The Dollhouse--Part Two

So the deconstruction began with removing the windows (my friend said his mother had made them from cellophane boxes and tiny bits of balsa wood, but sadly, they were pretty much destroyed). I found some working double-hung windows on Ebay for super-cheap (only $1.99 each! The other ones I found were at least $7 each, and since we're always broke, well, you can figure out the rest...). The new windows were an inch too wide, but that's an easy fix.

The exterior "before".

Next I had to address the sagging floors. I delicately removed the right-hand first and third story interior walls. I stripped the wallpaper from them and sanded them, then replaced them further to the right, so the interior walls more or less line up. It really helped alleviate the problem. You can see where I have the floors and ceilings braced to position the walls. You can also see the old windows have mostly been removed.

The hallway, looking into the bedroom and bathroom beyond.

The living room, looking through the second floor hallway at the front door.

The library must have been carpeted at some point--there was a thin layer of cork glued down and that was a MONSTER to remove. If I had known how much trouble it would eventually give me, I would have just left it there. But I had big plans for the library...

The bathroom, stripped and sanded. I began to paint the ceilings and get ready for the next steps...

Now I really had to start thinking of paint colors and wallpaper colors. Getting sucked into this project was just way too easy--I can understand how people can go completely overboard with something like this. You could literally spend a fortune renovating and decorating a dollhouse. Unfortunately, I don't have a fortune, so I spent quite a bit of time doing research on the good old interwebs, finding tips and tricks for making this house look good on the cheap. There's a lot of great information out there. For instance, it never occurred to me to just print up my own wallpaper. And it just so happens I have a stash of awesome patterns and designs in my digital reference morgue. Just a few little adjustments for scale and such in Photoshop, and I was ready to go...