10 October 2021

The Dolls Houses

 Lake View House

I bought Lake View House in July 2019. It was in a bit of a state.
It hadn’t been put together very well, it was badly glued, dirty, dusty,
slightly broken in places, had marks all over it, and most of the magnet discs were rusty.

It had been neglected for some time. 
I removed the doors and after a thorough inspection my first job was a bit of demolition.

I removed the mezzanine level and spiral stairs

These blue eaves were badly glued to the top of the window and weren’t absolutely properly aligned, which I think was partly responsible for the door not closing properly. I didn’t know whether to leave them or re-do them but because they were so badly glued one was only half stuck and the other practically fell off. I hope I can align them properly.


I should be able to fill and then cover this with roof tiles.

These look much better now the house has been sprayed

There’s no way this was going to be fixed by just putting more glue on it so I pulled it off.
When I re-do it I will put some brackets underneath and attached to the wall for support. 

These railings were in a right mess

badly glued and badly spaced

I removed most of them and re-positioned them.


The doors are damaged and the wood around the pins holding the doors in place are broken. I have 3 options

1: leave them

2: fill with wood filler and work out how to get pins into both door and surround

3: buy new door units.

Option 1 is the easiest. Option 2 will be difficult because the pins holding the door in situ would have been put in place before putting the door into the surround. Option 3 is my preferred choice but with this house I want to see how much I can save by doing things myself. I will decide what to do when I get there.


I’ve cleaned and sanded all the other components.

I filled the holes where the stairs were with circles of foam board

I don’t have a compass so I worked it out by measuring the diameter,
marking a centre dot then 6½ cms each side of it, and kept going

It was almost a perfect fit, needing only minor adjustments.
The first floor needed two to completely fill the hole but the ground floor only needed one
because the main part of the house will be on top of it. I then papered the ceilings prior to spraying.


I filled these grooves, towards the top of the photos, where the mezzanine level had been
and then papered over them before spraying.

After masking the beams it was ready for spraying white. It needed a few coats.  The weather was warm  so I was able to leave it in the shed until I was happy with the coverage. There is a fine layer of dusty/misty spray in the shed now, ideally it should have been done outside but I didn’t want insects to land on it. 


I'm now working on making stairs, which is tasking the little grey cells!


∼ Be safe and well ∼ 
Polly x

18 comments:

  1. That little fixer-upper is looking infinitely better already! I bet the final product will be stunning!

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  2. Quite a building site at the moment, but it should look good when it's finished. I don't think I'd ever have the patience and dexterity to do something like that.

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    1. It is John, my work space expands from the craft room to the dining room table and occasionally the kitchen!

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  3. Wow! Quite a project. I'll be excited to see the finished result.

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    1. I will be relieved to get to the finished result!

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  4. Wow! You have such dedication and patience. I look forward to seeing the end result.

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  5. What an exciting project, Polly! The work you've done so far has made a huge improvement to the structure, and now you have a blank canvas to create an amazing dollhouse! This is going to be so much fun to follow, and I look forward to hearing about your ingenious solutions and ideas going forward! Best of luck with the stairs - I know you can do it!

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    1. Thank you Jodi, I appreciate your comments and encouragement :-)

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  6. I am excited to see the end result! I am sure it will be awesome.

    Happy Wednesday!

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  7. Looks like you're doing a great job of restoration/renovation. It definitely looks better without the spiral stairs and mezzanine. I'm looking forward to your choice of interior furnishings!

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  8. This will be an amazing renovation/restoration, Polly, and like everyone else I too will be looking forward to its completion, not as much as you will, of course. Your patience and attention to detail is amazing!

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    1. Thank you Beatrice :-) I have been working on it today and have realised a few things that I have done wrong, but thankfully can put right before glueing anything!

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  9. That's a lot of work -- and fussy work. But good work. I really appreciate your attention to detail, quality and preservation. It looks so much better. I can't wait to see the next steps.

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  10. Goodness, that is a lot of work ... but it is going to be so worth it in the end.
    Keep going!

    All the best Jan

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