Starting on Primrose Dollhouse Kit

I read the instructions over several zillion times and finally got up the  nerve to start on my Primrose kit.  It's the attachment/add on for the Laurel, but can also be used separately as a cottage.  I'm going to be using it with the Laurel, but decided to start with the smaller house first.

Primrose window casings and shutters

I knew I wanted to do the houses in a country blue and white, but wasn't sure whether or not to make the shutters all white or multicolored.

Primrose window casings and shutters

I laid the shutter tops on top of the shutter bottoms while all painted white in order to see if I liked the look, and I do, so I'm going to leave them all white.  Now I just have to glue them together, and also glue the windows into the frames.  Then I can start on the window boxes.

I hate the sanding, and can't believe how awful some of the wood pieces are made...it's like every sheet is made of a different wood.  Two of the 6 large pieces of wood that contain all of the smaller ones are in good shape, but the others aren't great, and one is really bad...like the wood is 100 times older and dryer than the other pieces.  I can't believe they passed quality control.  I sure hope the bigger kit has more good sheets than bad.

I enjoy the painting part, and I think I'll enjoy the decorating.  I know I'll enjoy making little objects to put in the dollhouse.  I already have a list of things I want to make.  I'm going to start with breads and a breadboard...it looks simple and fun to make.

My dog Mac is on his 4th week of crate rest post surgery (on Wednesday it will be 4 weeks), and he likes to sit outside in his pop up crate so I've been doing the sanding and painting outside on the deck in the mornings and evenings, when it's still cool enough to be outside.  Mac loves it out there, and this gives me something to do while supervising him.  I can't leave him alone because he can open the zippered door with his nose, lol.  He's so smart.  He seems to be doing a lot better, thank God.