April 27, 2001
Ordered Moonbeam dollhouse
http://www.moonbeamdollhouse.com
The Moonbeam Dollhouse Company
102 Spruce Street
Tillsonburg, Ontario
Canada, N4G 5V3
Telephone: 519 688 3522
Fax: 519 688 3520
e-mail: quality@moonbeamdollhouse.com
Item #600 - unpainted version plus the Finishing Kit which includes
the Veranda components, the Roof Shingles (in Dark Green) and 5 pairs
of un-stained/unvarnished window shutters.
May 8, 2001 - Tuesday
House Arrived
- The pieces of the house on both surfaces, plus the sides and
grooves were sealed with 1 part shellac to 3 parts denatured alcohol
(in Canada, denatured alcohol is referred to as methyl hydrate).
In total 8 ounces of shellac and 24 ounces of denatured alcohol
was used (Tom Berkner's recipe). (1 hr.)
- The pieces of the house were primed on both surfaces with an
oil-based sealer. (1.5 hrs.)
- The five window casings were sanded and tack-clothed (1 hr.)
Day's Total - 3.5 hrs.
May 9, 2001 - Wednesday
- Stained window casings - 2 coats with Home Decor by Delta -
Gel Wood Stain in Maple (1 hr.)
- Sanded primer coat of dollhouse pieces with Norton Flex n' Sand
Contour Sanding Sponges in medium grit. These are great sanding
sponges for large, flat areas (1 hr.)
- Put house together and outlined all wall borders in pencil (see
Picture A). This needs to be done
because when you are painting, wallpapering or placing baseboards,
you can't go below the area of the piece that fits into a groove,
so the pencil guidelines are a big help here (1/2 hr.)
- Sanded edges free of any primer paint that falls below the penciled
guidelines of each room on wall and floor pieces that slide into
the grooves (which was just about every piece). Put house back
together again to make sure all pieces slide in easily (1 hr.)
- Marked each room area with masking tape. (See Picture
B) I did this because when painting, you need to know which
wall belongs with which room as a number of pieces are alike.
You don't want to be painting a ceiling which is actually a floor
and discover this later when you put the house back together.
(1/2 hr.)
- Upper and lower sheets of wallpaper for kitchen were measured
cut and glued using Yes glue. Wallpaper is from the Victorian
Collection of Caraline Stanley in Ontario, Canada. (1 hr.)
- Measured and cut four interior door frames. Wood is cedar stripwood
from IBEC. I discovered when doing this that it seems easier to
measure and cut the top piece of the door frame as the 45 degree
angles clearly show which angle the vertical pieces of the door
frame need to be for both the left and the right. I also used
my mitre cutters from Lee Valley which worked great - snip - done!
And I used my miniature mitre box with the saw and the results
were the same, good, clean cut. The door frame for the kitchen
was stained using Jo Sonja's Background Color in Light Teal. Once
dry, I sanded the door frame pieces with a crumpled piece of paper
bag and it came out very smooth with a light sheen.
Additional notes: I have discovered when doing the wallpaper
with these type of dollhouses houses that it's quite simple, you don't
need to make a template as you would with houses that are already
together. The wallpapered walls of the kitchen are comprised of 3
walls so each piece was measured and taped, then I put the house together
again to make sure the wallpaper is aligned and that it does not go
past the pencil line where it will fit into a grooved area. Once that
was checked, the wallpaper was then glued in place, and of course
the house was put back together (again!) to make sure it still lined
up. The rest of the plans for the kitchen are to do a wooden chair
rail where the 2 designs of wallpapers meet, then add baseboards and
a flat moulding (from stripwood) at the top ceiling area. I've discovered
that because this house slides together within the grooves to assemble
it, it's a very good idea to use baseboards at the bottom and moulding
at the top of the walls because repeated sliding of these pieces into
the grooves could eventually rip the wallpaper away. (see Picture
A for a detailed explanation)
Day's Total - 5 hrs.
May 10, 2001 - Thursday
- Measured, cut, sanded, stained and sanded again chair rail in
kitchen (1 hr.)
- Measured and cut 5 interior window frames (1/2 hr.)
- Sanded, stained and sanded again kitchen window frame (1/2 hr.)
- Measured, cut, sanded, stained and sanded again baseboards for
kitchen (1/2 hr.)
- Views 1 and
2 illustrate the results of the kitchen.
Additional notes: Remaining to do for the kitchen is paint
the ceiling, make a floor and cut and prepare top moulding. These
steps will be done near the completion of the house.
Now on to the living room!
- Measured, cut, and glued living room wallpaper. Brodnax Prints
# 1VT318 (1/2 hr.)
- Painted 2 living room walls with Delta Ceramcoat in Trail Tan
- 2 coats plus clear matte sealer (1 hr.)
- Cut out door and window openings of papered living room wall
(15 min)
- Sanded, stained and sanded again 2 living room door and 1 window
frame set. Used DecoArt Gel Stains in Walnut. Glued into place
(1 hr.)
- Measured, cut, sanded, stained and sanded again living room
baseboards. Used DecoArt Gel Stains in Walnut. Glued into place.
(1/2 hr.)
- Measured, cut, sanded, stained and sanded again living room
top moulding. Used DecoArt Gel Stains in Walnut. Glued into place
(1/2 hr.)
- Views 1 and
2 illustrate the results of the living room.
Now, start the Master Bedroom!
- Measured, cut and glued Master Bedroom wallpaper. Brodnax Prints
# 1VT322 (1 hr.)
- Painted wall in Master Bedroom - 2 coats of DecoArt Americana
in French Mauve (1/2 hr.)
- And this is where I finished last night, see Picture
E
Day's total: 7 hrs. 45 minutes
May 11, 2001 - Friday
- Sealed bedroom paint (15 min.)
- Cut another door frame 'cause I forgot one!
- Sanded, stained and sanded again 2 master bedroom window frame
sets and 1 bedroom door frame. Used DecoArt Gel Stains in Walnut.
Glued into place (1 hr.)
- Measured, cut, sanded, stained and sanded again Master Bedroom
baseboards. Glued into place. Used DecoArt Gel Stains in Walnut
(1 hr.)
- Measured, cut, sanded, stained and sanded again Master Bedroom
top moulding. Glued into place. Used DecoArt Gel Stains in Walnut
(1/2 hr.)
- Spare Room...Painted 3 walls of Spare room with 2 coats of Delta
Ceramcoat in Wedgwood Blue. Sealed the 3 walls of Spare room with
matte sealer (1 hr.)
- Kitchen...Measured, cut and glued into place the kitchen border
(15 minutes)
- Measured, cut and glued Spare room top border (1/2 hr.)
- Measured, cut, sanded, stained and sanded again Spare room baseboards.
Glued into place. Used DecoArt Gel Stains in Cherry (1 hr.)
- Sanded, stained and sanded again, window and door frames of
Spare room. Glued into place. Used DecoArt Gel Stains in Cherry
(1/2 hr.)
- Painted ceilings of kitchen, living room, master bedroom and
spare room. Sealed ceiling paint with matte sealer. Used Delta
Ceramcoat in Raw Linen (2 hrs.)
Day's total: 8 hrs.
May 12, 2001 - Saturday
- Painted 2 walls plus a coat of matte sealer on Child's Bedroom.
Used Delta Ceramcoat in Custard (1 hr.)
- Measured, cut and glued into place, Child's Bedroom Wallpaper.
Used MiniGraphics Perriwig #163D2 (1/2 hr.)
- Measured, cut and glued into place, Bathroom wallpaper. Used
Brodnax 1VT327 (1 hr.)
- Measured, cut, sanded, stained and sanded again baseboards for
Child's Bedroom and Bathroom (1/2 hr.)
Day's Total - 3 hrs.
May 13, 2001 - Sunday
- Measured cardboard for carpet backing of 5 rooms. The carpeting
is removable because of the cardboard backing. It will just slide
onto the floor of each room once the house is assembled. It could
have been glued directly to the floor pieces of the dollhouse,
but the packing, unpacking, etc...might ripe, tear, curl the carpeting
from the floor. (2 hrs.)
- Cut left index finger big time with x-acto knife. (And what
have we all be talking about this past week!?!?!) So, I lost a
good half hour here. Fortunately I didn't bleed on anything. Husband
took a picture of this, and no, it's not on the web.
- Measured, cut and glued into place the carpeting for, Child's
Bedroom, Master Bedroom, Bathroom, Spare room, and Living room
(1 hr.)
- Measured and cut mat board for kitchen floor (15 minutes)
- Got husband, Donald, to haul the house up stairs and out to
the back deck so I could take pictures in the daylight (a good
10 minutes...it took a lot of convincing!)
- Took pictures of all the finished rooms. Click on each room
name to see a picture: Bathroom,
Master Bedroom, Living
Room, Child's Bedroom,
Spare Room, Kitchen.
If it appears that the carpeting does not look flush with the room's
end, it is, it's just how the picture looks. Also, the raw edges will
be painted on Monday and I'll be starting to paint the exterior of
the house. I will however not be able to cut the glazing for the windows
on Monday as planned...the cut finger is posing a slight problem here.
Day's Total - about 4.5 hrs.
May 14, 2001 - Monday
- Painted all exposed edges in the same colour as exterior surface.
This was something I did not think of when planning the work on
the house. This should have been done before any room decorating
started...result = quite a tedious task! (1.5 hrs.)
- Applied 1 coat of paint on all exterior surfaces. Used Delta
Ceramcoat in Medium Victorian Teal. Allow 24 hrs drying time.
(1 hr.)
Day's Total - about 2.5 hrs.
May 15, 2001 - Tuesday
- Applied second coat of paint on all exterior surfaces. Allow
24 hrs drying time. (1 hr.)
Day's Total - about 1 hr.
May 16, 2001 - Wednesday
- Applied matte sealer to all exterior surfaces. Allowed 24 hrs
drying time before assembling the house again. (1 hr.)
- Painted interior raw edge of 3 door frames. This was also something
that should have been done before any room decorating started.
Did 2 coats of DecoArt Americana in Mississippi Mud. (1.5 hrs.)
- Child's Bedroom - applied another coat of paint. (15 min)
- Sanded and varnished 5 window frames with 2 coats of Gloss sealer.
(1 hr.)
- Applied matte sealer on paint of Child's Bedroom. (15 min)
- Painted floors in a colour that matches the removable carpeting/flooring
because with the white primer paint, it looked so awful! (3 hrs.)
- Applied matte sealer on painted floors (1 hr.)
Day's Total - about 8 hrs.
May 17, 2001 - Thursday
- Assembled entire house, inserted removable floor and carpeting
and took pictures.
- Viewed the most recent pictures: F
- G - H
- I - J
- K
I'm at a standstill now as I am waiting on delivery of the remaining
components: Shingles for the roof of the house and shingles for the
roof of the veranda, the veranda components, the front door and 5
sets of exterior window shutters.
May 27, 2001 - Sunday
- Husband, Donald, worked on repairing the box the dollhouse fits
into. It arrived in not the best of shape and the only thing holding
the bottom portion together was 4 nails and wood glue. The top
portion was in better shape. For the bottom portion one side was
replaced as the original wood piece was bowed and prevented the
box from properly fitting together. 8 wood screws were added and
glue and it's much better now. (3 hrs.)
Day's Total - about 3 hrs.
May 28, 2001 - Monday
Remainder of components arrived (shingles, shutters, front door, front
steps, veranda roof, veranda railing and supports)
- Front door: It's a really simple front door (see
picture L), so I used a basic pattern design to jazz it up
a bit. Pattern design came from Making Miniatures by Venus & Martin
Dodge, pg. 133.
- Door components were sanded, additional wood was measured, cut
and sanded for both door faces. Wood was glued to each door face
then entire door and frame was stained with Home Decor by Delta
in Maple. See picture M ...much better!
- Because I did not have a proper door knob, yes, I've done the
dreaded gold bead for each side of the door. Picture
N shows the nice door knob and brass knocker. Total time on
door 3 hrs., but it looks so much better!
- Shutters: Sanded, stained & sanded again 5 pairs of exterior
shutters in Home Decor by Delta in Maple stain, applied 2 coats.
Also applied 2 coats of gloss sealer. Shutters were glued to the
facade of house with Bond 527 glue (2 hrs.)
Day's Total - about 4 hrs.
May 29, 2001 - Tuesday
- Veranda: The thin railing posts of the veranda needed much more
support as they bend in and out way too easily. Small wood strips
were cut and glued to the front and back of each railing post.
I then sanded and stained all veranda components with Home Decor
by Delta in Fruitwood.
- The dowel parts of the porch supports were all different lengths
and I knew they all needed to be the same length, so the house
was assembled and the veranda was positioned into place. Measured
the proper length for the dowels, then cut and reassembled it
-- much better! Total time for veranda components, 4 hrs.
- House Roof: Cardboard-like asphalt shingles are supplied...these
are really nice. They come in strips of 10 1/2" long. Glued to
house roof with WeldBond glue. (2 hrs.)
- Veranda Roof: Same process as house roof plus I added a piece
of strip wood stained in Home Decor by Delta in Fruitwood. This
made a big difference in the overall appearance. Just that thin
strip balanced out the wood with the veranda area plus the wooden
shutters. (1 hr.)
- Exterior Steps: Used DecoArt Sandstones (stone-like textural
acrylics) and added DecoArt Americana in Driftwood colour paint
to achieve a more "cement" coloured look. Applied 2 coats. This
came out really nice. If you want to do this, use a small bristly
type brush for application. (1/2 hr.)
- The dollhouse container box: This box really needed to be sanded
down, it was very splintery and rough. So, I sanded it a lot and
achieved a smoother finish. Then applied wood sealer and painted
in DecoArt Americana in Mississippi Mud to the sides of the top
and bottom portions. When dry I then applied a clear matte finishing
coat. Much better!
Day's Total - about 7.5 hrs.
June 3, 2001 - Sunday
- Husband, Donald, drilled the hole for the spiral staircase,
which Michelle will be assembling in SC when the house arrives
(.5 hr.).
- Cut thicker acetate for the 5 windows. I also measured, cut,
sanded and stained an additional piece of wood for each window
because the one horizontal piece of wood in the centre of the
window area is not sufficient to hold the acetate in place. (1.5
hrs.)
- Put the house together one more time to make sure there's nothing
left to do, and no, it's all done. See Picture
P for the results!
June 5, 2001 - Tuesday
- Olga's dollhouse was packed and shipped by Federal Express at
10:00 a.m. this morning. See picture O.
Additional notes about the Moonbeam dollhouse:
- Well, the first thing I have to say, not having ever done a
dollhouse from MDF, is that it's really heavy! I find this a drawback.
I like wood, even with all its problems and extra work, I still
like wood.
- Overall, the Moonbeam really does make a nice dollhouse, and
if you've looked at any of the pictures, it's clear you could
do so much more to it, both the exterior and interior. Time unfortunately
did not permit this. Also the fact that the house has to be disassembled
a number of times until it truly reaches it's final destination...well,
this too had to be taken into consideration as to what can realistically
be done and yet add some additional decoration. The rooms, are
all excellent sizes and floor-to-ceiling height is also good.
- This house can certainly be put together permanently, with glue
and small wood screws (pre-drilling the holes before)
- The shingles that came with the house were great. To date, I
have always used the wooden shingles supplied with dollhouse kits
and those are a lot of work. These shingle strips were great.
You had to plan the layout so they match up the way they should,
but a 2-hour job to do a dollhouse roof IMO is wonderful.
- Many thanks go to Tom Berkner at Earth and Tree, for educating
me in the very important steps of preparing MDF for water-based
paints/acrylics. One step I could have avoided was using a primer
paint. This was not Tom's suggestion, but rather the store where
I purchased the shellac and denatured alcohol. What happened was
because the veranda roof arrived 3 weeks after the house, I did
prime the veranda roof with the shellac/denatured alcohol mixture,
but once dried, I immediately began painting the underside of
it in the same colour as the house. Only after I finished did
I realized I hadn't given a primer coat of paint first. First
of all, that coat of acrylic paint looked so much better than
having the primer coat underneath. Primer paints are thick and
you can only thin them out so much without defeating its purpose.
The hobby acrylic paints are thinner and because of this, spread
much, much easier. You can give a very light sanding with a crumpled
piece of paper bag to the first coat of acrylic paint and it comes
out great. Apply your second coat, then when dry, apply a matte
varnish....looks great! Also, for this dollhouse, I used just
a little bit more than 1 bottle of the acrylic paint for all the
exterior. That's not much at all. Oh, also I had to really sand
down the surfaces that had the primer paint on it. That was a
hard, messy job, so eliminating that step is good to know.
For the most part, the above points cover all the wonderfully positive
things about the house, but there are a few negative things that should
be mentioned:
- The box that the dollhouse comes in should have been better
constructed. 4 Nails and glue just doesn't do it. Even if this
dollhouse wasn't being shipped to the States, then to Belarus,
the box still needs to be sturdier. If a child has the house together,
then apart, then together again, the box is going to get shoved
around a lot, opened, closed, etc., and the wear and tear on it
will certainly shorten it's already fragile state.
- The window components (casements) are pre-built, the wood is
relatively good, but they could have been squared up better which
would have resulted in a better fit. I had a lot of sanding to
do to get them to fit well. Also, an additional horizontal bar
was needed to better secure the acetate windows...and the acetate
was way too thin for a child's use, so I replaced that.
- The original front door left a lot to be desired and there was
no way the door was leaving my house the way it looked when it
arrived. Paneling made a big difference.
- No door or window frames came with the house, and without them,
it would not have looked good. So I made door and window frames
using cedar stripwood from IBEC. Big difference in the overall
appearance.
- And last, the owner of the Moonbeam Dollhouse Company had trouble
keeping a promised date of delivery. The house was supposed to
have arrived on Friday, May 5, and the veranda components on Monday,
May 8. Instead the house arrived on May 8 and the veranda components
on Monday, May 28. Numerous e-mails and phone messages were left,
but no replies came. The owner was aware of the type of project
this was, plus what it involved, not to mention the time frame
I had to work with. I strongly feel he should have at least informed
the customer of the situation (apparently something was missing
to complete the second half of the order). But not hearing from
him at all as to what the status was...well, that displeased me
greatly and caused anxiety because I had a house to deliver by
June 6.
- "Would I make this house again?" Certainly! It is a good house,
good size, strong and quite excellent for a child...just consider
your time frame and take it from there.
- Total hours spent, approximately 60-65.
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