Good News/Bad News About Stairs

Our Willowcrest adventure continues, my friends, and this time it's all about stairs. Predominantly, the second floor stairs that lead to the third floor. Following the kit's instructions, the stairs are placed between the bathroom and the bedroom. Many folks who've blogged about the kit dislike the back wall of the stairs because it obstructs the view into the dollhouse and feels obtrusive. I could not agree more! So what to do about it? The solution, naturally, is to move the stairs. WHERE is the obvious conundrum. The hallway on the second floor is tiny, so it doesn't leave a lot of options. Unless you are willing to start moving walls around, which I totally am!

Okay, it feels like I need to set the scene here a little bit. Please indulge this wordy paragraph...

It might seem like there should be other priorities before I start thinking about stairs. Such as gluing the front wall to the center wall and to the foundation (like I said I would in my last post). And you are right. But... for the sake of efficiency, I thought I should have the 3D printer working while I was working. Teamwork, right?!? In that case, I had to figure out what 3D printed pieces I needed next: the upstairs bathroom/bedroom doors. But before I could make them I had to know their dimensions. And to know dimensions, I had to know where my walls were going to be. That meant I had to figure out exactly where the stairs would go. Chicken and egg conundrum every time! So, I sat and stared at the dollhouse, while still in dry fit, hoping it would pity me and just give up the answer. You know what?!? It did! Just for kicks, I stuck the first floor's stair assembly in the second floor hallway to see what would happen. Guess what? It was a perfect fit!!! I think my angels are feeding me ideas! And, not surprisingly, those ideas lead me down a rabbit hole...

First floor stair assembly placed in the second floor hallway

Closer view. They take up nearly all the space!

Since the stairs almost fit there, I had a solid plan to work with. I would reproduce the first floor stairs for the second floor with a minimal tweak: it would turn only once and then go straight up onto the third floor. Also, the ceiling height of the first floor is 9-3/8", the second floor is only 7-3/4. So this staircase needed less stairs. There was still one slight problem, though: Not enough floor space between the first floor landing to where the second floor stairs started.

I needed an additional 2-1/4" to make this plan functional. I decided to see if I could steal that space from the bedroom.

Goodbye double door bedroom entry.

How would it look? How much room would that still leave the bedroom? The only way to answer these questions was to put some eyes on them. I got out my red pencil and ruler and marked out an idea. The stair wall would jog into the bedroom 2-1/4" x 6-1/8", then jut back out for the doorway.

I kept going with the idea, drawing out the new walls in red pencil. The benefits of the configuration below are:

a) The original bathroom layout won't lose much space

b) the angled doorways will make a more interesting view into the hallway

c) it will still leave plenty of functional bedroom space

d) it opens up the back of the house

The stair opening on the third floor will be only slightly farther into the room and to the right. I'll just have to adjust the access hole. I will also have to cut new walls, but I might have just enough material if I use the original bedroom/bathroom wall and the offcut (you'll see this later) from the bathroom wall. If I'm short, I can use illustration art boards and double them up if need be.

I was so energized by this solution that I couldn't sleep! Instead, I got started replicating the staircase in Tinkercad. It took three hours to work out the design, but finally, at 1:00 AM, I had gotten this far and sent myself to bed.

Just when everything seemed to be falling into place, I was terribly shocked the next morning by bad news. The slicer program calculated that it would take 4 DAYS to 3D print the staircase!!! And that didn't include the railing. I would be risking a lot of time and material on a prototype that I had no guarantee would work.

Um, back to the drawing board... 😒

4 Days?!?

I don't give up easily, and that's when another solution came to mind. Since I already had all of the pieces designed and measured out in Tinkercad, I could export them as svg files for Design Space and cut them with the Maker. I would just have to pull the 3D pieces apart and flatten my model. So that's what I did. Chipboard? PLA? I don't really care, just give me my stairs!!! The chipboard option means I had to assemble the stairs myself, but luckily, I really enjoy that kind of "work". 😊

Staircase pieces flattened in Tinkercad

Staircase pieces after importing them into Design Space.
The purple rectangles are the risers, to be cut from cardstock
rather than chipboard, hence, the different color.

Assembly was accomplished in a very straightforward process: Glue back, sides, braces, front, risers and treads - the same order as the kit's stairs. The three steps that create the turn were a custom, piece by piece job, but it, too, was pleasantly simple thanks to chipboard being so much easier to cut than wood. 

With rails temporarily attached. I had to recreate the longer rail
myself, cutting out and spacing the arches, so I did the best I could.

Side by side comparison with the kit's stairs.
The chipboard will take a lot less refining than the wood.

Before I could get an accurate visual on how the stairs would look in the hallway, I had to do a little remodeling. The kit's original bathroom wall had to get cut down. I used my Zona saw and made quick work of it.

Wall Before

Only a portion of the wall is left but it's an important piece for structural
support since it is part of the first floor's kitchen wall/foundation.

Here's how the new staircase fits into the hallway pushed back into the bedroom 2-1/4". There's sufficient room now for choosing to go up another floor or off to the right to the bedroom/bathroom.

Both staircases sitting in their places.

And the view from the future bathroom/bedroom doors.

And that, my friends, was this week's Willowcrest adventure! Good news, bad news, good news, triumph! Man, I'm having fun!

xo xo,

Jodi

The Replicator

Last week we began our Willowcrest journey by starting on the first/second floor stairwell. I wanted to make that area more viewer friendly by adding a much larger window using the kit's French Door Window as the model. But how could I replicate the fancy, multi-layer and double arched frames and trim? I'm not a woodworker, but I do have lots of technology at my fingertips, so I decided to see what I could do with it. 

3D Printed Staircase Interior Window Frame

After some tinkering, I found that I could scan the frames into my PC, open them in Inkscape, separate the layers then save the best one as an svg file. I imported the svg file into Tinkercad, made adjustments, if necessary, added details and then prepared them for 3D printing. It's a pretty complicated process at first, but once I did a little troubleshooting, I ended up with some amazing replacement kit pieces!

Scanned French Door frames into my PC

Imported into Inkscape and converted into an svg

Imported into Tinkercad. There were mysterious "holes" that needed patching up.

Not only can I combine each of the layers into one frame, to further enhance the kit's components, I can add architectural details created by myself or by others on Thingiverse, Has your mind just exploded like mine did? Oh the possibilities!

The kit has you stack four layers of die cut plywood to achieve the look of fancy molding. Here's what the kit's French Door Window looks like assembled. It's super charming but the plywood needs so much TLC...

French Door Window exterior frame layers.

And here is the Small Window's wooden parts, exterior and interior.

Small Window exterior frame layers.

Small Window interior frame.

Not every piece of plywood in the kit was in great shape. You see, while all the sheets looked to be in good shape at first glance, upon further inspection, while popping out pieces, a couple sheets weren't so good at all. It was as though the top and bottom layers of plywood were nearly petrified and so hard to cut through, even with a sharp Xacto blade. By extreme contrast, the center layers of plywood had disintegrated, leaving a crumbled chasm. This made the pieces very unstable, so tricky to safely remove from the sheets and some had weirdly expanded in thickness. I probably could have restored them with a lot of wood glue, filler, sanding and copious patience, but 3D printing them seems like much more fun. Not only is this method an exciting way to replicate the kit's windows and other trim elements to improve them, it's a way to replace them altogether, when necessary.

French door frame from sheet 4.

French door frame from sheet 7

Here, each layer of the Small Window's exterior frame has been scanned, saved as an svg and imported into Tinkercad.

The kit has you stack four layers to achieve the look of fancy molding.

In Tinkercad, I stacked the frames into one piece and then embellished them with corbels. I added a recessed reveal in the openings so it appears as though the window can open.

A close up view of the 3D rendering which shows the corbel detail better.

For the Stairwell's exterior window,  I added a shelf to the bottom shaped to mimic the window's curves. It's supported with detailed corbels. The same top corbel will be used wherever possible to unify the exterior style. 

Shelf Detail

When I recreate the French Door Window frame for the front of the house I'll skip the shelf and add a frieze to the lower portion since it sits on the porch floor.

The French Door Window to the left of the front door.

All the window "glass" will mount in the exterior window frames. I have created a recess for the "glass" so that the window frame can sit flush to the wall. I'll replace the kit's acetate windows with 1/32" Lexan.

But aren't I getting WAY ahead of myself with all these windows? Yes, but recreating them is so much fun! My goal was to get the entryway/stairwell completed first. The exterior window frames won't be needed until much, much later. All I need right now are the interior stairwell window frame and a small interior window frame for the second floor landing. I went a little crazy with the details on the stairwell frame as you can see. The entry/stairwell is the first room guests see, so traditionally in homes of that era, they were meant to make an impression.

Stairwell window frame.

Side detail.

The interior frames for the rest of the house will likely be a lot more subdued.

Small Window Interior Frame

Side detail.

Here I must digress a little...

Some of you may remember that last fall I worked on a commission to design and print 3D windows and doors for a Breakfast At Tiffany's themed dollhouse. For the 9" door surround, I had to print it in five pieces because of the 5.5" size limitation of my 3D printer's print bed. 

Rendering pieces, left. Printed and assembled door, center. Original BAT door, right.

My supportive husband, believing in my ability to create great things if I have the right tools, conspired with my kids to join forces and buy me a much larger 3D printer for my birthday last December. Now, I am able to print things over twice that large, making it possible for me to print the 7.91" interior stairwell window frame in one piece. Have I ever mentioned how wonderful Russ and my kids are to me? 💗 Using the scan/svg/3D printing method, I can replicate almost any piece I need to, as long as I can fit it onto the X-Max's 300 x 250 x 300 mm (11.81" x 9.84"x11.81") bed. I can even have another small job going at the same time because I still have my trusty old X-one2!

Welcome to the family, X-Max!

Back to windows... Now it was time for the real test. How would the frames look printed? I started with the staircase wall's interior frame. This was pretty complicated, so I figured if this one was successful, I was home free. I think it came out amazingly good, and surprisingly, even with the more capable printer, it took over nine hours to print. I am sure there are settings I can adjust to speed things up, but I still have A LOT to learn! I am trying to eat this elephant one bite at a time.

There is a bit of post production work to do, but sanding PLA is generally pretty easy if you have the right sized sanding implements. And trust me - it is a lot easier sanding than those crumbling plywood frames! And, no slivers!

It looks perfect against the pattern I traced on the wall, so I guess it's safe to cut the hole. Scroll saw here we come! But first...

In my excitement about the windows, I'd nearly forgotten that I also needed to have the front door ready. The kit's door is a double opening model which seems to be a common feature for second empire homes. I thought that re-designing mine to look like a double door but actually opening as one solid door was a better idea - less hinge engineering and less operating parts that could break.  Here's the rendering of what the door and frame looks like together.

Kit's Double Door

I designed it so that it looks the same on both sides. There's a frame for the exterior and the interior. The door itself is printed in two halves that when combined, will be the thickness of the original kit's door. I made a recess for the "glass" so that it will be sandwiched between the door layers. Because of the width, I printed the file two times - one for the interior and one for the exterior. I think I've figured out a way to engineer the hinges and I hope it works! 

Recess for "glass"

And here are the interior/exterior doors printed. I am super happy with how they came out! Each side took over 10 hours.

Test Fit...

From the front porch

From the kitchen doorway. I left 1/32" allowance on each side for paint and swing space.

From the stairs

And the interior Small Window frame straight off the printer. Simple but elegant, I think.

I did the entry arches for the kitchen and living room, too, but haven't printed them yet. First I have to decide on the flooring. The height of the arches will have to be adjusted accordingly for it. And I think it might be time to actually glue the foundation, front wall and center walls in place. Scary and exciting!

My recreation system is not quite as sophisticated as The Replicator in the Star Trek series, but it works well enough for me! And it goes to show that with a little technology and a will to try, any challenge can become an opportunity for even better minis!

Hope you're finding ways to turn your challenges into opportunities, too!

xo xo,

Jodi