Starting the kit

Starting a dollhouse kit can be pretty daunting. When I opened the Glencroft box it was just a stack of plywood pieces. It also comes with a large printed sheet of instructions, and another smaller booklet with general assembly tips.

So I gathered up my "tools" ie. exacto knife, pencil, ruler, primer, brushes, cutting board and plastic bags to cover the table. I was going to try not to think too far ahead, just punch out the first set of pieces needed for the first few steps and start with those. This kit has a million pieces!

I had decided to prime and paint each piece to keep them from warping by sealing them. I figured I'd do it before assembly as it would be easier to work on flat pieces. The man in the dollhouse store had recommended sealing the pieces with shellac, and the tips sheet said "shellac cut 50/50 with alcohol". But I didn't really know what that was exactly and didn't have any on hand so I decided to just use primer and paint. I want the walls to be white anyway.

first three pieces in place - there are books underneath to support the base

The main problem I had starting out is that the pieces didn't pop out very easily from the sheets. The first few were really frustrating and I had to cut over and over around the edges with the exacto knife. But the later ones have been better... the main thing is to press them out pretty gently so they don't break, and then they need to be sanded as they're a bit rough.

Also, if you prime and/or paint them it's best to keep the edges bare as the tabs won't fit together if there's anything on them to make them thicker. Sometimes the tabs aren't perfect anyway and you have to shave them down with an exacto knife. I learned to always dry fit before applying glue to make sure all the tabs line up and fit together!

Also, just like IKEA, if something seems wrong don't just forge ahead. The kit isn't wrong, one of the pieces could be backwards. So make sure everything's right before you glue. At this stage I was questioning my decision to do this and finding the kit pretty annoying...