Bit busy these last few days, but I did get the chance to trim the kitchen ceiling so it fit properly.

Then I glued the ceiling on and added the electricity and the ceiling lamp.

I’m still trying out exterior paint colors. I found a trim color I like now, and I still love the door color. But I don’t like either one of these wall colors.

Also deciding whether or not to put ceiling trim in the kitchen, like this:

Kitchen table is on its way, though. And the doorknobs are ready to be glued onto the door.

I still need some coat hooks by the back door, a wall clock, a servant’s call box, lots of little kitchenware, and a little desk and a shelf on the left-hand wall, where the cook can do her paperwork and keep her recipes.

But for now…good night.

I decided I wanted the kitchen door to be brown…

…which I figured I would use on the outside of the house as well, for some of the trim. I haven’t put any siding on the back yet, but I tried out a few colors anyway, just to see what I liked.

I think I like the middle green ( on the top left) and I love the brown…but I really don’t like the two tan colors I used on the trim.

So the verdict is still out on the final colors. The original house this is adapted from was a beige-ish color with brown and green trim. Maybe I’ll try that next…

Then on a little aside, while I had the paints out, I painted part of the warming pan brass-colored (it used to be completely black) on a suggestion from a friend, who said the warming pans she had seen were usually brass.

Too tired to do much work tonight, but I gave the kitchen ceiling a final coat of paint and finished all the black trim. Did some touch-ups where touch-ups were needed. And took a photo to show how it looks now.

Funny, just as I was taking photos, someone turned the light on in the scullery…

…must have been the kitchen maid…

Good night.

The back door to the kitchen arrived today!

So I enlarged the doorway opening to accommodate it. And I cut some acrylic to fit the kitchen window.

Now I could finally glue in the north wall of the kitchen. Except then I ran into the same sort of problems I did in the scullery…that is to say, the wall had not been cut properly four years ago.

So the wood patch came out again and I fixed the problem:

I glued in the south wall as well, and added whatever studs were missing behind the wall.

I gave the kitchen ceiling a couple coats of paint, and cut and painted three sets of black door trim.

I glued on the trim for the back door (the top trim is not glued in yet, hence the cracks), as well as the chair rail surrounding it.

Then I started gluing in the door jambs and door trim for the two doors on the south wall–doors that will eventually lead to the pantry and to the back stairs.

Laid the ceiling on top (it’ll need a lot of work before it fits properly), and there you go.

I still need to finish the chair rail on the left, add the ceiling lamp, build a huge kitchen work table, make some shelves, add some odds and ends, and trim and glue on the ceiling. And I need to figure out what color to paint the back door.

But for now, it’s way past my bedtime.

So goodnight.

So this evening I tackled the very unglamorous job of fixing various construction problems left over from the somewhat sloppy work I did four years ago.

Namely, the floor and the wall in the scullery didn’t meet properly, so the light came through:

The door frame didn’t touch the floor:

And the right-hand wall was cut too short…

…which created a problem when the ceiling was placed on top:

So I took out my trusty tube of wood patch and fixed the holes under the sink.

Some more wood patch and some stain made the doorway less obvious:

And some rather unabashed sculpting with wood patch fixed the top of the wall:

And with the ceiling glued in and a fresh coat of paint, the room looked much more polished:

Finally, I connected the ceiling lamp into the electrical circuit…

…and I officially declare the scullery done.

One room done, only 21 left to go…

Good night.

Still waiting for the kitchen door to come in the mail, but I propped in a different door just for fun…

So I’m back in the scullery again for a few odds and ends.  Apparently they used to use this wooden tool to punch and swish the clothes around in the wash basin:

It’s called a washing dolly or a dolly-pegs

The pegs are sometimes askew and sometimes vertical.

So I decided I needed one in the scullery.

Then I decided the scullery needed a shelf to store things.

Then I looked over at Cider and asked him if I should call it a day, but he didn’t seem to mind napping longer.

So I turned my attention to the rather empty butler’s pantry.

Stained the wood for the doorway.

And put in the door jambs…

…the door trim…

…and a door sill.

Then I got out my inspiration photo again…

…and started cutting out pieces for the counters.

But then I got tired and decided it was time to go to bed.

Good night.

I decided to go back to the scullery while I was waiting for the kitchen door to arrive.

Started by making a door sill for the doorway, sanding it down on either side so no one could trip on it.

Then, having noticed that sculleries tended to include some sort of wooden contraption to keep the maids from standing in the water that spilled over…

…I decided to make one.

Then I got to work making a draining board like the one to the left of the sink here.

Which will end up like this…

Then I (finally!) glued in the wall behind the sink. It was slightly warped from the long stay in a box in the garage, so it’s been under a lot of books, flattening out, all week.

Added the sink back in.

Took a bird’s eye view…

…before laying the ceiling on top (still not glued on, hence the cracks)…

…and turning on the light.

Good night.

After all the work I put into painting the tiles, I sprayed it with matte acrylic to protect it:

Unfortunately, for some reason, a lot of the black paint and a few areas of russet and buttermilk paint reacted badly to the chemicals (it never did this before)…

So I had to go back and repaint a lot of the tiles and the trim…

Then I glued the floor into the kitchen.

Had a little visit from Cider while I was waiting for the glue to dry a little…

Then I glued in the floor of the fireplace and started on the black door trim.

Prepared and painted a window, and put it in by the fireplace.

Put in more trim, and a shelf over the stove, and the place looks like this for now.

Can’t glue in the wall or put the last door trim on because I’m waiting for the back door in the mail and I think I’ll probably have to make a taller opening for it.

Went back to painting tiles today.

Finished!

Next I’ll need to cut and glue in the trims around the doors. Add a window. Glue in the walls. And make a bigger kitchen table because that’s the scullery table and it’s much too small.

But for now I’m just going to admire the floor…

Good night!

Slow laborious tile-painting today. I started with this:

Then I spent several hours doing this:

And this:

And ended up with this:

I think I’m more than halfway done, but I’m afraid to check…

I will definitely be seeing russet and buttermilk tiles in my sleep tonight…

Started today by scoring the tile pattern into the cardboard.

The score marks help create the illusion of tiles when you’re done. And they help keep the paint in the right place when you’re painting…

After scoring the whole floor, I started the painting. Slow going. Here it is in place to see how the colors work.

Put on a movie–Unforgiven (the Duck of Death and all)– and kept painting until I got tired.

Here’s what it looks like so far. Many more hours to go; good thing I’m still on vacation…

Good night.