Chim Chiminey, Chim Chiminey, Chim Chim Chiree!

I finally finished the chimney and put it back on the house. 

Hello there!  Oh how I love the Doctor.  *drool*

Sorry, I seem to have gotten a bit sidetracked there.  Also, I'm totally writing this in a British accent.  You just can't hear it. 

Anyway, wanna know how I did the bricks on the chimney?  I think I had a moment of brilliance.  The last thing I wanted to do was to measure off a bunch of tiny rectangles and paint them with a little brush.  That sounds like work, and I'm lazy.  No, wait.  Not lazy, "resourceful".  Yep that's it!

I took one of my foam brushes, cut out a piece of it that was the size I wanted the bricks to be, cut a slit in one end, and glued it to a skinny stick.  Instant bricks!  Dab in the paint, dab on the chimney.  I'm feeling brilliant, momentarily.

Okay that's enough with the conceited attitude.

I've also been making progress on the wiring.  No, really!  I swear, I have!  It's just taking forever.  I want to do this so it'll last, because I'm going to wallpaper over top of the wiring and I don't want to ever have to rip out the wallpaper to get at the wiring to fix something.  So, I'm taking my sweet time and doing it as well as I possibly know how.  It helps that technology has improved a lot in the last 30 years.  I read that tapewire was invented in 1976 which means it was still pretty new when Grandpa went into the house building business.  Lots of changes since then. 

I actually have all the tapewire in all over the house except for the girl's bedroom and a couple little extra pieces if I decide to put switches in.  I did learn how to wire switches, so I can turn rooms on and off.  But I'm having an inner debate on whether or not to actually do it.  Anyway, here are a few pics of the wiring work:

That's an in-progress picture.  Also, Chick-fil-A Diet Lemonade on the top floor, and Mystery Science Theater 3000 on the laptop.  The lemonade's in the styrofoam cup, I may love Chick-fil-A Diet Lemonade but not enough to put it in a wine glass.  The wine glass is there because it's holding all the little brass nails.  This was fairly early in the wiring process.. I ran a line all around the base so I can put in outlets for Christmas lights, and ran the main line up through the middle of the house.  And I've started in on the main floor in the previous and following pictures. 

I had to prop a Mag-Lite up on the loveseat so the light would shine on my work.  Wiring is tedious and dull, and even worse in the dark.  (sorry about the upskirt shot on Doll Mom, I had her out to measure how high to place things and she's taking a nap right now) I possibly put in more wiring than I'll actually need, but you can always have extra wiring sitting around doing nothing, and like I said before it's just about impossible to add any more wiring after the wallpaper goes in.

Hey look I finally got the outside light wired in!  (poke the picture to make it larger and see the extremely fine wires I have to work with.  it's a bit crazy)  (on second thought, you can't see the wires... maybe next time I'll take an even closer picture)  Oh, speaking of wires, I forgot to mention this earlier:

Did you know if you have hot glue on something and you want to get rid of it, you can just hit it with a hair dryer and it'll soften up?  I got all the old wiring out from under the house.  Yep, that's the underside of the dollhouse. 

And here it is, the moment of glory.  I put in the tapewire, I push in all the little 1/8" brass nails to make the connections, I turn on the power cord... and I hold my breath while poking the wire with the electric tester.  And look, it lights up!  Whew!

Moving on to the second floor:

I sure now how to use a lot of tapewire, don't I?!  I actually ran out before I finished.  My kit had 45 ft... FORTY-FIVE FEET... of tapewire.  And I ran out halfway through the third floor.  Seriously.  I worked until I had to quit.  I put in a few extra little pieces to places I might someday want a light, so that took extra tape.  And the double line in the above picture is because the one on the left is the main that goes through all three floors, and the one on the right is just for the kitchen lights.  I had to do it that way so I could put a switch in if I want to.  I already own one switch, and I think I'll definitely use it in the kitchen here.  I have most of the other rooms set up to put switches in too if I want to, but I'm not sure I'm going to.  Maybe.  We'll see.  I did take the time to put all the extra tape in, I might as well put it to good use.  But I need to buy more switches.  And do the extra work.  So, yeah.  We'll see.  But first, I need about 5 feet more tape, and some hanging light adapters so I can make them plug-in instead of hard-wire.  Easier replacing in the future. 

Random subject change: I'd been having an inner debate about the kitchen set.  (second time I used "inner debate" in this post.  allow me to translate... inner debate = talking to oneself.  don't ask)  Part of me wanted to replace it because it doesn't really go with the rest of the house.  It's all plastic and... plastic.  And 1970s.  But there's another part of me that's wanting to keep as much of the original stuff as possible, and is also a tightwad.  And I didn't want to spend the money on a new kitchen set... especially since the one I really like is $70.  Yeah.  So I studied the old set, and started thinking about how I might be able to make it less 70s, and disguise the fact that it's all plastic.  And I actually was getting things figured out.  Right up until I realized that:

Even with her not-yet-repaired busted skull, Doll Mom is WAY taller than the cabinets.  It's like a kid's playset for a doll.  A decision was made for me!  New furniture it is.  Now if only I can find something I like that isn't $70. *sigh* 

Well this post has been a random hodgepodge of unrelated things.  So I guess the only thing left to do is to sign off with a non-dollhouse picture.  Dan and I made ground goop for the train layout last weekend.  We're building up the hillside where the elevated track goes.  I think the train layout is going to have to stay with the house forever, there seems to be some goop on the walls.  Funny thing is this is kind of dollhouse related because ground goop was the inspiration for dollhouse stucco.  Different color, different scale, same idea. 

On that note, I should go be productive in my real house.