Those of you who never had a dollhouse delivered in a box so far, well here is what you get; once you open the box, you get a first idea of what you got yourself in to. The first time, it might look a light frightening, I admit, but after that, it's only excitement and fun, take my word for it.

First you get the bigger parts to assemble the house itself ............

.... and underneath, you have the doors, windows, shingles, stairs etc. and you might wonder : Will I ever finish this house ????

But you will, trust me. It's so much fun. When I'm opening the box, I already start to get a picture of the house in my head.

First thing you should do is build up the house, but of course, without glue, just to make sure there is nothing missing. Most manufacturers have very detailed and easy-to-follow instructions, sometimes even with numbers on the different pieces. Try to hold the house together with tape, just to give you an idea of its size. At this point, you should already try to figure out which room goes where. Once you made up your mind about this, it's very helpful for the next step to give every room a number. Make a list with the room number and name and write down the number of every room on the walls, floors and ceiling, because once you'll have all the pieces apart again, it will be difficult to find out which wall comes with which floor etc.

If you're done with the numbers and the list, take the pieces apart again. Personally, I prefer to finish all my floors, ceilings and walls before assembling the house for good (that's why I'm using the trick with the numbers), because I find it a lot easier to paint, wallpaper or tile then if the house is already put together. But if you decide to make it the other way around, assembling the house first, glue it together and then start with the paintings etc., it might work out fine too.

At this point, the house is still not glued together. I just assembled it to see if I had the right wallpapers on the right walls and if i did not make any other mistakes.

As you can see, I did not do anything outside yet. I hadn't decided which color I would use for the outside walls and for the roof.

I always assemble the house one more time without glue after finishing my walls, to see what flooring will be best (tiles, wooden floors, carpets, etc). On this pictures, the ceilings already have their first coat of white.

As you can see, after a few weeks, the flooring is finished too and meanwhile I painted my windows and doors. This Mini Mundus house comes completely with all the doors and windows and the fit just perfect.

The interoor is almost finished here, except for the flooring in the kitchen and the storage room. I already painted the outside walls with a mixture of dark red and terracotta. So far, I had not started with the roof yet, since very single shingle has to be painted and glued, which means a lot of work.

This is what I had in mind when I first opened the box ...... I think I did a pretty good job here, didn't I ?

If you want to see more details ......... this is the GERMAN house under "Dollhouses". Go take a look, it's worth a few minutes, trust me.

www.mini-mundus.de