

julie campbell said...

hello michelle, I really wanted the Edwardian house. It is my idea of the perfect house , but it is just too big with its basement and sadly I knew it wouldnt fit anywhere in my home.
The empire stores kit has a lot of the same features as the house plus of course a lovely shop space and no basement which is why Ichose it. Those floors were such a tight fit LOL but hopefully that will add to its strength !
will look at the fibreglass sheets, good idea :0)
julie xxx

Julia and Hywel said...

It is coming along brilliantly Julie. I love the roof space, it would make a brilliant childs room or servants quarters. I liked the Empire stores, but opted for the Coxswold in the end, which as you know I have now sold on. I will have to rummage through my CDS and see if I can find some pics to share.
Happy new year, Julia xx

Woolytales Miniatures said...

Hi Julie, I am happy to see your new blog. I am very shy about kits only because I never put one together.I will be watching you closely and appreciate you sharing the process with us. I am making a room box, my first one and it is taking me forever . I am here thinking how do you do your inside celing once all the parts are together? I always wonder about the dollhouses I see people doing how they do that .... on my room box almost everything comes apart making it very easy to work with each wall... of course when wall paper time comes I will have all set but minus the roof/celeing.... I know I will be learning from you..... smiles...

julie campbell said...

Hello Patricia,
A lot of people decorate the ceilings before assembling their room boxes or houses.
I never quite trust myself not to get this the wrong way round and deocrate the floor instead and know more than a few people who have dont just that......LOL It is the reccommended method of work though.
I like to decorate the ceiling before I do the walls and simply lie the house on its back to do this. I like to use embossed paper rather than paint to simulate ornate ceilings and I find this easy to do.
julie xxx