New Equipment

There is a company that has tools for miniature builders.  It's called MicroMark.  It's a little expensive when it comes to tools but when your building in 1/12 scale you have to be accurate so I purchased a few items for cutting and measuring and a jig as well to make sure my cuts were going to be accurate.  Funny little things actually.  A wood stripper that will cut thin wood as small as an 1/8th of  wide.  Chop-it to help me cut 45 degree angles and a pin vise never heard of those until I started the house but I have discovered that I need them.  I also brought light bulbs for the house.  100 clear grain of wheat side because of course there should be light in my little house.

Been working on smoothing the edges of the saw cuts as well as planing the edges to make them smooth for gluing and nailing so there will be no gaps in my walls or the flooring.  Picked up some fabric to do the upholstered furniture and I read this blog called 1 inch minis and I have to say that reading her has almost furnished my house.  About.com miniature section helps some as well although they are not as detailed as Kris Campas at 1 inch.

I never realized that there were so many people doing them.  There are literally thousands of blogs from the simple to the totally outrageous building of miniature houses.  If we get shrunk to 1/12 scale I have thought at least I would have a comfortable place to sleep.  Not sure about eating however cause although there will be lights no one makes a refrigerator smallest enough to use in the house!

Rain Rain Go Away

It's raining again. so no work on the house.  I don't have a garage nor do I have a work room.  I could probably cut wood and stuff in another room of the house but I guess I am lazy and don't want to sweep or vac the floors so I'll wait for awhile in the hopes that the rain will go away.  The interesting thing that happens here is that it rains with the sun shining.  Happy rain I would think :)

Hmm

You know that thing they say about measure twice and cut once?  Well I've measured 6 times and I am still off.  Not that much about 1/16 or less.  Didn't compensate for the width of the circular saw blade.  I like my circular saw I truly do.  It works most of the time.  The new thing in my arsenal of power tools is my Dremel it now has a cutting wheel that cuts wood.  I ran (ok walked sedately, ok drove my car) over there and picked one up for a reasonable sane cost.  Although I have a serious hard on for a set of cutting wheels by Dura Grit.  That bad boy seems to do everything and it comes in a set of 5 or 7 blades.  It's a little expensive but I am seriously thinking of acquiring it.

I don't particularly care for doing stuff on line, but getting the house up and running seems to be a study of learning from online sources.  I've picked up the wood for the furniture, the cabinetry as well as some of the downloads for wall paper and flooring.  I've purchased (Thank goodness for A. C. Moore) popsicle sticks for a multitude of projects concerning the house which include furniture, windows, doors, stair well and patio doors.  I've managed to acquire some lexan although it is a little to thick for the purpose of windows it was cheaper then the acrylic sheets being offered and I got two of them so they are going to become glass inserts that require them.

To date:  The sides and floors have been cut, The stair well has been cut out. I've purchased triangle beading for the stairs to the second story of the house.  I've made some head way in and I've made a few attempts of making windows.  They were not successful but then I'm learning as I go.  I've started acquiring things for the lighting and discovered that I don't have to use the expensive transformers that are out there I can get one from a local source and avoid that shipping charge and hit the beach as well for an hour of relaxation and contemplating the joys of building this monstrosity.  It at present is 2 sheets of plywood that are 42 3/8" in length and 16 3/8" in width.  pieces of plywood cut to 29"x 16", which has the roof peaks on each side.  I've purchased wooden coffee stirrers which will give me random width wood flooring along with the popsicle sticks they are fortunately the same width and once glued on a sheet of either mat board or 110lbs card stock  to fit the floor and stained I should have beautiful wood floors in my doll house.

As most doll houses have a name, I've named mine the Money Pit. :)

Simple and Easy?

This is the simple plan for the house I want to create.  I'm winging this so far so understand in advance there are going to be mistakes as well as perfection.  I am hoping for the perfection of course but willing to accept that there are going to be ALOT of mistakes.

Being of somewhat sound mind I have decided to build a doll house from scratch.  Oh no not for me the joys of buying a kit to do this insanity,  I must do this with lumber that is laying around the house and using the tools I have to create.

First step learn something about the swamp I am about to immerse myself in.  That means reading and purchasing books on the topic that has become near and dear to my lacking brain cells.

Ok I've read what I should do or think I should do and there are SO many ways to do this, cleaned off the plywood boards left over from a kayak construction project, (yes I was that crazy) dusted off the power tools and purchased a few new ones just to make my madness complete and started on this labor of fascination and love.  I'll post pictures as I get the building cut and dry fitted but for now I'm just letting you know that insanity is Queen and resides in me :)