I sanded smooth the spackled side of the stairs and painted them white and dry fit them facing the back. I cut a length of 1/8" diameter dowel while the stairs were in place, to make a handrail, and I painted that red.

I was stymied for the downstairs interior wall treatments because I had left all my siding strips you-know-where, and by this time we were camped at Natural Chimneys. On our way in to Harrisonburg the first time I spotted The Miniature Cottage (it was closed) and when we went back when it was open I found a ten-piece package of basswood clapboard siding that was 3/8" thick X 3" wide X 24" long. One piece was enough to cover completely one side of the downstairs divider wall.

I covered both sides of the divider wall and when they were dry I primed them.

I made a newspaper template for the stairway wall to make the clapboard for the wall; I laid the newspaper sheet along the wall and creased it along the corners and cut it to fit. I put it back in place and put the stairs back in and drew along the top & bottom of the stairway side along the wall. When I took it all out I cut the newpaper along the stairway lines and taped it together and glued up the clapboard pieces to fit and the retraced my line for cutting the clapboard apart.

As only I can do it, I got the clapboard going horizontally instead of vertically, like the rest of the downstairs interior walls (my story is the Ananda family deicided it was too much trouble to install vertical siding against the original interior wall because of the stairs! ). I sanded a bit to try to flatten it a tad, then realized I'd sand out all the grooves! and stopped. It took six of the clapboard pieces to cover all the interior downstairs walls. I masked the floor.

Next I began to make the bead curtain to go between the main shop and the storage room with the stairs. I traced around the door opening on the divider wall to get the measurements I needed to cut a length of 1/8" dowel for the rod and for the length I'd need to make my bead strings. I wrapped the ends of the dowel with bits of masking tape to keep the bead strings from slipping off of it. Once I began to tie off the strings one of the tape bits slipped off, but left a sticky residue. Since I glued the knots of the strings to the dowel as I completed them it didn't really matter at that point.

1) I threaded a regular sewing needle with a long piece of thread and knotted one end around the dowel. I laid it on the tracing of the doorway.

2) I threaded the beads in a design of alternating shapes & sizes and random colors (except for the oval pearl-colored beads) and continued until it was the length I wanted.

3) When it reached the desired length I threaded a small seed bead last and tied it off after "snugging" up the beads on the string.

4) I brought the needle back through the last half-dozen or so beads on the string & cut the thread.

5) When the dowel was full I ran a bead of Elmer's all-purpose glue along the dowel over all the knots and when it was dry I clipped off all the thread "tails" and removed the other bit of masking tape. I set the bead curtain aside until the rest of the construction is completed downstairs.

Placing the Orchid in the Linda Cullen Position I primed and painted the remaining walls and ceiling.

When it was dry it went into its placc under the camper bed to await coming home to the rest of my supplies :whistle: