She's finished!

Voila! The dollhouse is officially finished! I'm so happy at how this has turned out and I'll never forget this experience I've been given. It has gone down on record as one of my most cherished projects ever!

The library

The finished library. I really love the masculine elegance of this room.

The guest room

This is the finished guest room on the third floor.

The front of the house

The railings have all been completely rebuild where they needed to be and the decorative piece at the roof is finished as well. This is such a lovely house!!

The dining room

Not the best picture, but my camera didn't want to behave this time. The chandelier does work just fine, but forgot to turn on the system.

The nursery

This is the nursery. The wallpaper is a lavendar and white toile in a nursery rhyme theme. We ordered a light oak nursery furniture set and the crib ended up being on back order for an indefinite period of time, so will need to order another one in its place.

The sewing room

This is the sewing room on the 3rd floor.

The bathroom is done

The bathroom is completed except for the last wall sconce on the other side of the medicine cabinet and the door!

My husband is helping me by stripping all the old paint off the doors and sanding them so that I can paint them and install them.

The kitchen...

The kitchen is now 90% finished. The only part left is the crown moulding and the far right wall, which will be finished once I'm done with the wiring for the lights in the bathroom. This "faux" wall will be adhered to the surface with double-sided tape so that it can be removed to service the electrical system if needed. It will look like and blend in with the rest of the room. The icebox next to the sink is a gift to Virginia from me to complete the room.

The completed bedroom...

The master bedroom is finished and the selected furniture put in place. There is also an area rug for the room that I wanted to leave in its packaging until Viriginia can open it. The bed will need bedding, but this will be one of those fun, future purchases that can be made, along with other accessories for the room like things for the vanity, pictures, etc. There is also a lamp that I need to wire with the plug and since this picture was taken, the decorative railings have been rebuilt and put into place.

Also done this weekend was the complete rebuild of the lower front balcony railing for the porch, and the roof was repainted. I'll post photos of these once all the painting is done.

A "new" staircase...

Since I had to take out the staircase to wallpaper the room, I thought it best to rebuild most of it. With the exception of the handrails (which will be ordered shortly), it's finished. And what a beautiful staircase it is!

The 2nd floor hallway...

Here is the 2nd floor hallway and the beautiful settee that was chosen just for this spot. I think a few throw pillows would be a great finishing touch. Right in front of the window, it looks like a great spot to sit and read a book!

Ceiling ornament for livingroom...

This is the decorative ceiling piece that the livingroom chandelier is attached to. I felt the large ceiling needed something to add to the elegance of the room.

Restoring the exterior decorative roof panel...

The original piece was warped and cracked. I recut it and am in the process of repainting it and will be putting it back on the roof soon.

Livingroom before and "almost" after...

This is the room I've been focusing on over the past week. Now that most of the light fixtures and all of the wallpapering has arrived, things will move much quicker now. Left to do in this room are the doors, the interior window trimming and the staircase handrails; which will be ordered shortly. I absolutely love the way this room has come back to life! It looks so warm and cozy!

The bathroom...

The bathroom has been completely redone! What a difference, eh? Due to the wallpaper for this room STILL being on backorder, I decided to put this one in there instead. Not only does this design adhere to the Victorian age, the stripe design adds height to the room as well as a vintage look. The rest of the baseboards will be added once the door goes in.

Second floor railings recreated...

The broken second floor balcony railings have been replaced and work will commence on the first floor section soon. I think they look wonderful!

Restoration of third floor walls...

The third floor divider walls have now been recreated and replace the old walls that were warped and broken. I've got to prep them for the wall sconces (that are still on backorder) and then I'll prime them and wallpaper them, and then work on the floors.
The light fixtures are still on back order and I hope they'll be in soon, as well as about half the wallpaper. So, until these items come in, things will continue to move a bit slowly.

The master bedroom...

The master bedroom floor is stained, the wallpaper hung, and the wood trims go up. The door to the room has had its old hinges and paint removed, and has been repainted. New hinges and a pretty doorknob will be put on and the door rehung. Once the door is attached, the rest of the baseboards and door trim will be put on.

The front balcony is back!

After painting the exterior of the dollhouse, I've now put the balcony piece back into place and started to repaint it in a fresh coat of white. I couldn't believe the transformation that was happening before my very eyes; turning the old into new. The next task will be to recreate the missing and/or broken balustrades. It's going to be so beautiful!

Hardwood flooring installed

The real hardwood flooring has been installed in the dining room, library and master bedroom. I'm at a standstill with the flooring for the living room and 2nd floor hall until the backordered wallpaper arrives. Next will be the aged oak stain that will be applied. The floors are going to look glorious!

Let there be light!

The electrical system has been installed and here you can see me testing it with a test probe. Unfortunately, the light fixtures ordered for the house are out of stock and on special order so the light fixture installation will have to wait a bit.

A new coat of paint

The outside of the dollhouse is finally receiving a fresh coat of tan paint. The next step will be to work on the exterior trimwork in white.

Ceilings are redone

Here is a photo that is representative of all the ceilings in the dollhouse. All the old holes for the old electrical system have been filled in and smoothed out. Then, I applied a fresh coat of paint. The ceilings are now ready to receive their new lights.

I will be placing the order for the electrical system, lights, wallpaper, etc. early this week and should be able to move forward with the "fun part" shortly thereafter. I'm really excited to see this gem come back to life.

Priming...A new beginning for the dollhouse

I've now started to give the dollhouse a nice coat of primer/sealer. This gives the dollhouse a fresh start and a nice base for paint and/or wallpaper. The sealer will protect the wood from climatic damages as well as extend the overall life of the dollhouse.






We're almost ready to start wiring the dollhouse for electricity to power the light fixtures. Once Virginia sends me the "okay" on the lighting proposal I sent her, we'll be able to move forward with this very exciting aspect of the restoration.

Stripping the Rooms

The rooms are being stripped of all their old layers and being prepped for sanding.





Here's the exterior front with the balcony gently removed for refinishing. The exterior had some sort of grainy, sandpaper type finish on it so I scraped it all away.

The top floor rooms

I've found that it's easier to start at the top and work my way down. Further exploration into this area of the house led me to discover that the two partition walls were broken and one of them was even warped. So, I carefully removed them and will buy some 1/4" material to recreate them from. They'll be brand new and exactly like the original walls.




I've scraped up about 80% of the wall painted and old flooring. There is still about two hours worth of work on this section at least. It's amazing how many layers of love I've found in this house!

One room almost ready

This is the second floor rear room. It's just about ready for the final sanding and then it will be ready to be sealed and primed. I can picture a beautiful Victorian canopy bed in the center of this room. The ceiling heights are perfect for larger pieces of furniture.

Rehabilitation Begins

I've decided to make this second floor room my first priority. The floor is cracked and this is a concern of mine when it comes to restoring this room. I feel the major contributor to the cracking is the several nails used to secure the support beam underneath the floor as, after further investigation, there was a hairline crack where each nail was. This is a result of not pre-drilling the holes before the nails are inserted. Thus, to remedy this situation, I've replaced the support beam with one of solid oak. This will add the much needed support strength the second floor is in need of and once painted white again, it will look just like the original. The vertical beams are in place to support the post until the glue dries and will be replaced with something much smaller and built-in so that they are not very visible to the eye. The second floor will receive a thin sub-floor to reinforce it and it will also serve as a 'mend' for any cracks I have discovered. I feel this is the safest way to remedy the problem without doing further damage to the structure.