House restoration: reception room, drawing room, master bedroom

I am now moving to the left-hand side of the house, starting with the reception room (as you see, I am still avoiding the grand stairs).

There was no damage to it at all so I just put back all the furniture.

The only detail that needed attention was the chandelier.

 

To put it up, I needed to remove the floor from the room upstairs. I have done this several times when replacing lights, and I am always glad that I was clever and have all floors mounted on card, easy to remove.

Remaining in this room, mirror over the fireplace, and all the numerous paintings and ornaments. This is the only room in the house where cats are not allowed. (Why, I am suddenly asking myself. But I have never had a cat in this room, while I otherwise have cats everywhere).

Moving up one flight of stairs takes us to the ladies' drawing room, which is actually withdrawing room. I am not making it up, it's true. Ladies would withdraw after dinner, while gentlemen went to the smoking room.

It is in the drawing room I had to remove the floor to hang the chandelier in the reception room.

Like all floors, it will benefit from some sanding, which I will do later. At the moment I had a dilemma. In this room, I have a sofa and armchair that I made fifteen years ago among the very first pieces I made. I have attempted to replace them with "proper" furniture, but I just cannot. Too strong attachment. I won't even show a picture with a proper Chippendale sofa. So the old sofa and armchair stay.



This room has a magnificent antique mirror over the mantel, and there are more pictures, and of course there is tea served on several tables.

Finally, master bedroom. Again, not much to repair, except some mouldings that I didn't bother about at the moment, it's easily done at any point later.

Not much to add, so the dolls will be moving in soon.

The left-hand side of the house is restored with minimal effort.

Again, there is some work on the fronts, not least the double entrance door that is totally smashed. I hope I can repair it because it was quite expensive. But I am making rapid progress (avoiding the difficult parts).


To be continued.

House restoration: music room, dining room, smoking room

The next point of my attention was the music room. (I believe I am intuitively avoiding the great hall because it will involve mending the stairs). It was remarkably well preserved.

The ceiling decoration got off a bit, but was easy to glue back. The fireplace wasn't even attached so it was just putting it back, but the mirror had come down. The floor was wobbly, but it probably was wobbly to begin with. This floor is the first hardwood floor I made, many-many years ago, and today I would make it differently and better, but I keep it for sentimental reasons. However, this is a good moment to sand it better - again, my demands on myself are much higher today. I sanded a bit at the front, but won't do it properly now. I will finish all the restoration first before starting on further improvements. But I clearly saw that sanding, and polishing afterwards, would be an improvement.

Apart from that, it was just a matter of putting back the furniture.

This room is full of objects and dolls, so I will have to unpack and identify them.

Meanwhile, I move up to the dining room.

It is also in a reasonably good shape. A few floorboards missing, easy to replace, since they are coffee stirrers. I have the same problem with this floor: with my today's eyes, I see that it needs sanding and polishing. But not right now.

I need to hang the mirror and pictures and of course set the table. I also intend to replace the cupboard in the rear corridor with a more appropriate period piece, but this will also have to wait.

So finally, for this round, the study, or smoking room. Again, less damage than expected.

A few unstuck floorboards and mouldings, torn wallpaper.

When I put back objects, I started with the rear corridor, where, in addition to the bookcase, there are some pieces barely visible, except from the side window. I like such hidden nooks. You will see it better when the light is on.

In this picture you can also see the tear in the wallpaper. There is no way I can replace the wallpaper at this point, so I just mended it as neatly as possible. It is difficult to work on this level, because it's too high when you stand on the floor and too low if you use a stepladder. But somehow I managed.

I feel that I have reached the stage when I don't feel compelled to put every single item I own into this house so I will only add a few more. Last time, the room looked overflowing. Of course Victorian houses were overflowing, but it is also the matter of displaying things so that they can be admired and do not obscure each other. I am considering fewer dolls in each room, although this will feel like betrayal.

Anyway, now the whole right side is finished, at least as far as pure repairs are concerned.

I still need to do some work on the front. As I have been saying repeatedly, some people leave the inside of the fronts undecorated or at best decorate with paint or wallpaper to match the rooms. My concept is to create a sense of additional space, as if there were three extra rooms, each decorated differently and with as many flat or semiflat details as possible. As you see, I have mirrors, and I will also put back pictures, wall sconces and a book shelf with books.

Finally I did something long overdue. I had planned to use a magnet lock to keep the fronts firmly closed, but I never got round to it. Meanwhile, on another dollhouse I have, there is a hook for the purpose. I need something urgently because I have two inquisitive cats who have already explored the house, as cats do.

 

 I admit that this looks like a horror movie.

It doesn't work any longer to keep the fronts closed with tape, so I got a hook. I may find a better solution lately, but it works fine for now.

To be continued.

House restoration: basement

With the attic restoration done, I went three levels down to the basement. I know it probably doesn't make sense, but the basement also looked like it didn't need a lot of repair, and I was eager to have as many rooms as possible finished. Actually, there is some logic in getting kitchens done before anything else.

There are two kitchens in Womble Hall, as in any mansion with self-respect: best kitchen and working kitchen. Best kitchen is just for show; it is never used to cooking. It displays fine copper utensils and other implements that are never used. Best kitchen at Womble Hall is full of objects, a mixture of handmade and bought, and I keep adding to it.

The scope of damage was tolerable, mostly mouldings.

But of course the cutlery in the cupboard got muddled.

I am very particular about proper order of cutlery in my 1:1 kitchen so I spent some time sorting minicutlery with tweezers.

Then I put in most of the furniture and utensils. The greatest challenge was the shelf next to the stove. Everything else I could fill with pots and pans before inserting into the room, but for this shelf I had to reach into the room. A good deal of patience, and the show kitchen is done.

The working kitchen was miraculously almost fine, except for a broken window and a few tiles missing from the floor.

The window was easy just to press in gently. I found the tiles in the far corner and glued them back. I made this floor many years ago from air-drying clay. Today I would have done it from egg cartons, which would have been easier and neater. I think I will replace it some time, but not now. It looks fine. 

The stove was slightly broken.

It is handmade and easy to mend. And putting it back was also a good moment to see the room before it was filled with stuff.

When I opened the box marked "Kitchen, small things", I realised that it contained a mix of objects from all basement rooms, therefore it would make sense to deal with them at this point. The pantry looked fine, just a few broken shelf legs. And the mouldings had got unstuck.

It is very difficult to work in the pantry because it is so narrow. When I put in my hand, I cannot see what I am doing. When I first built it, I used tweezers to put stuff on the shelves. I like moving things around so I don't glue them. I considered taking out the shelves to mend, but it felt too complicated. I just glued on the missing bits.

The entrance looked relatively fine.

One chain on the ceiling light has gone off, but I cannot do much about it now because it is attached from the floor above so I will deal with it when I move on to that room. I cannot fix it as it is, again because the room is too narrow.

The door into the rear corridor was jammed, and when I managed to open it, I discovered that the back stairs were broken.

 

This will be very difficult, not to say impossible to mend, because the rear corridor is sealed off, and I cannot access it without dismantling the whole basement. Of course I can just close the door, but it would be a shame because it is such an interesting feature. The corridor is also visible from side windows. I have no idea how to go about it.


Meanwhile, I took everything out of the box marked "Kitchen, small things", contemplating the sheer scope of objects I have in the basement alone.

Most of these I made from rubbish or upcycled. Here are some close-ups.

I was so overwhelmed by this sight that I sat still for a while, staring at it, not knowing where to start. If I hadn't had two destructive felines sharing my living space I would have left it until tomorrow, but my options were either find a place for every object or pack them all again. Guess what I chose! And it wasn't that bad at all, just as in full-scale (which I went through recently). Once you put every item where it belongs, it doesn't look crowded or messy.

Here is the working kitchen, just like it was before. The cook and the kitchen maids are happy.

 

There are a couple of details missing that I will hopefully find in another box of "Small things": two antique tin shelves where all the pewter stuff will go (which is a mix of expensive antique and painted plastic), as well as a set of servant bells. There may be other items scattered in various boxes.

Here is the pantry, full of goods.

 

I have considered gluing everything on with glue dots, but will wait a bit. I have recently attended a course in making miniature breads, so I may want to replace bread, cheese and pies that I made fifteen years ago. It is amazing how our standards rise. Fifteen years ago I was proud of my breads.

Finally, the entrance. As I said, the lamp will be mended later.

This lower entrance is used for deliveries, this is why there are so many food baskets. I still feel upset about the broken stairs, but now much I can do right now.

And not to forget the fronts.

I could never understand why people might NOT want to decorate the fronts. There is so much interesting space to be added. In this case, all the utensils to be proudly displayed.

Anyway, now the whole basement is in relatively acceptable shape. Relatively, because there is some work on the exterior to be done, and the wiring has either to be mended or removed and replaced. But I feel I have made clear progress.

To be continued.

House restoration: nursery and servant quarters

The next room I repaired after the big disaster was servant quarters. Once again, my step-by-step posts from two years ago proved helpful.

There wasn't much damage to this room so I only had to glue the torn wallpaper.

As with the guest bedroom, I only put in things I could easily find in my storage boxes, so the numerous details are still to be added.

Next to the servant room is the nursery. I love this room because you can add as many details to it as you please.

At first I though there wasn't much damage to it, just torn wallpaper and some minor damage to the floor.

 

On closer inspection, however, the door surround was broken.

It was difficult to mend because it was hard to reach. When I built the house, I worked as much as possible on flat surfaces, including inserting doors. This door, I remember, was particularly stubborn, but at least I didn't have to fix it standing on a stepladder, reaching to the farthest corner. It will never be perfect, but it wasn't probably perfect to begin with.

Then I glued the wallpaper,  made some improvements on the floor, and while I was at it, I painted some edges that I had neglected three years ago.

With the nursery, I believe I have found more or less everything that should be there, an abundance of toys and books. The only thing still to be done is hang the bookshelves. And a couple of children are still evacuated in the country, but the room is now ready for them to return.


To be continued.

Disaster inspection

As some of you, my dear readers, already know, my large Victorian house, Womble Hall, was badly damaged during relocation from the UK to Sweden. It's too late to complain because it has been in storage for almost a year, and even if I could get compensation, the damage is done, and no money can replace it. I am particularly frustrated because the movers packed chairs and tables in layers upon layers of cardboard, while they transported the delicate dollhouse without any protection at all! But there is nothing I can do about it, so I am pretending that Womble Hall was bombed during the Blitz and has to be restored to its former glory. The former glory, by the way, is this:

On the outside:

And this is what I got out of storage

I considered sitting down and crying, but it wouldn't be of much help. This house has cost me more money in kit and material than I am prepared to confess, as well as about 2000 hours of work so I am grateful I got it over in one piece - well, almost. I anticipate the repairs will take many, many hours, and I will take it easy and enjoy it just as I enjoyed building it before. Maybe I can make improvements. Maybe I can re-decorate, as they would have after the Blitz. On this positive note, some closer inspection. It is much, much worse than it looks. The lights do not work of course; several windows are smashed, floors are broken, wallpaper torn.

One of my cats immediately discovered the perfect hiding place. This is a classic: cat in a dollhouse. Something from a horror movie.

I have now barred the front door with a piece of cardboard because he did some further damage in the room. I can't imagine how this huge cat can squeeze through the tiny door - and turn round! Cats are amazing.

It took me weeks to approach the house because I really didn't know where to start. I then decided to start from the attic because it seemed the least damaged. I couldn't be more wrong, because that's when I discovered that the roof has gone off. It's a miracle they didn't lose it altogether. So I removed it, but I know I won't be able to put it back on my own.

 

Two dormers are falling off, two window sills are missing, the ceilings are torn, and on the outside tiles are missing. That will be the easiest to replace. So far I have put the roof away in my store room, safe from the cats.

Then I stared at the attic for a long time, again not knowing where to start.

 

I decided to restore one room at a time, so that when I have done one room I will see the result. This is how I worked last time round, even if it meant that I had to remove objects from rooms every now and then. And I decided to start with the room that seemed in need of least work, the guest bedroom on the right.

More than two years ago I wrote a series of blog posts showing the various rooms in Womble Hall, which will now be very helpful in restoring them. Here is the guest bedroom, although I have made some changes, including new fabric on the canopy.

As I said in that post, the floor in the guest room is still made from self-adhesive paper, admittedly in a sophisticated pattern, but my intention was to replace it with hardwood at some point. I considered whether this was the right point and decided against it. It takes about 50 hours to make an interesting floor for a room this size, and at the moment I'd rather use these hours to make more repairs. When the house is fully restored, I will make new floors. I know this probably goes against common sense, but I do want to see the house in presentable shape soon.

So I did some cosmetic repairs: glued on wallpaper and mouldings that had got off, straightened the floor, and that was it. I think the room is inhabitable now - apart from the roof of course. The beam is hiding the light strip so it will either have to be mended or removed. I suspect that lighting technologies have developed since we wired the house four years ago.

Also against common sense I put back as much of the furniture and accessories as I could find in my storage boxes. The four-poster was also slightly damaged, but it was easy to mend. I will have to remove everything when it comes to putting back the roof, but meanwhile there is one room at Womble Hall where poor residents can live, and there is even a portable heater to keep them warm.

To be continued.