dollhouse bob the builder update.

That's right, Bob the Builder here and I am getting things D-O-N-E. Man, this I'm a Giant Dollhouse Challenge is 100x more work than I initially thought it'd be. The good news? I. AM. LOVING. IT.

I've made some tweaks to the house construction, built the first and second floor frame, finalized some floor plans, started laying down the floor, painted the downstairs and even made a construction calendar. Are you getting dizzy with productivity yet?! My entire apartment has become a crafting war zone. Here are some in-progress snapshots to explain.

I got ahold of some giant, 1/2" foam core board to build the actual house. The cardboard wasn't working and I would have had to add "support beams" (popsicle sticks) and "drywall" (poster board) to stabilize. My awesomely supportive friend came up with the idea and I am unbelievably thankful for the suggestion.

Using the handy dandy floorplanner.com, I measured out the first and second floors and glued the walls together. Foam core is extremely easy to cut with an Exacto knife so it was a pretty quick build.

[my trusty glue gun] 

Next came a bit of shopping. I needed to figure out what to make hardwood floors out of and how to construct some stairs. Along with the boring building supplies, I snagged some "room colors", "wallpaper" and "bathroom tile". AKA acrylic paint, scrapbooking paper and mosaic tiles. Everything was purchased at Michael's and totaled around $30.

P.S. You can now pull up a 40% off coupon on your phone for them to scan vs. remembering to bring in the paper one.

[popsicle sticks for stairs and misc. furniture building]

[stairs cut and ready for assembly]

[craft sticks for the wood floors]

[the downstairs color]

[mosaic tile for bathroom floor]

[kid's room wallpaper]

[master bedroom wallpaper]

With the plan set in place and materials purchased, I got to work on laying down the floor. Oh-my-god-doe-it-take-a-long-time. It's going to look ridiculous when it's finished but I may need to revisit having hardwood throughout the entire house. The deadline's December 15th so unless I'm planning to submit an empty house, I'm thinking I need a plan b.

I plan to stain this a Dark Walnut and add some white molding to finish the look. It's been fun trying out all of the different roles involved in building a house and I'm learning very quickly that it's WAY more difficult than it seems. 

What's next? Why, let me share my checklist with you:

FLOOR ONE

• finish laying down floor, stain and polyurethane
• paint molding white and add to floor and ceiling
• figure out the stairs - paint or stain

FLOOR TWO

• add room partitions
• cut out stairway opening
• figure out and install floor treatments
• paint/wallpaper all rooms
• paint molding white and add to floor and ceiling
• figure out stairs (new plan!)

FLOOR THREE (new plan! - master bedroom)

• build out third floor (need to measure)
• figure out and install floor treatments
• paint/wallpaper 
• paint molding white and add to floor and ceiling
• add bathroom partition

So, to summarize, I need to finish building and dressing the entire inside of the dollhouse by mid next week. This will give me enough time to build all of the furniture for the rooms and accessorize by the deadline. Eek!