I start off by building a foundation in which to attach the walls. I am using a 1/2x3/4 inch strip to build the frame and covering that with 3/8 inch plywood. The plywood was a veneer that I had outside in the garage that sustained considerable water damage but that I was able to salvage for use as the floor. Figure 1 shows the piece I cut out for the floor and Figure 2 shows the underside of the frame with the floor glued on.

My table saw only handles cuts at 6 inches wide using the guide so I had to cut my 10 inch wide walls from two pieces at 4 and 6 inches wide. I then set up my Dremel router table to router a rabbet joint. I have owned this router table for over ten years and I probably only used it at most six times. You attach a Dremel tool to the underside with a router tip at the desired depth as shown in figure 3. Like any other router table you set your guide to the width of the joint you need and feed the wood over the router bit as in figure 4.

I then sanded the rabbet joint shown in figure 5. The joint was routered on one edge of the two pieces and them placed side by side with one joint facing up the other facing down forming a lap joint. Gluing these two pieces together (figure 6) gave me the ten inch walls I needed.

After I marked out my windows and doors I drilled a pilot hole inside the guide lines as shown in figure 7. This hole allowed me to place the wall over the scroll saw blade on my table saw. I made a cut clockwise around the window until I reached a corner. I then backed the blade up and cut a curve to the next line as can be seen in figure 8. I made this cut until I could lift the scrap piece out and cut away the corners by cutting in a counter-clockwise direction.

Figure 9 is the perspective view of the Victorian Dollhouse plans I downloaded from The Woodcrafter Page. Compare that with figure 10 and you can see the extra windows I cut out because I made the dollhouse rooms bigger but kept the window placements according to the plans. The dollhouse will be 44 inches wide. The dollhouse is presently 19 inches high and 14 inches in depth at the center. The two annex rooms on either side are 10 inches in depth. There will be an attic added at approximately 9 inches tall.

I decided to use a rabbet joint on the corners instead of a butt joint. I only did this out of personal preference rather than any structural concerns. I scribbled this on the plans shown in figure 11 as a guide for when I routered the walls. Figure 12 is the section marked B on the left side of the plans as shown in figure 11.

In keeping with the scale of 1/12 (1 inch equals 1 foot), standard interior walls are around 5 inches thick so I decided on making my interior walls 3/8 inches. Because I used 3/16 inch thick plywood for the interior walls that only adds up to a scale of approximately 2 1/4 inches. If 1/2 inch equals 6 inches then 1/4 inch equals 3 inches and 1/8 inch equals 1 1/2 inch. Therefore 3/8 inch is equal to 4 1/2 inches. I needed to add another 3/16 inch to the walls. I used 1/8 inch strips glued to the wall and covered that with a sheet of 1/16 thick basswood. This will also give me space within the walls to run my electrical wires. The exterior walls will be 1/2 inch thick.

Here are two videos showcasing the power tools I am using. The Dremel Router Table is an attachment for the Dremel Rotary tool. The Rockwell BladeRunner is a multi-cut table saw that uses jig-saw blades. The saw uses 4" t-shank jigsaw blades to provide rip, cross and scroll cuts. Click on the pictures to the right or left to view the short clips.

Unfortunately I have run into a bit of a financial setback on this project. I hope to get this resolved soon and resume the dollhouse project.

UPDATE August 14, 2024: Over the years, and as my finances allowed, I have added to and modified my plans for this house. Unfortunately, I had forgotten about this website and neglected to take photos of my progress. The following pages will showcase the modifications I have made and the continuing progress of this project.