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Sunday, January 19, 2014

Bringing Down the House....

Well....Maybe not the whole house...

Actually I did have to take it apart to see if what I wanted to do would work...

As it was, the top floor was very narrow and very short.  Nobody could stand up in it and the floor was even with the bottom of the windows.

Who wants to stoop over or squat down to look out the window?

Not me and certainly not Daisy!  She may be quirky, but she still has dignity.
I put on two of the roof pieces to try out the rest of the plan...

Bringing down the floor.


This is where the floor that came with the kit was supposed to be.

The bottom floor was ridiculously high.  My guess is that they thought it would make the house look more Victorian. 

Have you noticed the warped ground floor yet?  Yup.  That is one of the standard things that people have against these kits. 

It can be easily fixed.  We will get to that later.

Right now we are still talking second floor.

I took a piece of cheapo foamcore from the dollar store and did a lot of measuring.  Then I cut a floor approximately the size and shape that it should be.  I cut off the flap that was holding the left side of the floor up to the height of the windowsills...

Then I slid in the foamcore floor and took a look.

The first floor was still quite high.

I decided to try it about an inch lower.  That works for me.  Now people will be able to walk around on the second floor without bumping their heads if they stay in the center.

I will cut the front half of the  center supporting wall to make it one big room on top to start.  If I decide to make a bathroom out of part of it, I can still do it. 

All of the final pieces will be made of the same thing as the kit.  Luan mahogany plywood.

So far, we have a kitchen on the left and a living area on the right, on the bottom floor.

The top will probably be sleeping and a bathroom. 

One thing that I am for sure going to get rid of is the gobbledygook that holds the corners of the roof together.  It makes the house look like something that an evil witch would use to lure children into her oven....

No gingerbread allowed!

See you tomorrow.

5 comments:

Claudia said...

I wonder if the floors are warped in my Greenleaf kit, Casey. Never thought of that, but they well might be. I'll look forward to reading about how you are going to deal with that

xo
Claudia

Lucille said...

You're doing a great job! Sometimes, kits can be so badly engineered! I've been meaning to share this with you. It's the story of a grandmother who transformed her shed to help her homeless family! http://www.viralnova.com/grandma-tiny-house/

Caseymini said...

Claudia, if you have problems when the time comes, just yell! I will try to help.

Neen said...

Warping is a big problem with almost all of the kits that use thin wood, as well with some of the fiberboard dollhouses of the 60s. I will be very grateful if you provide a way to deal with this!

Caseymini said...

Lucille, thanks for the link. I am always fascinated by what people can fit into a small space when needed. That lady should be proud!