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Willowcrest, San Fran, Westville, Beacon Hill and others

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Curtains and other things.

I had been working on window treatments for the Willowcrest 2nd floor bedroom a few weeks ago (in the first pic you can see how I was dremeling out a channel in the floor to run the wire under the carpet)-- --but the color just didn't seem right for the wallpaper. I figured I needed something more wine-y. So I used the curtains in the Buttercup where I think they do alot better: You can also see that I have been gardening
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Still inching along with Buttercup 1.

Well the good news is that I did actually get some things done on the Willowcrest, like boarding the porch roof and affixing the balcony. But I have been mostly painting and repainting many many trim pieces for the Buttercup 1, which seems to be moseying along and taking its good old time: The lighting is terrible and hence makes the colors look terrible, but this is the same paint that I used for the Pierce. The 1st floor wallpaper was supposed to be in
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Buttercup 1 progress.

Well I haven't been very quick about it, I guess, but here is what the first Buttercup looks like so far:
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Buttercups in the mail!

Look what came in the mail today-- My Buttercups, which I got to make for the church Christmas toy drive! I ordered them from kiddietoys.com at twenty bucks apiece, and since they have a special where over $25 gets free shipping, I got the both of them for a cool forty. I thought they would make a good quick project for me-- a bit of a break (but not too long!) from the Willowcrest.
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Window treatments for the parlor.

I spent a bit of time making tassels from caseymini's tutorial and finally got two of the parlor drapery sets installed-- ...and finally got around to picking up some coarse-grit sandpaper. I had in my head that it was 60-grit, and when I compare this to what is on top the bays, the paper on the bays is 40-grit. Oh well. I think I'll work on some trim in the 2nd floor bedroom before I tackle those parlor bay window draperies...
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Swags and pelmets.

Well I've got the pelmets and the swags, but the jabots may have decided to hop on another design-- this one just didn't take that direction! (I pretty much end up free-styling the window treatments-- what looks good in my head may not actually work out for me in practice...)
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Finally going back inside...

I spent some time doing even more paint touchups on the window trim, then figured out that I had forgotten to stop and pick up more 60-grit sandpaper to do up the porch roof-- didn't feel like running up to the hardware store, so skipped that for now. Maybe I'll remember next week... Also figured out that I don't think I want to affix the porch steps until I get my 1/4-inch plywood base, so skipping that for now also until I get over to Lowe's. So I wandered inside again, and staine
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Window troubles...

I have been touching up paint on trim-- --and dealing with the fact that I should have installed the exterior window trim first! (I think it even says that in the instructions...) If I had done that, like I did with the Westville, then I could have spackled and painted 'til the cows came home with no worries about mussing the window transparencies... Well I ended up having to scrub spackle off all my windows (with a wetted q-tip), and adding some extra trim to h
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Sand, spackle, paint, sand, repeat...

Well I have been chugging along the past couple weeks, nothing interesting, just prepping porch and window trim assemblies: ...installing roof pieces, prepping and installing roof trim: ...installing exterior window trim pieces: So the corner trim pieces don't quite fit flush to the base trim, because of the pre-installed siding. That might be a reason to install siding afterward, but then one gets paint ever
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Finally getting the interior chimney installed.

I had been prepping the attic, papering and installing the interior window frames, but nothing could move forward until I installed the interior chimney piece, and I couldn't do THAT until the flooring was finished! I have a couple pics w/o flash so one can see how the colors really compare to one another. The flooring is 1/2"-wide planks of 1/16"-thick basswood, on a card template, stained with Minwax (oil-based) golden pecan; I am starting to run out so I need
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Parlor floor, and interior window frames.

Haven't made a whole lot of progress-- worked on the parlor floor though, and here it is in dry-fit (I'll put sealer on it after it's glued in place): I put balsa strips over those printed-on mullions in the interior window frames; I'm thinking of using my Gallery Glass paints to make some "panes" look like stained glass, but need to decide which ones: I'm thinking about the toile in the attic. It too looks pretty overpowering in this photo b
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1st coat of exterior paint.

First coat never looks good! This is Olympic interior semi-gloss latex, in "Rendezvous". I used it for the Adams (HBS contest house a couple years ago) and had quite a bit leftover. I painted the chimney stack stones and put some sealer on them because they scuff easily (I added some scuffs but didn't want any more than that)-- I installed the attic paper, the blue that I had picked out earlier, but now that I see it with the ext
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Siding and stones.

I used up the rest of my DAS air-drying clay and covered what will be the interior of the chimney: I almost waited too long to scribe the stone outlines in it because I got so tied up in siding-- the DAS sets up in a couple hours... I wanted to use a particular pattern of my embossed paper (from Hobby Lobby) for the parlor ceiling, but I hadn't remembered how low I was getting in the ceiling papers last time I went to HL, and there wasn't even a whole shee
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3rd floor work and wallpapering.

I added the kitchen and living room bays; the living room bay has some big gaps in it (due to the angled wall not being wide enough) which I will have to fill with wood filler. Other than that, they were some of the easiest bays I have ever assembled! I installed the attic walls, the side dormer walls, the mansard cornice and trim, the front dormer interior walls & roof, and the main roof cornice. (I used the main roof cornice in dry fit while the atti
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More walls, and 3rd floor.

The instructions say to install railing and bannister pieces while installing the 1st floor staircase; I am making my own railing and bannisters, so I went ahead and did that while I still had access to the 2nd floor foyer, but first I prepared and installed flooring (1/8" basswood cut into 1/4" strips EDIT: that's 1/16"-thick basswood, not 1/8"!). I also worked on ceiling trim for the 2nd floor foyer, installing it ahead of time (you'll notice that I am using corner blocks so that I don't have
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More foyer work, and staircase installation finally.

As you can see I am trying to prepare the foyer as much as possible, including going ahead and installing the interior door trim pieces for the front, entry/livRm, and Kitchen/entry doors: I dry-fitted the staircase in there to figure out how much I should take off the kitchen/entry trim. I ended up fitting the staircase in there several times; it came back out fairly well except for the last time when it was fully assembled, and I accidentally dropped the staircase as
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Working on the foyer.

Well I haven't gotten alot done on the 1st floor foyer; I finally made it to Hobby Lobby today, for their biannual 50%-off-minis sale: I got the electrical strip and transformer for the Willowcrest, as well as lights, a few furniture sets, some building and hardware supplies, a bunch of basswood (40% off), and some odds and ends including some nice scrapbook paper that I think I might use for the kitchen instead of the sunflower paper that I printed out. I also went to
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Priming and wallpaper.

I sanded and primed the first-page pieces, and started gluing them together. I also put together the staircase support structure. It's not glued in-- this is just to see how it fits and how much needs to be done before its installation (staircase side finishing, room papering, railing, stair runners, pictures on the walls, ceiling treatment including any lighting, etc)-- the answer is everything, I believe...! It looks as though I may even want to go ahead and install the flooring ahead of time,
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Starting the Willowcrest.

This is the first opportunity I've had to break open the Willowcrest box-- I've been looking forward to this all week! I punched out all the pieces on the first page, and dry-fit them together-- I still need to sand and prime them, but I wanted to see what it looked like because I never could quite tell how the stairwell was situated from looking at other folks' pictures, because it is so hidden. I had a bit of difficulty getting the "Kitchen / Entr
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It's here!

Look what came in the mail today! (Courtesy of Uncle Sam's tax returns... And yes, I am kicking myself that I didn't order it when Ernie was having his 50%-off-dollhouses sale, but at least I caught his 20% sale...) This will be for a new niece who will be born in a few months. Her sister is the one who got the Beacon Hill, so I thought the Willowcrest would pair up nicely with the BH. I have plenty of light blue paint leftover from the Adams contest build so I thought
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On to the next project.

Well the Westville is all packaged up and ready to ship on Monday-- I found a wardrobe box at the shipping store that the house fits into just about perfectly; looked up shipping rates and figured that US Post Office, parcel post, will cause the least damage... Money-wise, at any rate. (It will cost about $100.) I ordered my Spring Fling contest garage and am thinking about what to do with it-- have a couple ideas so I'll percolate on it this week until it comes... I c
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Not yet!

Not done quite yet! I've been working on window dressings, and (what else!) trim: I took the house outside and stained the shingles, which turned out very well. I have some odd bits of trim yet, and the chimney, and the front door.
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Shingles and curtains.

So I shingled most of the roof: but not the back, apparently...! I put 1/4" dowel along the roof lines-- thinking of painting it white just because it ended up with some wood glue on it... Still trying to decide which stain to put on it. Might use the same as the porch planks, might go lighter... I worked some trim in the bedroom: Needs a bit of spackle and some touchup. Also cleaned up all the wiring; spent some time maki
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Getting closer to fiddly-bits...

I have been finishing up the gardening and porch trim, installing stained trim in the parlor (check out the TV, "magic" Hallmark ornament 50%-off!), working on staircase: I'm working on shingles now; I think I'll install them all (being careful with the glue) then stain them... Then I need to clean up the wiring in the attic. Getting closer to the point of messing with fiddly-bits...
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