Intermediate Work: Lighting the Dollshouse Part 1

November 7th - 8th 2014

Ok, again, taking a little break from tiling.... I decided to light my dollshouse.

I was adding so many nice little things in the rooms but since the lighting hadn’t been completely installed yet, I decided to do something about it.  I purchased some LEDs from Evan Designs a long time ago as well as shrink tube and hook up wiring so I was pretty well stocked with materials.  I pulled out my soldering gun and even watched the LED installation video the Evan Design site for the best way to hook up groups of lights.  So...on with it!!
The first thing I had to do was to shorten some wires and strip them (using the soldering iron) then connect them.  I tried to connect the wires in groups as close as possible.  The left back middle and top room, the left back first floor room with the spa and entrance way.  I also found a hole in the Music room wall - I mast have planned to add another LED there but didn’t in the end.  Anyway, the back of the house is pretty messy with wires but I have a few ideas how to hide them (altho I am not sure they will work just yet...).  Anyway, having connected the wires into two groups, I then connected some lead wires to each group and brought both down to the bottom floor.  All the while double checking to be sure everything lit.  It did.  Once I got to the bottom, I connected the switch again and checked.....WOW!! With a fresh battery the house looks freaking great!!!  I was so astonished how cool it looked!  Now...on to the other side.

Wires cut, connected and held in place with a bit of tape, for now.

WOW! Hard to get a good picture but the effect was surpising!

The lamp that needed replacing...

I attached the top and bottom in the same manner I had already done to the left back.  I double checked the lights worked and then had to tackle the outside light in the external kitchen area.  My virtual friend Antonio(who by the way is doing a bird cage giveaway on his FaceBook page - all you have to do is like his page to be included!) who had given me an extra lamp but since it was set up for a different voltage, I had to replace that bulb with one of my LEDs (last one actually).  Thing was I had already glued it into place so I had to kind of rip it out. That went fairly quickly and I replaced the bulb with one of my own LEDs, then attached a longer wire to connect with the other lights for the right side of the house. 
I painted this wire black as there would be no where to really hide it (although I can carry it along the bottom of the house and hide the longest part with grass etc. later) but the wire that travels down the side of the pergola will remain exposed.  Whatever.  It is a kind of messy back of the house (of which the decoration of the back will be explained in a later chapter :-)).  I also added lots of tacky wax to the pergola top to reattach the roof.  I had been glueing it in place but now I decided to just wax it into place.  The wax holds up pretty well - almost as well as glue!  Next I connected the two wires from the right back side and the one hook up wire from the pergola lamp to the switch and voila! Let there be light!!  I did the same to the left back and gathered all the wires and batteries together to the back.  The tape is provisory till I get cracking on a way to hide all the damn wires.... But that will be coming later....

Top of the pergola - you can see where I tacky waxed the wire in place.

The back of the house somewhat cleaned up.

And here are a few preliminary pics of the house with its glorious lighting! I’m so pleased! It’s all just missing the damn roof.....sigh.

The house open.

Fire Pit room second floor.

Second Floor landing with Bathroom.

Buddha Room second floor.

Music Room first floor.

First Floor landing with phone booth.

The Bamboo Room first floor.

Onsen ground floor.

Entrance Hall ground floor.

Kitchen ground floor.

Storage area outside the kitchen - ground floor.

Outside of the house with lighting installed.

Chapter 73 - The Overhang to the Left Side Room, the Firepit (Irori)

December 14th - 19th 2013

As explained, I had skipped this chapter as I felt the firepit required my attention and little ingenuity to pull off.  But I finally got around to it.

First was to build the overhang.  Pretty straightforward and quick.  I had already done three of them so there was no big change in building this one.  The time consuming part is measuring out the spacing between the wooden slats.  Quick paint job, varnish and white tipping the under beam supports.  Then attached over the room doors.  Done.

Spacing the top part of the overhang.

The bottom part of the overhang.

Finished overhang.

Problem came up tho when I had to attach the two decorative beam fillers, one over the doors and one in the corner.  The one over the door didn’t fit for the same reason as the room’s internal ones - I had made a mistake in the overlap of the vertical slats.  Some sanding then a forced glue with clamps did the trick (I hope).  We’ll know better when the time comes to fit the ceiling to the landing area on.  I will re-enforce it then.  The corner piece also was a tight fit but that was a little easier as it required only some sanding.

Forcing the overhead beam filler.

On to the firepit - or the irori as it’s called.  (I also discovered the name of the hanging hook for the irori - a jizai-kagi)  The sunken firepit or hearth was a gathering place and source of heating not just for cooking but also for the room.  Usually the rooms were much larger but today there are even many restaurants that use the irori as a focal point for cooking.  There is more info on the kikkoman site which was helpful and informative.

My first task was to figure out a way to squish the battery carrier and the lights into the small hearth frame (appx 28mm square).  I fooled around with the foam core piece from the kit as the covering area and then had to cut the wires down to an acceptable length.  There was no soldering involved here but I did use my soldering iron to strip the wires. Super fast! I then glued the three fire bulbs onto the foam core support and left them overnite.  Next day, I trimmed down the wires some more and glued the actual battery holder into the foam core (and left that too for a while).  I then painted the bottom part of the irori and made some more notches to fit the battery in a little better.  Then sealed up the connections and glued the wires and switch in place. 

Firepit pieces and the FIRE LED kit from Evan Designs.

Gluing in the LEDs onto the foam core.

Gluing the switch and the wires into place.

Once the glue was set, I squished the battery into place and attached the back panel. I didn’t glue it in because I knew I may have to substitute the battery one day so all I will have to do is push from the top and the whole thing will pop out.

Adding some "ash" and charcoal pieces.

Celophane in place and adding more color to the coals.

Next step was coloring the switch, the top section and painting the inside of the pit a grey color.  I also covered the lights with a cellophane film included with the kit. It helps to tone down the flicker and make it a little less intense and more uniform.  Once that was glued down, I could add the sand (ashes) and charcoal bits, let those dry and then make some touch ups using some dark grey, grey and white. 















The last phase was the top section edge.  I glued that on and clamped it down.  And the trick was done.

Finished irori firepit.

Making the utensils for the fire pit.

Only “problem” was that the irori wouldn’t actually accommodate the hanging pot I had already made.  The fire coals were higher up than if there were no battery underneath.  But I am more than happy making the sacrifice.  I added some small utensils for cleaning the pit too.  Once I complete a few more things, we can start adding some details to this room too.


Here is a video of the pit in action.  You can even hear Christmas music in the background! Yeah!