The kitchen table came in the mail today. I’ll probably paint the white part a different color, but I love the shape and size of it.

The sheets of outside siding came as well… Can’t put them on yet, though, until I’ve done the second floor electricity, since I’m running the wiring behind the siding.

Went back to the pantry cabinets. Made a drawer, door, and shelves for the small cabinet.

And filled the drawer with cutlery…

The tiny metal faucets and sink plumbing came today as well. I built a cardboard version of the sink, which I was planning to use as a frame and cover with clay.

It’ll end up here.

Unfortunately, the clay was left over from four years ago and had gone bad. So I will have to do that part later.

Then I finished the right-hand counter frame…still need to do the drawers and doors. But the frame is done and varnished.

So that’s what I have for now…

Good night.

Did a bit more work on the cabinets for the butler’s pantry tonight. First I cut out, stained, and glued together the small cabinet for the other side of the non-existent sink.

It still needs a shelf, a door and a drawer. Then I started in on the last set of counters…

Didn’t quite get done with that one, but some of the pieces are cut and stained…

Hope you like the new blog format…

Good night.

After a brief episode of insecurity over the quality of this project, I got back to the cabinets. Not much time tonight, but I did finish building the drawers and put on knobs.

Which finished up this part of the cabinetry.

Then I took all the pieces apart and varnished them all…

…so in spite of the lack of door hinges, this one cabinet is finished. (You can’t see it, but there are forks and knives in the drawers. Since they’re awfully small drawers, one has all the knives, one has all the forks, and another has all the spoons…)

Insecurities be banned…I’m having fun, and that’s what counts.

Good night.

Had a bit of time to work on the cabinets for the butler’s pantry.

First they needed staining.

Then the cabinets needed an inner shelf and some doors.

Which took a  while…

Then I started to make little tiny drawers…but only got one done before bedtime.

Based on my inspiration photo…

…I may need to cut the counter-top back a little.

I also need hinges on the doors and the whole thing needs to be varnished. Oh, and I need to build another one for the other side of the room, and a sink to go next to this one (which is why there is an unfinished ledge at the end of the counter). And of course, there are drawer pulls and door knobs to add.

But for now…

…good night.

Decided the kitchen truly did need some crown molding…

Which makes the kitchen as a room rather complete. Here it is with some of the bathroom furnishings placed on what will become the second floor…

This is the wrong table (the kitchen table is still on its way), but I thought I’d furnish the kitchen as much as I could for now, before moving on to the next room…

And so I returned to the butler’s pantry, and started building the cabinets.

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

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.