Slate Roof:  you can make pretty convincing "slate" tiles just by using Formica. The reverse side is slate color.   So, just cut it up into little rectangles and Bingo!

Rosemary in Cleveland

Log cabin flooring and chinking: For the floor, and the chinking, I’d use air-drying clay and paint it with watercolors to get the right effect: dark brown, smooth packed earth (maybe even plan your furniture placement and put in slight indentations where people would regularly walk and sweep?) for the log cabin floor and a lighter colorfor the chinking.

Maura Bass

Chinking: For the chinking, get a tube of latex caulk.   It comes in white, ivory, clay, gray, well, you get the idea.   Cut the end very small and adjust if needed.   Remember that removing a very small portion of the end creates a big hole!  squeeze it out and smooth with a wet finger.

Martha Simpson

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.

Now I tell you how to build a clock in response to being asked what time it is. - - - - - - - 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.

Rustic floor ideas: Early cabins often had dirt floors.   The dirt would get pounded down pretty hard over time, and the floor could be swept.  Slightly more affluent might be rough boards laid atop the dirt or on poles.  Knots and gaps might give this floor character.  Nicer cabins would have smoother boards well fastened down. You could just say your cabin was built "chinkless"; a technique where each log is gouged out to fit atop the previous one.  They are chinked, but it's hidden between the well-fitted logs.  If you want the chinking to show, how about some heavy thread or string soaked in glue and shoved between the logs.  You could paint or dye the string and let it dry before gluing.

Lee Steiconi

Rustic floors for log cabins.   It is little known that many log cabins had dirt floors covered with (get this!) a layer of animal blood.  The blood from butchering a large animal would be coated on the pounded dirt as if it was paint.   This, amazingly, created a smooth, almost rubbery coating on the dirt that was much easier to sweep and keep clean.   (Obviously it had to be a very thick layer and flies had to be kept away until it was completely dry).    I am not suggesting that anyone open a vein for the sake of realism, but perhaps a maroon (or oxblood) colored paint on a layer of fine dirt would do the trick.  I wonder if the term 'oxblood' as a color comes from this practice.

Evelyn in Canada

Log cabin floor:  you could put paper clay on the floor of your log cabin, after sealing the wood floor, and paint the paper clay brown once it has dried.  Then you have a dirt floor, which would be very in keeping with a rustic log cabin.

Mary in MS

Puncheon floors for cabins: If anyone wants more information on puncheon floors, they are mentioned in one of the "Little House" books by Laura Ingalls Wilder.  I believe it may be Little House on the Prairie, but am not sure. Laura describes in great detail how her Pa built their cabin, including the chimney (mud-and-stick above the stone base) and the puncheon floor, which was logs cut in half and set in the dirt floor round side down. It was smoothed down w/his axe for splinters, but otherwise had no finish. Also describes how he roofed the cabin with lengths of wood. Very interesting--there are drawings of the cabin and outside in the books at well.

Laurie from N. Calif

Thatching: This is my favorite reference site for thatched roof styles. http://members.tripod.co.uk/thatcher/Photo.htm It takes a while loading but it's worth it.

Sally Cook-Thomas

Southern Plantations: Living in the south has shown me that most plantation houses were indeed white (sometimes white brick and sometime red brick)but usually white. I have never seen marble columns on any of the old houses here. Here are a couple links to some famous Southern Plantations that might help. http://www.igma.org/2/sub_education_school2002.html
http://www.destrehanplantation.org

Dale

Reference material: I have found a site that may help with visual references, (whist planning, building and finishing projects). - I am sure someone was asking about barns and architecture fairly recently. Any way it is available at: http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/

Most, if not all of the counties of England are available, are many"eras " of historical architecture. (and there are some great pictures too!) The site belongs to English Heritage and is added to frequently. I hope this helps someone out there with ideas.

Chris, from Lancs. UK

Porch colors: let me share with you a problem I had with a life-size house. I wanted to redo our porch. So I started out by going out and on purpose paying attention to every porch I saw. I even looked around in the capitol city where I worked and thought I would come up with fertile ideas to copy. NOT! I discovered here in the heart of NH that either people are afraid to try something different or they are very conservative. The porches were either white or the same color as the house.

So I read a book on porches and found an idea I liked. All the trim and wood on a vertical plane, make a color close to the house--either lighter or darker and all the horizontal planes make another color contrasting color and make the door a punch-out color. Here is what I did. I make three quick sketches of the porch lightly in pencil and then tried three color schemes using colored pencils. I found this way a little time consuming, but the one to go with was very obvious. I asked each family member and there was consensus. IN the end I did the vertical pieces a deep yellow gold and the horizontal was a deep teal and the door was a deep red (not bright). That means that I did the floor the same deep teal. I liked the natural look of the ceiling ship lathing and stained it a golden oak. Now when we need to direct someone to our house, we tell them about the porch. And who said you could not make mutton taste like lamb or make a silk purse out of a sow's ear!!!!

Gary in NH

Pepperwood Farm: I thought I had the book for the dollhouse plans that you are requesting. Went through my books and do not have that one but I do have the Windflower Manor - 1976 & the Concord - 1976. The plans that you are looking for are probably written by the same person. Her name is Jacqueline Kerr Deiber. She is a very popular lady in the Chicagoland area because she use to put on the "Fling" shows. You might be able to contact her or Craft Publications,Inc. 1450 Kelton Drive, Stone Mountain, Atlanta, Georgia 30083.

Joni

Biltmore Estate: If you want to see how the "other half" used to live, go to http://www.biltmore.com and take a gander. Wow!

Dani

Nailheads: I am a new webby from N.Z. Just read your problem nailhead letter. I made a stone cottage - using real rock pieces - with a corrugated roof and my nail heads were made with little blobs - dots or what ever you like to call them - with liquid lead. Seems to hold its shape and looks quite realistic.

Lyn Wilkins.

Choosing Paint Color Help: We went down to the Home Depot to purchase some paint and I found this neat program put out by Glidden paint company. It allows you to choose interior or exterior shots and you add color to the walls, ceilings, trim and furniture.
It cost about $5.99 plus tax. It does not have to be placed on your hard drive it runs from the CD.
I have problems choosing color that go together and this program seems like it will help. You might check it out. If you don't have The Home Depot you might check out other companies that handles Glidden paint they might carry it.

Sclarise

heating devices:
> Now, does anyone know when fireplaces began to be used? I always thought it was sometime in the 15th or early 16th century--any medievalists out there who can correct me? <
- In England, it was the 12th and 13th century, when the climate turned colder, and the English vineyards died.

> Also, the ceramic stoves that were used in the Low Countries and Scandinavia--is there a stovepipe attached? < - They were usually attached to a chimney. They were also used in the high countries like Bavaria and Austria.

Tom & Kari

Slate: In response to an earlier comment. We carry both English (probably Welsh) slate, and Vermont slate roofing. The English is rectangular and dark grey. The Vermont is hexagonal and multi-colored. The best way I have found to cut the slate is using a rubberized abrasive wheel in my Jarmac table saw. My diamond saw also works ok, but is very messy.
http://www.dollhouse-miniatures.com

Tom Berkner

Slate Roofs: Microcosm Miniatures
http://www.microcosm-miniatures.com.au/cart/ sells moulded plastic slates on a roll. I had the idea of real slates for my church but the weight would have been too much for the MDF roof so I looked around and Microcosm carry this roll stuff. It is on a strip, moulded to resemble slate and comes in grey slate and a red/brown slate for decorative accents. It glues on along the top which is then hidden by the next row sort of like shingles. My MDF church roof has roof trusses to support it but it would still have sagged (apparently) under the weight. We have some huge bits of slate about an inch or so thick that were used originally for crazy paving in the garden, so I asked stonemason about cutting slices to size for me. He laughed and then tried (unsuccessfully) to cover his smirk when he realized I was serious. Men! It was a darn good idea at the time!

Trace, Melbourne, Australia

Paper lace. I assume she means paper doilies. I think if you decoupaged or glued some to bedroom furniture (head and foot boards and drawer fronts) it could then be painted and would look like carved wood decoration. You could actually glue it around curved surfaces since it's thin. I used gold paper foil to make a Roman soldier's breastplate and armor and it looks pretty good.

Paulette in IN