Replacement & different parts.

A little progress for the Gothenburg. Yesterdays arrival - 4 doors, 4 windows, stairs, banister & step (from a 1980's Gothenburg?) should resolve some of the issues - the missing windows, & the broken door handles.  All the pieces smelled very musty, but the musty smell seems to have gone since giving it all a good clean.

One of the door handles dropped off on its own while the pieces were soaking & I was able to get the handle from the other side of the same door off easily, & without any breakages. Hurrah!  However the door handles are a different colour than the door handles in my Gothenburg.  The "new" ones are gold, the ones in my Gothenburg are a darker coppery colour (& less shiny), I'm not sure if I should try spraying or painting them to match.  Something to consider..

It was interesting to see the difference in the banisters from the top of the stairs. 

At the top is the banister from the Småland, below is the banister from the 80's (?) Gothenburg. 

I don't understand why the Småland banister has the extra bit at the end (top left in the upper photo, top right in the lower).  

I've been frustrated with the extra bit since I put the Småland together, the banister doesn't fit properly because of it, & I've been wondering if I should try shaving some of the plastic off to make it fit properly.

Unlike the older Gothenburg banister (which appears to have been glued into place), the Småland one attaches with a screw at one end & a small round plastic piece which fits into the floor at the other end.  Because of the extra bit the banister ends up bending & not standing straight, which looks awful.

No progress with the Form Group in basswood yet, though I did finally dig out some stain & clear matt varnish, so hopefully I can get that done this weekend.  The next step will be gluing everything together.  

The stain I had in storage was rosewood, which isn't perfect (I think teak would be more appropriate), but I'm treating the 2 section I'm working on as another test piece anyway, as the wood I used isn't quite the right size.  What I already had, & have used, is 1.5mm thick, for a "proper" version I want to use 2mm thick, which I think is more to scale.

A new Bean, & things to make & do.

Whilst I've been busy starting work on the first Form Group piece in basswood over the last couple of days, a new Mame arrived (along with some Jean of Germany furniture), & the Mames have been keeping themselves busy.

Mame Lorelai felt it was a shame to waste all the empty space in the Gothenburg house (it's remaining empty & unfurnished until I can redecorate it), & so made an installation piece for the smaller basement room using the new Jean of Germany chairs.

Evidently Mames aren't very good at naming pieces of installation art.

Meanwhile, the new arrival, Mame Octavia, turned out to have green fingers.

Arrival of the Gothenburg

Yesterday I received a Gothenburg house + extension, it's not in the best condition & needs a lot of work, but despite this, I'm completely smitten with it.

After buying the Småland (on sale, 40%ish off, at Amazon UK!) I admittedly felt a little disappointed. Though the Småland has some positives (being able to take it apart will make it so much easier to redecorate for one!) I definitely didn't feel smitten with it, though I think I will grow to like it more once I have redecorated & furnished it to my liking.

I'm not sure if my Gothenburg is from 1972 or 1973, it has the plain wooden frame, lovely wooden stair rails & banister, beige plastic doors, white brick paper on the outside, but has a red floor on the downstairs level of the main house, rather than the blue floors I've seen in the Gothenburgs in the 1972 & 1973 catalogues.

My favourite Gothenberg is just a little earlier than this, I think it's the 1971 version with the light blue floors, lighter abstract wallpapers + the plastic doors, wooden stair rail & banister, & I think when I redecorate my Gothenburg it will be closer to that style.

I have no idea how best to remove the wallpaper, or redecorate yet.  Doing up an old dollhouse is totally new to me, I have lots to learn.

My Gothenburgs Issues: 

• there's a small split in the front of the frame above the bathroom which needs fixing.
• most of the floors have stains & the felt carpet in the small bedroom was in very bad shape.
• most of wallpapers have stains & damaged sections.     
• the handles on either side of the door to the bathroom are broken.
• it has one missing window frame & 2 missing plastic window panes.

also I'm not sure if the wiring is functional, I don't have a transformer yet, so I will have to wait to test that out.

Lots of quick photos.  I'd already taken out the windows so I could clean them (they were very very dirty) - that's them piled up & waiting to be washed in the larger extension room. They cleaned up really well.

I've since removed the phone, clock, mirror & light, + removed the broken handles from the bathroom door.  There's no way of taking the door & doorframe out without taking the house apart, & as well as a replacement window frame, I'm hoping I can find a replacement door that I can take the handles off (hopefully without breaking them, they are very fragile) & attach to the now handle-less bathroom door.