Building a Dollhouse: Adding the Attic Roof and More

I feel so fortunate to be chronicling my journey of building a dollhouse here on Crafts Unleashed.  I am currently in the process of assembling the Victorian Farmhouse Dollhouse Kit for my granddaughter.  It warms my heart, every time my granddaughter comes to visit, the first thing she does is run to my workroom to see how far I have gotten on “her” dollhouse.  She is very excited to see all the progress that has been made and now that it is starting to look more and more like a house she is getting very anxious to play with it.  Her enthusiasm is the perfect motivation for me!

Just a little review: I first had to catalog all the pieces,  next I had to do some pre-painting and staining, I began the first steps of assembling the dollhouse, and added walls that made the dollhouse come to life!  I also took a little break from dollhouse building to make some Dollhouse Furniture, from recycled materials.

Today, I am so excited that the attic roof is assembled, the front bay window is attached, and the access bay is on.  The access bay allows my granddaughter easy access to the gable’s front rooms.

Here is the process of assembling the roof:

I began first by gluing and taping the gable triangle and attic end wall triangles to the top floor.  I also added the attic partition.

Then on the outside roof panels I drew guidelines for adding shingles, later on.  I first tested the roof panels (without glue) to make sure the front roof touched the third floor’s edge.  Next, I glued and taped the front and rear roofs together.

Then before the glue dried I also added the roofs to the attic end walls.  As you can see I used lots of glue and tape.  The roof is not an easy process and took a lot of patience!

Lastly, I added the gable roofs at the peak.  I then rechecked all of my work to make sure all the panels were straight and tight together.  I left the house to dry and walked out of my workroom knowing the shell of the dollhouse was complete!

A couple of days later when the attic roof was dry I started creating the front bay.  Here is the process of assembling the front bay:

Adding the front bay was a little tricky and could only be done when all the glue on the house was completely dry.  To assemble the front bay I had to lay the dollhouse on its back.  Not exactly something I was real excited to do!  However, it is the only way to add the gable foundation.  I glued the gable foundation to the front of the house’s foundation. I then placed my house upright again and glued and taped the bay base floor to the front edge of the house’s base floor and checked to make sure everything was held tightly together.  I then taped and glued the bay walls to the house (remember here is where I pre-assembled the bay walls)…and then added more tape and glue to attach the walls to the base.

Another picture showing all the tape and glue that is necessary to keep the bay window in place……

Once all the glue was dry I added the finishing piece on the top of the bay window.

Lastly, I added a side access bay so that my granddaughter could easily get to the gable’s front rooms.  Here is the process of adding the side access bay:

I first began by adding the hinges to the access bay front.  Then I taped and glued the access bay sides to the dollhouse and let dry.

Once, it was dry I attached the access bay door.

The access bay door swings open on its hinges for easy “access” to the dollhouse.

Check back next week when I added windows and doors to my granddaughter’s dollhouse!