Iris March Creations: Behind the Build: Hawthorne's Rare Books RGT Kit Bash

It All Starts Here

Sometimes our ideas flow from an existing kit to bash, a house style to scratch (aka custom) build, or from an interesting doll who needs a place to live. Our settings are always modern-day (ca. 2001 when we started this hobby). We try to create things that will make people smile and feel good.

We think that if we had to build the same house twice, we literally could not do it! Fortunately, we have very unique little people who have definite opinions and so far, no one has wanted a house “like so-and-so” has.

We work as a family unit: my wonderful husband, my beautiful sister, and I. We don't always agree as to the direction of the build, but I think that we end up with a better dollhouse because of all our grumblings -- and we do have a lot of fun!

The Purpose of this Blog

We needed a place for all we wanted to say about the background of the build and the nuts and bolts of the design and build process. Thus this blog.

All our dolls' homes have families living in them and a story is built around their personalities and lifestyles. This story is an integral part of our building process. We would like to share these stories -- actually, the little people insist upon it!

Many of our houses are located in Fredericksburg, Virginia because that is my sister's favorite place.

Also, we have started a Rouges' Gallery with photos of our little people and information about the dolls.

If you would like to start with the dollhouse that "started it all", it is the Original Rowbottom Manse; if you would like to see the scratch-built Georgian that our first build gave us the confidence (or fool-hardiness) to do, it is Sunnybrook Farm.

Let the stories begin!

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Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Behind the Build: Hawthorne's Rare Books RGT Kit Bash

(For a complete pictorial chronicle, see the Webshots album listed on the left.)

This is mostly a pictorial review of the building process. This was an involved kit bash of the RGT Front Opening Shoppe. It started small and grew as inspiration struck.The house is made of 3/8" baltic birch plywood added to the orginal kit plywood.

It is bookshop on the first two floors and above, two floors of living quarters for the owners. The main floor is a general bookshop selling books, magazines, records, newspapers, and general interesting items. The second floor (mezzanine) sells rare books, antiques, and other objet d'art.

The stucco is stucco vinyl sheets. The bricks are brick sheets. The roof tile is a slate vinyl sheet. The dormers are from HBS and presented a small problem since the slope of the roof in our design is greater than 45 degrees.