Tips and Hints

Need some advice, why not take a look to see what you're after:

• Before glueing the house together, always dry build the house with masking tape to see whether any parts are missing

• Mark the places in red where you want to paint and blue where you want to paper

• Before painting the house, mix one part PVA glue with one part water to seal the wood

• Use tacky wax to stick up any decorations for christmas

• Tacky wax is not permanent and can be cleaned off with soapy warm water

• Rather than making your own wallpaper paste from powder, use a tub of ready-made border paste

• Individual clay bricks adds extra weight to the front of the house and the hinges. They are ideal for gardens

• To give a weathered look to your roof tiles, mix one part sand with two parts paint or you can dab a cloth in shoe polish

• Before attaching any mouldings to the use, paint them first

• Before painting any corner stones, take a piece of masking tape and make a loop with the sticky side on the outside. Then stick it to an individual stone using it as a grip

• To create soil, mix one part PVA glue, one part paint and three parts sand or mix one part PVA glue with two parts tea leaves

• To create turf, cut a grass sheet into strips, 4cm in width

• To create rolls of turf, cut strips into 4cm in width and 8cm in legnth. Then use tacky wax to hold the rolls together

• To make the look of a brand new hosepipe, take some green modelling clay (Frimo, Sculpey or Premo) and roll into an even, slim and long sausage. It can be shaped into a snake (as if your watering the garden) or into a loop so it can be hung. To make the ends of the hose, use a metal bead or the back of an earring. Then bake in the oven, following the clay manufacturers instructions

• To stick all the panels of the house together, use wood glue

• The best time to plan your lighting, is when the house is in kit form

• To find the centre of a room, draw a diagonal line from one corner to the opposite, repeat with other corners. The centre is where the lines cross

• For ceiling lights, make a groove across the above floor where the wire will sit. Then once the light has been fitted and the wire has been run along the groove, put some masking tape over to keep the wire flat

• Before installation of all lights, makesure you test them all by simply connecting the transformer to the powerstrip and then plug in the lights

• To feed wires through the holes, remove the plug. This can be done easily with tweezers to pull out the two pins and then carefully remove the wire. Twist the end of the wire to make it compact to make it easier to feed through the holes and then refit the plug

• For table lights, take an extension light socket and remove the plug and feed through a hole. Then stick the light socket to the inside of the room near where you want to place the lamp

• Wall lights are recommended for attic rooms

• To add a fire basket to your fireplace, drill a hole in the back of the fireplace in line with the hole in the wall. Makesure the hole is covered by the fire basket

• Use masking tape to tidy up the wires at the back of the house

• If the light on the powerstrip is on, the fuse has blown

• Any lights should be fitted after the house has been decorated

• Use a 1.5mm drill bit for the holes for lighting and a 1mm drill bit for fitting stair rod holders

• Decorate the house doors before screewing them to the house

• Decorate the doors and windows before they're fitted

• If the marble sticky back paper doesn't stick to the stairs, apply border paste or PVA glue

• If you want the ceiling rose to be the same colour as the background, before painting the wood, glue the ceiling rose on the wood, wait for it to dry and then paint the rose and the wood

• When you come to screwing the doors to the carcase, lay the house on it's back and support the doors in place while screwing in place