Operation move the dollhouse to Philly one piece at a time so it’ll be there safely by the time the movers come for the rest of my things is underway.

Started with the back section this weekend.

After packing up all the little miniatures inside, I had to separate it from the rest of the house…

…and bundle it up snuggly in the back of the car.

(With just enough room for Cider to ride alongside…luckily he’s a very calm road-tripper.)

Everything came out safe and sound on the other side.

And happily, I have enough photos of the rooms (on this blog) that I could put everything back in place quickly and easily.

I haven’t posted anything for the past five weeks….that’s because I haven’t made any progress on the house. I seem to have under-estimated how exhausted this pregnancy was going to make me. After working and teaching and getting through the basic necessities of life, I don’t seem to have any energy left in the evening to design and make miniatures.

But I do have a plan in mind for the design of the drawing room floor, and the drawing room fireplace arrived in the mail….so hopefully I’ll get to it soon.

Until then…be well.

Drawing room…the room where women ‘withdrew’ after dinner (hence the name), so the men could sit around and drink and talk politics or other such things.

Which makes it the most feminine of the formal rooms in the house…and although out and out pink has never been my style, I think I will concede a little here and use a pale peach tone among others.

So here is my inspiration photo for the drawing room (on the left), as well as for the less formal sitting room which will lead into it (you can click on the photo to make it larger and easier to see).

The idea of the stenciled ceiling especially appeals to me, being very late 19th century, although I have no idea how I’ll pull that off yet.

In any case, I started with the walls I had already cut out for the room. (The furniture and chimney here are not right, but I can’t seem to find exactly what I want online and I happen to have these laying around, so they will have to do for now.)

The peach and cream cloth in front will be used for the curtains for those windows propped up on the sides.

I started adding studs to the north walls, as well as cut out a hole for a window.

Placed those where they needed to be.

Did the same for the west wall, enlarging the archway which will lead to the dining room.

It’s late, so that’s all I’ll do tonight, but the south walls still need to be done, and then I need to start thinking of a design for the parquet floor.

For now…good night.

Started by cutting out the pieces to finish off the final floorboard on the landing and more of the wainscoting.

Had to cut them twice to make them fit properly. Then stained them and glued them in.

The second flight of stairs needs a set of wainscoting, but I can’t really do that until I’ve added the next floor, so for now, the stairs are done.

Next I added the light for the pantry.

Which will look like this with the stairs in place.

And like this with all the lights on. (There will be a light for the second flight of stairs, but once again I have to wait until I build the next level to put it in.)

Then I started to cut out the pieces for the pantry shelves.

I was using this photo as inspiration for the brackets under the shelves…

But when I got them done…

…I decided they were too bulky for that tiny a space. So I cut out pieces of trim to use instead.

Cut out and prepared the long shelves as well…

…then glued all of them onto the walls and filled them with tins and jars.

With the stairs laid back in place (I’ll glue them when I get to the next level), the pantry will look like this:

And the stairs like this:

Here’s a view of the pantry and of the pantry as seen through the kitchen doorways:

And the entire side lit up:

I need more things on the shelves and leaning against the wall under them, but for now, I’m declaring this room done.  Seven rooms done, seventeen to go…

Good night.

So tonight I decided to cut out the baseboard for the second flight of stairs, and do it correctly this time…

It takes a long time to carve out the slots for the treads and fit the trim to each of the steps.

Then the other side.

Stained them both…and placed the stairs in place.

Doesn’t look like I did much, but all that took quite a while. More finishing touches on the stairs and some shelves to add in the pantry tomorrow.

For now, good night.

Created the treads for the stairs tonight.

Stained them and glued them in.

Placed it in the stairway.

Then I traced out the baseboard trim…but while I was cutting it out, I realized I had cut out the part I wanted and left what was going to be just scrap-wood. Guess I might be a bit too tired tonight…

So I’ll just stop here.

Good night.

Not a lot of time and energy to work on the house tonight. But I did cut out a set of risers for the stairs.

Glued them on.

Tried to place the stairs in the stairwell, but realized it was just a little too wide.

So tore off the risers, cut a sliver off the end of them, and glued them back in again.

Then cut out two treads and sanded down the front edge…before realizing I had cut them across the grain instead of with the grain (as you can see from the cupping / warping of the treads on the photo). So I’ll need to do those again tomorrow.

Too tired to get anything else done tonight, so that’s all there is.

Good night.

More wainscoting for the stairway.

Glued it into place with the handrail.

Then had to do some fiddling to fit the landing wainscoting correctly, and cut out the last slat to cover the crack between the two pieces.

So with the piece stained and glued in, this side of the stairs is done.

Had to create a temporary landing in order to measure the next flight of stairs correctly.

Then taped the stairway pattern onto the wall to see how it would work.

Cut out one stair support.

Then the second one.

Stained them both and placed them in the stairwell.

I think it’ll work…although somehow, in the back of my head, I feel like I may be doing something wrong here. Time to go to bed and sleep on it before going on.

Good night.

Back to the stairs again…

Started by cutting out the other baseboard/trim for the stairs.

Then, after notching out the slits for the treads, I fit the trim on the stairs.

Stained the trim and then placed the stairs into the stairway.

With the trim finished, it was time to finally glue the stairs, as well as the two trims, into the stairwell.

While that dried, I created a back for the wine cellar.

Then I started to cut out the slats for the wainscoting.

Stained them, glued them on, created a top rail, glued the stair landing in place, then glued the wainscoting and rail onto the wall.

Laid the landing wainscoting in place (it still needs a bit of adjusting so it fits right) and that’s all for tonight.

I’ll get to the wainscoting on the other side and the other flight of stairs next time.

Good night.

Started on the landing today. Painted the underside to match the pantry.

Then painted the top black…

…and glued the floorboards on.

Placed the wainscoting on the side to see if that worked with the pattern.

Placed the landing on top of the stairs.

Works quite nicely there, I think.

Then I started cutting out trim for above the staircase.

Had to painstakingly notch out the top of each step to fit the edges of the treads…

…until it fit snugly.

Cut out a back board for the wainscoting as well and then placed both of them in the stairway.

Couldn’t see the wood well enough to decide if I liked it or not, so stained it before putting it back in place.

I’m pretty sure I like the effect, but I’ll sleep on it tonight and see in the morning.

Good night.

 

Started today with the glamorous job of filling the crack in the back corner of the right-hand side of the pantry.

Filled it and then painted over it.

Then measured out the space where the wine cellar would go.

Made the outside frame and stained it.

Added diagonal slats…

…and more slats…

…and placed it under the stairs. Also finished the black trim for the walls and glued them on.

Took a few photos of the room with the kitchen and the rest of the house next to it lit up in the dark:

(The metal post is not part of the house, but the edge of the acrylic box protecting the back of the house.)

Then I took a few keys that had come with the back door locks/door plates, and made a key ring for them.

Hammered a tiny nail into the wall and hung them up.

Finally, I made a hole in the wall for the electric wires to pass through, so the table lamp could sit more naturally.

The right-hand side of the pantry will need plenty of shelves, but in order to know how high they go, I will have to create the second flight of stairs first. So that’s tomorrow’s job.

For now…good night.