January 29th - Day 29/336 days to go!

I spent today doing the interior walls (Step E) on the first and second floor. This is also the step where the front piece should go on but I have dry fit it and will install it after I do some work on the wiring. I did ensure that I left the right amount of space so I can install it a little later without having to much trouble.

I also did Step F which is installing the third floor interior walls. And....it's looking more and more like a house now!

Step G is the chimney. I have punched out the pieces and am disappointed in how the chimney gets installed. Part of the chimney is included on sheet 9 as the left wall of the house. This piece has the opening for the bay on the first floor (left side), a second floor window....and the left wall of the chimney. My opinion is....and yes, I'm not shy about expressing it is.....what were they thinking???? I'm sure they could have made the left wall similar to the wall on the other side of the house and then the chimney could have been on its own and installed as one whole separate piece. This would have made it much easier to finish. Now it has to be finished while it is attached to the house. I know this may not sound like a big deal....but....if someone wanted to say....brick it....or make it look like a stone chimney....they have to work keep moving the whole house around while they apply spackle or brick. Being attached to the house is fine if all one wants to do is paint it but that isn't what I want to do. I'm annoyed....but I'm hoping that while I'm sanding the chimney pieces, I'll cool off and come up with a finishing plan.

While the glue for the interior walls was drying and I was punching out the chimney pieces, I also finished the two chairs to go with my parlour sofa. I dug around in my "maybe" box again and found a coffee table too! More white paint and it doesn't look too bad. I'm going to try to use up as much as I can from that "maybe" box. I hadn't been in it is quite a while and I'd definately forgotten what was in it. It was almost like Christmas again.

I'm also going to mention sanding. No, I'm not going to complain but I have found something that works better than just plain ole sandpaper. When I was going to start the dollhouse, I went to Walmart and bought three new nail files. Not the regular kind....these are 7 1/2" long x 3/4" wide x 1/16" thick. They have sandpaper on both sides and thin foam in the middle....and only cost $2.97 each. I am still using my first one and I've already done lots of sanding! They are easy to hold and fit perfectly into the slots so they can be sanded easily. They also give you a straight edge when sanding the tabs. I love them! I've been using them for many years and they really are convenient. And....if you happen to break a nail while doing minis....they are right there ready to fit that too! I do have sanding pads that are 3" wide x 4" long x 3/4" thich with sandpaper on one side and foam on the other and I do use them to sand the larger areas.

So, I think I accomplished a fair bit today and it finally looks like I've done something LOL.