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+-- Thread: Doll house time again---finally an update (/showthread.php?tid=7364674)
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Doll house time again---finally an update - K. L. McReynolds - 08-25-2021
Made one years ago for eldest granddaughter, she did not use it. Great granddaughter(now 7) made me help her cobble one together from a cardboard box, making furniture from cardboard, several weeks ago. She has really used and taken care of it.
I asked he if she would like to help with a better one. "Out of wood?????" she asked. She will help cut pieces(jewelers saw) and paint the appliances. And decorate(grandma's fabric for wall paper/etc). Only on weekends.
She wants to build the furniture, put in lights, working door/windows and stairs. I now have a list of the necessary appliances and furniture. Bought some 1/8" basswood ply for that. Going to use the backing from an old entertainment center(1/8" ply) for the walls/floors/roof. Try to make my own cedar shake shingles(the ones in hobby stores are heckish expensive!!!). Bought miniature lights, battery box, switches(to turn on/off individual rooms) and wiring. Electrical system will be 12v DC.
Update:
Her mother bought a semi finished doll house at a garage sale. Long boring story, but it means I no longer need to construct the actual house. I have made several pieces of furniture(with her help) and she paints them. I need to finish the assembly of the house(shingles, make missing window trim, add a patio, and wire/install the lighting I ordered). I have a battery holder, wiring, switches, and the stick on tiny LED lights. The batteries are AAA rechargeables(I have a LOT).
Will try to remember to take pics of the lighting before, during, and after installation.
Will try to remember to document it for here.
RE: Doll house time again - fredhargis - 08-26-2021
Very cool, and a lot of fun for both of you!
RE: Doll house time again - Dumb_Polack - 08-26-2021
(08-25-2021, 11:51 PM)K. L. McReynolds Wrote: Made one years ago for eldest granddaughter, she did not use it. Great granddaughter(now 7) made me help her cobble one together from a cardboard box, making furniture from cardboard, several weeks ago. She has really used and taken care of it.I made some pieces of furniture (picnic table, dining table and chairs, a wardrobe) for our girls when they were into American Girl dolls.
I asked he if she would like to help with a better one. "Out of wood?????" she asked. She will help cut pieces(jewelers saw) and paint the appliances. And decorate(grandma's fabric for wall paper/etc). Only on weekends.
She wants to build the furniture, put in lights, working door/windows and stairs. I now have a list of the necessary appliances and furniture. Bought some 1/8" basswood ply for that. Going to use the backing from an old entertainment center(1/8" ply) for the walls/floors/roof. Try to make my own cedar shake shingles(the ones in hobby stores are heckish expensive!!!). Bought miniature lights, battery box, switches(to turn on/off individual rooms) and wiring. Electrical system will be 12v DC.
Will try to remember to document it for here.
Funny but I found building on a small scale tougher than building full size.
But.....enjoy the time with the granddaughter!!!!
RE: Doll house time again - Ridgeway - 08-26-2021
(08-26-2021, 06:50 AM)Dumb_Polack Wrote: I made some pieces of furniture (picnic table, dining table and chairs, a wardrobe) for our girls when they were into American Girl dolls.
Funny but I found building on a small scale tougher than building full size.
But.....enjoy the time with the granddaughter!!!!
That is because you didn't use it as an opportunity to buy an entirely new set of tools.
RE: Doll house time again - MauleSkinner - 08-26-2021
Great to have her invested in the project!
When I acquired my family, my youngest was in the American Girl doll stage, and I made her a few pieces of furniture, etc. I was hoping to convert part of the side attic off her room to a doll house, but too many other new family projects took precedence.
She did help me in the shop with some other stuff for her mom and sisters, but she had too many other things competing for her time, so we never got the opportunity to make a woodworker out of her. But she knows she’s got the ability to ask.
My older grandson is almost 3, and likes his tools, so we’ve done a couple of projects together, but he’s several states away, so we have to make the best use of what time we can make.
Good luck, and have fun with great-granddaughter!
RE: Doll house time again - Darknight - 08-27-2021
That sounds like a fun and very rewarding project. I look forward to the progress pics!
RE: Doll house time again - mr_skittle - 08-27-2021
It sounds like a neat project! Be sure to enjoy the shop time with the little one! I made a set of bunk beds for my daughter's American Girl dolls. They were really basic but she still enjoys them. Then she wanted to help me build one for my son's dolls. It turned out nice but he could have cared less. Kids can be fickle like that.
I build bird feeders with cedar shake shingles and I started out buying them from a dollhouse vendor for WAY too much money. It didn't take long before I figured out how to make them myself. Depending on the profile, you can make them with a router table and the saw of your choice. If you're looking for the scalloped look you can use a bullnose bit in the router table to make the profile then slice off shingles in the thickness desired. I used a bandsaw to slice them off but that's not the only option. You can use a chamfer bit to get shingles with the snipped corner look. In order to save substantial time producing bird feeders, I've since switched to slicing off thin strips off cedar 2x material and cutting to length on the miter saw. They don't look as "pretty" but it takes a fraction of the time and accomplishes the same job in the end.
RE: Doll house time again - TDKPE - 08-30-2021
I was visiting my mother yesterday, so I thought I'd post a few pics of the doll house her dad made for her during the depression. It's around 80 years old at this point, and kind of looks it, but it's still pretty cool. It's wired for lights and a door bell through a small doorbell transformer (he was an electrician at Elizabeth Hospital in NJ). The ballusters for the stairway were my mom's lollypop sticks, which he asked her to save for him, but never told her what they were for until.
It's pretty old and tired, and sits in her basement under plastic now, but brings back memories of visiting the grandparents in NJ when I was a kid.
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RE: Doll house time again - BrokenOlMarine - 08-31-2021
I made a cradle for my granddaughter's doll. Wide knotty pine. Weeks invested, then shipped to her. She loved it. She reminded her friends to "Look with your eyes, not with your hands. My Grumpy made that for me. Mommy says it's a hair loom."
A year or two later, Miss T made her a trundle bed for her American Girl dolls. Took her a week or so. She (mostly)
enjoyed the process, shipped the bed to her, and thought she might make others to sell. Never happened. 
. Too many other hobbies already.
RE: Doll house time again - Randy C - 08-31-2021
(08-31-2021, 08:50 AM)BrokenOlMarine Wrote: I made a cradle for my granddaughter's doll. Wide knotty pine. Weeks invested, then shipped to her. She loved it. She reminded her friends to "Look with your eyes, not with your hands. My Grumpy made that for me. Mommy says it's a hair loom."
A year or two later, Miss T made her a trundle bed for her American Girl dolls. Took her a week or so. She (mostly)
Your grandad was pretty talented.