scratch built modern dollhouse glen sayers modern dollhouse building

Please also note, believe it or not, I have hopes this will be played with a bit and not just dads display thing so there are a few compromises for the sake of strength, durability and child access.

17/6/05
Just a couple of pics showing the slow progress of baby's new toy.
Obviously the left pictures are just a cardboard mock up but it gives some idea of what I hope to achieve.
Please don't bother flaming me about using mdf instead of plywood. I thought about it long and hard and decided against it in favour of careful sealing of the edges with everdure for longevity and strength. I've worked extensively with marine ply and have it in my workshop. I just choose not to use it for this. Maybe time will prove me wrong.

24/06/05
Added front and end windows. Some of the end windows are hand made and functional.
The entire front panel will lift out and the right hand panel will swing open to allow little arms and hands clear access to the living and bed rooms. The left hand end will also swing open allowing access to the kitchen and upper end bedroom.
I have chosen to stay with large clear windows in the front so when the lights are on you can see the interior easily without having to open it all up. I've also placed the feature stairway and chandelier in the front right hand side to be seen through full height arched windows.
The kitchen will be trimmed with Rimu timber.

You may have also noticed some of the floor in the cardboard mock-up is clear. I thought adding this to the front of the second floor would still allow the floor to be used but would also allow easier viewing of the ground floor and allow more light in. Although that shouldn't be too much of a problem as the power supply will most likely be 15 amp allowing plenty of lights in the house. I'm planning to hinge the roof at the back allowing a secured area in the ceiling for all the power supply etc. (as long as I'm happy it's not a fire hazard.)

I think one of the hardest problems with this house is trying to build in extra height to make it easily accessible to little hands while still trying to keep it looking optically in balance with more modern low roofline homes. This balcony, I must confess, is pretty much just a copy of the glass balcony we have at Whitianga.

Down lights,
Because I'm making a "modern" style house and I want things clear for little hands, I'm going to use 12V 3mm 50mah wheat grain lights mounted into the ceiling for most of my rooms.
As a fire hazard test I'm going to drill and mount one bulb and run it for several hours tonight.
I'm trying to make as many fittings as I can.

My power supply is 12V 5amp variable with current limiting. ie 60 watts so power supply shouldn't be a problem. I'd just hate to turn on the lights and have the house burn down followed by the house burning down.

Here's my little experiment. as you can see I'm testing at 14V to add a little safety margin.
Don't know whether you can tell from these pics but I've got two bulbs mounted. One the way I want and the second lying down and half buried as a worst case scenario for heat and fire. I'll get back in a couple of hours and let you know how I got on. PS as heat rises I'm actually running the test the other way up.

It's been running for three hours at 14V and if it's of any interest the timber had heated so little, in both cases, that I actually had to press it against my lips to gauge the temp rise. The timber could be described as luke warm at best so I "guess" there is little chance of a fire. Don’t quote me on that though.
The medium was 5mm mdf with the wires drilled in through the side and then down.

Added some end windows and the Kauri base. Slowly coming together. I gather a couple of my doors have arrived but still no stair case.
The timber in the base is 1000 year old swamp Kauri I was donated. That's why it's a lot darker than normal Kauri. A really beautiful rich colour.
Here's a pic showing how the house opens up.

And finally I've made an attempt at making some down lights out of some rivets. Think they'll look alright.

I'm still tossing around the idea of a 3mm second floor second covering which would leave a 2mm air gap for all the ground floor wiring. The main floor will be fixed but the second skin would slide out for electrical access and modification.
This would also mean I could slide out the floor while painting and adding flooring. Could be handy. The idea would be to do it so you can't tell when it's put together.

It's easy for me to make the house how I want but who knows what the little one will want latter?!

My conclusion is 1.73 watts/square foot would make an acceptable starting point.
This was done at night but during the day light levels are different so we'll see.

However the doors arrived today so here's a couple of shots. (Sorry about the picture quality, I'll get the good camera out soon but can you see the breakfast bar in the kitchen? He he hee.)

Talk about Common Sense. After I placed a few toys in my light box to get an idea of brightness I let my little girl ( one year five months ) have a play to see what she did. Her solution to the toys strategically placed in the box? Climb right on in and pull them all to the front. Ever seen a one year old climb into a box 1'x1.5'x2'deep? Almost died laughing.

But now I can see that my carefully placed bedrooms on the upper floor will have everything taken out of them and put into what I thought was going to be the family room.

OHHH well, it’s her toy I guess. And my lights performed well. The bulbs quietly pushed up into the holder while she played (climbed in) and dropped back down when she pulled out.

Yesssss! Stairs have arrived. Very nice. Now I'm looking for an excuse to sneak away and try then in the house.
Excellent, and it means I can now add Fingertip Fantasies Inc to my list of trustable Internet shops.

I'll get some pics up of the stairs in place in a few hours with a little luck.
Ok, Real progress at last. Added the staircase and it didn't pan out as I expected so I turned it 90deg and added a traditional rail. The Rimu plinth(?) at the bottom is there because I wanted one but had to have two steps to allow for the extra floor thickness.

I can see I'm going to get little sleep tonight. Unfortunately I'm the sort of person that obsesses with jobs like this until I'm satisfied with were I am. An at the moment I want this assembled and painted. Now the problem is, because this is scratch built with no plans other than a cardboard model, I really need to start gluing it together to ensure all the parts are correct. But I'd really like to paint it first, but I know I'll just scratch the paint when I drill light holes etc soooo To paint or not to paint and paper and tile, and brick and tile and stuff. Naaa - Stick it together.......make life difficult for yourself.

Still have to decide on a couple of things, Two rooms or three? Washhouse? Space behind the stairs?
I want plants down stairs and a piano / computer room upstairs. Wife wants different. (Ain't that a surprise? And baby???)

Total of    19 custom made windows,
                4 double doors
                3 single doors
                1 hand rail
                1 Staircase
And it's not even put together yet. (Should have bought a kitset!      Naaaa!)

Here's a picture showing the house from a distance so it's not all distorted. Finally moved it out of the office.
For better or worse I've added the mezzanine floor for wiring access and a full length access panel in the back of the roof for ceiling wiring. Power points on the ground floor will be wired under the base.
Notice most of the tape has gone?

Had to let her have a little play before I start painting, just in case she finds any obvious faults. The wheels (six) work a treat. Easy to move and very smooth.

Only problem was she took the table out and wanted to sit on it.

Now just got to work out how to grout these stones in place without making a mess.

Well, darn it, still experimenting, getting to the stage where any mistakes now will be pretty much permanent. So.......to that end, I was trying to figure out how to decide whether my lighting was going to be adequate and if the mezzanine floor was going to work. The only way I could see was to put it all together and try it before painting. So here are the results. I thought it was bright enough but was trying to work out how the light compared to the rest of the real house. The only way to do that was with a light meter. Which I just happen to have lying around. NOT!!!

Well, come 5 o'clock in the morning and BINGO! I do have a light meter! In fact almost every house in the country has one. Your Camera!!!!!!!! So I just set the camera to manual and took a picture in the real house at night, no flash, and a picture in the dollhouse, no flash, and tadaaa. The dollhouse is slightly brighter!!!!.(You could also check by looking at the settings the camera selected when on auto but no flash) However, as the lights in the dollhouse have a quite distinct yellow, compared to the normal house lights I'll leave it at that. Sigh..... I'm a genius. Now I'm pretty sure there is a real light meter in dads old camera bag.

Painting. Wow, 9 1/5 hours so far and only 2/3rds there. That's ridiculous. Then the missus wasn't happy with the green and I had to go back to Mitre 10 and get the very helpful lady to darken the paint. Great service! Nice talking to a sales rep who actually knew her product!!!

Well looking at mounting the chandelier at the moment and deciding where the switches will go. The cost of this project has seriously spiralled out of control. But we love it!

The arrows show where I want to put them. Not ideal but very practical. Put out some questions to other modellers to see what they do. Hopefully I'll get some suggestions.

Check it out. Added paint and stuff. The chandelier over the stairs is just there for looks at the moment but it's about where it'll be. Perhaps a little lower. Walls have been papered but there is no flooring yet.

26/july/05

Oh yes, Lights, finally got the lights working. What a difference they made. Just bring the whole thing to life. Showed baby how to turn them on and off room by room and even at her age her expression and little gasp (she does that when she likes things,) was so cool.

Photo doesn't really do it justice.

Eight switches so far with about 8 to go I imagine. And I managed to hide all the switches in a really obvious place in the front but it seems to work really well. Don't have to open the house to get at them. Don't know why it took so long to even think of such an obvious solution.

Boy the brains starting to hurt now from all the ideas coming. External murals, up lights in the gardens (cool), two small chandeliers in the upper front window and of course, a light on the balcony. I've got some heart Rimu timber striped down for the flooring. Now that's time consuming. And I've got too cute lights for the front door but I need the door pillars before I fit them and the wiring. Tiles and lino for the bathroom and kitchen?

Flooring. What a mission. I hope all this work is worth it.
Bought a length of 6x2 Heart Rimu and milled it myself down to 2.4*12mm lengths. Cut them into a variety of lengths from 3,6,9,12 and 15 inches, mixed them all up and started laying the floor. On the ground floor the timber was attached to heavy card with contact adhesive and sanded perfectly flat before gluing into the house, on the mezzanine floor the flooring was glued directly onto the mdf (as it was removable) and sanded flat. Doesn't sound like much but it took a lot of hours. Looks very nice but unless you are told it it just looks like any other pre made floor. Amazing what you'll do for a model
Having tried both contact adhesive and white pva I would have to say the spray on contact adhesive was far superior. 1. it’s easy to apply. 2 It dries in 20 minutes allowing you to carry on with the job. 3 If you make a mistake and a piece of wood isn’t properly pressed down you just press and fix and 4 Most importantly, it doesn’t soak in and warp what ever surface you are gluing to.

Had to have something at the top of the stairs so what do you think????????? Little rough at the moment, needs tidying up. A little veneers along the front, cut out the sound box etc. Ignore the floor and stairs, they're just taped in to get some idea of layout.
Did some more work on the balcony and bedroom floor too. But now Mum wants the balcony extended another 3" so we can put deck furniture out there so that's all destined for the bin. $%#@&^$# woman!!!

Kavita's dollhouse