Getting Paint to stick: I would like to suggest you use high- adhesion primer if your paint won't stick. It will even stick to plastic. I use it for everything, just to be sure. As far as I know, you can only get it at real paint stores, so you would have to get a liter minimum. But that liter will last just about a lifetime

Pat M, London, ON

Thatching: a few years back Nutshell/DHM had an article on using luffa sponge as thatch. Directions weren't very complex or extensive. Basically, buy a bunch of luffas at the dollar store, cut into strips, apply tacky glue to roof, and position luffa strips, pushing them tightly together to merge and disguise the "seams." Effect wasn't truly realistic thatching, but did have a nice rustic fantasy look. Can be spray or sponge painted afterward to increase the realism.

Loretta

Victorian Doorbell: I grew up next door to a Victorian house with one of these round doorbells she described. The front door was huge, about 10 feet tall with wavy-glassed double Gothic arch windows that took up about two- thirds of it, and two pairs of wood panels below the windows, separated by moldings. Looked a lot like the door on the Arthur kit! The round doorbell was set into the molding between the two upper wood panels, which set it slightly below the doorknob. It could be installed on the door instead of the jamb because it was mechanical, not electrical. Turning the key wound a spring that operated a striker like the ones in grandfather clocks that hit the round bell on the inside surface of the door.

Loretta.Sniarowski

Victorian Doorbell: My life-size house was built in the 20's and is a build-it-yourself job from the Sears catalog; so it's not really a Victorian more a cross between bungalow and craftsman, BUT we had exactly the kind of doorbell you're talking about. It was installed right thru the wood door, over the knob.

Karyn

Victorian Doorbell: The doorbell on our last full-sized house had that doorbell (we still have it!). It was centered in the horizontal center horizontal panel of the door, just beneath the glass insert, which would have made it about 2/3 of the way up from the bottom. It was a two-panel door, with window above.

Noel & Pat Thomas

Victorian Door Bell: I remember my grandmother's was located in the middle of the front door which I suppose, for adults, was about waist high.

Bobbie

Victorian door bells: I wrote to a Victorian Architectural group and asked if they could tell me where Victorian Door Bells were located and this is the answer I recvd:

-- vintrest {vintrest1@msn.com} wrote: Victorian doorbells come in several configurations. The two most common are the twist-type and the pull- lever type. The pull types seem to be slightly older,(1860's-1890) but that is just based on my experience, not on documented proof. The twist type(like she described) seem to be more common from about 1880 and later only to be replaced increasingly by the electric doorbell in the 1890's.

As for placement, the most common locations are on the door framing- to the right of the door (like on my home)or, in the middle of the center panel of a door, below the glass, if the door had glass. The height also seems to be a bit lower than we are accustomed to today so that a young child could reach the doorbell, about 36" from the bottom of the door or less. Hope this will help. John "

Sherry in Arlington, TX

Painting tiny plastic pieces: Just spray with some primer. The cheaper the better, usually. I like Krylon. One teacher uses double stick tape to hold down tiny pieces to spray.

Laurie Sisson

Dollhouse kits: A tip that has worked well for me--To strengthen corners and other "structural" areas, I have used brown paper, even a grocery bag, with fibers in it cut to size, covered with glue and plastered right to the plywood. I have used this method to hold small pieces of plywood to the structure when I have decided to eliminate a window as well. When dry, this makes a very strong bond. It can even be sanded, then primed before you paint or wall paper over it.

Jacqueline_Ridout

Nail Polish Use: When I was unpacking some teapots made from beads which I hadn't seen for about 5 or 6 years (thanks to Joann S for the how-to), they were the ugliest colour you'd ever seen. I'd used clear nailpolish over pink acrylic paint. The nailpolish had yellowed. You could see where the nailpolish was thicker/thinner by the amount of yellowing. Yuk.

Heather in Toronto

Roombox Tavern: - just built a 1750's tavern roombox, and I don't know how to finish the top of the box. I framed the front and finished the sides in upright timbers and chinking, but what do you do with the top......all I've ever made before were actual buildings, not roomboxes.

Lynn (No E)

Wallpaper: I also had problems finding wallpaper that I liked here in the UK, on a visit to my local DIY shop (focus) I found a solution. The DIY shop had a sale on full size wallpaper, so I bought some rolls with a very small pattern on and some with a stripe and some with a self coloured pattern, I also bought some borders that were also reduced in price. With the borders I did not use the whole thing but at the edges of the rolls was a mini sized design so I cut the edges off and used these as my 'mini' borders, the middle of the border I threw away, so for around £1 per roll I managed to decorate my house with lots to spare, I also was able to buy some paper with a small embossed pattern on which I used for papering my ceilings they look great. I used two different types of wallpaper for each room one at the top and one at the bottom with some of the 'mini' border in the middle. So have a look around the DIY places in your local stores, its worth a visit.

Ann Littler, Oxford UK

White-washed wood: You can take regular acrylic white paint and thin it with water. Brush on and wipe back with a soft cloth. Use a piece of scrap wood and play with different ratios of paint & water until you find the one that matches.

Teddi

Gutters and down spouts: I tend to question the use of drinking straws to represent downspouts. My own experience with full sized homes since WW2 has been that downspouts are usually rectangular rather than round in cross section. I have occasionally seen round pipes in some commercial applications and I am sure that this was sometimes used for early houses. But, even late 19th century photographs frequently show rectangular tubes or boxes leading to the cisterns. For fine scale modeling, it seems that the straws' primary advantages are that they are hollow and have very interesting corrugations at "the bend".

IN MINIATURE: Hollow is not so essential except, perhaps, at the very ends. Use rectangular wood with the corners mildly radiused. At the very ends where hollow may be desirable, carve down the last half inch by the thickness of thin brass shim stock. Wrap with the brass leaving an appropriate length of hollow overlap. At bends, miter and glue-assemble separate pieces then use a round jewelers file to grove for those corrugations. Hide brass to wood transitions with straps holding your spout in place. Where round metallic tube DOES prove to be appropriate, try an R/C model airplane and race car supply store for real copper or aluminum tubing which is more substantial than most straws and can really be bent to required shapes (NOTE: shove a piece of solid wire inside at bending locations to prevent crimping.) For wooden "pipes", use ordinary doweling. Soda straws do fit the ticket as "found art" which is a foundation of the joy in DIY dollhousing.

Mel

Log Cabin:   A couple of years ago my brother in law made log cabins for my sister and I..Hers was finished with Min Wax stain and polyurethane, with very neat rows of chinking between the logs...looks like one of the new log homes in the magazines...

Mine was coated with Thomas's Bug Juice to give it that old grey look and sort of pushed in chinking to make it look like it had been sitting in the woods for ever.

We both used a wood filler from Home Depot...can't think of the brand...brown white and black label...we used white...it dries to a dull pale off white. If you have seen old log buildings with chinking still hanging in there the color is perfect..Sometimes you just luck out. Both of them are great if I do say so myself and a little praise for my baby sister...You wouldn't believe to look at them now that they had started out identical.

Annamarie, Stuart, Florida

Anita....Bel Air, MD

Removable walls: My husband and I design and build unusual dollhouses.   Our solution is to affix moldings in such a way as to permit tilting the wall to one side, allowing you to slide it out. If the wall is coming straight back, you can permanently affix the moldings on both sides (but don't attach wiring to the walls you plan on moving!).  If the wall is at an angle to the back, you will need to make the moldings on one side removable (or just movable).  Good luck!

Sherry Burrill

Little Debbie Scene: what if you built a box out of foamcore or matboard, then cut and taped segments of the edges around the top of several Little Debbie boxes together for a frame.  Then have the frame color-copied at a Kinko's or your local printing place so you get a solid, neat piece, spritz with clear acrylic fixative, cut out a window in the middle, back the window with acetate or glass, and glue to the box front once you have decorated the study scene?   That would allow you to change the proportions to something better suited to 1:12.  Or you could accept the size of the standard Little Debbie package, reinforce it with matboard and do the scene in 1:16 or 1:24 scale.

Loretta.Sniarowski

Little Debbie Scene: Do you have the Little Debbie box? The trick is to get it into the computer.  Disassemble the box carefully lay it on the floor and photograph it with a digital camera. Now, if you don't have one of these you will need to Photograph it and take it to Kinko's to be copied and sized. From the camera to the computer. Put it into PaintShop or similar application. Size and clean it. Print it onto craft paper for the computer...also great for greeting cards, making card games etc. Cut it out. Use small, sharp scissors. Then using your X-acto craft knife and a small ruler LIGHTLY score the places you will be folding. Fold and glue your box. Should look rather professional. It shouldn't need stuffing...unless you want to put in some small cakes!

Laurie Sisson

Little Debbie vignette:  you could try to do something similar to what I did. I needed to cover my laundry/basement Roombox. It was 9 1/2 x 13 and none of the Tide boxes were large enough. I disassembled the boxes(I used two). I soaked the cardboard for a while and the paper separated from the cardboard backing. I then applied the paper on the box and decoupaged it. Looks very good. Perhaps you could construct your Roombox the size you want for the vignette and use a similar technique.

Pearl