Finishing the Attic
We have now moved on to the top roof of the dollhouse. The attic area is tricky to finish, so I will adjust the instructions to make it easier. To simplify the process of finishing the mansard panels and rooms, I recommend leaving the flat top roof off for as long as possible. You will need to work in segments over a few days, allowing time for the glue to dry before moving on to the next step.
I started by installing the roof supports. Glue them only to the floor; do not glue the tops. These supports must be in place before adding any flooring. If you're using regular flooring, apply it around the supports. If you choose paper flooring, you can install it first, but be careful when gluing the supports on top. Use tacky glue, as it dries clear. At this stage, it’s hard to know what will be visible inside the dollhouse once the roof is on. I suggest finishing every area as if it will be visible to avoid disappointment later. Once the top roof is installed, access to certain attic areas will be limited. I stained the roof supports and plan to stain all visible parts of the vergeboards before adding the mansard panels.
After securing the roof supports, I installed a door in the center of the third-floor partition. Having access from above made this process much easier. Once the door was in place, I added trim around it. I painted the floor with a color similar to my flooring and began applying floorboards. This was straightforward without the roof on; it would have been nearly impossible with it in place due to inaccessible corners behind the supports. Initially, I thought the flooring would look odd with the supports in the way, but it turned out much better than expected.
After installing the flooring, I added baseboard trim around the attic walls and trim at the top of the stairwell, similar to what I did for the second floor.
Finally, I attached the vergeboard to the roof supports and added both final vergeboard and vergeboard trim at the back of the dollhouse. These needed some trimming because of a back cover I plan to install later.
