Since I had made the stairs the wrong size a little while back, I had to start fresh.

First I cut out the inner stair walls which would reach up to the very top of the house. Added the wooden studs to support them.

Glued the other side of the wall on and weighed it down.

Placed it in the house…

…and turned the lights on for a bit of fun.

Then I made a new design for the stairs, using the correct width, and fixing a few conceptual mistakes I had made the first time.

Cut out the various pieces.

Stained them.

Then glued them together, except the last two treads. (It takes a while to hold them as the glue dries and it’s way past my bedtime…so the rest will be done tomorrow.)

Placed them in the house (you can see the cracks where the two top treads are just laid on).

Fits much better than the first set of stairs, and I’ve done a much neater job of it all around.

Plenty more to go, but here’s a view looking down the inner wall for now.

Good night.

Began to build the back stairs this evening. Started by computing and drawing out the stairs on the side of the wall.

Created the framework for the stairs.

Added the risers.

Cut out the treads and rounded off the front of each one.

Stained the lot of them.

And glued the staircase together.

Then I placed it into the stairwell to see how it would work.

Placed it on the upper half to see how that would look.

But I noticed there was a bit of a fit problem.  So I added a temporary wall and studs where the center wall would be…

…and realized I had made the stairs too small. Turns out I measured off the length of a beam with floor and ceiling as opposed to the length of two walls and a stud; I’m an eighth of an inch off.  Sigh.

So I’ll be trying this over again…hopefully I’ll do a better job then.

For now…good night.

Started working on the back stairwell today.

Added the studs to support the walls…took a while to line them up correctly with the back part of the house.

Finished the last wall.

So here’s the stairwell.

Added the ceiling and floor of the landing (can’t add the beams between the two since I’m out of supplies).

Placed a few pieces of cardboard to see what the stairs and walls would look like before starting on the stairs.

I think I like the result, so next time I’ll work out how to make the stairs.

Be well.

Started cutting out walls for the rooms on the east side of the house tonight.

Walls for the back stairwell:

Walls for the formal drawing room:

And walls for the front sitting room:

From the side, then, the view will be the back stairs (the stairs will come up from the door on the left, with a landing halfway up, and end in the back on the right above the doorway…under the stairs, there will be the kitchen pantry and the wine cellar)…

…the drawing room (with a view of the dining room behind…the two small diagonal walls on both sides in front will have windows as part of a bay window area)…

…and the sitting room (the octagonal tower section will be full of windows, as will the left wall and the drawing room wall on the right, so the walls won’t look quite so solid and imposing).

Which will end up a bit like this:

And like this from the other side of the house:

These front rooms, as they are more formal and built to impress, are a good two inches taller than the back rooms, which explains why I needed to add a few steps in the upstairs hallway so I could connect the front and back hallways correctly.

A couple views from above…

And one of the front of the house, which will be full of windows (and, of course, a front door) when it’s finished.

Good night.

Started out today by cutting out the floors for the right side of the house.

So I got to place some furniture around the rooms and get an idea of what it would look like.

Cut out the rest of the beams and glued them onto the sub-floor for the left side.

Glued it onto the bottom floor and weighted it down.

Next I cut out and glued on beams for the right side, but I ran out of supplies (again!), so I couldn’t quite finish up the middle of the rooms.

But I’ve got enough for it to stand up straight and to give an idea of what the floor plan will look like.

Even added labels (with Photoshop) to show what everything will be.

Next time, while I’m waiting for more supplies, I think I’ll start cutting out the walls…

Good night.

Thought I’d try out my idea of using siding between the rooms…

…so I painted a little sample piece and taped it on to see what it would look like.

Thought it’d look good, so I started cutting out strips of siding…

…all the way up…

…and did the same for the other side.

Then I mixed up some paint (for future reference when I need to do more outside paint, it was equal parts light avocado and buttermilk, then bits of avocado until it got dark enough), and painted the back of the house.

Finished the back and painted the pieces for the sides.

Then I taped the side strips back on (not glued in yet because I’m still not sure if I like the effect).

I was trying to make it look like the walls had been cut into to show inside the rooms (that corner trim will eventually be dark green instead of brown)…

…but I’m not sure if this just doesn’t look a bit sloppy and if it wouldn’t look slightly classier with just polished wood between the rooms.

Or maybe it’s the green that’s interfering with the room colors and it would work better if I painted the siding a light tan.

Too tired to figure it out now…I’ll think about it again tomorrow.

For now…good night.

Got back to work on the siding for the back of the house today.

Measured a new piece…

…cut out the holes for the windows…

…then decided to glue all the siding pieces on from the bottom up.

Placed the side trim and the floor line trim back on (not glued yet)…

Next I added three columns to support the peak of the roof.

Added a frame for the roof line.

Measured and cut out one more layer of siding…

…and glued it on.

I’m planning to create a more complicated design for the siding of the gable roof pediment, in keeping with a Queen Anne style Victorian, so I’ve stopped here for today.

Be well.