Dumbwaiter - My motor did not need to reverse. It was mounted in the attic of the building. Think of a rectangle for the attic floor. Mount the motor in the very middle of the attic floor front to back. Mount an arm on the motor, say a piece of aluminum that is ½" wide by 4" long that swings around the motor. Drill a hole in the far end of the arm, tie cord to arm and top of dumbwaiter. As the motor and arm go around the cord gets pulled to and fro the dumbwaiter and it goes up and down.

DUTCH DOORS:   Standard doors may be cut for Dutch doors IF they are not mid panel at the height you plan to cut (Usually about 33 to 40 scale inches.  Cut an extra 1/16" out and install a small "shelf" on the lower section. If cutting a single door will not work, look at using sections from two doors. Completely rehinge both sections  Except in the earliest architectural periods, Dutch doors usually look most appropriate if the top half has a window. I have never seen a "tall" door of this type. You are correct that the knob and locks usually belong to the bottom half. Don't forget to suggest a vertical sliding "bolt" to latch the top half to the bottom when you want them working together.

Dutch doors are very common where cross ventilation is desirable while maintaining  some degree of closure to deny access to chickens, dogs, and vagabond beggars. Kitchens, workshops, carriage houses, and tiny shops that sell through the doorway" are familiar settings for these charming portals.

Mel Koplin

Wattle and Daub: Wattle is the intertwined sticks that are placed in a wall between the posts (kind of like lath for plastering).  Daub is the mixture of clay, sand and dung that is smeared (daubed) into and over the wattle to make the wall.

Tom Berkner

Wattle & Daub:  There's a great website that shows a cottage with wattle and daub walls under construction --

Popular Cottage contstruction - thatch - wattle and daub

Anita Myers, Arnold, MD

Drawing Dollhouse Plans: You don't have to limit yourself to 3 stories if you're wanting LOTS of rooms... Charleston's homes on the Battery have 5 stories (best I remember it was 4 stories and a half above-ground basement) so you could go even higher if you want LOTS of rooms!! Makes sense to me. That way you get lots of rooms and still not take up much footage. These houses were also 1 and 2 rooms deep...very easy to pattern a dollhouse after. They are what we would call "sideways" on their lots, meaning the long "front" of the house is usually to the left (South) inside a fenced courtyard and you are looking at the short "end" from the street. (The reason for this was to catch the coolest breezes. By the houses being only 1 or 2 rooms deep, this helped to cool all the rooms.) Sometimes a regular house door was used to get inside the courtyard to go to the house to knock. I found these houses fascinating. So if you want even more rooms, go ahead and add more stories! And have fun!!

Rita Pierce

Wattle & Daub: We were using wattle and daub here in the UK, long before the Romans brought over cement.  As well as mud, we used dung and hay, so the buildings must have been really smelly.

Hazel in Aberdeenshire, Scotland

Slanted Wall: I went on a Christmas candlelight tour of homes this last weekend. I toured an 1800's home where there was a bathroom on the second story that had a slanted wall. The owners had taken a large piece of lace and attached it at the top of the wall and the bottom of the slant. When they attached it they had gathered the lace. It really looked wonderful. It looked like a curtain that you would put on a door that has a window in it and the curtain would be on spring rods at the top and bottom.

Tracey

Wattle and Daub: Wattle and daub is an ancient technique used for constructing houses, especially in areas where there was no suitable stone. It was used as an  infill in timber framed houses. first a 'wattle' made of woven hazel or  willow was put up, then plastered over with daub. Daub was often made with  dung. It was painted with limewash, distemper or something similar.  It's found in houses from the early middle ages (1066), and nobody really  knows how long it had been in use before that, although I suppose a good  archaeologist could give you an estimate.

Lynne Connolly

Slanted wall revisited: Don't know why I never thought to share this "odd" solution to the slanted wall I used on the very first dollhouse I ever worked on. Hubby had built our daughter a double sided dollhouse with an attic when she was five. After she "fledged" off into the world, I decided to "gussie it up" a bit as a surprise. I had no idea that there was a miniature world out there to help me. The attic with its non-existent wall in had me stumped for a while... until I decided to build triangular boxes of heavy mat board that fit down under the eaves. The tall flat side makes a wall that I "papered" to become the back wall of the room. The box that slides under the eaves hold the flotsam and jetsam of "stuff" that will be used "someday". Those boxes solved two problems, storage and a wall.

Sammy (I'm a girl) Smith

Stone Fireplace: I am in the process of making a stone house and plan on adding stone fireplaces. I covered a basic 3/8" plywood house with Durham's putty (like icing a cake) and carved stones with a dentist tool. Durham's putty is a dry powder to which you add water. You have to add white vinegar in addition to water to keep it from setting up too fast. I worked on one side at a time. I primed the entire house prior to adding the putty. After everything dried well, I painted the stones a medium gray (for the grout) and now I am dry-brushing each stone with several stone colors and they are beginning to look real! I plan on making a fireplace out of wood and then "icing" it with putty as well.

Laurie Clendenen

Stone Fireplace: I made a stone fireplace many years ago for a log cabin and I used bass wood from the hobby store to make the basic shape. I covered it with FixAll or any of the other wall patching compounds and added small gravel that I had collected in the driveway. Most stone fireplaces are not done with small rocks... usually they are quite large so you don't need really tiny gravel and I found lots of ½ to 3/4" quite easily.

Dorothy

Ornate Ceilings:  If an ornate ceiling is appropriate for your mini room, consider paper doilies such as are offered in the party section of the local general store or cake decorating supply. It is easiest if you can turn the whole dollhouse (or room box) downside up. Lay out one doily in the middle of the room. Work quarters of doilies in the corners. Cut - snip - play around - and fantasize until you have an arrangement you like. Consider where you may run wires through from the floor above (below) for chandeliers, ceiling mounted spot lights, fans, etc. You may also want to include ceiling medallions at these fixtures Once you have a plan, drill any wire holes, make a sketch and remove the doilies but arrange them identically on a table or posterboard off to the side.

Prep your ceiling by filling imperfections, sanding, and apply a coat of primer paint. If you decide to "cove" the ceiling to wall joint, fit cove molding and blend to the woods with your chosen spackle or filler.  Apply a fine coat of quality primer paint. When the primer is fully cured, use a quality adhesive to secure your doilies in place.  You can "deepen" the effect of the paper decorations by building up several layers but this is seldom necessary to achieve a nice subtle effect. Finally, finish with a flat or semi gloss paint. After everything is dry, connect your lamp wiring while the ceiling is still in the down position. Working overhead is usually far more difficult

A side note: When purchasing or building light fixtures, don't forget to consider the play of light patterns and shadows that the fixture will cast onto ceilings, walls, floors, and furnishings. A single elegant chandelier with numerous lamps, branches, and garlands of crystal prisms may occupy a very small part of a ceiling but project fascinating patterns from wall to wall. The intrusion of additional decoration such as my party doilies may actually conflict. Sometimes, less is more.

Mel Koplin

Ceilings: I have used paper toweling for ceiling paper.  Some of it looks like the old tin ones. I paint it both sides and install on a separate template or right to the ceiling.  If it has a joining visible, I use a beam to cover it.  Most of them are fairly invisible.

Carol j Shea

Ceilings: On one of my dollhouse ceilings (I was doing the room in a seashore theme) I used some fishnet and added real mini shells, starfish, seahorse, etc.  I draped the fishnet across the ceiling.   I also used mini seashells (sifting sand on a Florida beach), to frame a mirror for the wall.

Billie

Bates House:  A company here in the U.S. used to make the Bates House in addition to several other houses from well known movies and TV shows. Here is the info I have from one of their old catalogs:

Opening Scene Replicas

4356 Falcon Crest Drive

Flowery Branch, GA  30542

(404) 967-0697

I don't know if they are still in business but if you are unable to get in touch with them, I do have one of their old catalogs which gives the diagram of the floor plan if you'd like to build from scratch.

I know someone built this house and it was featured in an older issue of either Nutshell News (now Dollhouse Miniatures) or Miniature Showcase (which is no longer in publication).

Kathy in TX

"peak shingles" on the roof--go outside and look at a real shingled roof (or look in a builders' or architectural magazine)and you will "get it" right away--real roofs have a row of lateral shingles to shed real water from the peak and protect the tarpaper from sunrot.  However, since we rule our miniworld, we can take some liberty with details.  Try both and see which you like.  On small cottages, I like just a short row, butted together at the peak.  On a heftier house, I like the real deal.  I guess it depends on whether your general philosophy is right- or left- brained!

Xmas Carol

Salt box: I'm not an expert, but what I do know is that the early saltbox had these traits: a room with a brick cooking wall, hearth, bread oven and such. Also in the living room a fireplace, formal, with chair rail if the family could afford it, and almost always, exposed roof beams to hold up the other floor.

The library has a treasure trove of this historic structure. My library has in its art dept.

Susan

In the course of designing a couple of RL houses in the past few years, I've found that the easiest off-the-shelf architectural design software is 3-D Home Architect by Broderbund.  You can draw the basic outline of the floorplan pretty easily, add windows and doors, make your open walls invisible, add second or even 3rd story, put on a basic roof, then view it all in 3d, move through it too if you like. There are some basic furnishings you can put in and move about, and basic wall/floor colors.

If you have a complicated roof, I've found it simpler just to make a print-out of the 3-D elevation and sketch in the roof myself, as the roof design procedure, being meant for RL building, is fairly complex.  (Also, you will be unlikely to find any sample plans in any architectural software that can be used for a dollhouse; they are all made as samples of RL houses and way too complicated to edit--easier just to start drawing your dollhouse from scratch, IMO.)

There are other inexpensive non-pro CAD-like programs, but the others I've tried, Sierra Home Design and AutoDesk Home Designer, do not build the stories on top of one another, so you don't get a full 3-D view of the whole thing.

JJ

Fireplace Construction: The fireplace in my log cabin was made from a base of old Styrofoam that I cut and glued together to form the shape and size I wanted. Then to the amusement of my neighbors, I went out to my driveway and gathered appropriate sized rocks.

I looked for ones that were somewhat flat. I glued them onto the base, pressing them into the Styrofoam so they were all somewhat level to each other. Then I mixed up a slurry of plaster of Paris with a touch of grey paint added in. I painted it all over the whole thing and worked it in good. When it was semi set up, I used damp paper towels to wipe the excess off the rocks. When it was dry, I used a candle to put a smoky soot coating inside the fireplace. I added a wooden mantle (I planned ahead and left the Styrofoam plain there.) I usually prefer to create something custom like this that fits my exact needs, and it's way cheaper when you use stuff you have already. This one cost me $0.00!

Bonnie

Sue Cook: I have a few Sue Cook pieces, including a fabulous fireplace, that I bought in England and thought other people in this group might like to have Sue's address. Here it is:

Cheryl Kerfoot