Wiring a Dollhouse: A Hair-Raising Experience

this was the first admonition that I bypassed...   only the first of many, mind you....
this is what my tapewire looked like

yes...out of control.  all I did was pick it up....I don't understand....

so, anyway, to wire a dollhouse, you run tapewire 3/4" from the floor, on the wall, along every room.  where ever you want to install a sconce, you run tapewire 5 3/4" from the floor horizontally.  so, obviously, you must run tapewire betwixt the two, vertically, to connect them.  also, if you want lights on the ceiling, you have to run tapewire up and across the ceiling, as well. that's an awful lot of measuring if you ask me.  {{{shiver}}}  especially to those of us (there *are* more than me, right??) who have trouble using a ruler...
the first thing I did was measure and draw my lines.

do you see that???  seriously....   I had to draw lines to mark where the room dividers would go.  did I mention that I have issues with a ruler?  it ended up being, "Does that look right?  No.....  Lemme try again.... No... and again... ok....that looks pretty straight"  yeah.    ...moving along....

this is the bottom floor base run, up and around the door...  so far, so good.....

the run straight up the side....now that's a funny story.  I couldn't figure out how I was going to run the tape up the side of the house and into the attic to light it.  I knew I could get from the bottom floor to the second floor through the stair opening, but I figured I have to run it up the front side of the attic floor to get it up there.  But, whatever it took...  so, I measured and figured and had it all ready for the tape.  And then I saw something about "electrification slots"...  hmmmm.....so, *that's* what those little slits are ....dang.  I didn't have to measure after all.  So, I started threading it through the slots...  I must have got some paint in those when I painted the walls because the tape did NOT want to go down through the hole.   I nearly pulled my hair out till 2 am one morning working on the tapewire till I ran out....and then I got some more....and started again...  here's what it looked like when I got finished just putting the tape in...

Next was the fun part.  At every connection, two eyelets have to be installed to ensure complete circuit.  Hmmm...  *that* was interesting.  I mean, I know eyelets....I scrapbook.  I just don't know tapewire + eyelets.  I broke out the pilot punch pen.  (I didn't make that up....that's what the paper said.)  I attached what I thought was the correct tool to poke holes in the walls to insert the eyelets.... I poked the wall, and .....

it was straight before....  I think I bent it.  Pretty sure that wasn't supposed to happen.  So, I inserted the next tool...the No. 55 bit....now, why didn't I know that?

Ahhh...there we go.  I started drilling through the first area and I really wasn't sure if the pen was turning or the drill bit...  and then I figured out it must have been the drill bit...

It came off and stuck in the wall.  Hmmmm...try again..

Worked out better this time.....there were a bunch (because I can't remember the exact number) of overlaps that needed two eyelets each....

I ended up wrapping the daggum thing with masking tape because my fingers were getting raw.  When I was on the fourth from the last one, my husband said, "you know, you could put that drill bit in the drill and it'd be a lot easier..."

*me sitting in stunned silence*


gee...sure would've been nice to know that about 1.2359 thousand eyelets ago....

So, anyway....I got all the eyelets in, gave it a test run, and .....

Look at that!!  Light!!!  I was stoked!
Admission:  after getting all the eyelets in....putting in the junction splice, hooking it up, and getting all excited, it was made horribly evident that something had gone wrong...I has somehow managed to short the tapewire.  *sigh*  I mean a hugely big *sigh*   Come to find out, I had accidentally, ON ONE CONNECTION, put an eyelet touching both pink and purple.  Which is a no no.  Because, well....you know...  they are two different colors......  So, Darren fixed it for me and VOILA!!!  There was light!