Roofing and Exterior

Things are coming along pretty well.  Since I have been on vacation from work, I have had a chance to do more on the Storybook Cottage.  I decided against the stone block exterior and ended up doing the stucco.  Yes, I know it's kind of a cop-out, but it suited the style of the house. 

I have the front roof and am working to paint the roof trim and get the top roof done.  I found that the shingles they provided in the kit do not come apart very easily on the scored lines.  It could be the age of the kit, but I have had to use sissors to get them apart having cracked a fair amount of them.  I can only hope that I have enough.  I also found that the shingles do not like to be put on with the white glue as they tend to curl.  That means that I have been using the hot glue and working hard to get them positioned quickly before the glue has time to set.  Pretty nerve-wracking.   I started using the hot glue actually to get the front porch roof onto the building.  I first tried with the white glue and it slid around so much I was at risk of having it on in the wrong place, so the hot glue is where it's at.

The final touch for the roof is that after I shingle and stain, I am going to put "copper flashing" on it.  I haven't looked for that, but I fiddled around with using some scrapbooking paper cut narrow enough which worked pretty well.  Now I just have to find a copper colored foil paper at my regular scrapbooking place.  Or maybe wide copper foil from the stained glass supply place.  My husband suggested that touch.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all my mini friends. I hope that Christmas is great for all of you and 2010 brings you everything you want it to be.

Welcome

Welcome and thanks to my new follower, danitza zarate! Hope you enjoy what you see here.

Decisions, Decisions

The base coat/primer is on the house, and I have started painting the trim. I'm beginning to make decisions about what I am going to do to the exterior. I wasn't thrilled with the stone block idea, so I decided on a antique white for the walls and green for the trim. The roof shingles are going to be a dark brown. The antique white paint I got has a peach undertone, so I think that will look nice with the green, and it could be marked with lines so it looks like stone block if I like that idea. I may even mix the paint with a sand so it has a texture. Any ideas would be welcome.

I purchased a lighting kit so I have to now decide where I am going to place the lights and put togther a lighting plan. It's a small house so that won't be a major thing. But it's coming along!

Coming Along

My Storybook cottage is coming along. Today I got the roof and and a couple days ago I finished the bay windows. I am holding off on the Sugarplum Cottage until I get this one finished. I was trying to do both at once and that doesn't work. It's hard enough to get one done!

I have it sitting on the side and I will get to it at some point.

Meanwhile in my real life; its Christmas! It kind of snuck up on me and today we awoke to a blanket of white. This is the view from my front door. It's still snowing and there is about 6 inches on the ground. My husband is out plowing and is likely to be out at least until tomorrow when it is supposed to stop. We were to get our Christmas tree today and it would have been great to be able to get that all done up today while the snow fell, but it looks like I won't be able to get it at least until Monday night. Oh well, at least I got the wreath on the door and my Nativity Scene up with my angels and my lighted houses. It feels a little like Christmas now. I also am into my year end two week stay-cation from work. It feels really good to say "see you next year" to everyone when I walked out yesterday. So I will have time to decorate the tree and finish my shopping during the week.

Oh, and of course continue to work on the Storybook Cottage!

Getting There

I have started doing more work on the Storybook Cottage and am getting a lot done on it. I have been looking around on the Internet for appropriate exterior for it. It reminds me of an American Gothic Revival house, so I found a picture on the web that I really like and I am going to do the outside in a similar fashion. However, the picture I found is done in stone blocks, I am going to "cheat" and do the walls with a colored material similar to the color of the block. Pictured is the look I am hoping to achieve on the exterior. If anyone has any suggestions on how to get that look, I am open to them.

As to the fate of the Sugarplum Cottage I started, Casey from http://caseymini.blogspot.com/ gave me the wonderful suggestion of taking out the second floor and turning into a studio or store. I have often fantazised about thatched roof cottages so I am going to do that on the outside and an artists studio on the inside. For now I have remove the second floor and blocked up the second story windows with the pieces that were removed. I found a picture on the web which stirred my fancy and I am going to do the outside of it like the other picture. I think it will work splendidly. I will need to square off the front door, but that should not be a problem. Thanks, Casey!

Starting Over

Drat! I guess I have learned my lesson the hard way. I was all excited to start building the Sugarplum Cottage and found out after I put the second floor on that it is not 1:12 scale! I am glad I found out now before I got any further. I was trying out the sofa and chair I had gotten and when I put them in there it looked really weird. You can see in this picture how the furniture looks gigantic through the window.

So now I have started the Storybook Cottage. As luck would have it, my neighbor is moving (well not the moving part) and she had an unopened Storybook Cottage kit that she had purchase a while and didn't do. So I looked at the outside and lo and behold it says it right on the box. I feel pretty dumb right about now.

Anyway, I started on that and here's my progress. Obviously I haven't gotten that far, but it's coming along.

So I learned my lesson to look at the description before buying anything. I will hang onto the little one and maybe one day work on it.

Exterior

I have been thinking about how I want to do the exterior of the cottage project. I was looking for something different than the half timber style that the house suggests and thought that maybe a stone exterior would look nice.

Today I came across a video using egg cartons and carry out trays to make a stone wall. Check it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgXqkarOpS8

The Cottage Starts

I have started work on the cottage. I know this is going to take some time, and I am doing everything by the book and going slowly so I do it right. I have been sanding the edges of the pieces so they are smooth and fitting things together making adjustments before gluing. I know a bit more about this than the last time I put one together. So here is the start.

Correction

I wish to make a correction on the pillow entry. The person who made the pillow and ran the contest was Julia from http://bearcabinminiatures.blogspot.com. So sorry!

It Arrived!

The darling little pillow that I won (lucky me) from Julie at http://libertybiberty.blogspot.com/ came today! Here it is. I took it next to a quarter so you can appreciate the scale. It's adorable. I am going to save it for the new cottage.

New Project

I am so excited! I have a new project for this winter. As it is going to be way to cold for me to be riding my bike, and my husband is back on nights, so I have a new project to keep me busy. I was so inspired by the video posted about Creekstone Cottage, I went and ordered the Sugarplum Cottage.

It small, but I haven't the room in my lifesize house for another large one, so this is perfect.

I already got some furniture for it because I couldn't resist them. I have a wish list set aside for the things for the house, so these were the first pieces. I am also going to try to make some. There were some very interesting how-to's posted on the site that looked great.

I Received An Award!

Casey sent me this award. Thank you Casey!

Here are the rules;

1. Display the image of the prize and publish the rules.

2. Post the link of who won the prize

3. Give 10 blogs dream to which award the prize.

4. Notice blogs listed.Thanks for this one too.

I am going to cheat on this one and just send it to 7.

1. http://creatingdollhouseminiatures.blogspot.com/
2. Doreen at http://doreensminiatures.blogspot.com/
3. Julie at http://bearcabinminiatures.blogspot.com/
4. http://fluffybricks.blogspot.com/
5. Debbie at http://debbiestinytreasures.blogspot.com/
6. Robin at http://dollhouseminis.blogspot.com/

7. Rachel at http://miniaturesbyrachel.blogspot.com/

Halloween Pillow

I won a miniature pillow from Julie at http://bearcabinminiatures.blogspot.com/! She has the cutest things and she was running a contest to win a needlepoint pillow with a Halloween motif. I am so excited and will post a picture when it arrives. Check out her site.

Things have been really busy these past few days and I haven’t had the time to complete the room boxes for my parents. I only have left the veneer on the outside. I did get two of the pieces on for my father’s room box and it looks good. I can’t wait to get the last piece of his on and finish the job for my mother’s. I am getting very excited for them to receive them and can't wait for Christmas.

98% Finished

The only thing left is the outside of the room boxes to cover the wires from the lights. I am really happy with the results and I hope my parents like them.

First my mother's. This room box features a piano on top of an oriental carpet and a window with a meadow scene outside. I really like the light on the ceiling. I put a great Federal style ceiling medallion which my husband had to help me with to allow the lighting fixture to place flat against. There was a great detail in the center, but to put the light there would not work, so he flattened it with a dremel.

The one for my father features two pictures that are on his latest CD, which I talked about before. You can see them in the picture. I took this one without the flash as it showed the lighting better. The walls are tan which I did because I wanted a more masculine look to the room.

In both pictures you can hopefully see the music scores on the piano bench and peeking up out of the file cabinet drawer. I searched a while to find the graphics for these covers, and since they are behind "glass" no one will know they do not open.

Well that's it. The wood panels on the top and sides will cover the wires from the lighting.

Getting Closer

I am really pleased how this is coming along. I have the baseboard and the cornice molding to along with putting the lights together. I think that I may also get a plant or something to fill the corner, but I think the placement of the furniture works. You can't really tell by this picture, but the walls are a tan color and work with the floor stain. The two pictures are the ones that were used on my father's CD cover; the one of the left is Chopin and the one on the right is my father when he was young. It is one of his first publicity pictures.

The room for my mother is also coming along. I don't have the pictures temporarily placed in this picture, but I like the placement of the furniture. The walls are a pale pink to go with the window treatment I am working. Again, the baseboard, cornice molding, and lighting need to be done to complete.

Moving Along

Things are moving along for the roomboxes. I painted the ceilings and arranged the furniture so I could get an idea of where things are going. Today I painted the walls. I found that the sample jars of paint that you can get at Home Depot are great for this. They are around $3 each and you can get any color you want.

Here are the rooms with the furniture arranged for placement. The first on is the one for my father, the second fo rmy mother.

I completed the outside of the roomboxes and am starting work on the inside. I received some of the furniture, including the two pianos that I was having a hard time finding. So I was playing around with the placement and determining if there was any other furniture I needed.

First my mother's room: As you can see, I postioned the window where it will be and put the floor in place to see how it will look. I also got the chandelier but that wasn't staying up with the temporary gum for the test fit. It's a 5 light fixture and should do well for lighting the whole box.

My father's roombox: I found I need some other pieces. I am going to put a desk under the computer. As you can see I put something in there just to place the computer, but

it is not the piece I want to us. I am also going to put a fireplace, and I hope to light that fireplace so that it gives more light in the room. I read in a dollhouse lighting manual that you need at least 3 bulbs to get enough to light with the furniture there. The floor lamp is only one bulb, so I need to add to it if I am going to fit that quota.

I also worked on the floor for his roombox today. I my big dollhouse, I took basewood, scored it, and stained it, and I am going to do the same here. It worked out really well for the other rooms, so I thought I would use the same process here.

The Start

So the boxes came in a few days ago. After looking at the instructions I realized it was relatively simple to construct and put them together. They are on their sides drying and I am looking forward to getting them moving along. I ordered some of the things to go into the boxes, except the pianos because the place where I normally get things for my miniatures has them on backorder until November. That would be in time, but I don't want to wait that long. So now I have to do a search for them while working to get the rest completed. The kit came with the moulding for the front and the plexiglass for the final assembly. Now to pick up the paints and start with the base.

Full of Ideas

Last night I went home from work all excited because I was full of ideas for my parents’ room boxes. I sketched out the design and decided what materials and furniture I needed to get and wrote them all down. I am going to light them and having never electrified a dollhouse before, I am a little stymied on how to do it. So I went onto the Internet and found a few resources that helped. One that I found that was helpful was Greenleaf Dollhouses. There are a lot of resources out there. I tried two searches; “how to light a dollhouse”, and “electrify a dollhouse”. But if anyone has any ideas, please let me know. Anyway now I have to figure out my lighting plan. Since it is a small space it was suggested on the Greenleaf forum that I could hard wire it rather than use the tape.

I struggled with reproducing the location my parents have their pianos in, but my father’s studio is not very interesting. So I settled on putting things in the room box that represented them – I saw Doreen did that with her shadow boxes. For example, my father recently put out a CD (shamelss plug here) and I am going to put the two pictures from the cover art in the box and display them as two portrait paintings behind the piano. That’s where one of the lights will be placed. I will have a floor lamp next to the piano and color the walls to compliment one of the portrait’s backgrounds. Since he is also into computers, I am going to put a computer on a small desk to the right of the piano.

For my mother’s room box, I am going to paint the walls a pale color, probably pink or peach, as she likes those colors. She has her piano in the front hall under a circular staircase. I decided that putting the stair case in the box might take up a lot of room, so I am just going to put a faux window to the right of the piano with drapes that resemble the ones in the life-size room, and a scene of a beautiful meadow behind the window so it looks as if you are looking out onto that location. There will be a large picture behind the piano that is a copy of a oil painting she loves, which hangs in her living room. For the lighting, I am going to hang a chandelier over the piano, which should light the whole space. Hers is going to be a little fancier since she tends toward that style.

So now I wait until the room boxes I ordered arrive.

Inspired

Okay, so I said I wasn’t going to do any miniatures during the summer months while I am training. Well, today I saw Fluffy Bricks posting “At the Dentist” and one of the comments was talking about doing room boxes for people as gifts. So, now I am inspired!

I am going to make two room boxes for my parents who are both pianists, for Christmas. Since they are divorced and live separately, it won't matter that they are similar. : )

I figured I need to get to work now so I can get them done in time. I ordered two room boxes from miniatures.com and now I have to think about the design and color – my favorite part! More to come on my progress.

Vacation

Hi all. I know it has been a long while since I have posted last, and some may have been wondering what’s going on, or not. But I am going to take a vacation from my miniature blog for a while at least while summer is here. I have taken up bicycling and it takes up way too much time. Besides, my workroom up here on the third floor of my house gets very hot in the summer so I won’t be doing much work on my mini house. It’s pretty much finished anyway. I just have to work on the outside and finalize some small things there. I am going to work on another project once the cold winds begin to blow and bicycling is not possible. I think it's going to be a cottage, but I am not sure. More on that decision to come later.

In the meantime, you can follow all that other progress, if you are so inclined on my other blog, Confessions of a Middle Aged Woman.

Thanks. See ya until then.

A new follower

A big thanks to Sylvia of http://lotjesdollshouse.blogspot.com/ who has started following my site. Stop on over to her site and say hello. Thanks Syliva, I hope you enjoy what you see.

Close to finished Bedroom

I finally got the woodwork constructed, painted, and installed. This past few weeks aside from my computer problems, have been very busy. I put the furniture in an aside from a few accessories, I am very please with how it turned out.

I am now going to concentrate on making the flowers to go in the window boxes and getting them on the house. For the most part the inside is finished and I have some small things to do/get for the interior. It's been very satisfying finally getting the point when I can say that. As I said this dollhouse was given to me many, many years ago by my father and I think he will be pleased to see the end result.

Thanks to more followers

Thanks to some new followers to my blog. Thanks and welcome to Minna from http://minnasdollhouses.blogspot.com/ who has some cute dolls, Rachel at http://senamena.blogspot.com/ who has some great plans on her site, http://casitamini1.blogspot.com/ who has some great shots on her site, and Suzee at http://suzeeezshomesweethome.blogspot.com/. Stop by their sites. Thank you all for following.

And the award goes to...

You all must have thought I fell off the face of the earth. Well the cyber earth, maybe. I have been having such horrible problems with my computer. Long story...

Anyway, thank you so much to Doreen of http://doreensminiatures.blogspot.com/ for sending my first award and to Casey at http://caseymini.blogspot.com/ for the other award. It is most difficult for me to pass it along to the 10 and 15 people because I don’t know that many, Anyway, here is my list of the people who get both. I am sorry if this is not the proper way to do it.

1. Taenia at http://taeniasminiatures.blogspot.com/who is amazing with flowers.


2. JFolk at http://jlilroomer.blogspot.com/


3. Debbie at http://debbiestinytreasures.blogspot.com/


4. Colleen at http://creatingdollhouseminiatures.blogspot.com/


5. Minimaker Anderson at http://creatingdollhouseminiatures.blogspot.com/ who always has some amazing videos to help me out.


6. Carolina at http://minileapsandbounds.blogspot.com/ who posts the most amazing pictures.

I am really quite grateful for the attention. Thanks again.

Music Room Windows Completed

I got the window woodwork for the music room finished last night and put in place. It turned out okay, but it is the least favorite of the rooms in the house. Maybe because it is dark. Anyway I found these adorable "tin ceiling" tiles in a catalog and along with some egg and dart cornice molding painted to match I think it will brighten things up.

I am undecided what to do with the channel moulding that I have put at the ends of the floors. Should I paint it white, brown, or stain it? Any suggestions? Here's a picture showing the bedroom that has yet to have the window moulding put in place. I have finished them, but have to paint them yet.

Thanks to another follower

Thanks to Taenia of Tainias Miniatures. She is from Vienna Austria has been doing miniatures since 1998. She has a great tutorial for little handbags. They are so cute!

It's Dinner Time!

I got the new things out that I ordered from Amazon with my gift card and went through them. I ordered diningroom and living room accessories and the bedroom furniture. Although I am not crazy about the bedroom things, the accessories were nice. I set them up in the dining room and the pictures came out nice (if I do say so myself).

I then started on the work for the windows in the Music Room and the Bedroom. I made two sample windows to test them for fit before I went and cut for the others. I have 5 wide windows and 8 narrow windows in those two rooms. I checked for fit and "gang cut" the pieces for the other windows this morning. I laid them all out on a piece of paper that I marked with the sizes so I can just grab, sand, and assemble as I move along. They are all going to be painted so I didn't have to stain the pieces before I cut.

These are different from the other ones I have done because these have corner blocks. I have never used them before but I studied the workwork in my real size house and checked out how they were done and figured it out. I also had some help from my husband who does construction and he gave me the thumbs up on what I was doing.

Another Follower!

Thanks and welcome to my new followers Tallulah-Belle and Meli!

I recently got a shipment of the woodwork I need for the music room and the entry hall. I am working on the window and door trim. It's going slowly because I haven't had a lot of time to work on it, but the weekend is here and may I will. Then again...

Quality vs. Price

I usually don't buy anything from places other than miniature outlets, but I received a gift card through Amazon.com the other day. When I went online I found that there was a rather large miniature furniture selection. It's difficult to see online, generally, what you are getting, but I ordered several things. Well, I got the package today and I am somewhat disappointed in the quality. What I received was the type of thing one would purchase for a child's dollhouse. I suppose I should have guessed this would be the case since was cost was fairly low. In addition, even though the scale says 1:12, it seems off.

So, I learned my lesson for the day. Don't sacrifice quality for price.

Thanks for following

Thanks so much for following my blog! Welcome to Brenda for following my blog. Hope you like what you see.

Haven't had a lot of time to do anything on the house, but I did finally get the woodwork for the windows so I am going to be working on that soon.

Thank you to new follower

Many thanks to a new follower, Sandy. Welcome to my blog and hope you enjoy what you see.

Followers

Wow, I haven't been on this blog for a long time, but already have people following it. A big Thank You to J Folk, Doreen,
Casey, Meli, Erika, and Debbie for following me.

The Master Bedroom

This is the last room that I am currently working on. I love the way it turned out so far. As you can see I got a little better at doing the wallpaper with this application. I got the wallpaper from the same place as before, and did the floor the same way I did it for the game room, but I used a different stain on this one to go with the overall brightness of the room. I have furniture on order, but as you can see I have some pieces already. I have yet to complete the window molding and have some fireplace accessories to get before the room is mostly complete.

The Dining Room

The Dining Room is an extension of the Solarium and I just got the table today. I have on order some accessories, so I should be finishing up this room soon!

The Music Room - more work to be done

The Music Room was the third room I attempted, and the first room I attempted with wallpaper and a parquet floor. It's not finished, but I am showing it anyway so you get a sense of where it can go. I purchased the tiles for the floor from InMiniaturedollhouses.com and ended up having to puchase two packages. I didn't measure as I should have, but I eventually decided rather than do the whole floor to just use what I had and build around it with balsa wood. It was not complicated, but you do have to check for square frequently as you are gluing them down to the paper "subfloor". I used a grocery bag which I took apart and ironed (low heat) so that it would stay flat. I worked it out on a flat piece of wood and as the sections were drying, put a piece of wax paper and a heavy book on top do they would not buckle. I then stained and put a coat of clear varnish by Delta Ceremcoat. It says glossy on the label, but not so much. The rug is actually a mousepad that someone gave me a long time ago.

The wallpaper was found on the jennifersprintables.com I mentioned earlier printed on heavy paper. Since I am not experienced at this and this being my first time, I didn't do the bay window. It's hard to get around the corners for that, and I see that the wood needs another coat, but perhaps with the window molding it won't be that noticeable.

Yet to do is build the windows molding (still waiting on the woodwork shipment), putting another coat on the bay window, getting fireplace accessories, and maybe do some corner molding for the ceiling. More to come on this room.

The Entrance Hall - work in progress

This was the first room I worked on after completing the exterior so long ago. I laid the floor and painted the staircase. When I started over again, I finished painting the walls and purchased the clock, table, and vase of flowers. What is left to do is finish the woodwork around the small window, the baseboard, and door. I ran out of the woodwork lumber and have more on order. In addition, I am not crazy about the door that came with the kit, which you can't really see in this picture, so I may replace that too. I also love pigs, for some reason, so that explains why I have a tiny pig next to the clock. To the right of the staircase, you can see a corner of the music room, which will be another post.

The Solarium

I just love this room. I had gotten the "wicker" sofa a long time ago and thought it would be great to have it in this one corner of the first floor. I found a simulated flagstone mat that I cut and put in the corner. I got a piece of rather substantial basswood and had my husband cut it out on the band saw for me after carefully measuring the bay window and made a shelf which goes around the whole interior of the bay. I did the windows in white and rested the bottom of each one on the shelf. The best part is the flower arrangements. I just can't seem to stop buying them! I still want to get some more plants, especially a tall one to stand on the floor. I got a hanging plant and found that if I mixed a small amount of putty and glue it would stay on the celing quite well. I hung it with a length of small chain that I got at the hobby store and a jump ring that I bent into an S shape to attach the top of the hanger of the basket to the chain. The light coming in the window in this shot makes it look quite realistic.

The Game Room

I had a lot of fun doing this room. I decided that I was going to try a wood floor and used a sheet of balsa wood and scored it with a pen. I then used a special walnut stain and then finished with satin Polycrylic. I did the baseboard with the miniature baseboard from miniatures.com and stained them. I was going to do the windows with the same stain, but decided to do them in white. I just love the pool table with the tiny billard balls and the chess set.

The Attic

The next room I worked on is supposed to look like an attic. This was the first room I experimented with using flooring printed on the computer. It was also before I had found the site for free wallpaper, and grabbed a picture off the web from a site that did flooring. I picked a parquet pattern and then using Windows Paint copied and pasted the small picture a few times until I got a page full of the pattern. I then did a copy and paste into Windows Publisher and printed it out. I guess you can do individual files for these, but I did the copy and paste into Publisher so that I could make different pages and keep everything in one file. It has worked out very well for me that way.

The First Room

I supposed I started at the top and worked my way down because it was easier to do that room. I made the first room I worked on look very similar to my home office, at least I used the same paint.

The first picture is after I painted the walls

This picture is how it looks now. I don't know if you can tell, but I got a very small cat for the sofa against the far wall. I used red felt for the "wall-to-wall" carpeting, and used small basswood strips for the baseboard. I then found through miniatures.com actual replic baseboard and have used that since in the rest of the house. The house sits on the floor in front of a window and when the light comes through the suggested stained glass windows, the light is very pleasing.