After some tinkering with color and size, I printed out the dado tiles for the bathroom and glued them in.

Which means the two rooms on this side are on their way to looking like rooms (the ceilings are obviously not glued on yet)…

(I think the dog must have sniffed something out in the laundry basket.)

And which means this side of the house is getting quite colorful…

Oh, and I forgot to mention earlier that I got the most beautiful vase full of tiny tulips in the mail…

And for now…good night.

So it’s been a busy week at work, what with hosting a French Film Festival on top of everything else, and I haven’t had much time to devote to the house.

Today, though, I decided to finish the bathroom floor. First I cut out the floor pieces to fit the room correctly.

I made a hole in the back wall to fit the wires for the sconce that’s coming in the mail. And I glued in the back wall.

Next I cut a hole for the window between the toilet and the bathroom heating stove, and glued in the side wall.

Then I glued in the tiles…

…added the border…

…and took a rather fuzzy view from above of the bathroom and the linen closet (I still need to figure out how to set up the tripod above the house).

I may even come back and do more tonight, if I have time.

But for now…I need to walk the dog (the real one, not the miniature one)…

Today was a ‘miniatures in the mail’ sort of day.

First, I had ordered the bathroom components a little while ago and they finally arrived (I printed out the blue floor tiles and laid them down temporarily so the tub and sink would stand out…or else everything would be white for now).

In the same package, I also received a couple baskets for the linen closet.

And to top it all off, I got a wonderful surprise from a friend in Montreal who had sent me a late birthday present of the most wonderful little books. There’s a book on French literature (how appropriate!) and one on palm reading that includes a hidden key.

There’s also a wonderful kit to make 120 old books when I get the time…can’t wait to make the library. Thank you, Annie!!

For now, the two books are residing in the nursery…the only room in the house that’s safely away from water and cooking grease.

It’s been a busy week at work, so I haven’t had time to do much on the rooms, but I did print out the bathroom border to see if it worked (I think it might be a bit too big here) and put the studs in the last bathroom wall. I’m still working this room out, so I haven’t glued the floor or the walls in place yet and I haven’t cut out the opening for the window either.

I also spent a bit of time hemming and sewing lace on another shelf cover.

(Luckily I’ve got a miniature sewing machine to help me in my sewing projects…)

I also finished some sheets and towels, so the linen closet is starting to fill up a little.

Plenty more to do…but for now, good night.

Worked on the hardwood floor for the linen closet this evening. Cut a set of diagonal planks…

…for the entire floor…

…stained the wood…

…and glued the floor in.

I still need to add the baseboard, which will cover the unevenness on the right side of the floor.

After looking at several photos of old linen closets, I’ve noticed most of them used some sort of lace-trimmed cloth to cover the shelves.

This afternoon I bought a small pile of tiny bits of fabrics, ribbons, and lace, in order to make these linings, as well as sheets, pillow cases, blankets, and towels.

And so I cut out, stained, and glued in three of the shelves….and created a lace-trimmed lining for one of them.

Still much to do, but for now…good night.

Today I addressed the issue that although the ceilings in this part of the house are the equivalent of 8 1/2′ tall, those in the rest of the house will be the equivalent of 10 1/2′. Which means I need stairs in the hallway in order to get the floor to the correct height for when I add the next section of the house.

So I traced out a pattern on the floor.

Then I started building the corner stairs.

One of the last steps will be in the nursery itself.

So it will end up looking something like this:

Having finished the stairs, I stained them a nice walnut color.

Next I started creating a hardwood floor for the hallway.

And put it in place to see if it worked.

I haven’t done the trim yet, since I am still unsure of how thick the baseboard will be. But I stained the part I had done, as well as the door to the linen closet.

I also added studs in all the rest of the walls except the north bathroom wall, so the second floor is really starting to take shape now.

And the dog is just happy to be able to run around in all the new rooms and play peek-a-boo with the stairs…

Good night.

Well, first of all, I’ve discovered that since the table on which I was making the house has a dip in the middle, the house itself dips a little in the middle…

So after transferring what I have built to a more level surface, I thought I’d see if I could unbend it by placing heavy books on the second floor.

It wouldn’t budge.

So I thought I’d level out the second floor, at least, and deal with the first floor bend when I build a base for the entire house. Which meant spending a lot of time with a broomstick checking which beams needed to be higher and by how much.

Which ended up being a frustrating, head-ache-inducing exercise of ‘each time you add a little bit here, it messes up the rest of the beams.’ So I gave up halfway through.

Then I thought I’d work on the nursery wallpaper. I had done some browsing online and had come up with these two different combinations of wallpapers, based around a beautiful swan pattern I had found.

I thought the second one looked more cheerful for a nursery, so I thought I’d give it a try on the printer just to see if it worked well.

The colors, naturally, ended up printing incorrectly and the scale is completely off.

For that matter, I’m not so entirely sure I like the wallpaper either…

So in order to make up for an evening in which I spent a lot of time getting very little accomplished, I thought I’d end with a photo of the lovely child’s bed I received in the mail today…

At least that’s one thing that looks good…

Good night.

This evening I cut out all the walls for the second floor (of this section of the house) and taped them into place. They are a bit wobbly, since I haven’t put any wooden studs between them yet, but they give a pretty good idea of what the rooms will look like.

Here is the view from the back of the house…there will be three tall windows on the second floor, I just haven’t decided exactly where yet…

This is the view from the west side. The bathroom is on the left and the room on the right will be a large linen closet. (Yes, the dog somehow made it to the second floor, even if there are no stairs yet…)

Going around to the south side, you can see the doors on the first floor that will lead to the dining room and the back stairs. While on the second floor, you can see the hallway that leads into the three rooms.

And then from the east side, there is the nursery that will be above the kitchen.

Tomorrow I will start cutting the studs and gluing them in. That will solve the present bending in the walls.

I also spent some time looking up old delft tile-work and using Photoshop to create patterns I can print off on my computer. In order to indulge my love of blue and white tiles, this is what I have planned for the bathroom.

I might skip the floor pattern and make it simpler…but then, Victorians never really went for simple decorations…except in the servants’ quarters.

Good night for now.