Copper wire/tape wire corrosion possible: I've been watching the comments on the tape (copper) wiring - and feel I should add what I've been told by several people (who do a lot of dollhouse restoration):  The 'stick on' copper wiring tape that is sold for dollhouse wiring will corrode over time, and short out your wiring.  One of the dollhouse shops here swears that the only safe way to install wiring is to do it using the standard coated wire made for dollhouses - using a Dremel with a small cutting wheel tip to route a groove in the 3/8" plywood walls for the wire to run....and with all wires going to the 'basement' or 'crawl space' beneath the house, where they can be soldered in place for permanent 'peace of wiring mind'. It is certainly something  you may want to consider if you live in a humid area, or your miniature houses might ever end up in storage that doesn't have temperature and humidity controls. 

Linda Gale

Hiding Piano Hinges: If you bi-fold your side wall with piano hinges, the end hinge will be at the back of the house and may not need to be hidden if you leave the back featureless to be up against a wall. The middle hinge should have its pin plate toward the interior of the house and, again, need not be hidden if you align that fold with an interior wall so that, when closed, that edge of the hinge simply reaches into a milled slot in that wall.

If you mount piano hinges to the butt edges of all panels rather than flush on the flat faces of the walls - they will help limit warping. The screws, however, are likely to not hold well screwed endwise into plywood. I would strongly urge you to fully frame the plywood panels with a quality hardwood capping all edges. Use dowels and a top line wood glue such as Gorilla Glue and clamping techniques to prefabricate the hingeable plywood panels.

Install magnets into the shell of the dollhouse to align with iron slugs inset into the wall panels. This will help hold your walls closed and give some added stability against warping even though slight. If the panels are large, you may even inset angle steel the full length of top and bottom edges rather than just slugs. Wherever hinge pin ends are exposed and need to be hidden, make the architectural corner trim removable with inset magnets and slugs to hold it in place OVER the hinges. Lift off the corner trim before opening the hinged panels.

Finally, once your row house is to a point where it VERY seldom needs to be opened, I would suggest screwing the panels closed in several places to (again) provide maximum support against warpage. Hide the screw heads with gingerbread rosettes painted a uniquely different color and leave a note in the house's history log as to how it can be opened up by family archeologists of the future.

Mel K.

Installing Plexiglas on Back of Dollhouse:   I use tracks top and bottom to slide Plexiglas onto the backs of my houses.   If I can't find them sometimes, I make my own from square woodstock strips. If the top floor is a slanted roof, I drill two small holes through plexi and interior walls and use straight pins to stick in the holes to hold this piece on.

Fannye in TX

Installing Plexiglas on Back of Dollhouse:   I use self adhesive Velcro strips from the hardware store.

Tom Berkner

Installing Plexiglas on Back of Dollhouse:   I purchased the Northeastern guttering for dollhouses and glued it to each straight side of the back and if desired it could also be placed at the bottom edge.   The Plexiglas fits perfectly into the gutter openings.

Juanita in Missouri

Installing Plexiglas on Back of Dollhouse:   I use small earth magnets to attach a Plexiglas sheet over the front opening of my dollhouse. The small magnets (about half the size of a baby fingernail) are VERY powerful. I countersink them into the woodstripping of the house, hold the plexi in place, and pop another magnet on top of the plexi and countersunk magnet. Everything holds in place very well. To remove the sheet, the magnets must be slid off sideways instead of being pulled off. Hopes this makes sense. They are very inconspicuous. Earth Magnets are available from Lee Valley Tools, http://www.leevalley.com/   If you do a search for "earth magnets" from their site, you will have a number of results.   Select one of these results (I selected the first result), then select the currency you'd like to view the information in, then you'll get to a page with an image of the magnets along with an explanation as to how they work.

J. Strobel

How to lift the Plexiglas Front for Roombox: Mine came with a small Plexiglas Square glued on it at the bottom. It's handy and is still holding up after 10 years. I suppose you could glue on whatever you wanted for a handle.

JILL

Plexi Front for Roombox: The easiest way to apply Plexi to the front of a room box is to construct a channel to insert it into. This is simply a U shaped piece of wood applied to both sides and the base of the box. The plexi slides into the center of the U. This allows you to raise it up and down........ I often make my own with a piece of 1/4 inch x 1/8 inch basswood glued directly to all 4 sides of the front opening of the box. Use a good strong glue such as Tite Bond. I miter the corners just as if I were applying a frame to a picture........ Follow this with a 1/8" sq. strip of basswood firmly glued to the outer edges of the first board. Only apply this to the sides and base of the front opening of the box. This will be the channel and the size of the wood is determined by the thickness of your plexi.....Complete the channel by gluing either a pretty molding or another piece of 1/4 inch x 1/8 inch basswood to the sides and base. Glue the same molding to the top of your piece of plexi. This will create a handle that makes inserting the plexi easier for you.

Becky Holliday

Cleaning Plexiglass: There is a special cleaner for Plexiglass. Most Plexiglass places have it. I got mine from Iris Broyles at Buffalo Creek minis. Their web site is http://www.bcminiatures.com and email is bison7@bcminiatures.com I also got some great cleaning cloths from them.

Fannye in TX

Printables site in French: here is a beautiful site for printables. Don't worry you don't need to speak French just click away. It does have printable windows and doors, food stickers etc. etc... check it out it is fantastic. http://users.skynet.be/sudene/imprimables.html.

Gisèle Nadeau