My new build thread...

[edawgm]

LOL not what you are thinking. My wife has been hounding me to build our daughter a doll house so I figured I am going all out on this one. None of these little cardboard doll houses. Now I am only in the beginning stages of design on this thing and it looks like it wont be until late January before I can get started building. I have the basic lay-out of it so far. It is going to be some where around 4' tall with each end extending out about 4.5' and the shelves will be a little over a foot deep. And here is what I am planning:

-elevator controlled by a little hand crank (thought about trying something electric but I am not that advanced)
-Lighting, probably something simple but who knows. I figured a few LEDs would be nice. Along with maybe some type of hanging lamp light (something like 15 watts) that will hang from the top.
-And of course we have a little ½ gallon acrylic tank that was up and running in her room before we moved but I think I can some how incorporate it into the design. LOL Barbie is going to have a big tank.

As I get further along with Google sketch-up I will post more updates. Also by all means if you have any ideas to though in please do, I am open to any and all suggestions.

[erikharrison]

led lights are great, and very easily incorporated. They will run off a watch battery Looks pretty cool though, and a corner design is SMART. Maybe you could do a "mall" theme and incorporate the little aquarium as a restaurant in the mall!
Have fun!

[MissT]

I know someone that built dollhouses for many years. There's a method of using copper tape to supply electricity throughout the house using a small transformer. You can get the stuff at Hobby Lobby. They make ceiling fans that really spin, lamps of all kinds, and lots of other extras. For the elevator, you could go to radioshak and get a small fan motor, wire it up to a power supply and switch, and run it on a small pulley. I did something similar in a physics class in high school, it was really easy and pretty cool. I cheated though and took apart one of my brother's old remote control cars and used that controller and the car's axle to run the thing. The forward/back switch controlled the elevator and the left/right worked a drawbridge...

[edawgm]

Ok so I haven't done to much but here is what I have so far.

Here is another over all view...



Here is the added elevator...



And here of course is the aquarium and the garage...

[edawgm]

I know someone that built dollhouses for many years. There's a method of using copper tape to supply electricity throughout the house using a small transformer. You can get the stuff at Hobby Lobby. They make ceiling fans that really spin, lamps of all kinds, and lots of other extras. For the elevator, you could go to radioshak and get a small fan motor, wire it up to a power supply and switch, and run it on a small pulley. I did something similar in a physics class in high school, it was really easy and pretty cool. I cheated though and took apart one of my brother's old remote control cars and used that controller and the car's axle to run the thing. The forward/back switch controlled the elevator and the left/right worked a drawbridge...

Thanks for the heads up on this stuff MissT. I would have never known this stuff existed, but here is the stuff I found for anyone else that might want to do something like this.

http://www.minishop.com/motts/shopdisplaycategories.asp?id=18&cat=Dollhouse+Elec trical+Supplies

http://www.craftsetc.com/store/department.aspx?dep=50&cat=14&subcat=20

http://www.cir-kitconcepts.com/estore5/

http://www.dollhouseheaven.com/?gclid=CILQ9Nquu5ACFQfbQAodmxMQQg