Nothing is ever straightforward!

image from The Dolls House Emporium

It certainly looks like it would be a nice straightforward kit to construct, doesn't it?  But nope, I've come across some issues already and I've barely started!

To start with I had a teensy-wee bit of a panic when I opened the box containing the kit, as it seemed like half of it was missing 😱  It then dawned on me that way back in the mists of time, when we were still living in Hitchin, I had dry-fitted the pieces together but didn't get round to actually building the house ~ obviously 😏  When I dismantled it I ended up wrapping most of the big panels in bubble wrap as it was a tad difficult to get them back in the bloody box!  The bubble-wrapped bundle was just minding its own business, sitting with the boxes containing the Montgomery Hall Kit pretending it belonged there 😄

So, panic over, I did another dry-fit run-through of the body of the house although I didn't bother with the roof for the time being.  This is the front of the house, with the living room on the left and a bedroom above.  The hall is on the right with a small room above, which on the box is depicted as being the bathroom.  The house is described as having "seven spacious rooms" but that is rather like optimistic estate agent waffle, as three of the said rooms are really rather on the pokey side!

Front panel temporarily held in place with masking tape.  One of the nice touches to the house is that as well as the usual opening front, it also has opening panels on either side.

  On the left in the photo above is another view of the hall, this time with the staircase taped in position, and the landing.  The hole in the landing ceiling, by the way, is for the loft-hatch.

On the box the rooms on the right are set out as the kitchen, with a nursery upstairs.  These are both pretty small rooms, to be honest, as is the room at the front to the left of the landing.  The area beneath the stairs has potential, though, and I've had various ideas whirring around in my head for what I could do with the space 😄     

Both of the opening side panels are meant to be held in place with magnets, which I'm not keen on at all.  I assume that's why both of these panels are shorter than those that are fixed in place, to give some "wiggle-room" when removing them to access the interior of the house.  I'm still mulling over how to alter this to something that I will find more satisfactory. 

The other side of the house is shown on the box as the dining room, with another bedroom above.

With the side panel in place, which as you can see is where the "back door" is positioned.

As you have probably realised I'm not totally happy with this house as it is, and will therefore be making a few alterations.  However, they won't be as drastic as the changes I started to make to Fernleigh House 😉  I'll be telling you more about them as the build progresses.

Having seen that the picture on the box showed a bedroom up in the roof space, accessed via a ladder, I spent waaay too much time trying to figure out how to fit a proper staircase up there instead.  After all, who really wants to have to climb up a ladder every night to get to bed!  In the end, after giving myself a thumping headache with all the thinking, I decided that I will leave it simply as loft space rather than trying to fit another bedroom up there 😏  Because of the pyramid-shape of the roof, there is very limited headroom up there ~ and no window whatsoever.  Quite apart from having to access the potential room via a ladder, I think you'll agree that it is all very unsatisfactory and wouldn't comply with building regulations in the slightest 😉

  One of the side roof panels is removeable, so I think it will be nice to simply use the space as a straightforward loft for storing all those little things that we like to hold on to "in case they come in handy", or aren't used frequently such as Christmas decorations.

I have an idea of the alterations I want to make and some tentative thoughts regarding how the rooms will be used.  Upstairs is fairly straightforward, in that the two largest rooms will be the master and guest bedrooms.  The largest of the other two rooms (which are both rather small!) will definitely be a bathroom.  I'm undecided at the moment whether to make the other small room into a second bathroom (so that both bedrooms in effect have an en-suite) or an office.

As for downstairs whilst the room at the front will definitely be the living room, I'm still undecided about the layout of the kitchen and dining room.  I do have a couple of ideas in mind, I just have to make a final decision 😄