Building a Dollhouse, Part 3

There's been a lot of progress on the dollhouse in the past few days, so I'm back with another update. The first order of business was to get the roof on. Here, the main roof and the front gables are being glued and nailed in place. Nails in the front were countersunk, then I filled the holes with joint compound, and once dry, I sanded and touched up the paint.

Originally, I had primed the roof white, like the rest of the house. Then I read that white could show through in between the shingles, so I painted the roof brown. I decided to go with wooden shingles that have an octagonal edge. Since the kit did not include the shingles, I bought two bags of 350 shingles from Hobby Lobby. At first, I was planning to stain the shingles, but decided I like the look of the natural color, which is much lighter than the brown I had painted the roof. The darker color won't show through in between the shingles, but you might be able to see the darker color under the edge of the shingles that are around the outside. So I painted around the edges with a lighter brown, closer to the shingle color. My sweet husband, who has put together the structure of this dollhouse since it required nailing (I don't do nailing), started laying the shingles. He drew guide lines on the roof 3/4" apart with a pencil to mark where the rows of shingles will go. We are using Fast Grab Tacky Glue to glue the shingles in place.

While he was working on the shingles, I started installing the exterior doors, windows, and trim.  Upstairs there's a little balcony.  I glued on the french door, corner molding edge trim, and the balcony railing.  All of the house trim is painted off-white. 

The front door was next.  I had painted the front door the darker Island Blue trim color.  All of the doors and windows have clear plexiglass panes that had to be slid into a slot in the wood before gluing them in place.  You can see some of the shingles strewn about in this picture.  

 I also glued tiny brass and crystal door knobs on the inside and outside of the front door and the balcony french door.  I ordered the knobs from eBay.

Next to go in, was the oval window in the front gable of the roof.

I had been researching how to shingle a dollhouse all week, but I still didn't feel comfortable that I could do it.  Since the shingles didn't need to be nailed in place, I thought I would be gluing them myself. Once my husband finished nailing the last parts of the roof together though, he told me to go get the shingles.  I started telling him all that I had learned about shingling the roof, and his response was "Don't worry, I know how to do this - it's just like a regular size house".   

I am so relieved that he took on this part of the build.  I was really worried about cutting all the shingles to fit into the valleys on this roof.  It's no problem for him though. He can cut the shingles to a perfect fit (it appears without even thinking about it).  It's like second nature to him.

I finished gluing in all ten windows. I used a combination of Fast Grab Tacky along with a few dots of  Zap-a-Gap to glue the doors, windows, and trim.  

All the corners of the exterior got a white corner molding trim.

I wanted to add some more of the Island Blue trim color to the outside of the house.  I found these adorable little shutters at Hobby Lobby and painted them Island Blue.  So to finish off the front trim, I started gluing the shutters in place.

I added four sets of shutters to the outer windows.  The walls around the bay windows aren't wide enough for shutters.  It's easier to buy four sets of shutters than ten sets anyway.  I like the look of the shutters just on the outer windows, and I like the pop of color.  

We got almost half of the shingles done.  My hubby is working today, but hopefully he will have time to work on it some more in the evenings this week.  

Once the roof was on, I was able to work inside on the third floor.  I found a fairy print dollhouse wallpaper on ebay for the third floor.  

I wallpapered the back walls with the fairy print paper and painted the side walls Cottage Rose.

Here's a view of the living room with the front door installed. I still need to add the trim.

Here's the french door upstairs that opens out onto the balcony.

Current view of the inside progress.

The next decision I'm trying to make is what to do with the area on the base in front of the house. I can't figure out if this area is supposed to be a porch or the yard. In the picture on the dollhouse box, it is painted white like a porch, but there is no roof over it like a porch would usually have. There is a fence or railing that goes around the edge that I have painted white. If I make it a porch, I could add some rocking chairs out there, but if I make it the yard, I could add some flower beds with plants. I know I don't want to leave it stained brown the way it is now. I am thinking about doing a flagstone treatment on it or on part of it. I'm not really sure how I could make it look like a yard with grass and flower beds yet.  

What do you think this area should be?  A front porch or the front yard?  I'd love to hear your thoughts and ideas.

I hope you are having a wonderful, blessed weekend!