Finishing Touches...But We're Still Not Done

Hi!  This'll be a longer post to make up for the no post last weekend.  And let me start by saying...

Sorry I missed you guys last week.  The dollhouse had a small electrical problem.  Makes me wondery why I'm bothering with the wire tape.

Don't get me wrong.  I love the concept.  But I'm still kind of a newbie at the whole dollhouse building thing.  And that leads to problems now and then.  Like when I go to add outlets and the tape wire breaks.  So I did some more work.

And then I said the heck with it and cheated.

Drilling holes in the side of the house is cheating.

But the bright side?  Yeah it worked!

See?  Lots of light in the upstairs.  And the little outlets under the window work too.

I'm really happy the outlets under the window work.  I want to have a lamp on either side of the bed.

Like so.

For some reason I don't have a picture with those lamps lit up.  Don't ask me why. I really am not sure.

I did figure something out that had been bothering me for a while.  See I knew I needed a railing for the hole in the floor where the stairs come up.  But I couldn't figure out how to do it.  And then it hit me.

I'd already stained the newel posts and spindles.  So I got some of my little eyelets.  You know, the kind that have a screw end to them so you can screw them into the wall and have a nice little loop sticking out?  I'm sure there's a neat technical term for them but I've got no clue what it is.

And I carefully drilled a little hole in the top of the spindles and the sides of the newel posts.  And then (equally carefully) screwed the tiny loops in.

Glueing them into place wasn't easy. They like to fall over. Swoops was trying to help.

I had to let everything dry or I would have ended up knocking them over when I put the railing through.  But half a day (it really felt that long) later I got the railing in.  See?

And it matches the railing for the stairs.  Which I like a lot. 

Once again, Swoops tried to help but he kept bumping his head on the ceiling.  Poor dear.

See?  He didn't get any glue on his feathers though so he's happy about that.

Getting that finished was a relief.  But I still wasn't thrilled with how the room looked.  There are other things that could be done.  Little touches that I think help finish a room.  Like crown molding.

I'm a little odd (read OCD) in that I like things to match.  I really wanted something to trim the walls and the built-ins.  As you can see, I added trim to the storage bench.

I think it gives it a more polished look.

I wanted something similar for the eaves and top of the walls.  But anything too wide would look clunky.  So I did what I swore to never do.

I went out and shopped on Tax Free Weekend!

Yeah.  It was horrifying. Even if it was only the Hobby Lobby.

But I got some strips of basswood 1/8 by 1/8 and stained them the same summer oak as the baseboards.  And with a little bit of judicious sanding I got them angled to match the roofline.  That's always fun. (Not)

The fun part was making sure the cabinets worked.

I'm not sure about adding trim to the wall along the bottom of the eaves.  I might find a small piece and tape it up to see how I like it. 

But here's the other side...

It doesn't look bad.  I don't think I want any trim in the dormer though. At least now now. 

And here's the bathroom.  Complete with its drop ceiling.

See?  I like how the lower ceiling looks.  And it'll keep the heat in since I doubt the house is well insulated.

The other side.  This also gives you a chance to see the lights.



I think it came out nicely. Again, not sure about trim under the eaves.  Still thinking.

So I mentioned the drop ceiling in the bathroom.  For the bedroom I did something a little different.  I wanted to echo the ceiling on the first floor.

See? 

I sanded down the curved ends of my popsicle sticks and glued them to the exposed wood of the ceiling.  Then I painted everything white.  The little box hides the cord and plug of the chandelier.  It also lowers the light some which I like.

I did some work on the tub.  I don't like brass fixtures in a bathroom, at least not for the faucets so I got some different ones.  And I painted the drain and metal disk.

I like these better.

I also started work on the shower fixture.

Can you guess what it's made out of?

If you said a wooden dowel and an old earbud piece you'd be right.

The rubber end just fits around the dowel.  So I painted it silver.  It's drying now so pictures for that will be next week.  I was afraid to move it because I didn't want to mess up the paint.

I had one more big project.  Well big in the sense that it was not easy and it took a while.  This is mostly what I did last weekend when the electrical was frustrating me.

I won a kit in an auction.  So I decided to build it.

I decided not to use the handles that came with the kit.

What I like best is that it works.

Perfect for a lap top right?

Instead of the regular handles I used beads with brass nails clipped off on the ends.  The heads give it that perfect bright touch on the end of the beads. 

The bungalow also has some new residents.  I managed to get some good pictures of them. It wasn't easy.  One of them wouldn't stay still!

Someone had better not be scratching the bench!

 No scratching!  We don't want claw marks!


Or is she just curious about her sissy? 



Hey Sissy!  C'mon...let's play.

It's time to play!

Don' care... I'm sleepin'.  Go play with Swoops.

No Sissy!  He's too big.  I wanna play with you!



I'm bored Sissy!

I've done a few other things (purchased some things really) but they're for the Gothic Victorian.  I'll put pictures of those up in a few days. 

And hopefully I'll have a decision made about the trim under the eaves by then.  I really can't decide.

What do you guys think?