House restoration: facade

Suddenly I realised that I get upset every time I see my dollhouse with its broken front, and inevitably I see it constantly because it is in my living room. So I decided it was time to interrupt my interior repairs and deal with the facade. I have carefully avoided it, but when I have done it, I know I will feel much, much better.

The front has been rather badly damaged.

The pillars and their supports are broken, as are the pediment, mouldings and roof rack. The doors are broken too. Fortunately, no pieces have been lost - at least not that I have discovered so far. 

I cannot do anything before I mend the broken wall.

This must be the worst damage, and once again I cannot believe they transported the house without any protecting packaging. Would they transport a glass cabinet without wrapping it?? Well, no use lamenting. What can I do?

The material is MDF which is pressed sawdust. Each piece is made of many layers. It should be impossible to break. (No use lamenting, didn't I just say).

There is no way I can press the broken layers back together. After lengthy consideration I decided that the only way I can do anything at all, short of cutting and replacing the whole broken bit (which I know I have no skills to do), was to carefully chisel away as much of the internal layers as possible without damaging the external layers. I could hopefully then glue the remaining layers together and if needed fills the gaps with filler. Then sand and paint over.

It took me a couple of hours because it is of course an awkward place to work on. I considered unhinging the front and working on flat surface, and I may still need to do it. But so far I worked standing on a chair at uncomfortable angles. I realised far too late that I should have used a mask because inhaling MDF particles is not good for your health. I made sure I vacuumed properly afterwards.

Eventually I started noticing that I probably did more damage with my scratching and decided to give it a go. Plenty of glue and strong clamps.

I believe I need to leave this overnight so I cannot do any more on the house today. My major concern is how to keep my cats away. They try to get inside the moment I look another way.

I will of course report whether this effort was successful.