Dollhouses and Doll House Miniatures

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Mott's Shop

Custom Doll House Assembly

By Mott's Miniatures^TM Inc.

Whether for adult collectors, gifts for children, or for commercial purposes,
Mott's doll house builders can do it for you.

If you are looking for tips on how to Assemble your dollhouse by yourself and have come to this page by mistake, Building Tips will help you with what you need to know.

Obtain your own free dollhouse assembly estimate. If you would like us to do this for you, there is a $25 service fee.

Assembly Information
Basic Assembly	The first service we are offering to customers who purchase just about any doll house kit in our store is a Basic Assembly. We will put the basic house body (the shell) along with floors, porches, and roofs, and in some cases dormers and interior walls. We find that if a customer leaves our store with something that looks like a house rather than just a box full of pieces, that they will get started on their project much sooner.

Assembly and Exterior Finishing See pictures of houses that were built and customized at Mott's.	The next level of service over and above the basic shell assembly is what we call Full Assembly. This includes assembling the kit, and completely finishing the exterior including the siding, shingles, paint, porch, railings, posts, spindles, brackets, foundation, brick/stone work, windows, doors, shutters, etc. Everything on the outside of the house will be done, but the interior will be left blank. There are some variables such as brick/stone work and any customizing, but basically we charge 100% of the kit price. That means, for example, that if the kit costs $100 you will pay an additional $100 for this service. There is a surcharge for this service if you did not purchase your kit from Mott's. Also, this price is for medium and upper-grade houses, not the budget ones. And remember, discounts or other offers are void if we are assembling your house.

Budget Doll House Assembly	Many collectors get their start in miniatures with those affordable die-cut houses (Greenleaf, Corona Concepts). There is nothing really wrong with these houses, it is simply that they are manufactured differently from regular houses to bring their cost down. That means that there are more pieces and more work involved in putting one together than a standard doll house. For that reason, we charge much more to put them together. Assembly prices here are about 200%-500% of the current retail price of the kit, for full shell only assembly, up to full dollhouse assembly with exterior finishing.

Modifying Your Doll House	Whenever we are working on your dollhouse and make modifications to your house such as adding or removing walls, adding or removing windows/doors, or changing the basic structure of the house there can and often will be a special fee. Sometimes referred to as "Kit-Bashing", it is a service we provide on a regular basis. Usually the fee is under $10, often nominal or free if the modifications are slight (such as adding windows/doors). This is especially true when you buy the door/window/dormer from Mott's and want it installed. You won't know unless you ask! We no longer build houses from scratch using your plans, blueprints or pictures. We only build and/or modify existing houses and kits.

Electric Lighting	One of our popular services is Electrical Wiring. Basic wiring consists of installing tape-wire systems in un-decorated doll houses. This runs anywhere from $15.00 to $20.00 per room for labor depending on the type and size of house and other factors. Materials are sold separately and individual light fixtures and outlets can also be installed for an additional charge per fixture.

NOTES:	Please note that the prices shown below are labor charges for the work specified on brand new kits. These prices do not apply to kits that have been opened and pieces removed or missing, or to partially constructed houses.

Dollhouse Assembly and Exterior Finishing
Instructions: Use this form to obtain your own estimate of dollhouse assembly and exterior finishing services. Follow the simple instructions on the lines below.

1	Enter the full current Retail price of your house kit in Box "A" at right. Do not use discounted or special prices, only the current manufacturers retail price.	A:
2	On a separate piece of paper, using the prices shown on our web site, and the instructions on the "How Much Will I Need To Buy" page, add up the full retail cost of all items you want added or installed on your house that are not included with the kit or shell such as shingles, rails, chimneys, or other items you want added. Please select from our web site. Enter that figure in box "B".	B:
3	On a separate piece of paper, using the prices shown on our web site, and the instructions on the "How Much Will I Need To Buy" page, add items such as paint, glue, stain, or dye you want added. Please select from our web site. Enter that figure in Box "C".	C:
4	This is an estimate of your materials cost including the cost of your kit.		D:
Now you need to find out the manufacturer of your kit.
5	Select one of the options below Budget kits manufactured by Greenleaf, Corona Concepts, or other budget die-cut houses. Medium grade kits such as Family Favorites, Duracraft Country Dreams Collection and Batrie, and for all Log Cabins. Real Good Toys Queen Anne Victoria. Medium-to-upper grade lines such as New Concept,Celerity, G.E.L., Lawbre, HJB, Houseworks, Walmer Collector or Walmer Lilliput.	E:
6	Special Labor Conditions. Select this box if your house is a full front-opening house or has any hinged panels on the side. If not, leave blank. Do not select this box for houses that are only partial-front opening.	F:
7	Select this box if you purchased your kit from someplace other than Mott's. If you purchased or will be purchasing your kit from Mott's then leave this line blank.	G:
8	"I opened the box and attempted to put the house together first. Kit may or may not be complete and I may or may not have instructions." This minimum extra fee applies. Additional charges may apply if pieces or instructions are missing or if we have to dis-assemble any incorrectly assembled parts.	H:
9	Estimated Labor Charges		I:
10	Mott's will begin work on this job between January 2nd and October 31st. (No extra charges) November - Mott's will begin work on this job between November 1st and Thanksgiving. A minimum extra charge applies. December - Mott's will begin work on this job between Thanksgiving and December 15th. A minimum extra charge applies. Christmas - I waited too long. I need this by Christmas and I don't care how much it costs. There will be an extra charge.	J:
11	Total Estimate:		K:
Please be aware that these prices are for basic dollhouse assembly and exterior finishing only. They do NOT include ANY interior or electrical work, shipping or crating charges, or any custom work. Also, these are general prices for assembly and exterior finishing services from January through October. Mott's reserves the right to charge rush fees on assembly orders from November through December 15. Mott's usually does not take assembly jobs between December 16 and January 1st. If we do accept an assembly job during this period the rate will be substantially higher. Length of time needed for assembly and exterior finishing work can take 2-4 weeks plus shipping time from the time we receive the kit or house, depending on work load and time of year.

Interior Dollhouse Finishing

Another service offered is the Interior Decorating and Finishing. This can be any and all types of interior work from painting, staining, wallpapering, installing carpet, custom fireplaces and book-cases, ceiling treatments, installing hard-wood floors, tile floors, and all types of interior work. These services are estimated on an individual basis.

For a standard basic room decoration including installing flooring, wallpaper and to cover the ceiling will run about $25 per room for the labor only. If you want special design flooring or custom wainscoting an extra charge will have to be estimated. (Chart at bottom is for additional fees over and above the basic $25.00 per room). Remember, all prices on this page are for Labor ONLY and do NOT include the cost of any materials. These labor charges are for finishing and installing decorator items from our web site. Special work such as building custom fireplaces, staircases or custom woodwork must be estimated separately.

Remember that interior finishing can take 2-4 weeks in addition to the time needed to assemble and finish the exterior of your house.

Legend: ‡ Number of rooms where this service will be performed.

Additional Fees For Electrical Wiring

Description	Rooms ‡	Fixtures	Total
Basic Electrical Wiring at $20.00 per room			1:
Electrical Fixture Installation at $10.00 per fixture			2:
On a separate piece of paper, using the prices shown on our web site, and the instructions on the "How Much Will I Need To Buy" page, add the electrical items you want installed and all electrical supplies including your wiring kit, extra wiring tape, connectors and other supplies. Please select from our web site. Enter that figure in Box "3".			3:
Total of wiring labor and materials.			4:

Additional Fees For Interior Decorating & Finishing
Description	Cost †	Rooms ‡	Total
Basic Interior Decorating Fee (per room)	$50.00		5:
Laying Hardwood Floor (pre-fab sheet) in regular-shape room	$15.00		6:
Installing Wainscot	$40.00		7:
Laying Individual Tile Floor (minimum)	$40.00		8:
Laying Individual Tile Wood Parquet Floor (minimum)	$25.00		9:
Installing Moldings, Baseboard, Chair-rail (minimum)	$5.00		10:
Wallpapering rooms with gables, dormers or vaulted ceilings. (minimums)	$5.00		11:
Installing wallpaper or flooring in odd-shaped (non-square) room (minimum)	$10.00		12:
Painting, wallpapering, staining, etc. any staircase. (minimum)	$10.00		13:
On a separate piece of paper, using the prices shown on our web site, and the instructions on the "How Much Will I Need To Buy" page, add items such as paint, glue, wallpaper, carpet, flooring, tile, trim, etc., and all other interior decorator items you want added. Please select from our web site. Enter that figure in Box "13".			14:
Subtotal estimate of Interior Decorating labor and materials.			15:

Total estimate of interior decorating and wiring labor and materials.			16:

A word about Shipping:

We can assemble houses and them ship them to you any where in the world but once most house kits are assembled they can no longer be sent via UPS and must be shipped via freight truck and/or ocean freight, or Federal Express Air Freight.

You can expect to pay a minimum of about $100 to $250 (on up) to ship an assembled dollhouse. Why? Because that is what freight companies charge us. Part of the fee is for packing. We charge about $40 on average to pack a house being shipped from our store, which just covers the cost of the box and bubble wrap. The rest goes to the freight company. Many small houses (up to 4-6 rooms) can be sent UPS. But larger doll houses, houses with extensions and/or large porches often have to be sent via Freight Truck. For doll houses that are too large to be shipped via UPS or FedEx we will, on behalf of the customer, request delivery via Craters and Freighters who will pick up, crate and ship your house to you.

As of 2006, we can now send may assembled dollhouse via a new UPS Oversize Service via the UPS Store. Many houses up to about 40" wide can be sent through the UPS Store. These houses will be dropped off at the local UPS Store. Shipping and packing expenses will be billed directly to the customer by the UPS Store.

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