The Brimbles Mercantile Dollhouse Day 1

Today I opened the Brimbles kit and checked that all of the sheets were complete. They were. I then labeled and punched all of the parts out of their sheets. You have to be very careful when you do this. It is very easy to lose a part and some pieces may look like they are useless and can be discarded but they are really important dollhouse parts.

Like always, I suggest that this process be done by more experienced builders. Newbies should just leave all parts in their sheets until they are asked for. Eventually, you get to the point to where you have built so many of these dollhouses, you actually know what the parts are by just looking at them, minimizing the possibility of confusion.

Laser cut kits are very easy to punch out but even a smaller dollhouse like this one can have a large amount of parts. It can take you several days to just punch out and organize your parts. Laser cut kits also have most of the slots punched out already so you don't have to struggle with them. Minimal sanding is required on this kit. You just want to remove any splinters and give it a very light sanding on the edges. Even though there is no dust, you will get blackened fingertips from the burnt laser edges of the parts. They tend to release a very fine black dust when you handle and sand them. This dust is just regular wood dust from where the laser cut through it.

Several notes you should take on this particular kit. Since this was a re-released kit, the schematics may not completely match up with your sheets. Not to worry, the parts are still located in the corresponding sheets of the schematics. They are just laid out a little differently but easily recognizable.

Also, this is a mercantile and it comes with pre-printed signs on the back of the instruction page. I suggest you take them to your local office supply store and re-print them on better grade paper, preferably card stock. You will not be able to use the ones given to you because you can clearly see the instructions, on the other side, showing right through the paper. This will not look very attractive when you make your signs. Make sure you do not ruin your instruction sheet with glue or paint or you will ruin the signs printed on the back.