Remodeling a Duracraft Heritage Dollhouse - part 1

 I built this dollhouse 30 years ago, it's the first dollhouse I ever built, and it's been sitting in my basement or attic for the past 20 years since my daughter moved out. It's over 40" long and almost covers my old dining room table. The outside still looks pretty good, only one piece of trim, a few shingles and a narrow bit of roof at the back have fallen off.

The inside, however, doesn't looks so great. Wallpaper is peeling, and since I didn't know what I was doing some of the interior detailing was pretty rough and not up to my now standards.

So....I decided to remodel. The angled stairs came loose fairly easily, but getting them out was a challenge. Amazingly I finally managed to get them out in one piece. ...Later I pulled off all the railings because I never liked them anyway. ....Later I decided I wasn't going to reuse the staircase after all.

When I pulled off the wallpaper in the addition I was surprised to find some duct tape. Once I yanked out the knee wall I could see why it was there. I didn't have a piece of plywood big enough to make the addition's roof, so I butted 2 pieces of plywood together and reinforced the seam with duct tape.

 

That evening I kept thinking about changing the staircase, so I went up to my workroom, and an hour and a half later I had this. 

 I saw that the second floor board was in two pieces, and since the windows looked terrible and needed replacement, I decided to remove the front section of the floor. Then, heart in my mouth, I started to try and remove the french door window. It wasn't easy. Amazing how some things will pop off without too much trouble and other things have to be chiseled off. I keep wishing I had a miniature Sawzall (reciprocating saw) which will cut through walls in a zip. We have a big one down in out basement workshop. We've done all sorts of remodeling on our homes over the years.

BEFORE I FORGET:

When remodeling your miniature home, use a blow dryer to help remove those glued on carpets, moldings and window parts, etc. My blow dryer got a workout in this demo. I just pointed the blower at what I wanted to unglue and pushed the button, then let the hot air do it's thing of softening the glue. Sometimes the things popped right off, sometimes I still had to fight to get them off. I did a really good job at gluing the shelves and steps in the addition's ground floor. It was a real battle. I had to use the blow dryer, a putty knife, an artist's palette knife, a Stanley knife and 2 old butter knives before I managed to get those suckers loose. Obviously I build to last. 

Oh yes, I found myself a new tool for zipping through cardboard with ease. I tried it on a bit of 1/16" basswood too.  Fiskars Power Cut Scissors. They're equipped with sharp little teeth.

Stairs

For many of us, the staircase can be a dilemma. For one thing, they do take up quite a bit of room that could otherwise be used for displaying assorted mini goodies like sofas, cabinets and whatnot.

The question often arises; is it ok if I leave the stairs out? Well, as ever, it's up to you. 

I've found myself building sometimes complicated staircases that I knew would barely be seen, or even never seen. I just get caught up in the moment of creativity, and later ask myself why am I doing this? Usually the thing is over half built before I ask myself that question, so I carry on and finish them.

This time, however, I'm doing something different. The stairs will be there, on the other hand, they won't.

This is the addition I built for the house. It used to hold a big kitchen and an oversized bathroom. There used to be a few steps down to the kitchen from the dining room, and a short flight up from the landing of the main staircase in the dining room to the bathroom

I spent quite a bit of time with pen and paper desiging a new set of stairs that would start on a landing just outside the dining room, that would lead to the bathroom floor and the 2nd floor of the main house. I would have needed to remove the floor between the kitchen and bathroom and cut a bigger hole for the stairs, which I did not want to do. Then I realized there would be just enough space for pantry shelves in the kitchen if I walled up the end of the new staircase. No one would ever see the dang thing! Wonderful! I don't even have to build it! I'll just add a door in the right spot in the bathroom, and 2 or 3 steps down to the kitchen and it's done? See how I drew in the future pantry shelves?

I'll just need to extend the roof by about 3 to 4 inches. I may have just enough leftover shingles to do it.

Now it'll have a regular sized kitchen and bath. 

The only visible part of the staircase will be where it emerges through the wall and up to the second floor. I propped up the old attic stairs and a piece of plywood to give you an idea of how it'll work.

Next I'll be getting back to the original part of the house. I've resigned myself to the fact that I'm going to have to remove all the windows and make new ones. Sigh.........

I guess I'll have to do a new door too. I took a quick look at doors I could buy, and none of them look like they'd fit.

My other big pain in the neck are the veneer floorboards. Quite a few have curled up along the edge leaving me with a lumpy floor. The thing is, I'm pretty sure the instructions said to glue down the floor before building the walls, and so my floorboards run under the exterior walls, and they are REALLY glued down well. But....stanley, putty and palette knives in hand, I shall venture forth and rip out those suckers somehow.  My husband always calls them Stashie knives. Stanislaus - Stanley - Stashie, I guess.