Roombox grand reveal!

Here's the moment I've been impatiently waiting for, she's done.

Well, mostly. I'll try and keep this short and sweet. The lighting for these pictures is the worst. It starts getting dark here around 4pm.
Shouldn't matter, since you'll be seeing plenty of the roombox in the coming months days. So, without further ado:

TA DA!

 The inside tall wall has 3 sconce outlets and 2 corded plug outlets.

Ditto for the short wall. Except the sconces are lower for sofa/bedside/office applications.

 The ceiling has 9 outlets.

 The utility wall. Electrical input connection, and removeable curtain rod.

The patio/porch has 3 sconce outlets, 3 ceiling/roof outlets, and 2 corded plug outlets.

 

 

 The back view.

Interesting features:

Leveling base.

Quick-cut templates. I made craft-paper templates of the walls and floors, so all I need to do is trace and trim desired wallcovering/flooring to match.

So far, I can't think of anything I would do differently. I got the outcome I desired, learned a few techniques along the way, and got semi-comfortable with some new materials. That's always my goal with a new project.

Venture out of your comfort zone, and you'll make way cooler stuff. Period.

I now have a completely custom, one of a kind, highly electrified, self-leveling, versatile, style-neutral, scratch-built structure. Happy girl.

Somehow, I miraculously found time to do some exterior work. I had a bottle of Greenleaf brand dollhouse stucco lying around for the past 15-20 years, so I figured I should go ahead and try it. I mixed it with some latex paint from the house (instructions said to use paint or water). It's a Martha Stewart color from Lowe's called 'soapstone'. It's my favorite pale gray/beige go-with-everything color. Once I painted a thick coat on and let it set a bit, I used a copper scrubber pad to texture it. I blotted until I had a consistent texture. I did two coats on each wall, which helped hide my electrical wires. (As seen in above photos)

I also finally decided on shingles. There were so many lovely options, some very detailed victorian styles.
I went with the square ones. I know. Boring. But I have my reasons.
The roof was never meant to be a focal point. It would just look stupid if I left it unfinished. I didn't want to have some crazy distracting pattern up there, though.

 
The other thing is, I knew I wanted to do real cedar shingles, but that I wanted them gray. Once I got the shingles on, I had a hard time wanting to paint them. I have an unusual obsession with the beauty of natural wood color/grain.

There was this one house from "I'm a Giant" that inspired me to paint them, and I knew I'd be happier if they looked like this:

Go Haus Go

I love how old hers look. I'm jealous of that texture. The rest of the 'house' is really beautiful, too. You should go check it out, then come back and finish the rest of this.

I'm pretty happy with the overall appearance/color pallette of the roombox. Especially since I was able to use paint colors I had on hand from our 1:1 house. The exterior walls are from our basement, the roof is from our front door, and the white gloss interior walls are from the Winnebago. The stucco powder mix, I had on hand. I bought the large bag of 1,000 cedar shingles for $23. I have enough left for the rest of my life. I decided to paint the roof and finish the trim before assembling all the pieces. Just to save me from cleaning sawdust out of the C-channel trim.
The only thing I'm unsure of is how blue my roof looks. It really accentuates how much blue pigment is in our gray paint. It's an oil based paint mixed with citrus solvent to make more of a stain than opaque coverage. It looks sort of slate-ish, so I don't hate it. I'll have to see how it looks in all types of light before I kneejerk-reaction-paint-it-black.

I also knew I wanted walnut fascia trim around the roof, so I finished it to match the interior walnut, then trimmed it in:

The stuff I needed to do to be able to use the roombox is done, and there are only a couple of items left on the list. These jobs can be completed while the structure is fully assembled:

-Organize utility wall

The taller exterior wall won't make it into official TinyFixation shop pictures if I can help it, so I'll be affixing a system to keep the transformer and lead-in wires tamed and contained when the structure is not in use.

-Decide if I want interior trim

Here's the thing. I love me some trim. In the dollhouse, I think that was one of the details that really helped make it look realistic. It almost kills me not to in the roombox, however the name of the game here is versatility. If I have trim in some places, it could prevent certain space plans. I think I'll be making a baseboard for each of the wooden walls (one pair in walnut, and one in white), but not glue them in. I'll paper the walls first, then use museum putty to attach the desired baseboard over the paper. These can be made on a scene-by-scene basis. There. Settled then. So glad we had this talk.


Now I gotta scramble to finish my Cubebot Challenge entry, due tomorrow... eek!

Tutorial: Tape-wiring a dollhouse, the basics.

You may have noticed that my last post was a bit all over the place. Apparently hobbies mimic life. I wasn't drunk (that I can recall). There was just so much going on (in real life and) with the individual pieces of the roombox, that I somewhat jumped the gun on talking about the electrical. I'm not sorry that I showed you, I just could have been more organized. Too late to change it. So if I confused you, apologies. That is the opposite of my mission here. I want to show how easy this can be. This post will be more tutorial-y for you.  I know a few of you have been waiting for this one. These are the basics. The no frills bare minimum to have a tidy electrified dollhouse, along with personal experiences so someone might learn from my mistakes.

At the time I last posted, I had ordered all of the spring-loaded eyelets (and a few other items) that I needed to finish the electrical on this roombox project. I clicked publish, and the next day they showed up on my doorstep. WTF. Insanely fast shipping when I least expect it. So here we are, less than a week later and the electrical is complete. Today we're talking strictly electrical (from the beginning-ish), with a few bonus project pics at the end.

I've never tried round-wiring in miniature (except the fixtures, of course). I think that the effort isn't worth the end result when there are easier alternative options. Work smarter, not harder. Right?! Begin: my love affair with tape-wire. That's the only kind of wiring I'll be writing about here. So when I say 'tape' or 'wire', picture this stuff:

Yes, that is the wire. It lays flat against the wall/floor/ceiling, it's peel-and-stick adhesive backed, and it's "paintable". Let's talk about that.
They (Cir-Kit Concepts) have made the exposed side of the tape compatible with most primers and paints. That being said, affirmative, primer and paint will indeed stick to the tape. That hides the color only. Not the fact that it looks like you painted over the painter's tape, but never removed it. You can see the texture of the tape, no matter how many coats you slap on.

Shown with a 'pound-in' outlet for plug fixtures (table and/or floor lamps, lanterns, etc.).

This is a spring-loaded sconce outlet. It's a flush mount when used with the sconce adapters from Cir-Kit.

In the roombox (above), I tried to minimize the prominence of the tape-wire ends by sanding them down with 4000 grit finish paper. It's all I had for super-fine grit, and it worked pretty well. I despise the puckering of the wire coating under the paint. It's out of my control.

Exhibit A,  flat paint. If you look closely near the sconces you can see the wires.

See?

Especially when the lights are on.

So my advice here would be:

1: If you must use paint for the wall finish, choose a flat paint. This will minimize the visual imperfections.

2: Forget about number 1, and just submit to the fact that you'll be happier with papered walls. I have.

In the roombox, I knew that I would be putting up and taking down paper all the time. The roombox is for staging purposes, so it has to be versatile. That's why I went with a gloss white on the walls. They're never going to be photographed naked (this place is already classier than any Kardashians). Adhesives generally don't stick well to gloss paint permanently. The gloss will clean up easily, and make putting paper up and down a snap. Not to mention that I'll be making templates of the walls so I can just trace/cut paper to size in a minute or two and know exactly where my electrical connections are behind it. Like magic.

One of the first big decisions in wiring (after you've gotten through the no-brainer of choosing tape-wire), is which transformer to purchase (I have two CK1009C transformers). That all depends on how many fixtures you plan on running simultaneously. I run all fixtures in my dollhouse together since I didn't install any switches. It's either all of the lights or none of them. It's not like the tiny inhabitants have an electric bill coming in every month. You'll want to buy a big enough transformer to handle the load. Unless you're working in 1:24 or smaller, don't buy anything that says 1.5V on it. Not compatible. I'm only working in 1:12 here. I've posted this before, but here is the guide from Cir-Kit:

Scraped from Cir-Kit Concepts' website. '*' indicates built in breaker.

There are a few different starter kits out there, and they have all of the same components (to my knowledge), except for the transformer size. If I had it to do all over again, I'd have still bought the same kit last year. Normally these kits include:

-transformer with lead-in wire

-junction splice

-tape wire

-test probe

-brass eyelets and brads

-drill handle with #55 bit and pilot hole punch

-a manual

The manual is not just for decoration, folks. It is very helpful, and teaches you all of the basics. Don't be a man and throw it away without looking at it, then get pissed and wonder why shit doesn't work. Read it front to back. And never be afraid to ask for directions if you need them, big guy. I'm available through e-mail if you can't figure something out, or have a unique wiring situation and want help brainstorming solutions.

If you've bought a kit, rad! Here's where I hug you and tell you it's all going to be ok. It only looks daunting, and it only sounds scary. You aren't going to electrocute yourself. It's all very low voltage. I've touched live connections. (Clearly still pink, warm, and breathing as I type at you). A glass of wine would give me more of a buzz, and trust me, I've developed a tolerance. You don't need to turn breakers off to work on this, so chill out. Chances are, there's a circuit breaker built into your transformer anyway.

Here are some basics about the electricity you're working with and a few first steps to achieving the miniature electrical dream.

You may have noticed that the tape wire has two lines. A pink and a blue. These are very thin copper foils. One is for electricity coming in, and one is for electricity going out. You'll always connect pink to pink, and blue to blue. There are no ground wires to worry about. It's as easy as breathing. Electricity in one color, out the other. In and out. So simple. You don't even need to know which color is in, and which color is out. It doesn't matter. Just don't go connecting opposite colors together. If you're colorblind, well, I hope you have a patient friend or spouse to assist you. The plugs/adapters all have two wires/prongs as well. Again, it makes no matter which prong goes in which outlet hole so long as one prong meets pink and the other meets blue.

The first decision you'll need to make is where you want the lead-in wire to attach to the structure with the junction splice.

Dollhouse configuration.

Roombox configuration.

I try to choose inconspicuous locations on the outside. You'll start running your tape wire from there to the inside of the house and, as mentioned in previous posts you'll want to map out the path of the electrical in pencil to make planting the wires easier. I tend to put the junction splice on the longest uninterrupted length of tapewire in the house (I call this the 'feeder line').

So stick down a few inches of wire at your desired splice location and simply hammer the thing into the wires making sure one prong is making contact with each color. I've never had a poor contact on the first try. Plug in the lead-in wire (you may have to attach it to the transformer yourself) and use the test probe to check for power down the line. Don't be shy, you'll need to pierce the plastic coating on the wires and make contact with the copper to know if you've got power. These little holes will have no effect on the competence of the wires later. Once the probe lights up, you can fasten the little screw on the junction splice and continue on with the application of the wire. If the probe doesn't light up, try the following before re-placing the splice:

1. Is your transformer plugged in?

2. Is it plugged into an outlet that runs on a wall switch, and is the switch off?

3. If there's a rotary switch on your lead in wire, turn it. Try the probe again. If it still doesn't work...

4. Hell if I know. Try removing the splice and re-hammering it into fresh wire nearby.

Test probe, unlit, the switch on the lead-in wire was in the off position.

Shazam! Switch turned on. The world makes sense again.

Holes in the tape from the test probe are OK. As many as you need without completely fracturing a wire.

Repeat the steps until that test probe lights up. You don't want to go any further until you know if the tape-wire is receiving power.

Once you have an electrified line you can lay the rest of that length and when you get to a stopping point, snip it. Stopping points are generally anywhere that the wire would need to make a turn, or go no further. The wire can wrap around walls, bend in corners, etc. So there are less connections to make than you may think. Also, you can use any operational line as a feeder line to a new location. So don't feel like you have to run everything off the original feeder line.

To make a connection from a feeder line to an additional route, do the following:

In the dollhouse bathroom, I wanted sconces and outlets near the sink.

Lay your new line where you've decided you want power, making sure to overlap the new wire on top of the feeder line (above photo). Then you can use your pilot hole punch to plot where you'll place your brads. This isn't necessary, but makes it easier if you don't have steady hands. You'll be able to see where pink wires and blue wires overlap each other. Where pink meets pink, poke two small spots in the top wire. You'll want to keep these holes as small as possible to ensure the best connection. Carefully hammer one brass brad in each hole, and repeat this process between the two blue wires as well. It's recommended that these are hammered in at an angle, which is hilarious, since they're 1/8" long. I use needle nose pliers to hold the brad while I tap it in. If you want to use your fingers instead of pliers, good luck... knock yourself out, but don't come crying to me. You can use the eyelets at connections too, but this is a bit more time consuming and labor intensive. Which means I said no. Obviously.

Pilot hole punch tool, included in my fist kit.

Four neat and very small pilot holes.

1/8" Brass brads. So teensy.

Placing the brad at an angle will increase the likelihood of excellent contact between brad and wire.

Fully functional connection. Note the pencil lines. Neat and tidy. Ready to be slathered in paint. At least I know how clean it looks under there.

Note: if you require more brads, buy the brass ones. There are cheaper silver colored versions but the brass is better for the longevity of your system. I read somewhere when I started (sounds legit.) that the brass brads actually bond with the tapewire with use over time, further strengthening the connections. The cheaper versions may work fine at first but acually end up corroding in the long run. I've got no time for a headache like that.

Once you get the brads/eyelets in, grab that trusty test probe and check the new line for power.

Continue this process until there are working lines everywhere you need them. Then you can install outlets and eyelets for the actual lights to plug into.

The outlet pictured at the beginning of this post (for the sake of not scrolling all the way back up, here it is again) you can usually pick up in a pack of four for about $5USD.

These are simply placed at the desired location on the tape-wire (one prong per copper strip, as is the usual rule) and hammered into place. Even through paint, the connection will likely still be functional (mine always are) so you don't have to paint around them. I always install these post-paint, pre-wallpaper. Personal preference strikes again.

So there's simple tape-wiring in a nutshell, and the basics to get you electrified. I'll talk more about eyelet installation next post, which should be the big roombox reveal (not counting exterior finish).

Some teasers until then:

 Fireplace is coming along. I need more rocks so I'll hit up my favorite local beach this weekend (Yay, no more tourists!).

Soon, this will be explained as possibly the most terrifying moment in roombox construction history.

I hope this was at least mildly helpful. Until next time. Stay classy.

It's electric, boogie woogie woogie

I thought this post would exclusively cover the electrical undertaking in the roombox. Nah. Too many other things needed to happen before I could get that party started. Wait for it...

First off, I hadn't yet finished the wood for the roof/ceiling treatment. I wanted to bring some warmth to the birch, and have natural walnut beams (not basswood stained to look like walnut). I put the tung oil/citrus solvent finish on the ceiling, avoiding the edges, since I'll be trimming those with a 'fascia board'.
"Tung oil" sounds dirty every time I say/type it. Kind of like "tight end" in football. I giggle.
Then.
Dilemma.

Shit

At the miniatures store I frequent, they didn't have any 3/4" walnut flooring in stock. Which would have been friggin' perfect. The shop owner told me they order that stuff from California, and it usually takes 3-4 weeks to arrive. I don't have that kind of time right now. I really wanted the contrast of the walnut on birch. I perused their selection of flooring and went home disappointed with some blonde colored butternut (photo above) which had pretty grain and was on sale.  My mind was restless about it. These beams will be permanent. It's not what I wanted. At all. 
I was really bummed about making that concession until a light bulb appeared over my head. Why the hell I didn't think of this earlier was beyond me. I'm an idiot.

Make the walnut beams your damned self, dude.


 

Untreated walnut on finished birch (actually after I oiled it, this is just the backsides, thus the darker edges)


I dashed upstairs to find that I had a piece of walnut 3" x 24" x 1/16". Just sitting there, waiting for a rainy day (it happened to be a hurricane day). That's why I have a lumber stash anyways, for situations like this, but I never check it.
That would give me exactly four 3/4" wide slats. Plenty. I could barely contain my excitement. My husband was frightened.
I sliced it, diced it, and boom! Perfection. Got the tung oil on that too, and boy is she pretty.

Finished walnut on finished birch. Lovely.

In the meantime, between coats of tung oil, I took the walls down and started step one of the wiring process. Deciding on a strategy, and subsequently mapping out the wiring lines (this makes laying the wiring down much easier, as you can see your pencil lines through the tape). I had two options in my head. One used less tape wire and more brads, the other used a bit more wire, but with far fewer connections. I chose the latter. Tapewire isn't that expensive (15 feet for about $8) compared with the frustration and sloppy appearance of brads (these can get pricey, I have approximately 500 of these, so I'm set for life) everywhere, and overlapping tapes, and ghastly tape ends. Don't get me wrong, there will be some of those things, but significantly less. I'm taking a more streamlined approach, seeing how this isn't an entire house, it's one room. One room that comes apart into pieces in seconds and can be put back together without glue. So proud of that feature. Can't stop talking about it.
Here's what my pencil lines look like pre-wire:





Riveting, I know.

I have these plotted out everywhere except the ceiling. Once I have that screwed on, I'll connect the pencil lines from each wall across the ceiling, because I'm lazy and don't want to measure. As outlined in the previous post, the only pieces that will be fixed together permanently will be the roof and the two poplar walls. And only because I'm electrifying it. Otherwise, this item could be made to pack and store flat.


Once the tung oil had been soaking in/drying for a couple of days, I could attach it to the walls, three screws on each side. I pre-drilled the holes before putting the finish on the wood, and countersunk the pilots in the roof. Reason being, I plan on shingling it (eventually, not a current priority) and I don't want the screws interfering.

After plotting my electrical lines, I could start planting the tape. Normally (I say that like I've done this more than once. I haven't.), I take pictures of the wiring before painting over it. But just to be absolutely sure which color is where, I make a small set of rules. It's just personal preference, but it works for me. Here's how my dollhouse is configured (I'm going to have that all reversed in the roombox.) :

If the wire is running...
-horizontally on a wall, blue line on top
-vertically on a wall, blue line on the left
-on the floor or ceiling, blue line closest to the open side of the house OR blue line on the left

(sounds about as simple as a pregnancy test, right? ...kidding)

That makes it so there's no guesswork if a line needs to be added later.
No pesky sparks flying like when you're hammering into live electrical like they tell you not to in the manual.


I use cir-kit products. I like like them. They're incredibly easy to use. They didn't pay me to say that, or give me any free products. They (and Gerard Butler) don't even know I exist. It was their kit that I used to wire my dollhouse. The manual was thorough, there were no missing tools/supplies, and it was affordable (I bought the kit at Hobby Lobby with their 40% weekly coupon so it only cost me $25-30ish. Sweet deal.). My first attempt at wiring/lighting was a complete success, and there was no frustration whatsoever. It was a breeze. The entire system just worked the way it was supposed to as advertised.
Unlike anything else in my life.

My first dollhouse wiring supplies.

I know that electrifying a dollhouse sounds intimidating. I urge you to try it. I took the plunge, and look at me now. I feel like a pro (I'm not, although I'm all but unstoppable with the electrical at this point), and I'd be more than happy to offer a hand if anyone decides to give it a shot. Just e-mail me.
My strongest piece of unsolicited advice would be to read the very short manual cover to cover before starting. And there are even some youtube videos if you're a visual learner.
Doing a roombox as a first project might be a great way to start instead of a six room dollhouse like I did. I already told you I'm an idiot. No shocking revelation there, folks.

Aaaanyways.
Back to your regularly scheduled programming. In a photo montage, naturally.

 
 Lay the first tape where you want the junction splice and pound it in with a hammer. Then fasten it with the black screw. This is where your power cord from the transformer will plug in.

Then use the test probe to check for downstream power. Let there be light!
No light? Don't panic. Try the rotary switch on the power cord (if your model has one) before assuming the splice has poor contact.


The test probe will leave holes in the tape. No worries. That's normal.

 Here's my entire line-in setup (transformer, lead wire, junction splice, tape wire). The tape-wire feeder line runs under the wall to the inside of the room, and all other electrical connections tap into that.

 I tie a ribbon around the wire roll to keep it from going all willy-nilly as I go along. If you've tape-wired before, you know what I mean.

 One line down...

 Then two.

Followed by the third, and the sconce and outlet lines.

 I choose to use brads (rather than eyelets) at most junctions.

 Spring loaded eyelets make the connections at the sconce level. These will also be used for all ceiling outlets. This makes it so I can plug any (non-corded) fixture in any outlet since I use the cir-kit brand chandelier and sconce adapters.

The whole enchilada.

Add my coffered ceiling trim, some outlets, and some unforgiving glossy white paint and you get closer to attractive.
 Still have to install 15 spring-loaded outlets (2 eyelets each) in the ceiling/roof locations, some trim, and to finish the outside. You know, not much. I'm really nervous about the ceiling outlets, but those will have to wait until the next post. Sadly, I cleaned out the local store, and still needed 32 of the things. At $1.50 each. Ouch. They're ordered but it'll take them a week or two before they arrive, so here's how we're looking currently...

 Melt my heart of stone.

  I've got 3 sconce outlets and 2 plug outlets on each wall inside and out (except the utility wall). There'll be 9 flush ceiling outlets and an additional 3 in the porch roof. I hope and pray they work with the way I've hidden the wiring.
I like it. So far.
I want to buy those little brass outlet covers. Real bad.

And some lesser known items in the works:

 The beginnings of a stone fireplace that doubles as a wrench...

If you wondered about these holes in each wall of the roombox, they're for the curtain rod.

 You may have seen these in the prior post, but they're basswood 3/8" C-channel pieces that have a 1/4" groove. Perfect for trimming 1/4" plexi. Great, right? I picked that stick up on sale for ten cents, and spray painted it to look like aluminum. Someday when I grow up, I'll buy real aluminum C-channel.

Not much more I can do without the electrical components, so until then I'm off to play with my cubebot(s).
Sayonara.