Pollyanna Gets Her Dollhouse....

The Attic At Last....

I am Sure, Dear Readers, that there was Very Little doubt in Anybody's mind about whether or not Pollyanna would get her Dollhouse! And sure enough, it was not very long after she first spied it in that Chic Shopping Mall, that Pollyanna was able to convince Arthur that they could Surely find Somewhere to put it in the Lovely Old Dollhouse! And it was to Nobody's surprise, that the "somewhere" would have to be the attic. Pollyanna would need space to "work" on the house, after all, (although why this already finished house would need work was still a bit of a mystery to Arthur) and that work could not be accomplished Properly if it was squeezed into the Living room, or the front hall or the bedroom! Will was kind enough to offer his services in helping to move the house, as he had plenty of experience with moving all kinds of furniture in and out of all kinds of locations! Arthur was not entirely certain that Will knew what he was getting into by offering, but was happy to accept his help! And so they arrived at the Lovely Old Dollhouse late in the afternoon with Pollyanna's New Dollhouse. Pollyanna ran quickly ahead to show the way up to the attic.

Will said to Arthur "I am taller so I will take the bottom end, you go first with the top..."

Charles came to see what was happening, 

but he explained that he was going to 

"leave you strong young lads to do the work"

"We just need to lift it one step at a time.." said Will.

"Just be sure to keep it from tipping too much..." he added.

"We need to keep it as upright as possible...."

Of course, Everybody was now watching....

"I will be your back-up..." said Victor.... 

"Just let me know if I can help..." he added.

Pollyanna is waiting in the second floor hallway....

They made it to the first landing and can take a moment to rest....

"I think we will have to pivot it a bit...." says Will....

"I think I've got it..." said Arthur.....

"That should do it..." said Will....

The second floor hallway was easy... 

so they could catch their breath...

"Just one more flight" says Pollyanna, encouragingly...

"We need to tip it more...." says Arthur, 

"this floor has a narrower opening...."

"We made it to the landing..." said Will...

"we probably should pivot it again...."

Pollyanna is having a look at the room she plans to put it in.....

Gosh, when was the last time she was up here and had a look at this room?

Yes, it is Dark, and under the eaves, and Full of old Junk!

(I don't think you have been up here for a very long Time, Dear Readers!)

This is where Pollyanna is planning to put the Dollhouse, I hear you asking?

Well, she has Plans! 

Most of this stuff can be moved elsewhere rather easily...... 

and a table can be set up... 

and she can probably use the file cabinets 

and the sewing machine......

And who know what else she will find up here!

"Is there enough room to pivot it....." asks Will...

"I think we might have to set it upright first..." says Arthur...

"Yeah... like that... " says Arthur....

"We should be able to lift it right up now..." says Will.

"Right in here.." says Pollyanna, excitedly...

Can it even fit in there....?

"I guess we can leave it there while

 we move some of this other stuff..." says Pollyanna...

"Not right now, Darling..." says Arthur firmly.

"It is getting late, and I think we owe Will a Dinner out!"

Well, this had taken a little longer than Pollyanna had thought it would.... 

and they really did owe Will for all his assistance!

Pollyanna couldn't help but wish Daphne were here.... 

it was always more fun when they had gone out all together....!

But she would let the guys talk and she would dream about the dolls for this house...

Oh, the dolls! Where had they gotten to, she wondered?

Well, Dear Readers, I can show you 

that Halcyon did get the rest of her hair done.

Here she has more curls added and the beginnings of the bun.....

And here it is finished!

Can you even see it?

(Do remember to poke the pictures to enlarge them!)

How about here....?

And what about her gown...?

Well, I started to test a piece of purple and green iridescent silk....

 

How do you think that looks? 

Is it the right color for her hair?

And is that ALL I got done this last week?

Well, it was Finally time to move the house plants 

out for the summer in my RL House... 

which prompted a certain amount of Spring Cleaning... 

and yes, I Moved the Dollhouses 

to their Summer location in front of the windows!

And of course, I moved Pollyanna's New Dollhouse 

into the attic of the Lovely Old Dollhouse...

Could this mean that I am Finally going to work 

on the Attic of the Lovely Old Dollhouse?

Now that Pollyanna has her dollhouse, Dear Readers, 

I just might have to!

 

I Couldn't Wait

One Thing Leads To Another

Once the Idea of a Dumb Waiter in the Doll House had occurred, I simply COULDN'T wait to get started! But before I show you what I have done so far.... let me show you the Facade of the Cupboard House in more Natural morning light. As I mentioned in my last post, this is a difficult color to photograph... primarily because it is Two colors overlaid in stipple effect... in order to try to duplicate the color of the natural stone. The stone itself has a range of variation.... but it generally is a reddish brownish color which changes depending on the light. So this picture below shows you the clear morning light.... it has a grayer tone to the reddish brown .... hard to describe!

And now on to the Main Event..... the Dumb Waiter project!
I began by constructing a smooth metal channel for the box to slide in. I used common aluminum roof flashing and creased it to fit the opening beside the hearth. This was harder to do than I had imagined as the flashing was HARD to crease evenly.... and I HOPE I have managed to do a good enough job of it! At least it fits the space just beautifully ..... as I didn't want to waste any space in this already small corner! Here you can see the shiny aluminum inside the closet door opening....

I needed to make the entire chute in one piece so there would be no seams between floors.....

Which meant thinking UPWARD to the TOP floor of this house.... a floor I hadn't even CONSTRUCTED yet!!

Which actually was a GOOD thing..... because otherwise I probably WOULDN'T have built it until much later after I had done much of the other interior floors.... Much better to get the rough carpentry done now before the delicate parts are added! So I constructed the frame of the Attic floor. This will be where the Nursery and Children's Rooms are, and even though I have ALWAYS imagined this Cupboard House with an Attic built on top...... it is taking some getting used to now that I have built it! It just makes the house look so TALL! It will be a Mansard Roof, possibly even with a Roof Walk and a Tower on top! For now it is just the rough framework.....
but Necessary for attaching the pulley mechanism at the top!

Now that I had the exact dimensions of the opening, I could build the box...... I started simple with some basswood from the craft store.... lightweight and not too thick. I attached a chain at the top.... the kind of chain used in old fashioned pull-chain lights...... it is small, sturdy and flexible and smooth at the same time...... and comes in any length you want them to cut it at the hardware store!

I added one of the end fasteners to hold it in place.... but that hung down too far... so I taped it to the top and then added an inner ceiling to the box, trapping the fastener in place.... hope it works!

Then I added more to the front sides of the box.... the goal is to make it as smooth as possible on all it's surfaces so nothing obstructs the movement in the channel......

This is a close-up view of the box before I stained and sealed it. I left the inside walls the lighter wood so you could SEE inside the box.......

And of COURSE I had to test fit the box in the channel a few times....... it slides just SOOOO nicely!

See, when it goes up you can see the aluminum channel below it......

So we HAVE to test run some DISHES to make sure they fit........(WHEW... they do!)

And close that door with it's TINY little hinges.......

And pull on that chain ........ while trying to take a picture at the same time........

SEE, it is GOING UP!

And UP!......... Yes, I will have to build the front wall all the way up too!

But for now you can see it going up......

And Up......

And UP!......

All the way to the TOP! And here you can see the VERY simple pulley rig I have made..... so far..... I will have to figure out all the fastenings and guide channels etc. as I go........
But first I need to decide whether the chain will be accessible from the SIDE or the FRONT of the house.......! DECISIONS!

But for NOW, it is enough that it Goes UP AND DOWN........

The Aluminum channel walls will hold their shape better once the surrounding structures are built...... but they work SO Smoothly! I think this really will work!

I HAD to show you!

I Just Couldn't Wait