Another Antique House

[MiniCrazy]

Love it!

[CheckMouse]

I had to park my mini-work for a few weeks, but over the Mother's Day weekend I had some time to indulge myself.  DH was gone for 2 days, coming back MomDay morning, so I spread out over the kitchen/dining area and tackled the back wall of the Appleby.  Took me 6 hours to roll out, put in place, and emboss the clay with the Bromley stencil.  Finished at midnight on Friday, and did the painting part of it on Sunday. 

Here she be ... 

 

[havanaholly]

YES!!  Oh, but that looks SO good!

[CheckMouse]

Thank you, Holly!  Now I am sitting myself down to write down everything I did!  I followed advice and directions from several different sources, so I need to remember just what I did.

[blueirishmoon]

Looks great! Just what you were hoping for, I think. And I think the "aging" of the stones looks so realistic!

[CheckMouse]

I got to spend the whole weekend working on the little Appleby! 

 

There's no indoor plumbing in this house so we neede a sturdy outhouse!  I bought one from HBS and aged it, then painted the roof to match the house. Later I'll add a few leaves or twigs to the roof. 

 

   

 

The stairway took some extra time because since I had to cut a hole in the upper floor, there is a slight bulge at the top - the cut was not exactly flush against the wall, since I didn't want to run into any nails. That left a gap along the side of the stairway of about 1/8" - which drove me nuts! I experimented with several options on how to close that gap so the stairway was flush against the wall. Finally settled on cutting and staining a piece of wood to shim it up.  Baseboards are all in. The old-timey baseboards were higher than what we use today so I made my own.   Downstairs is almost finished, just lack the ceiling moulding. 

 

 

I ran out of baseboard wood so had to go buy more yesterday. When I finish the baseboards upstairs I'll post pictures of the upper rooms. 

 

[blueirishmoon]

Looks good! Keep it up.

[CheckMouse]

Slipped out to my workroom last night and finished the last of the baseboards on the upstairs rooms. Still lacking the ceiling moulding, but I have to buy more, so it's going to wait awhile.  I also managed to spill, or splash, some MinWax stain on my workbench - had "fun" cleaning that up!  NOT!  

 

 

My photos automatically back up to my Google pictures in the cloud (somewhere out yonder in cyberspace!)  and every once in awhile they will enhance one for me. I like what they did with this one - makes it look like the antique it really is, but in much better condition than when I got it.

 

 

 

[CheckMouse]

Whew!  It has taken longer than I expected, but I do believe the construction part of the house is finished! The ceiling moulding was the last part, and it was VERY tedious!  I used small quarter-round, to try to blend with the original half-round trim already on the house. This house is not exactly square!   Tomorrow I plan to bring it into our house, from my workshop, and then I can work on filling it up with all the detailed furnishings. Can hardly wait!  DH cut a baseboard for me from his stash of scraps. It will extend a few inches on the right side to give room for the outhouse and an apple tree. 

Upstairs bedrooms look just a smidgen better than they did awhile ago.

Got two sets of curtains installed yesterday. I have one more to install in the kitchen, then have to make some new ones for the child's room, and rework one set of the original ones for the other bedroom.

It is now official - May I present to you ... The Appleby Cottage  

 

[blueirishmoon]

Very cute! I really love the floor for the momma's room. What did you use?

[Selkie]

Love how you have stayed true to it's heritage and yet treated it to a makeover and lots of TLC. Letters are a nice touch.

[havanaholly]

What a silk purse you have created it into!  It looks much happier now.

[Debra from Olde Cape Cod]

This is great CJ!  So glad you went with your gut and kept true to what is was.  You've done an awesome job on this....and to think it was just sitting there all this time just waiting.  Can't wait to see pics of all the furnishings in it!

[CheckMouse]

Very cute! I really love the floor for the momma's room. What did you use?

 

Both upstairs bedrooms have the original flooring that was in the house when I got it. It was only setting there, not glued down, so I was able to clean it up and reuse it. There were three pieces of that flooring; two are in the upstairs bedrooms and the third will go into the attic. I opened the attic - with GREAT difficulty! - and cleaned it all up. That's where I found the lettering that identified the crates. I am putting a little-girl ceramic angel in there, with a simple all-white dollhouse, and then will close it up again; but in such a way as to be able to open it if needed. 

 

Thanks for all the encouragement - it has been a unique experience, working on this one!

 

I'm trying not to panic about the time frame here. Next Wednesday I start a marathon of 5 County Fairs, back to back, which will take me through to the end of August. These are 12-hour days, and for 3 of them I will be staying in a hotel out of town. Doesn't leave much time for mini-ing, unless it's something I can take with me.  The deadline for submitting this to the State Fair is August 30th, so I don't have much free time left. The dry sink (Chrysnbon) is built, but not painted;  the micro house for the child's bedroom is started, but not finished; curtains are not finished ... I still want to make a sampler to put on the wall ... 

[blueirishmoon]

Well get cracking then...(ducks and runs).  I think it looks great for all the work you put into it. Can't wait to see it fully furnished. Is there any way you can get your camera to take a picture of the tile paper flatly so I can maybe make a printie?

[Sable]

I've enjoyed the journey through this build. It came out great. Thanks.

[CheckMouse]

Well get cracking then...(ducks and runs).  I think it looks great for all the work you put into it. Can't wait to see it fully furnished. Is there any way you can get your camera to take a picture of the tile paper flatly so I can maybe make a printie?

 

If you could send your email address to my PM box, I can send you a copy of the flooring. I scanned all three of them so I could use them later. In fact, I scaled two of them down to use in the micro dollhouse I'm putting inside the big one. 

[lotsoflove]

This is all just amazing. Thanks for sharing!

[CheckMouse]

Slowly making progress on the Micro Appleby - finally got the stairway installed. It is made with a zip tie / cable tie, and a false eyelash from the dollar tree for the banister.   I'm taking this to work with me this week and hopefully will finish it by Sunday. 

 

 

 

[CheckMouse]

I can now use the F word for the Appleby - FINISHED!

Just uploaded 17 new pictures.  Well!  I just tried to add a link to my media, and I guess we have lost that feature!  Here's a link to the first picture - and there are more in the album.  Had to open GL in another window, find the picture, then cut/paste the URL from the upper bar. Not quite as easy as it used to be. 

  It has been an exciting adventure!  Now the little house is in the Hobby Hall at the State Fair. I don't expect any prizes for it, but I did want to share the little treasure with the world (at least my portion of it).  

[havanaholly]

I'm getting a box with "unavailable" at the top.  I am still most unimpressed with this latest upgrade, sorry Logan and everyone.

[CheckMouse]

I'm getting a box with "unavailable" at the top.  I am still most unimpressed with this latest upgrade, sorry Logan and everyone.

Well, isn't that just ducky!  That's all I see now also, after closing the forum and coming back to it. And all the pictures in this whole thread are gone, I guess because the "address" has changed with the upgrade.  Well, if you can find my Gallery again (which in itself if tricky) I've added the pictures to the same album, called The Appleby Cottage. 

I know these upgrades are necessary, but it's always such a learning curve to get used to it all again.   

[Selkie]

Congrats on finishing the house. It came out so cute and full of memories. 

As to the upgrade, sigh, I'm trying to be optimistic but I'm fading fast. It's just getting to be no fun anymore since it's become such a struggle just to view or upload or find something. 

All you who are uploading, my hat is off to you. I've given up for now. Maybe later on when I can regularly find my own albums. 

[havanaholly]

I already did that, but unlike before the newly added pictures aren't labeled new like they used to be, so I'm assuming they're the ones nearer the top of the first page.  The Appleby has kept it original charm, but pops with freshness, too.  Well done!

[CheckMouse]

Thank you, Holly. I value your opinion.

I've numbered the pictures in my Appleby Cottage Album - the ones I added today start with number #43.  Maybe that will help you find them. Why was it exactly that we needed an upgrade?  We seem to have lost some valuable features.