Dollhouse Update

Even considering I had some poor health this morning (Sunday morning), I managed to get quite a bit accomplished on the dollhouse this weekend.

Let's start with the poor health... I spent far too much time in the bathroom late last night, sick as a dog... I was dying to sleep and was having difficulty keeping my eyes open but I was still sick and stuck in the bathroom... I thought I would be napping in the bathroom for a bit there.
This morning, although a bit worn out and weak, I thought I was doing considerably better but I had more serious problems come on very suddenly while Sheila and I were at the grocery store.

I was worn out from the previous night's poor health spent in the bathroom but I thought that would be the extent of my problems. While we were passing the frozen food aisle, I started seeing 'sparklies' in my eyes... I was feeling weaker and more worn out... and my breathing was beginning to become shallow... I knew the process of anaphylaxis had begun. It was time for epinephrine before I passed out in anaphylaxis and a whole slew of peripheral symptoms.

After some epinephrine, I slowly and weakly headed to the car to lie down while Sheila paid for a cart full of groceries. We came home and I took more emergency medications and then slept all afternoon. In hindsight, I never should have left the house this morning... my health was not ready for it.

When I awoke, I took more medications and then jumped into some unexpected work on the dollhouse. All in all, I actually had a productive weekend working on the dollhouse project!

Gluing and installing the doors and windows...

Earlier in the weekend, I had installed all the painted windows and doors... then trimmed the interior of the windows and doors... painted all that interior trim... now I could finally start to assemble the big townhouse dollhouse.

Little by little, I assembled the dollhouse... I screwed together two adjoining walls... added a third wall... then slid in the floors... drilled and screwed... then carefully laid the entire dollhouse down to screw the base to the structure.

Today (Sunday), was the day for pre-painting, cutting and installing all the trim on the exterior as well as a couple of pieces of trim for around the staircase areas inside the dollhouse. I thought the trim work would be a pain in the butt but it was one of the easiest parts of this project! This was also the part of the project that had the biggest visual impact.

Gluing and installing the doors and windows...

The process was pretty simple. I would measure each piece... cut it... then dry fit it... then apply glue... then tack in place with an electric nailer. I already knew what I wanted to do with trim so I had already ripped all the trim to the correct widths on my table saw... I only needed to cut lengths. This part of the project went surprisingly quickly!

I still have a tiny bit of detail trim to add to the front facade but that should go quickly. Then I can touch up all the paint and install the patio, picket fence and brick sidewalk across the front.

The only part which I still have left which will be tedious and perhaps a bit frustrating is to assemble and install some balusters and railings around the staircase openings on each floor. There are only two of these railings to install and they are relatively small so I am thinking this may go more smoothly than I envision.

This Georgetown-style doll-sized townhouse is looking good at this point!

Here are a few more photos, starting with a few from the beginning of the project to show more of the process in one blog entry.... the last photo shows the dollhouse as it is tonight...