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My first house: The Beacon Hill


marknyc

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Mark, I'm so glad the flooring worked out for you! It is beautiful isn't it! ;)

Did I see you mention that this is a gift? Oh no, how can you possibly give it away! You're a better "ahem" man than me!! :blink:

I'm not sure about buying a replacement piece for the stairs, but I'm sure there's someone here who can tell you. Can you work on something else for a while and maybe it will "magically" appear! :D Otherwise, building one from scratch may be your only option. :p

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Yes, this is definitely a gift. My boyfriend told me a very poignant story about sneaking into his cousin's room when he was 6 and spending the happiest hour of his childhood playing with her dollhouse. Of course, his father wouldn't let him have one because that was for "sissy boys." When I heard that, I had to get one for him - but I didn't realize how much work it would be! :blink:

The plan is to finish the exterior, and then let him choose the wallpaper and furnishings, so it's his house rather than mine.

I was able to duplicate the missing piece - quite nicely, I think! Just bought the paint - it's Benjamin Moore Buxton Blue, kind of a gray powder blue, with a subtle cream for the trim.

Tried staining some of the shingles, and that looks good. Do people use lacquer their shingles or not?

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Mark, that is the nicest thing you are doing for your boyfriend. How sad that he wasn't allowed to just be himself as a small child. I do have a question though, is he aware of what you are doing at this point or is it going to be a surprise?

Wendy

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Well, Mark, at least you'll be able to enjoy it along with him!! How fun will it be for the two of you to go mini-shopping!! ;)

I'm so glad you were able to make up a piece for the staircase! Good for you!!

The color sounds so wonderful! I'll have to take a look next time I'm at the paint store. Sounds like a great color for my Willowcrest!! Hope you don't mind, if I like it, I might just buy it too!! :D

All I did to my shingles was stain them. That's it!

Oh, I just can't wait to see your pictures!! You're keeping us in such suspense!!! :blink:

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It's definitely meant to be a surprise, but he is so smart he may figure it out. An artist friend is letting me use her studio so I can build it in secret - the only problem is coming up with excuses to go over there alone!

The plan is to sneak it into his apartment just before Christmas, and then when we stop by he'll find it with a big bow on it. And he better be thrilled!

As I said, I'm planning to let him choose the wallpaper, etc., but there's one area I'm concerned about: right near the front door, behind the staircase. Is it possible to wallpaper that once it's built or do I need to do that before I glue that piece in? Seems like it would be hard to get in there once it's built.

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Mark, believe it or not I papered after everything was built . . . that's because I found it on the curb. All I did was make a template the best I could and then cut out my wallpaper from that. However, that being said, if I could have I would have wallpapered first! How about papering just the first floor foyer and decorating it as a "welcome to your new home". :blink:

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How about papering just the first floor foyer and decorating it as a "welcome to your new home".

good idea! dont forget a table of some kind with a plant or a coat rack.

you could start him out. I would also buy him a pool table set also...but than let him find his own paper and such. I can see a Beacon Hill as a mans house.

a bar, game room, black mirrored bedroom....lol

hmmmmmm

cant wait to see!

nutti :blink:

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Mark,

Melissa papered that inside behind the stair case after I had built the house but it was very difficult. IF at all possible I'd strongly recomment papering THAT section before assembly at least. The rest of the house walls are fairly easy to get to if you wish to paper after assembing.

Now if you decide to not paper it, AT LEAST go as far as to make templates of the walls in that area before assembling it completely to make it easier to do if needed.

And Debbie,

We achieved that porcelin look on wood for the tub the exact same way we got the look on our casket. But the tub is white and the casket is black. Apart from that (and the colors fit the objects they are) the two are finished identically.

Both are made of wood. The casket was made from scrap parts and coffee and popsicle sticks and the tub was from the Greenleaf 56 piece furniture kit. I'll describe the tub.

We assembled it as the instructions said. Then we sanded all of the corners to give them a more rounded edge. And we coated it with wood putty inside and out to cover all the wood grain and inside angles.

Then we sanded it smooth, and repeated adding putty and sanding until we got the inside and outside SHAPE we wanted and it was fairly uniform. Then we spray painted it with HIGH GLOSS white paint. This caused imperfections to show so we'd sand and putty some more and paint it again. Once it was smooth enough all over and didn't show wood grains any more (well except if you took it out you'd see wood grain on the BACK non showing parts but it's glued in place) we buffed the paint job 3 or 4 times with #0000 steel wool and painted between those. Makes for a SUPER smooth and shiny finish.

Hope that helps.

Darrell

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Debbie, et al., FYI a gluing jig is a jig, or frame, for gluing things at right angles (or whatever angle) you need, you can use the corner of a box or a picture frame or build one from wood or Legos. I have one I got from Micro-Mark that is a shallow rectangular tray with small square magnets that make it possible to assemble stairs in one piece. I line the tray with waxed paper and then the glue doesn't stick permanently to anything but the items I'm gluing.

his father wouldn't let him have one because that was for "sissy boys."

Ooh, did THAT ever bring back a hackle-raising memory! I have mentioned elsewhere (I think, memory isn't what it once was, was it? ;) / :blink: ) I also make dolls in all sorts of sizes. When DS#1 was small, probably 3 or 4, he saw me making a baby ragdoll & asked if he could have it when it was finished. We discussed what sorts of clothes he wanted "Baby" to have and when it was done that was HIS baby :D My DM came for a visit and, as was his custom, DS brought out all his favorite toys for her to admire. She took one look at the doll, gave me "The Look" & made a sexual-orientation derogatory gesture, and I snatched her into the kitchen for a "prayer meeting" that included explaining to her the difference between sexual preference & artificially labelling toys.

BTW, DS#1 went on to become an excelllent & nurturing father to his little girl.

My only other comment, Mark, is that you may want to make your own dh to play with :p

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Hi again,

I've taken your advice and have ordered some wallpaper to do the foyer before I glue that piece in place.

I'd also like to add ceiling lighting to the first and second floor hallways. I have the CirKit tape lighting kit. For the ceiling lights, should I put the tape on the floor above, cut a hole in the floor and feed the wires through the floor? If so, I would need to do that before I glue the hardwood flooring down.

Or is it better to put the tape on the ceiling and just paper over it?

Hope to get a few more hours in tomorrow!

Mark

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Hi Mark, first of all, don't glue down your flooring! You never know when you'll have to take it up for redecorating or some such thing. Instead use two-way tape like carpet tape. Of course, this is my humble opinion!! :rolleyes:

I ran my tape wire along the floor from the corner of the house where the transformer is up the wall and across the ceiling to the light fixture. Then ran another up through the floor to the second floor and up the wall again and across the ceiling to the light fixture. You can cover all the tape wire with wallpaper on the walls and ceiling. The tape wire is also paintable, so that's an option too!

If you look at my photo album there's pictures in there that show how I did it. Hopefully someone with more experience might have other suggestions for you too, but this worked for me!! :(

By the way, ALL my lighting is now complete!! Woo Hoo!! I just varnished the last of the flooring for the second floor foyer as well and that should go in tomorrow. Just some wall papering left to do . . . oh and molding and base boards . . . yikes . . . I guess I still have a long way to go!! Oh that Willowcrest is calling my name again . . . . <_<

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Hey, I took some photos! They're in the Member's Gallery.

I've got most of the basic constrution done, so I'm thinking I should finish the siding before I start on the windows, etc. Does that make sense? Would seem like that is the best way to keep the siding and trim paint separate.

Thanks,

Mark

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Wow, your pictures certainly explain some of the comments I've read about decorating the stairwell.

I put on the siding and painted it before installing the windows on the Westville and overall it worked. I did a better job with the Haunted House.

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Mark, it's coming along very nicely! The staircase looks so much better stained that rich color and the flooring is awesome! ;)

You may want to put on your window and door trims first and then put on the siding. That way you can cut the siding around those trims for a flush look. I did that at the front door of my Beacon Hill as that is really the only place I had to add more siding and it worked out very nicely.

Keep up the good work!! :lol:

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I lay the trim on the opening & traced around it with a pencil & cut the siding pieces to fit to the lines, so there was minimal lapping of trim over siding. You can see how it worked in the later Westville blog pictures.

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Thanks for all the advice. I guess what everyone is saying is that I can't put the trim on over the siding. The siding has to butt up against the trim and should not go behind it, right?

It also looks like it's much easier to wallpaper before adding the windows, but I want Gerry to pick the wallpaper he wants, so I can't do that. Is it possible to put the windows in without gluing them so we can take them out after I give it him and wallpaper more easily?

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Mark, it's so exciting to see another Beacon Hill being built. Love your photos. Please continue to share as you progress.

My dad built mine for me in 1994. I'll have to scan some of the pictures that I took as he was building.

Susanne

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Mark, I put my trim on after siding the Westville, it lapped slightly in a couple of places and where it appeared to be a problem I trimmed the siding with the Stanley knife before gluing the trim on.

In another thread we discussed how to attach trim temporarily with either mount wax, poster putty or tape.

Hope this helps. Gerry will probably appreciate getting to do some hands on stuff with his house when he gets it. You are doing a fabulous job with it :D

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Well to be proper the siding should butt up against the trim and not really go behind it. However, on my Beacon Hill, we put the trim OVER the siding. This causes the trim to become a bit more prominant. No one has really complained. Makes the windows and doors a bit thicker. LOL!

Darrell

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Well, it seems like adding trim over siding would be easier, but that butting it up against the siding would look nicer. I think I'll do the latter.

On another note, miniatures.com has a free shipping deal that ends today. I'm getting some stuff, and would like to get Gerry a good book on decorating. There's this one that includes the Beacon Hill:

Book 1

Or this more general book:

Book 2

Here's all the ones they offer:

Books

Anyone know if these are worthwhile?

Thanks,

Mark

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Mark, I'm glad you're going to butt the siding up to the trim. Just my humble opinion, but I think that looks the nicest!

I think Book 1 would be great! It has some hints on other houses to, so there's room for adding to the collection!! :D

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