First Floor almost there
Entry posted by Peggi
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Before I start this weeks blog, please notice several thank yous to different members for their most welcome tips and tutorials. Without the help and teachings of members like you, I would be totally lost. There is mentioned two things that Riley and I made during this week that I hope will help some one to--the desk and my bay seat.
During the week, I mentioned to Riley that I would like a "customer service" type desk for my reception area. One that is a little taller and the front slightly rounded. After showing him a couple of examples, he said he thought he had the general idea. The next day when I came home from work he had made a "prototype" out of cardboard to see if that was what I was talking about. And By Dog it was. So last weekend he took scrap pieces from the kit and part of a wooden floor I had bought but wasn't going to use and made me one. I think it turned out great.
It only needed a light stain and it was exactly what I had in mind.
My next step was to add the front bay window. For some reason I had some bad gaps, but solved that by using small dowels (actually I think these particular dowels was given to me by a friend that uses them to put color on hair at the beauty shop). I want to thank Nutti and Holly for this idea--it worked perfectly. I was afraid if I used putty it would go through and ruin my pre-wallpapered walls. Touch up paint job is in the very near future. But since I know I will have a lot more touch ups to do, I will wait and to it all at one time.
I was very nervous doing the inside and adding the plastic windows, when working on the Lily I ruined the windows by putting them in to early and didn't won't this to happen to these windows. A problem I ran into with several things that needed gluing was that none of the clamps I had seem to reach areas I needed them in, but I used a lot of masking tape.
After placing the window and trim in the interior of the bay. I felt that a window seat would look great and also give the "parents'" another place to sit while waiting for the dancers. I took a pieces of paper and made a template of the wall curve.
Then I used this to draw on a piece of scrap wood, and took it to my newly acquired mini table saw and cut it out. Keep looking through scrap pieces until I found one the right height for the base and cut it to fit the front width of the seat and glued and clamped together. While this dried, I took my paper template and cut another one slightly smaller out of foam board and covered it with material from an old tie, my boss had given me. (When I read that old ties was good for upholstery and drapes, I asked if he had any he was ready to get rid of and he brought me a sack full).
Here is the end result before the "cushioned" seat is added and here it is finished.
I am probably over proud of this, but I'm usually so bad about measuring, that when it fit, I was overjoyed, and though Riley has use the mini table saw several times, it was the first time that I actually used it "unsupervised" LOL.
I've been really bad about not referring to the instructions, since I had dry fitted it together 3 different times, and that led to slight problem when I went to do the side bay. I ever so carefully fitted the sides and front of the bay together, checked and rechecked the fit and then glued to my heart's content. Stood back and was proud that it fit and didn't have big gaps and then went to put the roof on. (Refer to first sentence in this paragraph--not reading instructions) The roof wouldn't go--remember it was made to go in first. So like any amateur builder what do I do--went begging to Riley to figure out how to fix this without me having to take it all apart. (The poor man really did not know what he was getting into when I first asked him if he thought "I could build a house" . I don't think that the word I meant "we".) Being a very good husband and man and living up to my and I might add his daughters expectations that he can fix anything, He pondered on it while at work and came home cut one of the tabs off the roof that would have slid inside and made it fit. So the side bay has a roof--next problem the window ledge (I beg dementia--I really never read until it was way to late that the bay was suppose to slide under the roof and in between the ledge) No way was that sucker going to hood inside--and with the little L shape tab it stood out from the wall about 1/4 or more a inch. Again it was by by to tabs. (Think I'm starting a pattern here?) With all the alterations and cutting of tabs it still looks pretty much like it would with them.
I've added a soft beige carpet to the "reception" area and wallpaper flooring in the side room. I've added my skinny sticks molding to the corners of the walls to cover bad glue and gap mistakes, but all in all I'm beginning to see it come together.
Last week Riley had gone to the doctor and had a prescription for predisone--I won't go into why right now, but the pack it came in I kept looking at and thought this would make a great display/bulletin board for the outside. So I printed pictures of my dgd from their recital a couple of years ago, made a brief schedule and put them in the empty pack. I need you opinion if you think this is to "out of scale" or as an outside board do you think it will work?
Right now it is only posted with mini wax so it will be easy to remove.
I've started work on my front door. With the Lily I used the tiny hinges and they haven't held up well. Reading Holly's way of using chamois for hinges I thought I would try that. I've glued the chamois between the door panels (using Holly's directions of cutting 1/2 inch about 2 inches long and then cutting that into 3). I've also sanded the door so it will fit the opening. So my next step will be to see how to make it work, by gluing the exposed strip to the door trim. Right now, before gluing, it seems to not want to open very far. So Holly, if you can help me with that it would be appreciated. What have I left out or not done yet?
(see I even printed out Holly's instructions to go by while I tried this. Thank you Holly).
My edges to the house look unfinished, so I will be putting up corner molding on the outside to hopefully add a more finished look and hide where the tabs fit together. I think this will work better for me, than to putty and sand till.
So the next couple of days, I will hopefully get my front door hung, make another panel to put with the inside door so it can be hung, add molding to the outside corners and decide how to finish the front porch. I had printed out (thanks to Melissa's help with photoshop) a tile pattern, but oldest daughter says she thinks the pattern I picked even though looked like real tile--is more of an inside tile and not a porch tile. So back to the drawing board on that one. Then on to the second floor.
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