Reassurance Required!

[rootyboots]

Originally Posted by juliec

Hiya,

im on my first house as well! what i did was fully assemble it, mark the edges of all walls /floors etc decide what was going where and label it all.

then took it apart , papered the main walls reassembled it, cut flooring to fit.

took it apart and had a melt down!!

im now slowly doing it a little at a time.

Lighting is easy with the socket strip method, i was totally terrified but tonight i managed to light the basement all by myself!

goodluck, enjoy and have fun.

Sounds like you have a similar method to me! I did the dry build, marked everything out, took it apart, decorated, and now I'm putting it together again. Or, I'm about to! I hope I don't have a meltdown What was your meltdown about?!

Congratulations on your lighting! I'm very nervous about doing that part... it seems so fiddly! But I haven't actually even opened the box with my lighting set in it, yet, so perhaps I'm panicking too soon. I've heard lots of people say it's easy, so I guess I'll see how I get on. I have the socket strip method set, too.

Today I've finished almost all of the decorating, and I'm hoping to re-build tomorrow. The only bits still to do are the opening door parts, as I want to see how they hang before I take my measurements.

Ooh, it's so close to the moment of truth!!!

[Bluebird]

I still don't have a house (thank goodness, because I would have done everything so poorly before reading these forums!) but while I would have assumed that you decorated a house after it was built (despite the many swear words necessary when decorating my daughters childhood dolls house after it was built) nearly everything I have read since really learning how to go about it says flat is best for the interiors, doing a dry build at intervals to make sure it all still fits.

Yours looks great so it worked for you.

I have been watching how people brick too - some start at the bottom and work up, some at the top and work down - is there a better way to brick?

[coodencat]

HI Val has the proper answer to this as she is our "brickwork" queen each brick is put on individually . I have used the same bricks as Val has but not is such great quantity
I worked from the top down drawing lines every so often to keep straight ( well at least try to )
tc carol

[Trixie]

Hi, I've also used Peter Clarke bricks and started from the top, to make sure that the top row was a full brick... my first attempt wasn't great though as I didn't bother marking out lines... I had to dampen it and scrap most of it all off and start again soooo... if bricking individual bricks - draw lines about 1 inch, to help keep rows straight.

[St.Vale]

Hiya Christine,

When you look at any brickwork the top brick is always a whole brick, hence you start at the top.
Always take your time and prepare well, paint the wall the colour you want your grout to be, mark pencil lines about 1” apart all the way down the wall, this will give you a guide to keep your bricks straight (it doesn’t matter if any of the pencil lines show as it all adds to the dirty grout effect lol), stick bricks with PVA glue and always glue the brick not the wall (PVA does shine when dry and you don’t want shiny grout!). Bricking can be a daunting job but if you take it sections at a time and continually check everything is lining up you shouldn’t hit any problems. Hope this helps!

[Bluebird]

Thanks, St Vale. I only have a chimney to worry about and the inside of fireplaces, but from what I have seen here, one doesn't stop at one dollshouse!

Somehow I missed your post, Julie. You have done some lighting! Fantastic

Julie is 2/3 (?) the way to having a lovely new baby, rootyboots, so she is allowed the occasional meltdown.