Pieces are cut...

As I said before, I was going to go to the Home Depot to purchase the wood and have it cut. The idea was to get plywood, as the book had suggested, however I have read many places that this stuff called MDF can be used as well. It's less expensive than plywood and cleaner, whereas plywood just looks messy. I decided to get the MDF.

Sadly, Home Depot cannot do cuts less than 12 inches and unfortunately I had a lot. They walked me over to the hand tools section and suggested I buy a handheld jigsaw. It wasn't expensive, either.

The thought of using this thing terrified me, not that I would hurt myself but that I wouldn't get straight cuts. Now, I am a part time jeweler and I know my way around precision cuts and a jewelers saw, but I haven't touched power tools since the 8th grade...

In case you were wondering where you can get this tool, here you go.

Alright, 1/4"  and 1/2" MDF boards (4 in all measuring 2 by 4 feet), 1 square inch rod and a random handful of small square rods for the interior and exterior walls, a yardstick, wood glue and power tools.

Once home I drew up the pieces on the MDF boards. Did I mention I had to go to the home depot twice because I only bought one board the first time? Sorry you can't see the details, but you get the idea.

First off, I want to mention I live in an apartment, and for fear of "getting into trouble" sawing wood on my patio or out front, I did it in my dining room. Yes, my dining room. And that's why I will not be posting any picture of that. I had no problems other than a messy floor, but I do not recommend it.

It wasn't too loud, but it attracted random kids that were looking into our window! That's embarrassing! 

The jigsaw did the job, but not very well at all. I'm sure it was me, though. What I was left with was a bunch of pieces that were so jagged and messed up there was no way I could use them. So I took the pieces to my jewelers desk and luckily the jewelers saw I had came with a blade with large enough teeth to cut wood which I had set aside thinking I would never use it. Lo and behold! This stuff slices like butter and I severely regret that I didn't just cut it all by hand to begin with. It would take a lot more effort but at least I would get precision cuts.

There are many more pieces, these are just the ones I doctored up with the jewelers saw. And if you think you couldn't handle a jewelers saw, well, it's a lot easier than working with power tools, you are in full control and IF you cut yourself it's minimal. You can buy them for less than $20.

And that's all for now until I finish up the other pieces. Next I will be assembling the pieces.

The very beginning...

After buying a wooden dollhouse kit for my daughter for christmas, which has yet to come this 2014, I was shopping around online for dollhouse furniture and started seeing some really amazing things. And then I stumbled upon the Tudor dollhouse and I was blown away.

Coming from someone who feels like a kid in a candy store at the renaissance festival, I fell completely in love with the idea that I could make my OWN dollhouse and furnish it completely with period era items. If you do your own searches online you'll see what I am talking about, as I am sure you already have if you've found this blog. I'll post some links at the end of this post to some of the most amazing dollhouses I have ever seen.

This blog will be dedicated to showing how I will be making my dollhouse from the very start to the end. I figure I may as well document it all for my own benefit as well as to help anyone else out there who would be in my shoes.

Now, I have absolutely NO knowledge whatsoever of making dollhouses, nor have I ever shown an interest in making them, until I saw the Tudor style dollhouse. I have spent countless hours scouring the internet up and down in an effort to learn how to make them, and from what I saw I was completely overwhelmed and at first decided to purchase a kit instead. And I actually did at first, until I got an email saying that my shipping charges would be $420 American dollars! (that cost $20 more than the dollhouse kit itself, I was not going to pay over $800) Nope, will not do that so I canceled my order and then realized that if I wanted my dream Tudor dollhouse I was going to have to make it myself.

And yet again, more countless hours researching until I came across this particular book,
Making Tudor Dolls' Houses, by Derek Rowbottom. I purchased mine off amazon for less than $5.

And after reading it, I decided I was going to have to build the most basic dollhouse as shown below, because as I said, I haven't a clue as to what I am doing and I figure I may as well build the easiest first and risk messing that up as opposed to getting my hopes up for what I really wanted. And even the most basic one is quite daunting. But, this is what I must do...

So first things first, this book is quite confusing to someone who has no experience, this is my forewarning. I have given myself a headache trying to figure all the pieces out because they are not very well put together, everything is jumbled around. I'm sure the author meant well, but doesn't understand that beginners will be most confused and may even give up before ever starting. But I am far too determined to give up. What I absolutely do NOT like about this book is that some of these houses are made from wood AND foam. I will not be using foam, so I have to make sure that the thickness of the wood adds up to the rest of the measurements. My fingers are crossed.

What I have done so far is to write down all the measurements for the wood. I will be taking these measurements to home depot where they will cut them for me, but I have heard they only do straight cuts and the rest I will have to do myself. Thank god I have a dremel.

Links

My Pinterest board for all things Tudor Dollhouse DIY

Here is the site where the shipping cost way too much, but if a kit is what you want and you can afford it, this is the BEST Tudor Dollhouse I have ever seen.

Gerry Welch makes some of the most elaborate houses ever, he has a series of tutorials in Dollhouse projects magazine.

Dollhouse projects magazine, as stated above has a series of tutorials to build Gerry Welch's Tudor Dollhouse, but you will have to purchase at least 12 issues.

Kevin Jackson, a master at Tudor Dollhouses, definitely look at his stuff just to see what is possible



And there you go, stay tuned for the next post where I should have all the pieces cut out and ready to assemble.