Preliminary work

 I punched out the main pieces for the house - which sounds easy but isn't.  The die-cut often hasn't cut completely through, and punching out is a cautious, splintery process where you try to identify the problem cuts and improve them with a craft knife before applying pressure. I still shredded the wood in a few places, although I was able to repair the worst patch with some wood glue and a clamp to hold the shreds back down.

Then I gave the pieces a light sanding around the edges of the cuts, to knock off more splinters. I use a disposable nail file to sand inside the slots. I've written on pieces of masking tape to temporarily label the house pieces. Then I did a dry fit of the main house pieces held together with masking tape, to get a sense of the room sizes and what I might want to change. I found that the slots on the first and second floors, that should intersect the centre wall, weren't completely cut through.  The instructions don't mention this, but I had to complete the slots with a craft knife and safety ruler. The plywood is easy to cut because it's so thin and rubbish.

I was pleasantly surprised at how big the rooms in the house are: reasonably deep, and the ceilings are high.  I can see right away that the doorways are ridiculously skinny, so those need to be widened.  There are no internal doors supplied with the kit, I have a commercial one but it will be too deep for the thin wood, will have to think about that.  Overall, there are far fewer pieces to this kit than the Greenleaf Willowcrest.

I had a dig through my large stash of furniture bits to see what might fit into the house.  The bedroom is easy, I have a vintage wicker set I got in an estate sale which will work nicely.  I will lengthen the false wall in the bedroom to give a bit more room around the bed.

I'm not sure that I want to do a kitchen and bathroom, I've done them before in other houses, and kitchens in  particular require so much accessorising.  I'm thinking about turning the ground floor room into a dining room instead, and the first floor room could be a study.  But then I will need to insert a bigger window for the study, if I can fit one next to the kitchen bay window roof.  Although I do have a cute little ceramic bathroom set, which might fit into the smaller attic room (although that room will be tiny).

I have to admit to a huge fit of 'I can't do this' when I was contemplating the decorating.  I don't want to just furnish the house so it's complete, I want something that makes my heart sing when I look at it. But that means lots of decisions about wallpaper, paint schemes etc. which make my heart sink instead.  I'm much better when I have a picture to copy.  I've had a look online at possible exterior paint schemes.

As a first stage of prepping the wood, I took the main pieces outside and sprayed them with clear laquer on both sides to seal them.  This used up a full 400ml spray can plus a bit of another one.  It was cheaper to buy laquer than something labelled 'sealer'.

Then I could glue together the two pieces that make up the back of the house.  I use Gorilla wood glue for house construction because it makes a much stronger joint than tacky glue.  The jars etc. are just heavy things to weight down the seam while it dries, so it stays flat.  The back won't be that strong by itself but all the houses pieces are going to intersect with it, so that will give an overall rigidity.