Tuesday, December 30, 2014

My own Lea Frisoni "Maison Miniature!"

For Christmas every year my mother always gives me a crisp $50 dollar bill.  This year I decided to invest it in real estate....
This is the base of my soon-to-be "beautiful" French house re: Lea Frisoni.  I received the English version of her book"Le Grand Livre de la Maison Miniature" or in English "Big book of a Miniature House" for Christmas from my DIL Sarah and had to get started right away.  Owing to the fact that the lumber yards were shut until 2 days ago, I don't think I am doing bad. I have ordered the limewood stripping for the floor from Australia as it is not sold in Canada and used up a little chunk of my dollhouse savings account to order light fittings as I will be needing them right away.

I am still planning on finishing my little Georgian townhouse as I have finally bought the required base boarding (I seem to be cutting twice and it is always too short) so with supervision it should be done fairly soon.  I am not convinced that the lighting doesn't need some attention so I will attend to that first.

Anyhow, here is my progress thus far.  Colour me tickled pink!!


Here is a picture of my long suffering husband toiling over the miniature scroll saw, bless him.  He was complaining today that dollhouse construction wasn't in the marriage contract, but he didn't read the small print!





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13 comments:

  1. elizabeth sDecember 30, 2014 at 11:20 PM

    I have always admired TEAMWORK and the fact that your hubby is part of the team, must be a Big Help. I LOVE that you are making the Lea house. I have admired her work for the last 2 1/2 years and what a bonus that her book is now in English. You are already off to a great start and so I will watch you progress with great interest as you go along. So Far, It is Looking Good!
    Have a Very Happy New Year to you... and your Team. :D

    elizabeth

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  2. 17-17December 31, 2014 at 12:24 AM

    Oh yes, our husbands lead an interesting life with us :-) I'm curious about your french house.
    Happy New Year!
    Magda

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  3. skulptressDecember 31, 2014 at 4:02 AM

    Thank you so much Elizabeth and Magda. I am quite excited about it but just purchasing the required supplies is costing a small fortune! With construction cost so high, it is a good thing the labour is cheap. This guy will work for a cup of coffee and a sandwich.

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  4. CatherineDecember 31, 2014 at 7:09 AM

    I have always loved Lea's houses. Lucky you to have such a helpful partner. And at such low wages. haha ;-)

    I still haven't found Lea's book in English in the US.

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    1. skulptressDecember 31, 2014 at 6:10 PM

      Thanks Catherine, he is a very patient man that is for sure. I have had this book in my shopping cart at Amazon for ages waiting on a release date. I don't know where she was able to get it, I know Britain has had it for a while. I will ask her.

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  5. shannonc60December 31, 2014 at 1:25 PM

    I'll watch in eager anticipation. My husband has no excuses - I was into minis well before we even met! He is pretty good with helping me out, until I want decorating advice! That's where the helpfulness ends.

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    1. skulptressDecember 31, 2014 at 6:12 PM

      Thanks Shannon, I am really going to try to keep up with the blog and the house. I don't ask my husband for decorating advise either, he is too handy at giving it!

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  6. AnnaJanuary 1, 2015 at 12:36 AM

    I built the same house two years ago! You are going to have so much fun with it, I promise. I had to buy the French edition, of course, but thankfully the pictures tell the "story" well enough that I didn't have to run too much text through Google Translate. (I also had to convert the metric measurements into imperial - I'm from the States, so the metric system wasn't used much when I was in school.)

    I had some building help from my dad on this house...but since he was supposed to build a dollhouse for my tenth birthday and didn't finish it until I was thirteen, he knew better than to say anything!

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  7. skulptressJanuary 1, 2015 at 9:07 AM

    Anna, I had the same problems over here. In Canada we use the metric system for everything except construction materials. Ridiculous really. It is too bad Stephen Haynes didn't do the conversions to Imperial but I am grateful enough to him for the English that I won't hold it against him.

    I am going to go and have a look at your blog and see if you completed the outside first as Lea suggests. I am confused to whether or not I start on the inside or the outside.

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  8. AnnaJanuary 2, 2015 at 1:17 AM

    I did indeed do the outside first - Lea recommends it so construction and finishing materials (glue, putty, paint, plaster, etc.) don't seep into the house and stain the interior walls. Having had to patch a lot of badly cut windows (why do power tools do such a messy job?), I have to say she's right.

    I'm glad I did - in several places, the walls wound up not being the exact size as in the illustrations once the house was assembled (despite careful measuring), so when working on the interior walls, I could work from their actual measurements instead of what they were "supposed" to be. (Plus, I altered the house's design in several places, including using bought windows and doors, which forced some measurement adjustments. By the way, if you plan to buy doors and windows instead of making them, be sure they fit before doing any kind of exterior finishing. Trust me on this.)

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  9. skulptressJanuary 2, 2015 at 9:39 AM

    Thanks Anna, I plan on doing a combination of both. Do you know where I can source Lea's French door hardware?

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  10. AnnaJanuary 2, 2015 at 11:28 PM

    I went for non-opening, pre-made windows this time (this is my first build, and my attempts at making my own did NOT go well), but you could fake the look of the French door hardware with round sandwich picks (longer than toothpicks) and squaring off some wood scraps. Miniatures.com sells French door handles.

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  11. Theresa BennettApril 7, 2015 at 3:35 AM

    Oh, I've started my own house just this Feb 25, 2015. I'm still reading all your back posts to see how you've done with yours!

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