I installed the first floor staircase over the flooring and the second floor staircase before the flooring. I cut the flooring around that one. I decided to do it this way because of the first floor staircase closet. It was going to be a hassle to try and get my hand inside of it to apply flooring after the staircase was in place, not to mention the hassle it would cause for the installation of the hinged door. The second floor staircase has a stairwell under it so I didn't need to struggle with flooring there.
This hinged door is working wonderfully. No hinges have pulled out so far and lets all pray that they do not, since it will be impossible to reinstall them at this angle. They appear to be very tightly on there though so I don't expect problems. In order to have the most success with this doorway, do not apply glue to the underside of the staircase, where it meets the floor. Only glue the side where it meets with the wall and the top where it meets with the ceiling. That way you leave some leeway for your door to open and close properly. If you glue the bottom of the staircase to the floor, it will make your staircase very rigid and when wood expands and contracts, you might have a problem with your door sticking or swinging open and not staying closed. It's better for there to be some flexibility around the door.
A little side note about tab and slot, die cut dollhouses. They can be very tricky to finish. You have to do a lot of creative thinking in order to make them look right after assembly. Tab and slot dollhouses will not give you success easily. Not only do you have to struggle to assemble them but the finishing is always the biggest challenge of all. To make things look right you have to improvise, hide, blend and make decisions ahead of time on how to solve certain unavoidable issues.
I had mentioned this before but here is a refresh. This dollhouse does not bring any interior trim except for the windows and the front door. All other doors do not have trim. You have to make the trim yourself from basswood strips of the same thickness as the wood in the kit, which is 1/8" inch. I made the trim for the two doors on the second floor. You will not get a nice finished look unless you add the trim.
This dollhouse has a staircase railing with handrails for the third floor stairwell but there are no handrails for the second and first floors. I might be wrong since there are still a lot of pieces left for me to install but as far as I can see, by the sizes of the unused pieces, there are no handrails. You can make them out of the same basswood strips you use for the doorways but I haven't gotten to that yet.
Speaking of staircase railing, notice the opposite walls to the staircases. They have railing which is part of the wall partitions. This dollhouse only has railing for one side of the staircase. You will have really make your mind work on how to make these railings look good on these walls. I used a piece of basswood trim glued right under the railings, at an angle, to separate where the railings ends and the walls begins. I used wall paint under the trim and brown paint over it. I have to give it a second coat but you can see the idea of what I tried to do in the pictures. You have to line up your trims to match the staircases on the other side.
Do not install any windows on your dollhouse until you are 100% done with the staircases and the bays. This pertains to the bay windows on the rooms to the right side of the dollhouse. There are certain walls and areas on the front of the staircases that can only be accessed through the window openings. You want to make sure they are all finished before you install your acetate windows and close off your access.
