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Willowcrest, San Fran, Westville, Beacon Hill and others

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The Willow is complete!

Well I trimmed and trimmed until my fingers nearly fell off (actually it does a number on my back, with all the weird angles I have to get into to lay the trim), and did some touchup paint, and finally finished off the Willow. I also looked around for boxes but nary a one to be found that's big enough-- 3' x 3' x 2' is what this house needs. I do have a couple large boxes on hand that if patched together, will do the job, so I guess that is what I'll have to do!
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Willow progress.

Even though it may not look or feel like it, I guess that I have actually made alot of progress with the Willow-- I finally decided that painting the window trim red would be too much, so I went with a few coats of off-white blends. I also decided that yes, I did need shutters...! Even though they are very time-consuming, I really like the look. The frame is in raw umber, and the slats are an off-white to match the window trim; I cut and glued in each slat individually, then sprayed the finishe
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Paint washes.

I was thinking about the Willow and was thinking that it looked a bit dark, so I washed it lightly with a beige-cream: That looks a bit better. I am still thinking about the best color to paint the window trim; I keep leaning to a red. I've also been thinking about whether to put shutters on this house... I gave the Magnolia shingles a dark dirty wash and then sanded out all the blotches and glue spots: I rather like the weathered ef
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Magnolia & Willow progress.

It's great to have a four-day weekend-- so much progress! I finally installed my paperclay (DAS) onto the Magnolia chimney and house base: The paperclay seemed to start setting very quickly, however-- it couldn't have been more than an hour that it took me to glue all the paperclay on, but it seemed to be setting already so I started marking the stones out right away. That's why there are only two boring layers on the base; I felt like I had to mark them quickl
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More roof work, and gutters.

Well after a few coats of gesso, here are the gutters: I used strips of matboard and sewing pin ends to make the tie-downs. I rather like the effect. Now I need to apply some spackle here and there and maybe gesso one more time; then I need to paint it. So far I've been thinking the same off-white I've used for the house, but maybe another idea will strike me while I'm working on other things... Like the eaves: The kit has some curlic
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Roof work on the Magnolia.

Well first, the trim work that I did on the windows: And some interior views so far: I buckled down and finished the staircase install: Installed the roof pieces, and copper flashing (5-mil copper sheeting from the local arts store-- pricey!): Wanted to try to make some gutters and gutter pipes, so on my first round of gesso with some cut-up cardboard rolls from old wire clothes-hangers, and some bendy straws!
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Some notes for the Tennyson.

Picked up a can of Valspar interior latex semi-gloss in "Dainty Touch" (281-2) for the Tennyson today; it's quite close to the Olympic "Rendezvous" color that I already have but it's just a shade deeper. Some color notes for the Tennyson: Painted lady with a similar blue base color: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinkimmett/3549263683/ Wow! Hard to see exact shade of blue here: http://gocalifornia.about.com/od/californiapictures1/ig/Victorian-Houses.-Npr/Full
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Back to the Magnolia, and a new arrival.

Now that the Spring Fling deadline has come and gone, I am back to the Magnolia-- hope to get it on its way to the east coast by the end of the year. I resumed work on the porches, installing the railing and finishing the edges: I put cross-beams on the underside of the porch roof and installed two hooks for a porch swing. Just got confirmation that a new niece is on the way! I know exactly what real estate she needs, and here it is! &
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Two houses.

Had to share this pic that my sister-in-law took, when she took down my little nieces' houses from their dresser-top perches for a dollhouse play-day! Bet you don't see this everyday!
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Diamond-pane windows for the SF.

Well I needed some windows for my Spring Fling with little "leaded glass" diamond panes, and I was looking at http://aboutmydollhouses.blogspot.com/2012/05/tree-house-progress.html; she used some mesh that she painted and applied glue and thin plastic. Well I didn't have any mesh that I could use, so I figured that I had to make my own mesh. Now I'm sure that somebody else has done this sort of thing before, so if you have, let me know! But I hadn't recalled seeing it on the blogs...
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Mini gifts, and the Heritage.

I've been traveling this past week, and my mother took me to A.C. Moore's for a birthday shopping spree (I don't have A.C. Moore's where I live so this was a treat!)-- got some minis, and some new paints that were on sale. Used a store 50%-off coupon to get the furniture set, and used the fact that one of the chair legs had broken off to get an additional several bucks off as well! I took my rocking horse along and gave it to my sister. She seemed to enjoy it, though s
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Rocking horse.

I've been working on the Spring Fling, but took a little break to try to make a rocking horse, which actually I've been thinking about for years now, I guess! I came across Karen Fitzhenry's site a while ago: http://www.karenfitzhenry.com/ Her miniature rocking horses appear to be hand-carved and are absolutely beautiful. For my rocking horse, I printed out one of her photos as a guide to shape (I never was any good at drawing horses), and rendered three pieces on cardstock, the torso+head and
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Paint and porches.

So I installed the siding on the Magnolia, and a 1st coat of paint: I wanted something different for the gables and the upper part of the house, so I did something bead-boardish like I did with the Country Cottage here http://www.greenleafdollhouses.com/forum/index.php?app=gallery&album=5515 : I spent a fair amount of time on the porch and veranda railings. At first I thought that I would pitch the kit pieces in their entirety and go with
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More Magnolia interior, and starting on exterior.

Zero progress on HBS contest build! (Well I am waiting for hubby to get me some plywood for a base, so I have an excuse...) And now I have the Spring Fling coming, so thinking hard about that one too. Meanwhile, back at the Magnolia, I trimmed most of the parlor, installed the front door, and went ahead and installed the staircase (not before taking a bunch of glamour shots both in and out of dry fit, though, because I really like how those step pads are popping against all the off-
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Magnolia interior work.

Hmmmm, what have I been doing... Well, I got the kitchen ceiling glued in (though I opted not to do orange accent touchups after all); here you can see one of my favorite methods for applying pressure over an area without running the risk of damage, using a chunk of soft packing foam to make sure the ceiling light sticks well: This kitchen is all window and no space for cupboards! So I decided to build in some open shelving along the ceiling, made from basswood. I cut
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Magnolia structure coming together.

I had some more things to do before I glued the walls together; I added mullions (inside and out) to the half-windows as well: I also made up my cardstock flooring templates for the 1st floor (I copied them for the 1st level ceilings, and the 2nd floor is different and doesn't have the bays). In the past I have gotten impatient and glued walls together before making flooring templates, and this makes life difficult afterwards, especially for floors with bays. &#
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Magnolia windows.

I have been spending alot of time on the window trim and sashes, as per usual; the die-cut edges are quite rough so I did my usual sand-paint-sand-spackle-sand-paint routine. I tried to shoot a couple in-progress pics to show what a difference it makes: I even applied this same treatment to the cutouts in the walls, since those become part of the window. For the trim, I added thin basswood strips around the border for a bit of depth and interest; I've been using this t
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Start of Magnolia build.

Well I decided that the Magnolia was my new niece's house after all, and I set about thinking about color schemes. I have been thinking very hard about colors (almost to the exclusion of anything else!) and settled on my "Mother-of-Pearl" for the main color fairly early (I just got done with a yellow house so I am a bit yellowed out!), but then I was thinking about what trim colors I could do with a white farmhouse. Did alot of googling, found a rendition of the Magnolia in white by http://nanas
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Mini gifts

These are my mini gifts that I received for Christmas this year-- Right now I am poring over Magnolia pictures, because I have a new niece on the way and I need to get started on her house. I have the Magnolia sitting in a box, but I am not quite sure if that's her house or not , so I am also looking at Tennyson pictures. The Tennysons that I am looking at are the old Artply ones on eBay and such, so I anticipate that the wood would be sub-par... Hmmmm...
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Country Cottage complete.

Well I actually boxed up the Country Cottage and put it in the mail yesterday (FedEx rate for delivery in a week wasn't too bad, surprisingly good actually) but before that, there was alot of shingling, for which I raided the poor Willow's shingles: ...And alot of trim! This is to give you an idea of how much trim we're talking here; mostly basswood until I ran out and had to use balsa for the long runs. Here is a view of the underside; I thi
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More leaps and bounds with the Country Cottage.

Well I don't know if I'll get this house finished in time to ship for the holidays as I wanted, but I am sure giving it a try; I made a case for the door and installed the door in it before I installed the whole thing in the house, and I liked how that turned out-- much easier than installing the door directly on the house wall. Also got the siding installed, and a few coats of paint on it. Did something a little different with that exterior space that is framed by the roof sides, used siding an
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Leaps and bounds!

Well not really...! I got all the windows made, from basswood, and mounted them in the casings. The little windows in the 2nd floor are just glued in, but I wanted the 1st floor windows to open; I mounted one pair in the casing too far inside so that there was not enough room to hinge open, so I had to move them out, which creates a big ol' gap which I am still thinking about how to deal with. I should have gone ahead and beveled the outside casing to accommodate the hinges. I guess it is not
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Progress on the "country cottage"...

Here is my lower newel post solution: I stained up some leftover parts from bannisters and some bits of basswood, using sewing pin ends to help keep them together; I am pretty pleased with how it turned out and hopefully it does not look too contrived. You can also see that I have papered over my paint; I think this "corduroy" paper (by The Paper Company; I find it at Michael's) looks much better. I sealed the corduroy paper (after installing it) by brushing on some ma
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More grouting avoidance...

I decided to break out my "Lisa's Country Cottage" kit that I had gotten for Ernie's contest a year or so ago but never even opened the box. It is MDF, of which I'm not super-fond, but the size of the kit seemed that it might suit my purposes... (A gift for the little daughters of some family friends, if I can get in done in time...) Spent alot of time dry-fitting and thinking. I really wanted a staircase (I guess that is one of my "things" ) so spent a while thinking about how to do that in su
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Teddy bear, or what I was doing instead of grouting...!

I was looking through teddy bear maker blogs (particularly the lovely teds on A Stuffed Life- exquisite work!) and I had in mind to try to make one again. I used to make jointed teddies twenty years ago but just got out of it and hadn't done it in that long. I mostly made full-size teddies but I did make a couple in dollhouse size, which I found in a box of old stuff that my mother had saved for me. Those old teddies have lost various appendages over the years... They look to be a half or two-th
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