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Willowcrest, San Fran, Westville, Beacon Hill and others

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Gardening in the wintertime.

I've been gardening today! I prepped the base, gluing some thin foam packing sheet where I wanted grass (Debra from Old Cape Cod's idea) then painting it (Sherry's idea) with brown then greens. Then I smeared white glue all over it, sprinkled a 1:1 mixture of turf and spring grass, sprayed it over a couple times with matte sealer, and shook off the remainder. (Which I saved in a large plastic bag, because this stuff is expensive.) What's left isn't going anywhere in a hurry if it's left alone--
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Floors, wainscoting and closet.

So I have been toodling along-- I finished the floor for the parlor, with 1/32" basswood: Then I had hubby cut me out a piece of 1/4" plywood for the base, and I cut up some quarter-round that was sitting around the house (leftover from his projects) to be a border for it. I don't have any real cutting tools (need to see about that Dremel fixture); I hand-sawed it then dremeled it down to size. I'll sand, spackle and paint it to finish. My cr
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Four hours later...

Well this didn't take four hours-- ...but this did: I wanted louvred shutters, so I painted strips of siding and painstakingly glued each piece in... They need paint touchups and some sealer, satin if I can find it...
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...And finally, some roof!

Well I have been toodling along-- I dry-fit the roof pieces: ...and figured out that I needed to finish the attic, at least the back part, completely before installing the roof pieces. I had in mind that I wanted to do something like I did for the Pierce, with beams and old newspaper printies: So I measured out some beams cut from leftover San Fran trim, and cut out a bunch of "old newspaper" pieces. I think I got them from Jim's printables.
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Finally, some paint!

I finished siding, then installed all the exterior window trim. Then I figured I better put the vertical trim on too. The small piece with an angle on the end that goes on the front left upper corner was an inch too short so I had to cut another from scrap... I spent some time spackling and sanding all the window trim as well. The first coat of paint never looks great! I spent some time sanding and re-spackling and
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More Westville work.

Finally I can get back to this house! I did some work on the staircase, trimming up gaps and such, before adding the bay pieces (which restrict access). I'll have some more cover-up work to do here once I get the main balusters installed at the bottom of the stairs... Then I added the bay wall pieces: I installed the kitchen ceiling (plastic "tin" design) with its ceiling light, routing it up through the powder room floor; it'll go up to the
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Starting on the Westville.

So I guess I am ditching Ernie's contest! (Well we'll see...) But the San Fran is put on hold for now since I won't be sending it this Christmas, and the Arthur is finished and ready for delivery-- I need to catch a sunny day and take some final pics of it. I have broken out the Westville; here it is in dry fit: Here I have primed (Kilz water-based) and sanded, and glued some parts together. I didn't really like how that decorative bit in the right wall lo
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Two houses at once...

So I am working the San Fran AND the Arthur these days, trying to finish up for Christmas; finishing trim on the Arthur: Finally finishing out the wiring routing on the San Fran, and done with shingling except for the dreaded tower: I kind of like the natural look of the shingles, but I think that I will go ahead and stain them with Minwax maple to give them an extra "pop"-- I was careful in gluing them on, not to get glue on the surfa
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Trim, trim everywhere.

It seems as though every time I build a house, I find more places to trim...! I don't know how many trim pieces I have prepped for the San Fran-- lost count a long time ago. I have been trying to calculate how much I need in each color, but I always seem to come up short. Well the good thing about using balsa for trim is that it's fairly trivial to make some more... The green room needs vertical green pieces on the ends of that face that the door is on, and green edge
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Back to the San Fran.

Plugging along with the San Fran-- buckled down and prepared a bunch of trim, stained for the staircases and painted for the stripe-y room (formerly the blue room). I had some paper from Michael's that looks like floor tile that seems to go pretty well with the striped room; I didn't prepare it in advance with matte spray because I wanted it to have a bit of gloss, so I started gluing it (smeared white school glue) straight to the floor. Well I had one piece down when I thought, this is a mistak
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Finishing up roombox.

Finally came up with a pillow that might work: Made some ornaments out of beads and real-life ornament hooks: Little corner shelves, and some pictures on the wall, that will have a personal meaning to this box's recipient: I have been fiddling around with red satin ribbon, trying to make some decent bows for the stair posts. No luck yet-- I will have to try to find some finer ribbon... Now this box need
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Playing around with chairs.

Using the green chair a prototype, I made a red chair with shortened depth and width, as well as a tapered seat and a recline. Here are some pics that show how I put it together: At this point, the back of the chair looked too narrow to me, so I ripped it off and made a fatter one: I asked you forum folks which you liked better, red or green, and I think the vote was about 50-50! I did appreciate ever
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More on the roombox.

I dryfit the panels, dryfit trim pieces, put the staircase in and took it back out many times for dryfitting this piece or that-- I tried to do everything that I could think of before I glued in the staircase for good, including the wiring. I decided to go with the Tiffany lamp in the understair, even though it does take away from the Christmas lights a bit, because I wanted to accentuate the understair and I think it adds more realism... I made a
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A bit of diversion.

Well here is what the former blue room looks like now, with Hobby Lobby sale scrapbook paper, and I am glad that I made the change: Just lately I have been working on something else, though-- a roombox for a friend that I have been thinking about for at least a year, now! I had first started messing around with a box that I found at a thrift store: It wasn't nearly deep enough to really do anything, and I guess that's why it never took hold o
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Little bits here and there.

I have been adding exterior trim this weekend, as well as spackle and paint to the window trim: The tower is just on there for show-- I need to mount a lightbulb inside it before it can go on, not to mention those large trim pieces that go underneath it... I glued the upper sashes in place, but there were more gaps at the top than not, so I trimmed the sash tops with pieces of painted balsa and spackled them into the rest of the upper window trim. I
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Stone painting, and bathroom.

I applied a dirty wash to the porch stones-- I think it was a few drops of burnt sienna and black: That was last weekend, so this weekend I was ready to paint on some different colors. I used washes (diluted with water), and chose three main mixes: brown oxide, then pewter grey plus burnt sienna, then forest green plus pewter grey plus brown oxide. I'll let this sit overnight then seal it a couple times. Oh-- here I am try
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Back to the exterior.

Well I felt like taking a break from the interior for a bit; here is the 3rd flooring finally installed, and the 2nd story staircase parts waiting to go in: I needed to make some progress on the exterior, so I set about cutting the window trim for the windows that would be affected by installing porch pieces (some because of limited access, and some because there are porch pieces that actually interface to the window trim). I sawed it by hand and then fit each piece se
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Stairs and floors.

I did go get more basswood, but I want it for another project I'm thinking of, so I put together a simple design with skinny sticks for the 3rd floor big room: I gave it a light stain and have the 1st coat of sealer on it now... I'll buff it down and try to flatten it some more before I install it... So I decided to mix it up a little with the 2nd story stairs-- just copying the 1st story stair layout was too predictable, so I did a variation on a bash tha
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About the BH porch.

I had a query about the BH porch light, and had to go dig up some old build pics: I installed the wire on the outside of the house, hiding it under the siding installation. I was routing the wire toward the back of the 2nd story so it looks like, from that last pic, that I snaked the wire up through the French door aperture...
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The main room gets a ceiling.

Well before I could install a main room ceiling, I had to install the 1st floor porch light because its wire goes across the main room ceiling. I had in mind some lattice-type pattern for the main room ceiling (I don't think that my inspiration room shown in a previous post has lattice ceiling, but it inspired me in a free-association way in this direction, nonetheless), and decided to go for the woodworking angle. I had wanted to put more gold paper to match the rest
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More work on the main room.

I worked on the side-lights in the main room; I tested the lights out after I had installed them-- Whoops! That's why I should always test before installation... I had to take apart the one light, and it turned out that the bulb was loose. Then I started working on the floor. I had some basswood, 1/16" I think-- I love basswood. This is the second time I have used it for a floor, and I definitely need to go back and get some mor
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A new arrival, and some woodwork.

Look what came in the mail the other day, from Joann's 50%-off sale! I have been wanting this house for a while now. Meanwhile, I am plugging along on the San Fran; I need to get some work done in the living room (1st floor main room) before I can install the doors. I put together the staircase, which is very different from the intricate assemblies that I am used to in the Greenleaf kits-- this was just gluing chunks of wood to a backer:
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Paint, windows, and kitchen!

So the exterior is nice and green-- --and I have been painting and sanding and painting and resanding and repainting away on window frames and window trim. I put handles on the lower (clear) sashes, and mixed up a pot of off-white paint for the molding, which I have been trying to be careful with so that I don't have to mix up anymore and try to match the color...! (I think I put burnt sienna and canary yellow and a bit of pewter gray in it, but I didn't write it down
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Many windows.

This is what I have been doing lately-- painting and repainting the kitchen and the 2nd floor green room, and all the little window sashes... I have decided to put the wallpaper on the upper half of the kitchen, but decided to go ahead and paint the entire wall surface since I don't want any weird lumps and bumps along the demarcation line... I can also see that I will need a few more coats in the green room, to cover over the wiring line along the lower right. I guess
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Lights, and thinking about trim colors...

I hope that A & C Construction will accept my most sincere form of flattery-- I wanted to do something with that flat place on the front of the 3rd floor, and A&C had put a nice scalloped pattern that I liked very much, so I dug out my unused round-end shingles leftover from the Adams kit and pasted 'em on there in like kind. Now the trim-- I am very admiring of A&C's two-toned cream-and-gold trim strategy, but I am wanting to use cream and a more striking
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