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Willowcrest, San Fran, Westville, Beacon Hill and others

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Routing wires, and 1st coat of paint.

So I figured out where I wanted to put lighting fixtures, and dremeled channels to the back of the house (I am thinking that I will stage the power strip at the rear foundation area, and make a little box around it): Kitchen (1st floor smaller room), hanging light: Main room (1st floor larger room), hanging light from ceiling and two wall lights that I will make from bulbs; also, 1st floor porch light (tulip ceiling light mounted to the underside of SF30 [balcony
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San Fran problems.

This is a post about the problems that I have been coming across in the San Fran build-- perhaps someone will be able to comment, or maybe it will help out someone along the way...! So to lay the context, I had finished Walls & Floors - Step 8, having put in the entry walls (SF16), and I had finished Roof - Step 6, having installed the attic floor (SF20). The next step under Roof is the small gable assembly using SF23 (small gable), SF21 and SF22 (right and left gab
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San Fran work.

I have been plodding through the San Fran instructions, making the structural joins (primarily with wood glue) and priming. I used Kilz primer for the floors, main walls and ceilings but I am using acrylic paint for the smaller pieces that I am gluing in now because I ran out of Kilz but mostly because it is easier to sand down in place. This is my first MDF house and it is very different-- I had gotten used to alot of sanding with the die-cut kits, which I can't really do with the MDF because i
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notes on Art Deco, for the San Fran

Well my new niece should be coming along soon, so if I get started on the San Fran, she may get her house before her fifth birthday...! Her mother likes art deco, and green, so these are elements that I am looking to incorporate heavily into the house. For the exterior, I am thinking heavy cream with lime and olive green trim... Not too heavy on the trim though... I have been googling for "french" or "1930's" art deco style, with mixed results-- from Art, Design and Vis
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This and that.

Well I have been working on the gazebo kit for Ernie's 16th Annual Creatin' Contest so I can't post pictures of progress I've made lately; suffice it to say that I am enjoying making up the concept as I go along...! I have done some trim and touchups on the Arthur exterior, and installed the door: My order from Manor House Miniatures came in-- Gina (butterflyex) posted a week or so ago about their "featured items" section and how she was stocking up
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Arthur shingled.

This is the first time I have tried this-- shingling first and coloring the shingles later. But I was careful not to get glue on the shingles so that the stain wouldn't look blotchy. The Arthur shingles easily-- I didn't use templates or anything, just drew out my lines and cut on each angled shingle piece until it fit... I found my old water-based Minwax American Walnut stain that I used on the Lily; when I used it back then on the first house I ever buil
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Some window treatments.

I put in the kitchen window curtains: I also installed some upstairs railing, made of newel posts and some odd spindles; I decided not to do any on the stairs themselves (I had wrestled with the idea for a while, but decided that the stair is low-profile enough and the room is cramped enough that it would be OK without railing on the staircase), but didn't want there to be a huge hole in the floor: I also wanted some window flower boxes; I ha
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Floors, and stairs, and furniture progress.

I used skinny sticks to put together a design for the 2nd floor bedroom: It wasn't quite freehand, as I marked out the lines before hand, but what I failed to do was take into account how the width of the stick would affect the margins, so the edges are a bit off... I stained it in cherry (the good stain, not the leftover junk stuff!). Also in this pic is the dressing table from the Corona Concepts kit; I added a bit to it, though I think it could use some
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Little by little...

Well I didn't get nearly as much done on the Arthur this past weekend as I had wanted, due to digging up the back yard looking for a water leak. I did finally get the parlor floor sanded and stained. The boards were a bit warped and not entirely flat, even though the floor had spent an entire week under books and heavy things. I speculate that it was due to my building the floor from the outside in; I'll have to test that theory... Anyway I stained it and then brushed a coat of polyacrylic on; w
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Arthur gets painted, and more.

After a dirty wash, I added a layer of color to the chimney stones and finished up the siding: Then I decided to do the exterior paint. I had ALOT of red leftover from the Beacon Hill-- the BH barely touched that gallon! I am still undecided about what color(s) to do the porch and foundation under the porch in (white? gray? brown? stained boards with painted foundation?), so I am hoping that seeing the exterior paint on the house for a while will help with that. First
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More Arthur.

I installed some interior window frames, and after some dry-fitting, continued installing roof and porch pieces, applying wood glue here and there after the initial tacking because wood glue tacks up hard. I used paper templates to help me with papering the upstairs gable parts-- it made all the difference in the world: I don't really care for a plain exterior paint-job (I put sand into my Pierce exterior paint to give it a kick), so I was t
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Getting started on the Arthur.

So the Arthur finally arrived, and it looks to be in decent enough shape (barring a missing sill or two, and a duplicate piece or three). The first thing I did (after sanding) was apply primer; some folks assemble the house and then prime, which makes it easier to keep everything squared up with no stray dried primer adding length to a piece and throwing off the dimensioning, or interfering with slot holes, or the like. I like to give the pieces a good hearty sanding-down after priming, though,
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Have a seat...

I decided that the Arthur will need a sofa and parlor chair, but I don't like the ones in the Corona Concepts kit. So I found some scraps of wood and put them together, referring roughly to a blog post that wenlaine had but I cannot seem to find it again-- it was about making the blue livingroom set here. Except for attaching the "buttons" (tiny beads), this was all with glue, using clamps and masking tape to set... You can see some of the other pie
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Well lookie here...

...what came in the mail today! But it must sit and wait for a bit. The Arthur is first on the list. Who knows when it will get here, with an advertisement of "3 to 16 business days"...! Meanwhile, I am working on the Corona Concepts furniture kits for the Arthur: I have more done than this; I'll take some more pics this weekend...
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And the San Fran...

Well hubby also had a gift cert for eBay, and said that I could use it... So immediately I thought "San Franciscan", since it's on my wish list and eBay is just about the only place I know to get it. So I got on there and found a decent deal with free shipping, and clicked away into Paypal, only to find out that the cert code wasn't accepted. So I had to use another method to actually pay for it. Well I wouldn't have bought it if I had known that!
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New year, new houses.

Well hubby had some gift certificate codes lying around for amazon.com, so I ordered the Arthur (it seemed like the most house for my buck) and a Melissa and Doug bathroom set (need to build up my furnishing supply again, now that I went and furnished the Pierce and Beacon Hill houses so heavily for the nieces for Christmas!). I am thinking that the Arthur will make a nice house for a little granddaughter of a colleague of mine, with some of the Corona Concepts furniture kit pieces like I did fo
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Little things.

Some little things, finishing off the Beacon Hill and the Pierce (and putting off boxing them up, but I'll have to get that done by this weekend): Wow, I miss these houses already! I have already packed up all the furniture kits that I've accumulated for them... My next house is the Willow, which I'll probably start tinkering with after the holidays. I envision alot of woodwork and paneling and such for the Willow. Maybe I will go with the si
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HL sale findings, and a roombox.

So at Hobby Lobby's 50%-off miniatures sale, I found some electrical items (so expensive to get over the internet with shipping), a couple furniture sets for the Pierce and BH, and some other pieces: Last weekend I was working on a roombox for a family friend (instead of working on the Adams as I should to make that deadline!); I had forgotten how much fun roomboxes are to do! This is staged in an old letter-sorter box that hangs on a wall, that I found at a thrift sto
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Winding up...

Well my work on this house is coming to an end-- I can keep finding little things here and there, but at some point I have to call it quits! Some pics: The little plaque is in Hebrew (my niece derives from a line of scholars), and was made by my parents for this house. And here is something I bet you don't see everyday-- a Pierce without any front steps... I dug out the Pierce from its storage spot (half in,
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I ran out of windows...!

Well here are the last of the window treatments: The trio of kitchen windows has long rows of blue-checked ruffles, top and bottom-- they're tacking in place right now... Well I am done with window treatments now-- really enjoyed that part, sorry to see the last window... Need to do something with the lower half of the bathroom wall-- have an idea for a simple white wainscot pattern... Also need to floor the blue ro
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And more window dressing.

So here is how the swags and jabots turned out-- a bit more jabot than swag, but I am pretty pleased with the technique (it is caseymini's): And here are the 3rd floor bird room's pelmets: Both bay drapery sets are installed in the parlor, so now I am working on the kitchen, bathroom, and 3rd floor landing window treatments. So far I have not used one single stitch! I tried glue of various types for the Lily window treatments, bu
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Now that I've started, I just can't stop!

Well here are the two mini-pelmets in the 3rd floor blue room: And one of the bays in the parlor is dressed now (I should tack the drapes to the frame though, so they don't go anywhere...): Here I am working on swags and jabots for the 2nd floor room, from Caseymini's wonderful tutorial; the double window will have a double swag, of sorts: After I finish up with all the ones I've started so far, I'll take a look at
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Window treatments.

Now this is some fun stuff, even though I have trouble exercising patience at some points...! I have been making pelmets: So far I have ones for the parlor bays (beige print with gold fringe), the 2nd floor double and single windows (paisley with silver rat-tail cord), the 3rd floor blue room (blue! with gold rat-tail cord) and the 3rd floor room with bird wallpaper (green with no trim). Here's where my patience comes in-- the pleating part. Up to n
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Cleaning up wiring, and base work.

So I finally got around to working on the base; I was conflicted for a while about brick vs. random stone vs. cinder-block look, and finally decided to go with the cinder-blocks, so as to be minimally "busy" since the main exterior color is so strikingly red. I put LPCullen's dirty wash on it (black and umber), and am thinking that I'll paint them in dirty gray shades: You can see my little porch swing here too, waiting to be hung up: my mother found some dollar store
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