Light!...well sort of...

I installed the front porch light the other night. I need to buy a transformer and power strip for this house so right now I'm not positive the light actually works. When I first opened it for the Arthur dollhouse, which is sadly no more, it worked beautifully. Hopefully with the move that hasn't changed. I bought a second one for the second floor balcony but it'll be a while before i'm ready to install that. I also did a side and a half more of Bricks. Just a few more to go and then I can seal and grout.

Brick by brick

I started on the foundation of the house and it is turning out exactly as I had imagined it. Only down side is the kink in my back and shoulders from sitting on the floor working on them, ouch.

Lattice

I started working on the porch foundation tonight. I "bricked" the first two columns of the porch foundation and made two sets of lattice for it. I have one painted and installed. Of course after I glued it I realized the spacing on one side is off. Not happy about that but I think it won't be super noticeable later. I am using the cork board bricks again, for the lattice I used coffee stirrers. I could do better on the lattice I think but I am ok with how these turned out. I will use the same bricks when I build the front steps. I am still trying to come up with an idea for the floor edging, I'll think of something. The lattice and porch supports will be continued on the side of the porch. My favorite view is the middle picture. I am really happy with that floor.

The front porch update

The front porch has railings painted and installed as well as the porch posts, flooring completed, soffit made, stained and installed. I use a general idea from my own RL porch soffit. Light ivory was considered but rejected and I am so glad I did. I still need to install the porch light and trim the floor edge of the porch, I just have decided how yet. I want to add lattice under the porch and bricks around the rest of the foundation. The exterior is coming along. Super excited to keep working on this house.

Veneer flooring

This is an awesome idea! Who ever came up with the idea to use iron on wood veneer edging cut to size as flooring is genius! I have spent today working on he front porch of the Holly Ann and I am so pleased with the results of the first floor. I attempted one last night but I screwed up the design. My corner seam isn't perfectly straight but for a first time I am quite happy with it. Enough so, I glued it in place. I have the soffit made and ready to glue in place once it dries. I am going to begin painting the trim details. This house is coming together quickly. Hardest part is waiting for things to dry .

Two More To Go

I worked on the windows some more and the second door. There is one more large window and one more oval to go. After that I will weather them all at once. I had to try the roof again just to see how it's all coming together and I am very happy with it. I made a list of all the things I want to do to this house. It was a long list and it was only the things I want to do before I can start putting furniture and accessories together for it. I tried to put them in order of what needs to be done first before I can do the next part. I loved snuggling with Elora as she "helped" me paint the windows while Aidan played Lego Lord of the Rings with my husband. Elora gave the biggest smile when I placed the windows in and told her she helped with that. This weekend I will be tackling the mountain of laundry that has snuck up on me again. I swear it's like rabbits, multiplying behind my back. But it should allow me to work some more on the house and my stocking. Not sure if I mentioned this but the Santa's secret stocking is finished and I am working on the next one of the snowman driving the candy train. Too cute. I've been watching The Dick Van Dyke show on Netflix and I love it so much I am saving to buy the series on DVD. Even my husband has been laughing along with me and i find it funny how relatable it is. More han once i have given my DH a pointed look because he's said or done similar things. As to the dvds my husband is still trying to convince me that virtual media is the way to go but I am untrusting of that. It's too easy for that stuff to be corrupted, contracts broken etc etc, in which case I'd be out of my money and with nothing to show for it. Anyhow, here's a picture of today's work.

French door

I kind of left you hanging about he French door addition. The window insert and mullions are not in as I don't want them breaking ore getting paint on them as I work on the trim. Anyways, here's a picture.

Window painting

After my triumph over the turntable base I have been slowly working on this house. After spending so much time working in quarter scale the past year this house is HUGE, but I love it. I have decided to accept the attic as is. I will arrange furniture and what not to maximize the space but I love the way the original roof looks. It tried other styles, like the mansard suggested but it would take a lot of materials that I don't want to splurge for, I'm saving up for lights instead. In the meantime I am painting away. I originally started the windows an trim in a white, but it was too stark, so I switched it to light ivory. I am much happier with that.

Also, while I was in the sawing mood I turned the back lower window into a single french door. My husband made me laugh when he asked what I was doing. When I told him my house was a fire hazard, there was no exit in case of a fire at the front of the house. My little people would be trapped. He gave me a confused look and asked "isn't their two open sides? Couldn't they just leave through the part with no wall." My response was, there are walls, you just can't see them, in which case a door is necessary. : ) Hey, it made perfect sense to me. Here's a picture of the window progress. They aren't glued in place, an won't be till I finish the interior walls but it's nice to see some progress. I forgot to mention I weathered the wall with windows in place. I will do that to all the walls. Seems more realistic to me. I will also weather the windows later too, I just haven't decided how.

A new turntable base

After work today I took a trip to Home Depot. Nothing like the smell of a hardware store to get me excited about a project and instantly in a good mood. The smell of the lumber yard is like an amazing potpourri. I bought myself some super fine sand paper, a can of mini wax honey satin stain for the interior floors and a sheet of plywood. While I work with figures all day and I am used to imaging size in regards to miniatures I fall short when it comes to imaging the size of a 4'x8'sheet of plywood and how it'll fit in the back of my SUV. After six cuts I I finally got all of it to fit. Since the kids are having a sleepy over at their grandparents I thought tonight would be the best night to cut the wood down to the size I wanted for a base. I had the guy at Home Depot cut to an estimated 3x'3'but once I placed it under the house it was way too big.. I want to be able to landscape but I want the house to be the focus. So I used a handsaw and cut it to 29"x29" I am very proud of myself. After I cut and sanded the top relatively smooth and lightly sanded the bottom I attached a metal turntable I had purchases from miniatures.com years ago for just such a project. As I proudly carried it into the house and showed it too my husband he sweetly pointed out my turntable wasn't centered. Grrrr. It's not off by much and doesn't make a difference to how it works it was still a bit frustrating. No one can tell just by looking and if they want to move the 34lb dollhouse and flip a large sheet of plywood over just to see if my turntable is centered than more power to them. Until then I am doing a happy dance over my new base. It will work wonderfully while I build and then once covered it will be perfect.

Finally, some pictures

And here they are...

 Foundation supports.

 Front of the house.

 This is the side that will have the dining table bottom left, kitchen right on the first floor up the stairs to the large hallway and bathroom, up to the third floor where I will have the kids room and possibly the laundry area.

 Another angle of the interior.

And finally the living room bottom, Master Bedroom second floor and the continuation of the kid's room on the third. I am reconciling myself to this attic kid's room slowly. The undressed doll is there for scale of the attic, she's 5.6". I am still working on her. I will be making/replacing all the walls on the second floor with ones that actually fit. I may change the layout once more before I finalize it but I think it looks nice this way. Also, that back corner will have a wall. I am playing with the idea of changing the bottom window of that wall into a door for the backyard. More realistic that way to me. The door I am thinking about is laying on the first floor in the living room. The mullions are sitting next to it. Lot's more work but I am taking my time as I want this one to actually get finished and done right.

Possible Redesign

Ok, I have been thinking about this for awhile now. The attic of the Holly Ann is 6.5 at the highest points. I think I can work the area to it's greatest advantages and turn it into a finished attic for the kids' room. This would leave the Master Bedroom, a curvy hallway and a bathroom on the second level. Might be able to put an antique sewing machine in the hallway, tune that area into a useful cozy space.
My thought to reconcile myself to this arrangement is that maybe they bought the house and were quickly surprised by two little bundles of joy. And since they already put so much into this home, in the nice neighborhood, that instead of the expense of moving they had a team come in to finish the attic space over into bedrooms. I am only 5' tall and my husband is under 6 feet by a few inches so it would be feasible for the husband to still be able to stand up in the room, all though standing near the walls would be unthinkable. I am still going through some ideas of maybe lowering the floor a half inch, or may be extending the pitch of the roof a little at the rear to accommodate wider/higher walls? Any suggestions out there? I still haven't found a picture online of the configuration my house has. No matter which direction I could have flipped those floors it would still be different. I want to finish this house and I want it to have all the rooms I desire, so I must find a solution. In the meantime I will be stitching away and making plans for the layout.

Another finish.

I finished stitching the front of another stocking tonight. It's by Bucilla and called Santa's secret. All that is waiting is the name to be embroidered and the liner/backs to be done. I like to wait and do those when I have more than one to do. It seems to go faster that way. I have already chosen my next one. It is the Candy Express, an adorable snowman driving a train. There is a matching tree skirt tori stocking which I will eventually get to . I do have another one of these stoking kits to make up later and it is not promised to family.

Wall Delimma

First floor of the Holly Ann is glued in place. I have templates of their floors ready for the wood veneer flooring, as well as a porch template. Each room is set for what they will be but now that I am moving to the second floor think I may have a problem. In the house I want a living room, dining room, kitchen, entranceway, on the first floor. On the second a kid's room, master bedroom and a bathroom. My problem is because I was following the instructions implicitly the second floor space doesn't seem to have enough room to accomplish all that. I also don't like the room dividers it comes with, they seem incomplete and they are thick so matching them with replacement walls will be tough cutting without power tools. I figure I will sleep on it and hopefully I will find a solution in my dreams. While searching for images of completed houses I have come across two interior images of other people's attempts and it appears they reversed the first floor stair position somehow. Or maybe the kit was once remodeled? Either way the current configuration moves my staircase to the side and seems to take up more room that way. I'm stuck with that now, I just need to work with it.

First day of school

Man was that tough for me. Aidan's first day of kindergarten was today. I thought I would be stronger and not cry. Now I'm just glad I made it out of the classroom and into the hallway before starting to cry. He seems to have had a great day and I am thrilled with that. It is a part of me mourning the fact that my boy is no longer a toddler or a baby any longer. It's just taking longer to come to grips with that then I was expecting. I requested today off because I was pretty sure I would be mentally drained and useless today. I was right. I wonder if I will ever be the kind of mother who feels relieved for school to start. At this moment that is a definite no.

So tonight after spending time with both kids and getting them to bed I took a little time to work on the dollhouse. I stained the front door and I have started cutting the veneer for the front porch. That's taking quite some time but I am doing it while watching tv so it's not as painful as it might otherwise be. No pictures tonight. I hope to have a progress picture soon.

But will it fit through the door?...

That simple question led to the construction of the foundation of the Holly Ann. I started thinking last night about how horrible it would be if I built this beautiful house and then come to find out it won't fit through the doorway. I only meant to open it to test it, of course the foundation piece was under all the other pieces. That led to sorting the pieces to general areas, exterior walls, tower roof pieces, roof pieces, etc. After that it was just a matter of time before I broke down and started constructing the base and foundation. I finally got some rolls of wood veneer so I'll be able to make my own floors. I had thought about scribing my own flooring but that seems like a LOT I work and I don't think my hand would be steady enough to make all those straight lines. I have some general ideas for the build I just hope I can make it work.

I asked my husband for his advice, I told him that he may not like dollhouses but he'll have to look at it so I want his input on the color. For choices I gave him purple, yellow or the leftover paint from my parents house which is a sandy color. He exclaimed not purple! So I tried the sandy color first. Apparently the sun has toned down my parents home or the paint on top of stucco did because this was pink! Like a dark pink! I couldn't help laughing as I brought the wall to my husband and said I know you said no purples but how do you feel about pink? LOL his face was priceless. So back to the beginning, the yellow was tried but the paint was too runny, and then old parchment by Delta Ceramcoat but It was too bleh. In the end I chose a color I wasn't even considering, Ice Blue by Americana. With the white windows and my plan for a charcoal/black/grey roof it is perfect. I have a few ideas for accents but nothing is set yet. Both of my kids helped with the painting. With Aidan starting school Wednesday these moments I get with him one on one a more precious to me than I can say. Memories are being made with this house which is great because years later when I look at this house I won't be seeing walls, I will be seeing a little girl and a little boy helping their mom and being so proud of what they did.

The yellow shown is what their nursery was painted in. I don't have a picture of the mishap paints but here is one of the final color. The bottom walls are glued in as well as the second floor. It calls for the house to be nailed together as well as glued after each wall is put up. I am gluing and then will go back when it is more sturdy to do the nails and the touching up the holes.