__Craft of David Scobey__

 I found the Instruction Warmup Sheet both helpful and amusing.  The amusing part was the bold face instruction, ‘DON’T PANIC!’.  I thought that was appropriate counsel when the box was first opened.   Since I had assembled several kits of various types over the years, I assumed this would not be an insurmountable task, albeit the fact that this was my first doll house assembly.

Furniture:
After reading the instructions, I decided the best approach for me would be to punch out all of the pieces, then sort, sand and paint or stain each piece prior to assembly.   I put the numerous pieces of each small furniture item into individual plastic bags to reduce confusion during assembly.  I recommend immediately identifying and separating each piece when it is punched out due to the similarity of many of the small rectangular furniture pieces.  The process for sanding and painting was as follows:  sand, prime, sand, first coat of paint, lightly sand, final coat of paint.  The furniture pieces that were stained were sanded, then dipped in stain and wiped dry.  I found it easier to dip the pieces in the stain rather than brush on the stain due to their size.

Doll House:
The actual assembly closely followed the instruction sheet.  Since I had painted the pieces before assembly, several of the slots had to be enlarged due to paint build up (a lesson learned).  Another problem I caused myself was not paying attention to the post assembly paint scheme.  For example, I painted the Second Floor a solid color, but portions of the second floor piece become the window sills after assembly, which need to be a different color.  Had I observed this closely, I would have painted the sills the proper color initially.  As it turned out, a steady hand was required later.  A similar problem occurred with a couple of the back walls for the same reason.

I used predominately hot glue for the assembly, with a couple of instances where wood glue seemed appropriate (plastic windows, etc.). 

The shingles were a challenge due to the shape of the roof and the need to keep the shingle lines exactly parallel.  I decided to use a heavy wrapping paper for a template and then decided to apply the shingles directly to the template and glue the paper and shingles to the roof as one piece. I highly recommend this approach because it gives you a much better chance of cutting the proper angles on the shingles.

The target audience for our doll house is our just turned four year old granddaughter.   Consequently, I considered durability during construction.  One deviation I made from the recommended instructions was to mount the Gable Trim directly against the side of the doll house walls.  The appearance is basically the same and it prevents potential breakage of the trim. This decision required the top of the shudders to rest against the gable trim, which gives some depth to the shudder mounting, which we liked.

After the doll house was constructed, my wife got creative with the decorations and created a Christmas motif, since it was a Christmas gift.  She purchased small wreaths for the windows, decorated the tree and placed miniature packages under it.  We added some small gold beads to the secretary type desk to give the impression of drawer pulls.  She also upholstered the wing chairs, which gave a nice effect.

The final touch was building a platform on which to sit the doll house allowing space for miniature plants and garden implements, which my wife added to spruce up the grounds.  We placed the doll house on the platform and the platform on a small plastic turntable to allow our granddaughter access to all sides without having to place the doll house in the center of a room.

Overall, it was a pleasurable experience and a lot of fun adding all of the extra decorating items.  The smile on our granddaughter’s face on Christmas morning dimmed the memory of all of the sanding and painting. 

Congratulations to Mr. & Mrs. Scobey for a job well done!