Emerson Row progress

Hello! It's been a while, again... I'm lazy with the blogging, I suppose. With the holidays, travelling to visit my family, party planning, work, and now playoffs (ha), it's been kind of busy. Luckilly, now, things seem to be slowing down a bit. The Emerson Row has siding on it now, and is seeing little bits of progress every week. I think the colors look great together.

Anyway, Michael's is having a pretty sweet clearance sale, so I have about 30 pieces of scrapbook paper... if only I could decide exactly how I want the inside!

Coffee Shop

In the last few months, I've started buying a few things here and there for the coffee shop, including a pay phone, and some sweets. I love the carrot cake because I've made real life carrot cupcakes with little carrots on the top (I love to bake and eat anything sugary). The walls will one day be full of fliers and ads and a menu, of course, but all that is up now is a picture I cut out from an Allposters catalog urging the patrons to "drink coffee". I also put the sign up and named the coffee shop. It's called the 71A cafe, after a coffee shop near my house called the 61C cafe. The 61C is named for a bus route which I take every day. The 71A is a different bus route in the part of Pittsburgh I used to live in, which is cooler and has a "hipper" vibe, and this coffee shop is somewhat inspired by the one near my old apartment, so it is named for that bus which I loved to hate for 5 years.

Soon, for Christmas, I will be visiting my parents in eastern PA. They have an A.C. Moore there and I'd love to get another one of these Houseworks shops because they are so easy and fun to build. I told my boyfriend that maybe we would make a Steelers/ Pittsburgh sports team store and it would be all black and gold and that would be really easy to fill because we could print off alot of stuff from the internet (giant Big Ben cardboard cut- outs and the like!). I'd also like to make a bar, because I am part of the time a bartender.

Emerson Row

A while ago, I found the apparently much sought after Emerson Row dollhouse on my local Craigslist for $20! Luckilly, though I wasn't the first to email about it, I was the first to pay, so the house was mine.

A nearly 30 year old kit is kind of a pain. All of the pieces were there, however, a 1/8" plywood kit and a 3/8" MDF kit are completely different things. Early in the building process I cut my finger with an Exacto, bled allover my parquet floors, and kind of put it off for a while. As soon as it got cooler out, though, I started to work like crazy!

The kit box:
My "work" area (which is mostly the floor!)

The shell, so far (and you would not believe how long it took to get this wood to cooperate!)

My attempt at paperclay stone for a foundation (still needs to be painted):

My attempt at paperclay bricks (still need to be grouted/ aged):

I'm still not quite sure what the inside will be furnished like, though it will be contemporary. I have a wealth of ideas but not really any other wealth so I'm trying to be kind of frugal with this one.

I'm back!

After a break from mini-ing (moving, then summer, and vacation, and getting back to being busy and responsible at work) now that it is fall, I can't stop. We went to the Pittsburgh dollhouse show last month, and ever since then I've been spending a few hours a week on mini things. First, I finally got columns for my Georgetown, which were super difficult to find (finally got a bunch from England) and put up my corbel brackets from forever ago.

Then I painted the edges between th rooms on the back of the house to make the whole thing neater. And then I "varnished" (i.e. modge-podged) the wood floors to make them a little bit shiny. Then I put in all of my new goodies (I got a lap-top, a little bonsai, some food... and my favorite, a stand mixer for the kitchen.)

See the stand mixer? It came white, but I painted it teal to give it that $400 Kitchen-Aid look. In the foreground you can see my espresso machine (from a suggestion from Mini MC).Christmas is coming up! Like my invisible dollhouse people, I had better get shopping!


The bathroom finally has towel racks :

See my new lap top?
A great bonsai plant in the living room and a coffee table stand in until I get a real one (this is the back of some case, but hey, it works for modern decor, right?)

Moving time!

So, this weekend is the big move, and I'm only about 30% packed... which is why I am on the internet, reading stupid things on Wikipedia, and drinking fruit punch.

Anyway, in dollhouse news, I've made a few exciting purchases. I won a couple new ReacJapan chairs on Ebay for a super good price, also, I won some of the smaller-sized Re-Ment items (cute little office-y type things). Also, on my local Pittsburgh Craigslist, I found an old Greenleaf house for $20. It's a house no longer made called the Emerson Row, which I think will look just perfect as a rented city house for some young 20 something types or college students. No pictures, because all of that stuff actually is packed. I'd love to find a really cool, Parsons-esque desk (really straight lines) and some miniature computers that don't look clumpy.

Maybe I should pack my internet and Buffy dvds so I can finally pay attention and pack everything else?

After a break...

So... I got busy at work... busy watching tv on dvd (who ever knew Charmed could be as addictive as nicotine)... busy drinking after work... busy worried about being busy moving next month... busy reading stupid stuff on the internet and playing video games...

ANYWAY... finally, this week I made a little progress with both projects. This is currently the Georgetown kind of decorated, inhabited by one Christmas treasure troll, 2 free reindeer from DollsHouse Emporium, and a free milkman doll (?) also from DHE.

This reindeer enjoys sitting on the futon in the future home office, watching the tv. His favorite pieces of furniture are the Noguchi table (thanks, Mom) and the entertainment unit from Ebay. The other reindeer enjoys the improvements brought to the bathroom by the Chyrsnbon bathroom accessories kit. I especially like the toilet paper and holder and the little soap dishes. Weirdly enough, platinum nail polish makes a really good brushed steel effect on these plastic kit pieces.

This is an old postcard I had hanging in my kitchen, I think from one of those Dover postcard packs. (The Dover catalogs are really good for this kind of stuff, they're really cute if you group them in painted Ikea frames. I have the Erte fashion designs in my rl living room). Anyway, I love Stuart Davis, and I always liked this painting, so it will be the focal piece of one of the rooms. I have a Kandinsky one I got at the Guggenheim in NYC a while ago that I'll frame, as well. The coffee shop is somewhat progressing. At a show, I got some little fixtures (the soda machine and the syrup/ sauce holders). I finished the Chrynsbon chair kits. They purposely don't match.

This is the milkman chilling in the living room. This room has an awful configuration for furniture... which is pretty true to life in this kind of old house, I guess. I love the mirrors grouped on the wall ($2 from Michaels). The trim in this room is kind of crooked, but it's an old house, right? I still like the juxtaposition of stripey wallpaper and duo-toned walls. This room still calls out for some sweet panel curtains and a shag area rug, but at least it's got trim now.
The hallway got some trim and doors. The stairs are only tentatively in, bc of a mistake I made when building the structure originally. They don't fit in the slot! I'm going to tape and hide the wire behind some sort of large floor plant.
The kitchen got a fridge and some more fiesta ware and a strawberry shortcake. I love this fiesta ware, it is so delicate and pretty. The cake is really pretty, too. The fridge is a new design from one of the major mass produced lines, but it's sleek and moden. They make stoves, dishwashers, and laundry to match.

The bedroom got a little chia pet! It's on the bookshelf. Still needs a lot of books, art, and, of course, a dresser. And shoes.
Also, I got a RGT 333 Franklin Street Kit which I won't start working on until this house is done (HBS half off sale!), but this whole process will make that house even better. I don't know if I will bother wiring that one at all considering how finicky my lights are and how the tape is so difficult to even slightly conceal. But I have all kinds of cool ideas for it ( a modern- baroquey type thing with patterned walls and mismatched, updated antique furniture and very boho.) I know I definitely want "tin" ceilings.

Anyway... until next time.

New stuff!

A new set of bar chairs and a table for what will one day be the game room in the Georgetown... can't you just see it with some cocktail glasses?
An etertainment set I won off of Ebay, complete with a light up television. This is for the home office/ guest room.
See- now guests can sleep on the futon and wake up to watch the morning weather.
Some cakes I made out of polymer clay, a shelving unit from HBS, and a refrigerator magnet/ mini cappuccino maker (I know it's a bit big, but it still works)
Some Chrysnbon kits, the chairs are for the coffee shop and will be really mismatched and beaten down. The bathroom fixtures are for the Georgetown. Hopefully, these plastic kits will go together well (I even bought the right glue for them!)

I also got a bunch of trim (crown, baseboard, and chair rail) and some doors/ doorknobs to finish up the Georgetown interior.

Hopefully, I'll be able to get to work on both projects soon!