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First Build - Orchid with custom addition


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I just got the addition glued on tonight and I'm so glad to be done with the cursed thing! Next time I will not buy the fancy craft plywood, it is just way too hard to cut by hand at 1/8". I'll be using the addition as the kitchen and the upstairs will be the bathroom. I have to cut out the frame for the small octagon window, but I will use some 1/16" wood that I have for model making. I don't think you will be able to tell the difference since the windows aren't right next to each other. I'm hoping they included a few extra roof decorations, or else I'll be cutting those by hand too.

Here is the progress so far http://imgur.com/a/9r9bh#0. Please excuse my laundry in the background, I have an exciting trip to the laundromat planned for tomorrow.

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Looking really good so far. What are you using to cut your plywood? I use my Stanley boxcutter-type utility knife, although for big pieces I either use DH's bandsaw or get him to cut them for me on his big table saw. I use the 1/8" doorskin plywood from Lowe's and it cuts OK, although for windows and doors I really like my Dremel Trio!

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On my scratch builds I use 1/4" x 1/4" or less square sticks depending on scale and cut them to fit under the first floor and glue to the floor and to the inside of the outside wall. The baseboards and cieling trim also add more area to glue and stabilize. Great looking house so far. Are there occupants waiting to move in?

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  • 2 weeks later...

I added some more pictures to the gallery: http://imgur.com/a/9r9bh#7. I got the siding up and painted. It was a much more enjoyable process than I was expecting. I am no longer dreading shingling the roof, doing the subway tile in the bathroom, or the skinny stick floor. I've learned to love the zen of repetitively gluing tiny things in place.

My next steps are to prime the inside, attach the porch and dormers and work on the first floor floor. After that I am stuck until I make it over to Hobby Lobby to get a lighting kit and I don't want to do that until they are having a 50% off sale. I also need to figure out how I want to do the foundation. Brick print paper seems easiest, but I'm not sure if I'll like how it looks. Any suggestions?

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bricks or stone ....you could use brick veneer or vinly tiles or bathroom tiles ........... some else had used egg cartons as brick or stone .......

or you could go dumpster diving at your local kitchen and bath store to see what they thro away .that you could use .....

www.RRStoneworks.com for real stone veneer or www.aIII.BIZ for 3D plastic veneer sheets from precision products

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I added some more pictures to the gallery: http://imgur.com/a/9r9bh#7. I got the siding up and painted. It was a much more enjoyable process than I was expecting. I am no longer dreading shingling the roof, doing the subway tile in the bathroom, or the skinny stick floor. I've learned to love the zen of repetitively gluing tiny things in place.

My next steps are to prime the inside, attach the porch and dormers and work on the first floor floor. After that I am stuck until I make it over to Hobby Lobby to get a lighting kit and I don't want to do that until they are having a 50% off sale. I also need to figure out how I want to do the foundation. Brick print paper seems easiest, but I'm not sure if I'll like how it looks. Any suggestions?

I buy all my stuff at Hobby Lobby, they almost always have the 40% coupons online, or if you pull it up with your phone they can take the numbers off of it.

Here is a link to the current one, good for 40% off one thing. I sometimes cheat and go twice a day!

http://www.hobbylobby.com/weekly/coupon.cfm

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Holly, those bricks look amazing. How did you cut the sandpaper? It looks like it is painted a bit also, maybe I should google for a tutorial.

I do get the Hobby Lobby coupons, but the closest one is about an hour away so I was planning on stocking up on a bunch of stuff.

So last night I made an error and assembled the dormers before I put the scalloped siding on them. Not sure what I was thinking there. I'm hoping I can get it to fit in nice and tight because I wasn't planning on trimming the edges with wood strips like I am for the parts with regular siding.

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I describe the process in my part of the Team Glencroft building blog. I drew the cutting lines on the back of each sheet of sandpaper, lightly rubbed two colors of chalk pastels randomly over each sheet (different colors and combos on each sheet) and then cut them out with scissors (took a couple of days) and dumped them into a large empty yogurt container. For the Glencroft I made templates of the half-timbering and glued the bricks to that. DH remarked that the colors were "loud" so I poured a little of my brush-cleaning water into a small yogurt container and added white and a tiny bit of black and burnt umber to make a dirty wash, and washed the templates. When they dried I glued them on. The measurements I used in the blog are approximations in inches of what, when I found my printer's ruler, were picas. Any bricks I subsequently make (and I just used up the last of the original batch of sandpaper bricks on the Fairfields, cutting them all in half) will be 1 pica by 3 picas (1/6" x 1/2").

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I got a lot of work done this weekend. I updated my gallery: http://imgur.com/a/9r9bh#10 I made some custom scallop siding using cardstock and my robo cutter. It worked out great, so now I'm thinking what else I can make out of cardstock to save money. I also got a few sheets of mat board to try and make some of that fancy furniture from the 1" Minis Blog.

The addition still has no front roof. I can't decide if I want to put a dormer in or not. I'm thinking no, that it will make the front too busy, but I keep going back and forth.

I need help with my porch. http://imgur.com/a/9r9bh#13 I have this big gap, and I'm not sure what is supposed to be in there to take up the space. The instructions are useless for this part and most pictures I found online just show a single square, which is not thick enough to fill the space. What did I do wrong?

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.

I need help with my porch. http://imgur.com/a/9r9bh#13 I have this big gap, and I'm not sure what is supposed to be in there to take up the space. The instructions are useless for this part and most pictures I found online just show a single square, which is not thick enough to fill the space. What did I do wrong?

Had the same problem with mine. There are some scrap cutouts of little squares and I put those in to make a layered base for the pillars. Your addition is terrific.

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hello .....heres a photo of my orchid d-house i am building ..in this pic you can see how it should look ..

i only dry fitted my porch together whail my porch railing were drying .......

gallery_17109_6118_186993.jpgas you can see it does fit together ok ...... i have not painted my orchid house yet cause i not shure witch colors i want.........

right now i am picking out floor colors and wall papers and making some furniture too....... you can see my photos at my pages

APEDOLLYS ORCHID D-HOUSE ............

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