Here is the range surround in the Grosvenor Hall Kitchen. I used the surround in my Gothic Villa as an example for size. I really like how this one is turning out. I still need to cover the inside with bricks as well as the chimney wall above the surround. The stove is by Dolls House Emporium.

The basement exterior is about 75% done now. The interior still has a ways to go yet.

I used a product called Fleckstone for the first time on the basements exterior staircases (see photo above). My experiences with Fleckstone weren’t all that pleasant; to say the least. Although the stairs came out looking wonderful, I did experience the mishap of one of the cans exploding on me…literally…ON me! You see, I was having difficulties getting the cap to come off the second can I bought. I used a kitchen knife to pry it off and was eventually successful. But in the process of its removal, I also accidentally popped off the nozzle that you depress to spray the Fleckstone. While attempting to put the nozzle back on to the can, somehow I managed to set it off…right in my face and all over my kitchen…and partly into other places of my apartment. It went “everywhere”! I managed to get the can under control in my kitchen sink and then proceeded to wipe down every surface in my kitchen. I felt my face go stiff so went into the bathroom to take a peek. It wasn’t pretty. Half my face and some of my hair was covered in Alabaster Fleckstone! About an hour later, everything was cleaned off including myself. Trust me when I say that I’m in no hurry to use Fleckstone again. I’m still finding places around the apartment that I missed in cleaning up.

Overall, the basement went together wonderfully! I’m so pleased with this kit so far. And I can hardly wait until the day when I put the main house on top of the basement. It’s really going to look massive!

The past few days have been spent finishing the basement. It’ll be much easier to have the wallcoverings, floors and ceilings done before adding the rest of the basement elements. I turned the basement upside down to work on the ceilings which made the entire process MUCH easier! The picture shown here is the Kitchen ceiling and I just LOVE how it turned out! The center design is actually a sheet of copper with a design pressed into it. I’ve had it around for months now and finally found a use for it. I’m going to be putting an old-fashioned light fixture in here that has a copper look to it. Once the wood and brick fireplace/range is added to the room, the kitchen will have such a warm and homey look to it.

Well, the first words out of my mouth when opening boxes and taking out parts was WOW! and OH MY GOD! You see, I had been looking at the pictures of the Grosvenor Hall in the DHE catalog for 14 months and I already knew it’s dimensions. Still, this knowledge didn’t prepare me for what I would see when I opened up all the boxes; especially the ones with the components. When seeing the balcony, pillars, and window sizes I was stunned! The pictures on their website and in their catalog don’t do this dollhouse justice. For example, the windows that come with the kit are the largest and most beautiful windows I’ve ever seen in a kit. Each interior door has beautiful pediments at the top of them. They even packed brass doorknobs for all their doors…something I’ve never seen done in kits before. The decorative exterior touches are truly unique. The English sure know how to design a dollhouse!

My overall first impression of the boxes and packing methods was a good one. It seems DHE covered all the bases here. I was surprised to see such a large house come out of such small boxes. I do, however, have one piece of constructive criticism in regards to the packing methods used for the basement kit components. Let’s compare it to the main house components box; specifically the box that contains the interior doors.

The box with the main house interior doors was exceptionally packed. Each interior door was on its side with a small styrofoam block separating it from the next door, and so on.

With the components box that contained the basement interior doors, the doors were lying flat and on top of each other with no cushion between each door or on top of them. All but one door was broken in some form or another, despite the fact that the box they were in was completely intact with no damage done to it.

My suggestion to DHE would be to pack the basement doors in the same fashion as the doors for the main house. Now don’t get me wrong, the fact that these doors were broken didn’t reflect negatively, because as luck would have it, the broken pieces were “whole”. Which means, nothing splintered. The breakage was “joint” breakage, or in other words…they broke in places where they were glued and were ‘clean’ breaks. So it will be extremely easy to put everything back together. And all broken pieces were accounted for; nothing missing.

I did a dry build of the basement last night and am extremely pleased with how ‘easy’ it went together! The instructions are EXTREMELY well written so that even a beginner could assemble this house. I can honestly say, these are the best instructions I’ve ever seen for a dollhouse kit. They are more like a well-written book, rather than a bunch of paper stapled together. Another nice touch included with the kits is a pack of postcards featuring the Grosvenor Hall to send out to friends and family should I want to “announce” my wonderful new toy. Very clever!

Tonight, I will prime all the basement pieces and use spray texture where I need it. Once dry, I’ll grab the glue and get busy. Tomorrow I’ll be going to Lowe’s and getting my latex paint colors for the exterior. I suspect that sometime next week I’ll be headed down to Norms Dollhouse, my local mini shop, to get all the fun stuff to complete it such as wallpaper, flooring, lights, and ceiling decorations.

So far, I’m very excited and pleased with the product. I couldn’t be happier. DHE pulled out all the stops with this house. Personally, I don’t see how they could top it!

Yesterday I found out that I will be receiving a dollhouse kit I’ve wanted very badly for over a year now…The Grosvenor Hall and Basement. This beautiful dollhouse kit is made and manufactured by The Dolls House Emporium (DHE) in England. One of the ‘perks’ of having this kit will be the honor of doing a kit review for DHE. This is a wonderful opportunity for me and I can hardly wait to get started!

Dimensions (w/ Basement):

41 3/8″ wide
38 3/16″ deep
59 1/2″ tall

This massive dollhouse is the same height as me! And once it’s sitting on my workbench, I’ll need my stepstool to reach the upper most floors. Egads! Still, in my mind, it’s a tiny price to pay to own this house. The colors I’ve decided to paint it are by American Tradition Signature Colors, indoor latex paints as follows:

1. Slipper Shell - for the parts of the house that are pale yellow on the prototype. This is a very soft and pale earthy cream color with a slight hint of peach to it.

2. Beachnut - for the parts of the house that are grayish/khaki in color. This is just a slightly darker version of the original.

3. Amaryllis - for all exterior elements such as windows, the balcony, columns, balustrades, quions, etc. This is a very soft white.

The 7 boxes that comprise this kit will be shipped on Monday, Dec. 19th and will probably arrive sometime between Friday the 23rd and Monday the 26th. I’m so eager and excited to get started on this project. I’ve got most of the wallpaper chosen from a nice supply I’ve had on hand. During my Xmas vacation, I’ll need to go to my local mini shop to pick up some flooring materials, light fixtures, etc. This is going to be so much fun!

There are 12 rooms in total within the walls of this dollhouse. Here is what I’m going to do with them:

Basement:

1. Front Left - Scullery/Wine Cellar
2. Front Right - Kitchen
3. Rear Left - Butlers Quarters
4. Rear Right - Maids Quarters

Main House (bottom to top):

1. 1st Floor - Livingroom and Diningroom
2. 2nd Floor - Library and Music Room
3. 3rd Floor - Master Suite and Guest Room
4. 4th Floor - Nursery and Bathroom