FINALLY...A GIGANTIC ANNOUNCEMENT!

The Hobbies of Dereham Dollhouse is now in my possession and under my own roof! Hip Hip Hooray!!!!

Having gotten that out of the way, let me preface this with the fact that I totally underestimated the amount of work it will take to rehabilitate this old house. The southern heat and humidity have done me some favors in that most of the papers are peeling and in some cases simply deteriorating under the slightest touch. Any notion of preservation has been entirely erased and I don't have to feel the least bit guilty about going forward with updating or modernizing since none of it could possibly be saved.

On the other hand, the southern heat and humidity have also damaged some of the wood and much of the trim pieces etc are also buckling. Keep in my mind that this dollhouse is intended as an heirloom for my daughter. I can't have exposed nails or pieces threatening to fall apart. ALL of the trim pieces will need to be removed and some of the wood will even need to be repaired or replaced.

Here are some updated pictures showing what I'll be working with:

And a shot of exactly what I mean about peeling papers:

Also, I thought I was looking at nails poking through, but after having a closer look, it turns out someone snipped the electrical in the roof, rendering the entire electrical system (assuming it had a chance of working) useless. I'm not sure I'm going to rewire this dollhouse. I may find an alternate means of lighting it as it's too delicate to tear apart at this stage and I don't want someone else to run into this same problem fifty or sixty years from now:

I feel I should mention the fact that this dollhouse may well have been constructed during the time of lead paint (prior to 1978). For those who don't understand the risk, it isn't the fact of the lead paint, but the deterioration of it that poses the problem. For safety sake, I'll move forward with the assumption that there MAY be lead paint involved and will be working outdoors while wearing a safety mask and gloves until such time as I have applied KILZ to cover the portions that have been painted, though thankfully those aren't a major factor as most of it was papered, not painted. I won't be scraping any paint, simply wiping it down to remove the dust and painting over it.

After my initial inspection, I removed the upper trim from the roof and started to peel away the small bands of inner and outer red brick wallpaper. That's the point I realized the larger trim pieces were going to require removal as well. And then, of course, ultimately came to the decision that this would be a common theme overall. I left the roof for the time being and decided to begin work on one of the interior lower rooms.

When I first saw the pictures my mother sent, I thought it only had wallpaper, no ceiling paper or flooring. That's a laugh! There's paper everywhere! And it MUST be removed. I began with simple dish soap and water and a scraping tool, where needed. To be honest, much of the flooring and some of the wallpaper came off with only the lightest amount of cleaner and pressure with a microfiber cloth; but those areas with the detailed paper remaining wouldn't budge at first. I don't know if a different adhesive was used on these areas or what is making it so difficult but it required a lot more elbow grease, as well as some scraping.

A few shots of the removal process for this first room:

And a couple shots of the room, now removed of all baseboards, paper, flooring, and thus dust, as compared to the surrounding rooms. I still need to dismantle the electrical but it's a massive improvement already!

Now, keep in mind, not including the bit where I worked on the roof, this ultimately turned into a one room project that took the better part of two hours to complete. I've done some research since and I'm going to be buying some ammonia and liquid fabric softener to mix with water, and apply it with a spray bottle to soften and remove the papers. I'm hopeful this will help move the process along a little faster, without (cross fingers) damaging the wood in the process.

One thing is for certain, this will not be an overnight renovation. Not. Even. Close.