I usually use clapboard siding on my dollhouses, but stylistically that didn’t seem right for the Rosedale. In the workshops I’ve taken with The Guys from Texas, they taught a technique for using watered down wood filler to create a stucco texture. I’ve never done it on my own (let alone for an entire house!) but hey, you never learn how to do something unless you try it. What could go wrong?

Actually, it went surprisingly well. I started by masking off the areas where fascia and window trim will go, as well as any other spots next to stuccoed areas that I didn’t want to get covered with wood filler.

I traced lines around the window trim and applied masking tape starting at these lines, covering the windows to keep the wood filler from getting inside. I was kind of sloppy with the tape at the bottom of the windows. There’s no bottom trim, just window sills that rest on the bottom edge of the window, but I needed to stick the tape down at the bottom or it wouldn’t protect the inside of the house. I figured that even if some areas right near the trim aren’t textured, I can paint them and you won’t really notice the lack of texture. (Famous last words.)

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I finished assembling the Rosedale this week. Before gluing in the third floor and attic, I cut the wallpaper and ceiling pieces that would to go inside. It was much easier to figure out the shapes with the parts unassembled, particularly the angled wings and attic.

A few weeks ago, I assembled the big room on the third floor as a standalone unit. I glued this part in first and added a bit of strip wood at the front edge of the bathroom door opening, to form a proper doorway. (If I’d just cut the hole properly in the first place, this wouldn’t have been necessary…)

Next I glued in the walls and ceilings of the third floor wings, followed by the attic walls. On the side pieces, I had to shave off a tiny bit at the top of each tab to get them to sit properly. Since these pieces are angled, running glue along the bottoms didn’t have much effect so I glopped glue on the outside for good measure. (I wiped it after taking the picture, so plenty of glue got into the seams but it’s not quite as sloppy as the photo suggests!)

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