Dollhouse Update

I don’t even remember the last time I gave any update on the progress of the dollhouse, but it’s been a while since I’ve done any real work on it. Two weekends ago, I bit the bullet and started on the wiring: a task more daunting in my imagination than in reality (as most things usually are).

While in New Hampshire, I went to a dollhouse shop I had passed many times while I lived there but never stopped in to see. Allyson’s little girl Violet and I wiled away an hour there admiring all the wonderful things one can have for one’s dollhouse. There I picked out a sofa for the living room and Violet helped me pick out a couple of toys for the nursery: a carousel and a train. It was also a very informative trip. I got to see things I had only seen on the internet (flooring, doors, brickwork, etc.) and I talked to the woman there about wiring my dollhouse. Her suggestion was to bring my house up for one of their workshops and she’d walk me through it. I told her I was from out of town (while trying to imagine me carrying my house through security at an airport…), so she showed me a house they had recently done and told me the easiest way to do it. I have taken her advice and succeeded quite well – yea!

So, I guess the easiest way to wire a dollhouse is rather similar to the way you would wire a house: put electricity everywhere! Put the tape in one inch above the floor in all the rooms, allowing you to put outlets anywhere you care. Then put tape six inches above the floor, allowing for wall sconces wherever you wish. After that is done, vertical tape is used to connect it all and goes along the ceilings in the center of the room for ceiling lamps. Simple enough.

But, granted, I have made some mistakes. Well, sort of. I got the horizontal wires in quite easily, but ran out of tape. After a trip to a dollhouse shop in Dallas with my friend Jenny on Saturday (not as nice as the one in New Hampshire, but it had wiring tape), I put in most of the vertical lines last night. I have one to connect…and ran out of tape again, which I’ll order today. I’ve realized a couple of times I should have done something a bit different with the horizontal tape, but the good news is everything is in working order. Every time I turn it on and test the lines, the tester lights up! Success!

So, I’ll get the last of my tape in and finish that. Then, I think, I will start on the outside. Which looks quite daunting. After all, I have a ping pong table full of small pieces (and that doesn’t count the clapboards). But it looks like I have at least a free Saturday morning and afternoon, so I’ll see what damage I can do. And with Texas temperatures soaring well over 100 every day (for over a month straight) my workshop has moved into the middle of the living room. Truly, I could never find a more genial housemate than Haley!

Dollhouse wiring…copper tape connected with brads.