What's everyone working on?

[Sable]

In real life copper flashing would be used under the butted up tiles.

[Sable]

There is a good drawing on this site:

https://www.nachi.org/slate-roofs-part8-127.htm

[smjsome]

That makes so much more sense!  Thank you!

[minikelli]

I'm currently still in the midst of re-doing my shop space, as well as interior work space. Bright side being I finally have a paint scheme and flooring figured out for my bedroom/work space. Shop is getting new shelves, which I pray will help me with my storage issues and allow me to work cleaner. In other mini related work today I've managed to finish up some new bowls for friends, will be mailing those out tomorrow. Just need to solder my eyelets in, and will be ready to progress with finishing up my paper and flooring in my current brownstone project. Last but not least, managed to dig out my palm sander -- so tomorrow will be outside for a bit taking off the really chunky paint job on what was the little white church. Cannot wait to start on the stone work and get it back together!

 

[Anna]

Since I am still debating how to work out the curtains in the top room of the lighthouse my "distraction" and gather inspiraiton build is the bus kit and I must say I am having soooo much fun plotting and planing this build too. It is going together like a charm and practically designing its nooks and crannies perfectly and is so good about being transormed into a housebus.

 

[minikelli]

Well, today I did finally manage to get all of my eyelets soldered into the tapewire. In addition I also got wallpaper liner up so the tapewire won't show through the wallpaper so easily! Got several ceiling papers glued onto their templates and trimmed wallpapers to size to insert tomorrow. I also managed to cut some wainscoting for the bathroom, was going to just do straight wallpaper but realized it just wouldn't be quite up to par with the rest of the house -- so it will be getting some beadboard as well as chair rail and baseboard at least. I'm not sure which I'm more excited to wallpaper tomorrow the bedroom, or living room -- both are pretty papers and I cannot wait to see them finally in!  :D

[Anna]

Was lucky enough to run into a small hobby shop, actualy a model shop rather, ie with those lovley detailed plasti/die kit  scale models and found a brass rod in perfect diameter that I am going to try and bend in the octagonal shape needed for the room. It is sturdy enough to keep the shape too even with the added Weight off the lace I am goin go tuse for the curtains. Yay!

Hugs

[minikelli]

So proud of myself! Every room now has wallpaper! This is big for me, that means I just need to finish up installing my floors and ceilings and the moldings. Getting really excited to see this one finished, probably the classiest looking dollhouse I've ever done! lol
Have to admit it was really nice when my mother walked out to check on me and my assistant(Lucy my dog is the official shop captain), saw the house and stopped in her tracks to say wow. My folks/friends have typically humored me the odd dollhouse lover -- but to have one actually stop and say wow. Made me really proud for a moment, because I didn't even have the lights lit. lol

 

[rodentraiser]

Did I ever mention how much I hate dollhouses?

Anyway, the big, 20 room dollhouse I have been working on for 3 years is now gone. It was at Lisa's until her mom needed her dollhouse room and then it came home with me, still needing a lot of work. Once I lived with it for a while, I finally decided it was just too large for the room I rent. It took up one whole wall and couldn't be turned around, so as long as I was living here, the front would never get finished. So I broke it down, kept all the larger pieces like the base and the walls, and tossed a lot of others, like the roof I had butchered.

And I said NO MORE DOLLHOUSES!

So a couple weeks ago, naturally, I bought another dollhouse. I bought the front opening Victorian dollhouse by Houseworks/RGT and promptly though about how I could wreck this one.

This is still a fairly large house, but I have downsized from about 50" long and 27" deep to 31" long and 15" deep. That's pretty substantial. It also means I will be able to get out bed in the morning and not knock my elbow on a &*^% wall.

I love the house, but the only thing I didn't love were the super small rooms. So I made a few changes. Raise your hand if you're surprised.

I decided to make it a side opening house. I shoved the staircase over to the far wall and the front door will open under that staircase. That left me 28" to split into two rooms, a living room and a large kitchen (I'm not having a dining room because with a kitchen that size, I can put the table in the middle of the room.

On the second floor, I have a landing for the staircase, a bedroom, and a bathroom. The bathroom was so large I split it in two.

 

Another view of the kitchen. Think this one is large enough for me?

 

Bathroom in front, closet and dressing area behind - no, you're not seeing double. I just need to fill in the door so I could see how much I could see:

 

Yesterday I decided to add the second floor (or rather, not get rid of it) and run a second staircase to the attic:

 

The windows are where I'll try to place them in the house.

So what's the problem?

The window placement looks great on the inside. Awful on the outside. I've spent this entire day drawing, redrawing, and drawing again to see if could get it looking right on the inside and on the outside. My biggest problem is the bay window (I was going to cut it in half) in the living room (centered) is just 3 inches from being centered on the 2nd floor bedroom double window. And it looked awful. Then I drew in the gable where I originally wanted it to be and started screaming. I wanted the attic to have a landing, a large room in the middle, and a smaller room on the end, just like the second floor. Wasn't workin'.

So I finally decided to run the bay window (not cut in half) up the side of the house just the way it looks like on the box. This will put the bay window in the bedroom right at the corner of the room, but that's OK. Then I will put the gable over the bay window like it's supposed to go and not have a landing. That will give me a little extra room in the attic. Like about 6" more room, so I can have a den, a library and whatever else I want up there.

It's 9:30. I've been working on this for 6 hours and my brain is fried. I decided I don't like dollhouses all that much. OK, I don't mind the houses. But for the love of Ishtar, can't I win the lottery so I can afford to pay someone to build the things for me?????

Now I gotta go refigure the windows again. ARGHHHH!

Here is something I thought I might do though. So those of you in the know will know this is a kitbash of a dollhouse. What I thought would be neat is getting a little corner in the attic to have a mini dollhouse building area. Then I though I would get a mini-dollhouse kit box with the picture of the house as I kitbashed it. And the mini house in the dollhouse area would be a mini house of the HW/RGT front opening Victorian. And I'd try to find a DH Collector magazine with 'KIT BASHING' on it so it could be read and leave it open on the table.

So the way this goes is, I got the Victorian in real life, bashed it into something else, then my mini person got the kit of the house as I bashed it, is bashing her kit and turning it back into the original kit in miniature I got in real life. You think anyone will get that? Or am I being too weird about this whole thing?

 

 

 

[Anna]

6 hours ago, rodentraiser said:

Did I ever mention how much I hate dollhouses?

Anyway, the big, 20 room dollhouse I have been working on for 3 years is now gone. It was at Lisa's until her mom needed her dollhouse room and then it came home with me, still needing a lot of work. Once I lived with it for a while, I finally decided it was just too large for the room I rent. It took up one whole wall and couldn't be turned around, so as long as I was living here, the front would never get finished. So I broke it down, kept all the larger pieces like the base and the walls, and tossed a lot of others, like the roof I had butchered.

And I said NO MORE DOLLHOUSES!

So a couple weeks ago, naturally, I bought another dollhouse. I bought the front opening Victorian dollhouse by Houseworks/RGT and promptly though about how I could wreck this one.

This is still a fairly large house, but I have downsized from about 50" long and 27" deep to 31" long and 15" deep. That's pretty substantial. It also means I will be able to get out bed in the morning and not knock my elbow on a &*^% wall.

I love the house, but the only thing I didn't love were the super small rooms. So I made a few changes. Raise your hand if you're surprised.

I decided to make it a side opening house. I shoved the staircase over to the far wall and the front door will open under that staircase. That left me 28" to split into two rooms, a living room and a large kitchen (I'm not having a dining room because with a kitchen that size, I can put the table in the middle of the room.

On the second floor, I have a landing for the staircase, a bedroom, and a bathroom. The bathroom was so large I split it in two.

 

Another view of the kitchen. Think this one is large enough for me?

 

Bathroom in front, closet and dressing area behind - no, you're not seeing double. I just need to fill in the door so I could see how much I could see:

 

Yesterday I decided to add the second floor (or rather, not get rid of it) and run a second staircase to the attic:

 

The windows are where I'll try to place them in the house.

So what's the problem?

The window placement looks great on the inside. Awful on the outside. I've spent this entire day drawing, redrawing, and drawing again to see if could get it looking right on the inside and on the outside. My biggest problem is the bay window (I was going to cut it in half) in the living room (centered) is just 3 inches from being centered on the 2nd floor bedroom double window. And it looked awful. Then I drew in the gable where I originally wanted it to be and started screaming. I wanted the attic to have a landing, a large room in the middle, and a smaller room on the end, just like the second floor. Wasn't workin'.

So I finally decided to run the bay window (not cut in half) up the side of the house just the way it looks like on the box. This will put the bay window in the bedroom right at the corner of the room, but that's OK. Then I will put the gable over the bay window like it's supposed to go and not have a landing. That will give me a little extra room in the attic. Like about 6" more room, so I can have a den, a library and whatever else I want up there.

It's 9:30. I've been working on this for 6 hours and my brain is fried. I decided I don't like dollhouses all that much. OK, I don't mind the houses. But for the love of Ishtar, can't I win the lottery so I can afford to pay someone to build the things for me?????

Now I gotta go refigure the windows again. ARGHHHH!

Here is something I thought I might do though. So those of you in the know will know this is a kitbash of a dollhouse. What I thought would be neat is getting a little corner in the attic to have a mini dollhouse building area. Then I though I would get a mini-dollhouse kit box with the picture of the house as I kitbashed it. And the mini house in the dollhouse area would be a mini house of the HW/RGT front opening Victorian. And I'd try to find a DH Collector magazine with 'KIT BASHING' on it so it could be read and leave it open on the table.

So the way this goes is, I got the Victorian in real life, bashed it into something else, then my mini person got the kit of the house as I bashed it, is bashing her kit and turning it back into the original kit in miniature I got in real life. You think anyone will get that? Or am I being too weird about this whole thing?

 

 

 

OK, so what if you make a "fake" exterior apart from the bay window, ie make windows to suit the exterior scheme and make faux curtains covering the view to the inside? Also make the same from the inside and out, perhaps add a photo of the view you want to the window to have and then add the curtains and not take up the actual opeing for the window itself? Just make it sit there where you want it from the inside and how you want to decorate it.

That is if you dnon't have to have the see through view ;)

Hugs and good luck, I am sure it will be fabulous when you decide how to work on it

 

[rodentraiser]

Thanks, I actually thought about that, but I think I'd rather have it look the same on both the front and the inside. And if I can run the bay window up under the gable, that will definitely make the house look more balanced on the outside. The windows won't be centered on the outside of the wall, but they'll be all centered with each other.

The only reason I'm gnashing my teeth is because I had all the windows laid out in the house exactly where they'd go. Now I have to pull the kitchen windows in to be windows for the 2nd story bay window and that means the double window which I was going to use in the bedroom, needs to find somewhere else to go.

I have three 3" windows, two 4" windows, three 5" windows, three 6" windows, and one 6" double window.

One of the 3" windows is going in the gable, the other two will each be going above a staircase. One 4" window goes in the bathroom. The other 4" window goes in the little alcove made by the second floor staircase. The three 6" windows go in the lower part of the bay window. The three 5" windows go in the upper part of the bay. That bay is all the window the bedroom needs, so no need to keep the double window in there anymore. The only window without a room now is that double 6" window and the only room without a window is the kitchen. But where does one put a double 6" window in a kitchen?

I thought of putting that window in the wall where the kitchen table can sit under it, but I'd prefer the kitchen table in the middle of the room because I need the wall space.

So I'm stumped.

[L Swearengin]

Minor disaster this morning on the little bungalow.   Was trying to replace the bulbs in the living room light.  First 2 blew way to quick.  Set the house up on paint cans so the room was eye level.   Bumped it off the cans, (yes I am a clutz).  House broke .      Top floor came off, front porch 2 posts broke, and all the faux beams along the porch line.  So mad at myself.      Oh.......lights almost working (one of 2 in kitchen is bad, will order new one) two halves glued back together.  Good part, none of the tape wire was hurt.   Going to bed.

[rodentraiser]

Well, I had my house put together with tape for a dry fit and this afternoon, the whole thing collapsed like a house of cards. So here I haven't even started putting it together and Lawanda reminds me how much more can go wrong before I'm done. Thanks loads.  LOLOL

What's worse, Lawanda, you're probably the epitome of grace compared to me. Have you ever known anyone else who could be walking down a level sidewalk and just trip.....over their own feet? Now you do. Me.

[L Swearengin]

11 hours ago, rodentraiser said:

Well, I had my house put together with tape for a dry fit and this afternoon, the whole thing collapsed like a house of cards. So here I haven't even started putting it together and Lawanda reminds me how much more can go wrong before I'm done. Thanks loads.  LOLOL

What's worse, Lawanda, you're probably the epitome of grace compared to me. Have you ever known anyone else who could be walking down a level sidewalk and just trip.....over their own feet? Now you do. Me.

All I have to do is look in the mirror to find another tripper.  Lol.

[grazhina]

Kelly, about the window problem, real life builders have run into the same dilemma for at least a couple of centuries, well, more like 3 centuries. Put the windows where the house looks great when you drive up, but on the inside none of the furniture fits because the danged windows are in the way. A famous architect of the 1870's mentioned that very problem in a book. A young couple falls in love with a house plan, has it built, then they move in and find there's nowhere to put the bed - too many doors and windows in the wrong places. He wrote as if was a common thing. My brother in law's old house is like that. His little living room used to be a small bedroom It has 3 doors and 2 or 3 windows and hardly any wallspace.

My current complaint is 1/2" scale accessories or the lack thereof. I did manage to fill my hutch with nice looking stuff. I got this sudden urge to go to Michael's before it closed the other night and lo and behold found some nice metal beads on sale. That's what I was hoping for, some nice useful beads. 

When I had New England Miniatures I was always trying to find more 1/2" scale accessories that I thought looked really good, which is why I never carried a lot of them.  Now that I need more half inch scale stuff I can't find anything suitable. Fortunately I have some leftover Warwick stuff I can use, but I'll have to make more tiny things than I had originally planned cause I can't find them online. I have big hands for a woman, I wear XX large women's gloves which is why I've been treasuring this one pair of blue velour gloves and I panic everytime I misplace them. I can wear men's gloves if I need to, but they don't look very nice. I've found that making just a 1/2" scale plain clay pot is a pita with these huge fingers. Perhaps in future I should stick to 1" scale.

 

[grazhina]

I forgot to mention, the yellow basket is one that I cut down from a 1" basket I used to sell. I didn't like them, neither did anyone else. When they arrived in my order I kept them because sending them would be a pain to everyone concerned. You win some you lose some. Anyway, I cut off the handles and cut off the thick top edge and made a big half inch scale basket. I stained the other one ( the baskets sold as a pair) with walnut stain. It looks fine, but it's not in this picture. 

Forgot to mention, the baskets were made out of some kind of papery twine stuff.

[smjsome]

Kelly, in my real world house, it's old, whoever had it before us put in an arch between our bedroom and a little room, made it a dressing room, which was a lovely large L shaped lay out, but literally was the only wall for a bed.  

So, we had one little closet, and to get into it, we had to move the bed over, move it back, etc.

we made the odd decision to make our bedroom smaller!  We filled in the arch, and it gave us two usable rooms, smaller, but each have a wall without a window.   

So if I may say - your small home owners may just prefer less windows!

[Mimajo]

It would take a week for me, IF I could figure out how!  

Beautuful.

[havanaholly]

Tutorial, please!

[Sable]

5 hours ago, mikeuk said:

A rare appearance for me on a Sunday but I've been hedge cutting all day and now I'm done I thought I'd show what I made yesterday!

I started first thing yesterday morning.........be done by lunchtime......I said to myself!  I finished four hours later with my workroom full of profanities and Alfie with his paws firmly stuck in his ears!

How long does it take to make a revolving door?...........10 hours for me!

Somebody please pick me up off the floor!!!   They way my endorphins  surge every time you reveal another marvelous piece, just amazing! Always puts me in a happy place.

[jbresr]

8 hours ago, mikeuk said:

A rare appearance for me on a Sunday but I've been hedge cutting all day and now I'm done I thought I'd show what I made yesterday!

I started first thing yesterday morning.........be done by lunchtime......I said to myself!  I finished four hours later with my workroom full of profanities and Alfie with his paws firmly stuck in his ears!

How long does it take to make a revolving door?...........10 hours for me!

Your work is just too awesome!!  Oh if I were to win the lottery I would keep you so busy you wouldnt have time for anyone else!!  I will be sending you a pm in the next few days

[rodentraiser]

Mike, I love your work, but I want to see a picture of Alfie, too. By the way, do you put videos of your work on Youtube?

 

What a day. And no, I don't say that joyfully.

I brought a little snippet of brick wallpaper to Lisa's today and realized it wouldn't cover both my fireplace interiors. Lisa had a whole sheet she didn't like, but she liked mine and she only has one fireplace in her Glencroft. So we traded. Just as well. I cut the paper for the bottom fireplace wrong twice. And since old smart me had already glued down her fireplace floors, Lisa, who wisely hadn't done this yet, loaned me hers so I could copy the pattern of the floor onto the paper. I used half a sheet of wallpaper and haven't even done the back walls of the fireplace yet. Sheesh!

Then I decided to do the bathroom. First up, the tile floor. Blue. Went in fine (note: I'm not gluing in either the bathroom tile or the wallpaper - haven't electrified yet - at least I'm being smart about something!). Then on to the wallpaper. I have one sheet. I cut it wrong and it's all over. I didn't cut it wrong, but there's not enough for the bathroom. Even for a Glencroft bathroom I split in two. Lisa suggested beaded wainscoting to get extra wallpaper. I suggested throwing out the dollhouse. Lisa didn't like my suggestion. I didn't like hers either.

So then I decided I could A) put in beaded wainscoting and maybe patch enough wallpaper together to cover the back wall. Or I can B) use a different wallpaper. Anyway, I got some tape and sort of taped the wallpaper together so I could see what it looked like. That's when I said the room was too blue and Lisa didn't like it either. Then I realized I'd also have to wallpaper the back of the wall that splits the bathroom and there wasn't enough wallpaper. MEASLES AND MUGGLEWUMPS! SOMEBODY SHOOT ME ALREADY!

So then I slit the top of my finger open with an exacto blade and decided to call it a day.

I've made a decision with the other house - the front opening Victorian. I decided to leave a single bay window centered in the living room (I decided not to run the double bay window up two floors). So centered above the bay window but not centered in the bedroom, I am going to put the 6" double window. It's perfectly possible I won't be able to fit a decent looking roof on the bay window below, but I'll throw a hissy fit about that another day.

That leaves two or three 5" windows I can put in the kitchen.

Problem solved.

 

[rodentraiser]

On Saturday, July 02, 2016 1:33:59, grazhina said:

Kelly, about the window problem, real life builders have run into the same dilemma for at least a couple of centuries, well, more like 3 centuries. Put the windows where the house looks great when you drive up, but on the inside none of the furniture fits because the danged windows are in the way. A famous architect of the 1870's mentioned that very problem in a book. A young couple falls in love with a house plan, has it built, then they move in and find there's nowhere to put the bed - too many doors and windows in the wrong places. He wrote as if was a common thing. My brother in law's old house is like that. His little living room used to be a small bedroom It has 3 doors and 2 or 3 windows and hardly any wallspace.

 

 

 

 

I've seen floor plans like that. Bedrooms are the worst. They have a door to get into the room, a door to the bathroom, and a door to the closet. And in dollhouses, where you're missing that 4th wall, having wall space and corners is important, especially in a kitchen.

[Anna]

ouch Kelly, the fingertip sounds painful!

Mike, I adore your revolving door, wish I had seen that Idea earlier while building Her Highness (a Gloucester) hmmm, still intrigued.... Will see what and how I could use this idea when I do get her out of the storage shelf.

As we are doing a lot of RL house renovations, ie adding new and hopefully level floor beams at the loft area I am on aert when hubby needs help or a pair of extra hands of whatever I spent the day doing odd Little things for the lighthouse, so now I have the base of the curtains sewn and added to the curtain rod, the tassels are sort of done, needs trimming and to be a Little more shaped too then to form the folds for the curtains, add the tassel and install the curtain itself in the room. Add books and binocluars and then it will be <gasp> done. Sheesh, need to dust (I know a baaaad Word) the rest of the rooms prior to call it done for real. Then all that is left is the garden and that is mostly done too. It has been a joy t work with in so mnay levels and I will miss working on it.

Hugs

[havanaholly]

The pictures are clear as clear!  I haven't let Brimble's know about this, I've just begun gluing up the walls (100 degree+ heat indeces plus high 90% humidities have kept m in the house & out of the workshop!).  I foresee an investment in a pack of clear plastic glasses coming up...