Over the weekend, my real house had to be cleaned so not much was accomplished on the cottage, except getting out my clamps, glues, and various other tools which had been packed into the spare bedroom, last time Lori and family were home.

But today, I was out with a stomach bug, and what better to do, but start on the cottage. I started out by punching out all the pieces needed for the building and grouping them together as called for in the instructions and placing them in plastic bags labeled by Section A, B etc from the instructions. Doing it this way all the parts now fit in a priority mail box and I don't have to sift through all the big sheets. The furniture and scrap wood are still in the box.

Then I started dry fitting the pieces together, luckily Riley made it home in time to help on some of the trickier parts that you go counterclockwise on. (I'm not good at left/right or clockwise/counterclockwise directions). I'm so glad we did this, because seeing the dry fit, made me realize I want to make the second floor a little higher, meaning I have to lower the 1st floor ceiling. After much discussion, Riley thinks he will be able to do this with out very much trouble. (We've just bought from minicrafttool.com a mini bench sander and table saw and I think he wants a chance to check them out B) ) It will probably mean cutting a new floor in order not to leave a gap. Right now the plans to do this is mostly in his mind so I can't relate it just yet. He has marked the walls where he plans to cut them down and I know that crown molding will be used to sit the new wall on. Doing it this way, he thinks he won't have to change the front and right walls.

So now, I will need to take it all a part, do a little extra sanding before it is started to put together for good. I only had one piece, porch post/right trim, that I had to use a little glue on after it split when punching it out.

Trying to think a few steps ahead on this one, hoping that will keep me from having to redo a lot of things. Only time will tell.