Dollhouse Construction Advice

• Plan on spending many weeks or months on the project. A kit like this cannot be completed in a few weekends.
• Plan on spending much more money on the project than what you pay for the kit. A dollhouse kit is never complete. Sure, you can build it according to the instructions, but the result will not be a complete dollhouse. Many extra things are needed, such as paint, wallpaper, lights and wire (if you decide to electrify the house) and furniture (and maybe a "family of people") to go in it. My kit cost around $40, but so far, I have spent over $300 for supplies to finish it the way I want it.
• Read the instructions provided with the kit. Become familiar with the steps of assembly, but by no means follow them exactly. Sometimes there are other ways of assembling the house that will work better for you. For example, when I assembled the dormer, I attached it to the roof before the roof was attached to the house. I could see no other way of clamping the dormer while the glue dried.

  If you have misplaced the instructions, most companies who make the kit will be happy to send you replacement instructions. Greenleaf has a webpage, www.greenleafdollhouses.com which had address information and how to contact Greenleaf.

• Be sure to sand and putty all the pieces. Sanding is not fun, but it is worth it to take the time to do this step. I sanded on nice days. I sat on the front porch, sanded, daydreamed, and watched the neighbors go by.
• Seal all the pieces of plywood with a mixture of shellac and denatured alcohol. This will help prevent the wood from warping at a later date. Don't apply shellac indoors! It smells really bad. I went into the garage to seal the wood.
• Trial fit everything. Assemble the house, without gluing (use making tape), many times if necessary, to make sure things align. I found many places where the pieces were not cut properly. I am glad I discovered the errors early in the process, because it is a lot easier to trim a piece of wood if one can lay it flat on the work surface.
• Don't use hot-melt glue, which some instructions suggest. I have heard stories of people having problems when they use this glue. I use Elmers carpenters glue. It takes a while for the glue to dry, but there are plenty of other house parts that I can work on while glue dries, so the drying time has not slowed me down much.
• Enjoy the process. Sometimes people are in a hurry to finish a project. In my case, I enjoy the creative process as much as I enjoy the completed project. Take your time. Have fun with it.