I decided that I didn't want to finish the porch with all it's many trims until I'm finished with the construction on the inside. I don't want to take the risk of breaking those delicate pieces. Plus I want to install the lights on either side of the doors while it's still easily accessible.
 And that brings us to electricity! I've never done a dollhouse before where the structure was all put together. It requires much thought as to where to put the electric wires. Fortunately, I was at Miniature Designs and I asked Ken how he does it. He recommended that I run the wires down a chase made behind all the fireplaces. Brilliant! I had planned on fireplaces on all levels on the same wall so that works for the four big rooms. The bay window rooms will all have hanging light fixtures so those wires will run into the corner and through a hole into the back room. There is a corner beside the opening that will be a perfect spot to run a chase down and can handle both rooms on each floor. All the ceilings will have an extra ceiling to hang the fixtures and hide the wiring. Any wiring from lamps from the floor above can also be hidden by the false ceiling. The wiring will run across the false ceiling and down the chase to the bottom of the dollhouse. All the electrical connections can be made there, out of sight.
 I'm starting at the top floor and working my way down to the first floor. Now that the electricity was figured out it is on to the fun stuff!

I wasn't sure how I wanted the outside of the dollhouse to look. I knew I wanted to use some shakes on part of it and clapboards on the rest. I was on my way north to visit relatives and I stopped at a new dollhouse store in Staunton, Va. called Ware House Miniatures. It's right in the downtown but the street is one way and I was able to get a parking space very close. I was showing the owner pictures of the house and she said "Oh, we have one for sale in the front window" I couldn't believe it. I took a few pictures and it gave me some ideas for how I wanted to finish mine.

I liked the dark roof with the lighter siding and the decorative trim under the porch eaves. In the end I decided to use shakes on each of the two porches and between the bay windows.

As you can see I have done some painting. I went with colors from Sherwin Williams Softer Side collection, Mellow coral for the siding,Watery for the door and decorative trim, and Porcelain for the trim color. I used Balanced Beige for the porch floors and Honest Blue for the porch ceilings. The roof trim is Peppercorn. I gave the siding two coats of paint before I cut it and glued it on.

I used shingles from Alessio, Hexagon in black. I really like the contrast between the roof and the siding.

The Dollhouse

Wow, I guess time really does fly. I didn't think it had been that long since I opened a blog. I guess I wasn't ready to commit to it in 2011. This morning I read a posting from another miniaturist and I thought to myself that maybe others would like to share my latest project. It actually took me a while to find my blog again! So here it goes.

Earlier this year I was fortunate to buy an old dollhouse, the Hofco Victorian Townhouse #252. Someone had built the structure and that was it. The dollhouse came with all the original exterior doors and windows, staircases, and porch posts and railings. I was thrilled to find it and it was perfect for me, because nothing had been done to it.
 Hofco was a very well known dollhouse kit builder in the 1980's. I would guess this kit dates from the late 80's. It's built from plywood and it's very sturdy. The house even came on a table. We had to rent a small U-haul trailer to get it home. The first thing we did was add wheels to the table so it could be rolled around easily.

It was very dirty so I washed the whole thing inside and out. Then later I primed the entire house with Kilz.

The house has four floors, one under the roof, with twelve rooms all together. I had decided that this was going to be my "stash" house, the one where I would use all the miniatures I had been collecting for years. With twelve rooms I should be able to use a lot of "stash"!

The first thing I did was decide on a theme for the dollhouse. I didn't want it to be a typical dollhouse, so I decided it would be an Inn. I named it Tranquility Point Inn. It will be an ocean view inn with just a few select rooms for guests.  I came up with a color scheme that would reflect the colors of the beach.

Now to get painting!