Monday, October 31, 2011

I'm A Giant! Dollhouse challenge week 6


The kitchen is starting to come together. You can see I got the refrigerator mostly ready. It has a bottom freezer that actually slides out, and working shelves in the doors!!  Now where do I get teeny condiment bottles?


You can also see I’ve got the island pretty much ready to go. It is BIG. In real life it would be 7 by 5 feet…but it also hides the washer and dryer. How nice is that for a place that will be doing pool towels at least once a day?



Friday, October 28, 2011

I'm A Giant! Dollhouse challenge week 5

So we finally broke ground this week!!!  You can see the walls on the first floor have gone up, and the floor of the second story is ready to attach….









In the basement, I have to get the hallway ready for install. It’s going to be pretty traditional down there, while everything above ground is much more modern. Once this is in, I won’t have much access to do things like paint and install moldings, so I got it done early! I still have to do the lighting and find the wall art….black and white photos of some sort hanging in the middle of the molding “frames” will look great!


here's the layout, with the first coat of paint.

This will be the view from the billiards room!!

The wall with the doors for the two guest rooms.

Monday, October 24, 2011

I'm A Giant! Dollhouse challenge week 4

I know I was hoping to tell you about the ground breaking this week…but we ran into some issues with the blue prints. After I had the floor plan nearly figured out, I thought I better make sure it all worked out in 3-D before I tried to make the real thing.

Yep, I’m THAT silly.

And I wanted to make sure there was room to move around… and more importantly that the sight lines of that amazing view were not messed up! So here are some of the photos of my mini-mini-house!! It is 1:48 scale (1/4 inch on the model is 1 foot in a real house). That means my “little people” for this place are about 1.5 inches tall at most. 

I made doors that open. I made a kitchen island. I even made the teeny tiny stairs to scale. And in the end, I’m happy to say it all worked out! I’m ready to go buy the foam core and get cracking on making the 1:24 scale house.

Here's the same angle as the inspiration house in Brasil.


View of the kitchen and master bedroom bump out,
with the private patio and master suite deck.



The patio under the cantaleivered second story.








Looking from the glass wall end of the house through the great room into the kitchen.
Do you see my tiny modle behind the sink?

Looking down on the first floor and split level entry.

 
Here are other folks that are riding the miniature crazy train with me! Check them out!































Friday, October 21, 2011

I'm A Giant! Dollhouse challenge week 3

So last we left this, I was on a search for some real estate.  Some dollhouse real estate. I was looking at traditional houses, historic houses, Bauhaus style houses, new lofts, industrial lofts, most anything that would catch my eye. Many hours went into this. I looked at homes in many countries and at least 3 continents.
Then I finally ran across this one in Brasil, and kept coming back to it for about 3 days.

I had to hunt and hunt to find some more photos, but alas there were only a few of the outside. Fortunately, the outside views got my imagination running.  I got the floor plan figured out in just one day.
Ok, it was really one all-nighter, but that still only counts as one day!  It will have 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, an open floor plan, glass walls and the infinity pool too!!

This one reminds me of some of the houses I grew up around. In the Black Hills we have a lots of cliffs, and there are many houses built on them. Ok, mine will be much fancier, and harder to heat, but anyway...


















These are photos from Rim Rock lodge. I remember eating pancakes on one of the decks hundreds of feet up the cliff from the creek. This one was about 12 miles from my house.












This house is overlooking the city park. It's got a two story deck off the back and has the nicest views! I spent quite a few hours in this one growing up. Thanks, Mom, for snapping these photos!

Next time around I hope to show you the ground breaking for my little place!!

In the meantime....
Here are other folks that are riding the miniature crazy train with me! Check them out!

Emily Henderson from Style by Emily Henderson
Erin from Design for Mankind
Orlando from Homme Maker
Corbett from Girl Domestic
Jenny from Little Green Notebook
Nicole from Making it Lovely
Kirstin from Simply Grove

Morgan Statterfield The BrickHouse


Susan from Fleurishing

Jesse from My Mod Style


Holly from Holly Recommends….

Dulce from La Vita Petite

Monday, October 17, 2011

I'm A Giant! Dollhouse challenge week 2

So last we chatted, I was looking on the net for inspiration houses to build for the challenge.
I was finding that besides being obsessive and thinking I can do anything…I also have Schizophrenic taste in homes.  I give you this as evidence…..I happen to LOVE all of these places. Weird huh?
This is The Wren's Nest, near Atlanta. It was built in 1870 and has the coolest porches.


Here's a very traditional looking Victorian.... I really have liked the outsides of these hiouses, but the insides are always too much flowers and doilies for me.
Here's an old Tudor style mansion. I think the woodwork inside would be to die for....but do I really want to build that many turned spindles for the big open staircase?

 Here's an example of the wonderful homes in the Garden District in New Orleans....we were just there for my honeymoon and strolled around dreaming of coming from "old money".










There are always the log homes I grew up seeing in the Black Hills....but would you pick the BIG mansion one, or the tiny cabin one? I guess it would depend on how many Lincoln Logs sets you could come up with!














There are always the really cool industrial lofts. I've been in more than a few in the last 5 years. They can be so neat with the open living spaces....or they can be a hot mess with no definition between spaces and too many styles too. Here are a couple of good ones.




There are the Bauhaus style houses....I have a few in my neighborhood. Neat Mod style boxes with enough glass to seem like full size doll houses on their own.












I finally decided that I did need to do a more modern home....just figuring out how to open the traditional ones was giving me a headache.  I ran across this one... Chicken Point Cabin.
How cool is that moving wall??  Can't you just see yourself having coffee out on that deck?


Finally, I found one that I really liked though....but that will have to wait for the next instalment. In the meantime....

 
Here are other folks that are riding the miniature crazy train with me! Check them out!

Emily Henderson from Style by Emily Henderson
Erin from Design for Mankind
Orlando from Homme Maker
Corbett from Girl Domestic
Jenny from Little Green Notebook
Nicole from Making it Lovely
Kirstin from Simply Grove

Morgan Statterfield The BrickHouse


Susan from Fleurishing

Jesse from My Mod Style


Holly from Holly Recommends….

Dulce from La Vita Petite

Friday, October 14, 2011

I'm A Giant! Dollhouse challenge

So, I must admit something…I have an obsessive personality. I also tend to jump into the deep-end without ever asking how deep it is.  Ask any of my friends, I can really get stuck on some odd things: the 4 months I was planning my new garden (it did keep me sane in the deep dark winter months), the nearly a year I spent making the pattern for my wedding dress (it did turn out pretty nice, after many panicked calls to friends about straps). Oh, I could go on….but I think you get the idea.  Well, with the wedding done….the gardening done…the job search still on, I have some obsessive time on my hands, and I’ve found the perfect thing!

About a 2 weeks ago I ran across the “I’m A Giant! Dollhousechallenge”….and I’ve been obsessed.

Thanks so much Emily Henderson! You have made it possible for my hubby to think I’m even nuttier than he already knew I was.

I have scoured the internet for dollhouses….and found everything in my very limited budget uninspiring. I went to toy stores and antique shops and found nothing.

Too granny



Way too simple



A bit too Weebles


Finally I decided that I would have to build it myself.  I think I drew out 8 or 10 different houses and lofts….I wasn’t horribly happy with any of them.


So I started searching the internet again, looking for inspiration. I'll show you som of them next time....until then, check out some of these blogs...
Here are other folks that are riding the miniature crazy train with me! Check them out!

Emily Henderson from Style by Emily Henderson

Erin from Design for Mankind

Orlando from Homme Maker

Corbett from Girl Domestic

Jenny from Little Green Notebook

Nicole from Making it Lovely

Kirstin from Simply Grove

Morgan Statterfield The BrickHouse

Girl Domestic

Susan from Fleurishing

Jesse from My Mod Style

Becca from Tales of a Tumbleweed

Holly from Holly Recommends….

Dulce from La Vita Petite