Help with Aster Cottage

[KatFord]

Hello. If no one has a suggestion I will call Greenleaf CS tomorrow, I was just on a roll and hoping someone could help.

 

I am on step 5 and 6 of the instructions which state to R&P right side #4, left side #5 and back walls #8, 8A. The instructions tell you how to prepare and install the right and left sides, but nothing is ever stated for the back walls!!!! I've read over the ENTIRE instructions twice (I'm a bit crossed-eyed right now :-) ) even though I've already read through them in the entirety before I started. They never mention the back walls again. I've tried and tired to figure out how or where they are attached, but nothing fits. The tabs are much to big for the slots and there is a tiny slot on the other end in the middle of the wood ( I THINK this is for the hand rail on the inside of the house). I'm really lost and I don't want to go forward incase I mess something up. I haven't built the roof yet so not sure how that all fits it.

 

Any help is greatly appreciated, but if I need to I'll call CS in the morning.

 

Thanks!

Kim

[Selkie]

I've not built the Aster personally. But sometimes I think the instructions are the nemesis of the build and the actual building is not  that difficult. I open a kit and play around with the pieces for awhile, test fitting and taping them together and eyeing how I would put it together intuitively before I commit to anything. I call it dry fitting. I take it apart and put it together (the main pieces - not all the tiny bits) many times before I ever get the glue bottle out. For me it's the handling of the pieces, touching and fussing with it that helps me actually understand the building process in the worksheets. I'm a very hands on kind of gal.

 

Have you checked out Gina aka Moreminis, blog yet. I'm putting a link here for you. She has done all the Greenleaf and Corona houses and shows them step by step on her blog. The link will put you at the finished house. Scroll down the page for the previous steps. If what you need isn't on that page, click older posts on the bottom right and it will take to the last few entries.

 

Hope that helps until someone who has built it can jump in and help you.

 

Good luck.

[havanaholly]

I'm like Selkie, hands on.  I read through the instruction, scratch my head and whip out the painter's tape and work with the pieces of the shell (not the fiddly bits) whilst rereading the instructions to see if I can noodle my way through them; if not, I just go with whatever works.   I have built at least one house kit after reading the instructions through four times and then folding them up and going with what worked in the dry fit.

[KatFord]

I FIGURED IT OUT!!!! I FIGURED IT OUT!!!!     You were both right. I just played around a bit, I kept staring at the pictures in the link you provided, although she didn't talk about it and I stared at the schematics and I got it.

 

Thanks for taking the time to post! This is my first I don't always know how to fiddle with things. Although, my right side did not fit at all. The tiny little slots that were suppose to fit the tabs on the upstairs floor were not big enough, even after sanding it didn't fit. So I got my exacto knife and chiseled away at them. Still the one side wouldn't sit flush and I finally got that figured out. Pretty proud of myself right now.

[Debra from Olde Cape Cod]

Woo! Hoo!   :spoton:

[havanaholly]

Do not fear the knife (except to use it safely); or shaving slots bigger or tabs smaller; you can always fill it in later with spackle!

[Selkie]

Congrats! I knew you could do it!