Building ‘The End Terrace’ Dolls House (part 6 the back of the house)

A view of a terrace house in red brick with a yellow front door and a double sash window. The house abuts a tall grey concrete wall with a fence above it that cuts off the end of the terrace row and the road. There is small front garden area with two stone gate posts, a very low wall and stone coping to the right with a hedge growing over it, and a taller brick wall to the left leading to the neighbouring house. Daisy is wearing a yellow high visibility work coat and black trousers and boots. She is standing on the pavement with a hand on a gatepost while looking at the 'For Sale' sign placed by an agent called 'Redi Bricks'. The whole scene is hand made at one twelfth scale.

Having looked at the front of the house in part 5 we can now have a look at the back of the house where upon I discovered a potential building regulations issue.

As I began to plan the kitchen layout, where the window would be, how the appliances and cupboards would be laid out, I found that there would be an issue with the space in there.

This was the sort of layout I decided on.

A sketch of the window wall of the kitchen showing a 1000mm sink unit under the window, a washing machine, and a tall fridge freezer in the corner.
In theory that looks good ad should fit.
The opposite kitchen wall showing a 600mm cabinet in the corner, a cooker, and two 500mm cabinets. Matching cabinets above with a cooker hood.
The cooker should work like that.

The problem occurred when I wound that the 2130mm (7 ft) wide kitchen would only allow 915mm (3 ft) between opposing rows of cabinets. The building regulations guidance recommends 1220mm (4ft) so a person can safely walk past an open oven door.

I had to make the kitchen wider.
Well, that wasn’t as difficult as it would be in real life, I just needed to glue on some more plywood to the walls and the floors. All that effort in painting the kitchen and bathroom in annoying colours and I had to repaint in magnolia as I couldn’t match the colour again!

The edge of the hollow core floor with an extra 40mm of plywood added to the edge.
Floor extensions
The extended wall plywood repainted in magnolia, the previous pink and green wall colours still showing through.
Couldn’t match the paint so more magnolia!

I made the house 460mm (1ft 6in) wider so it was now 2590mm (8ft 6in) wide so that was plenty of space!

Remember that back garden wall base board with the two cuts in it? Well, this is what that happened. The back garden got pushed further off the edge of the workbench so a new cut out was needed.

Another grey plastered OSB wall, less shiny.
Back wall looks better.

Now I figured I was ready to make the windows for the kitchen and bathroom. My plan was that the old sash windows have been replaced with 1970s casement windows. So that is where I started.

The window units were carefully laminated together with the glazing in place. I sanded one piece of glazing in regular horizontal and vertical lines to obscure it for the bathroom.

Two rectangular glazed frames, one with clear glazing, the other with obscure glazing.
Clear and obscure glass.

You can see the general construction in these finished images. The opener is hinged with glued paper.

Outside of a window with one fixed pane and one side hinged opener, in obscure glazing.
Outside of the bathroom window.
Inside of a window with one fixed pane and one side hinged opener, in obscure glazing.
Inside of the bathroom window.

The kitchen window was made slightly wider. I masked off the glazing for primer and then gloss white.

The kitchen and bathroom windows withthe glazing maksed over with tape, and spray painted gloss white.
Spray painting windows.
The unmaksed kitchen and bathroom windows in gloss white.
Looking suitably windowy.

Though I didn’t get photos for the front wall, this is the same process. I placed the windows in position and then framed them with the spacer battens. I did the same for the door and the edges of the wall. The gaps will allow me to feed wiring in for an outside light later.

A plywood board with the windows placed on it and spacer battens fixed around them and around the door position and the perimeter of the board.
Battening to get the wall thickness.

I made the back wall in the same manner as the front.

The outside of the back wall with the painted plaster brickwork in an English Garden Wall bond. The window lintels and sills are yet to be made up.
The back wall brickwork.
The back wall now with the window lintels and sills made, but unpainted.
Made the lintels and sills.

You may have noticed the brick bond is different to the front of the house. This is English Garden Wall bond, traditional for the area, and so is an original feature. Clearly the demolition contractors for the Ring Road were clearly more careful at the back of the house then the front!

A diagram showing the brick bond. The text in the image says: English Garden Wall Bond. Three rows of stretchers to one row of headers. This is very rarely found on buildings outside of the north where it is abundant and particularly prevalent on the east coast. It was used from the 18th century onwards, and was also used occasionally for garden walls.
That sets the age and location of the dolls house.

To save time I decided to buy some kitchen furniture and appliances. It all needed to have that realism for photographs, but I could also remake them better or different later should Daisy decide to do some home improvements.

A sink unit next to a tall fridge freezer. Ther eis a swing lid bin next to the sink unit.
Sink under the window, fridge in the corner.

Of course the difficulty is that dolls house stuff is not always true to scale. The fridge is giant size, a full 760mm (30in) wide! The sink unit was also wider then needed so there is no washing machine, for now…
The cooker and random cupboard was better but I will need to make a cabinet to go in the corner.

A box filling in for a corner cabinet with a microwave on top, a cooker next to it, and then a cupboard with two doors.
A cooker with a cabinet each side, and a microwave.

I bought a vintage Bodo Hennig bathroom suite but it only came with two taps. I have put them both on the bath and bought new ones for the  basin.
As you can see they are a little thin, I am not sure they will let any water flow.

A blue bathroom basin with taps that are just too underscale. Daisy's hands are in shot for scale.
Not convinced these taps are realistic!

Floor coverings were a bit of a trial to find. But I happened upon these in a big DIY store and they looked perfect for a textured cushion vinyl flooring. Stores are very kind in allowing customers to take free samples of wallpapers, just big enough to carpet a dolls house!

Wallpaper display in a shop, the description says: 'Centour. Hexagon Lattice, White. Paste the wall. Pattern repeats 2.78cm. Extra washable. £18.'
White wallpaper for the kitchen floor.
Wallpaper display in a shop, the description says: 'Centour. Hexagon Lattice, Teal. Paste the wall. Pattern repeats 2.78cm. Extra washable. £18.'
Teal wallpaper for the bathroom floor.

The kitchen is looking very good.

The kitchen showing the white hexagon flooring in place, and the furniture and appliances in position.
We have a kitchen, kinda…

Pity the fridge is so wide!

The kitchen showing the window, a red swing bin, the sink unit, and the fridge freezer. The fridge is overlapping the window due to its size.
The sink and fridge (doesn’t fit).

The cooker is very convincing though.

The opposite wall of the kitchen showing a random box in the corner with a microwave on top, a silver electric cooker, and a two door cupboard.
This side looks better.

I will need to think about the bathroom layout and where the waste plumbing will need to run and exit the building. The flooring colour seems a little washed out in this image.

The bathroom showing the teal hexagon flooring, a blue basin under the window, a blue toilet in the corner, and a white bath with a matching blue bath panel.
We all love a coloured 70s bathroom suite!

Here you can see the relationship of the two rooms.

A view of the dolls house showing the bathroom over the kitchen.
The bathroom and kitchen together.

I will need to add a rainwater down pipe, soil pipe, and waste pipes.

The back of the house with windows in place, the lintels and sills painted white, and a view through the back door and kitchen window showing the white hexagon flooring and the kitchen furniture and fridge,
I think that is looking really good, just needs the back door.

Well, that’s the back of the house so far. The next instalment will be looking at installing lighting. There is a separate entry here on how I made them.

2 thoughts on “Building ‘The End Terrace’ Dolls House (part 6 the back of the house)”

  1. Pingback: Building ‘The End Terrace’ Dolls House (part 5 the front garden) -
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