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.

 

Took a break from siding the back of the house to take photos of the completed linen closet…

Enjoy.

 

 

With all the traveling and working I’m doing this semester, I feel the house is being neglected a little….sigh.

In any case, I got the extra electric wire I needed in the mail, so I hooked up the hallway light.

Which means I could finally start building up the siding on the back of the house (that covers the wires).

Also means I can now leave the hall light on and let it shine into the other rooms…

More siding next time, but for now…good night.

Decided that between the piles of grading I had to do this weekend, I was going to finish the nursery.

Started by spraying the room with acrylic.

When I was wandering around the country this summer, I stopped by a wonderful little shop in Indiana, called Jeeper’s Dollhouse Miniatures (http://www.jeepersminiatures.com).

There I started a conversation with the lovely owner of the store. She warned me that dollhouse wallpaper fades very quickly, especially when it’s printed at home (different quality ink and paper) and highly recommended I buy some of this particular brand of matte acrylic spray, that would help protect the colors.

Finally bought the spray and went back and sprayed all the wallpapered rooms in the house today…

Thank you for the tip!

Next I made the second set of nursery curtains and hung them up.

I wanted to add a small canopy on the cradle and I found these plastic pieces that were left over from a set of plastic cups and plates I had bought.  I cut out part of the framework to make the post…

…painted it black…

..and cut out the cloth for the canopy.  Couldn’t find a transparent enough cloth at the fabric store, but this scarf was on clearance for $1.50 and it did the trick.

Had to hem three of the sides…

And there you go…still needs a little ribbon to tie back the sides here (I added it before some of the later photos).

Then I started on the tie-backs for the curtains…used a bit of ribbon and a tiny brass nail.

Put the room back together…

…then added a clock, so the kids could learn to tell time and the nursemaid could keep to some sort of a schedule.

Then I figured it was time to re-frame the watercolor painting I had received as a child…my first miniature ever!

Likewise, I wanted to add a print by one of my friends, Vincent Desjardins, who is an illustrator of children’s books (http://vincentdesjardins.com/).  He graciously allowed me to chose whichever I wanted, so I took this wonderful image of a mama hedgehog feeding her child at home…

…and printed it really small to fit the other frame. Thank you, Vince!

Also painted the frames brown to match the room better.

The printer was messing up, so I will need to try to print it again later, but for now, this copy is temporarily in the frame and the pictures are up on the wall.

Finally, I had found this Victorian print of a fowler snare online a while ago…

…and thought it would go well in the nursery. Printed it out, but I’m out of frames for now. Nonetheless, I fixed it above the fireplace to show where it will go and I’ll get a frame later.

So there you are…looks like the nursery is ready for its tiny inhabitants. Still need to make a quilt and some blankets and a pillow or two when I find the time, but for now…finally…I am declaring this room finished!

Six rooms down, only 16 to go…

Good night.

And here’s the bathroom…

Enjoy.

 

Went and bought some fabric for the nursery curtains… (amazing how cheap fabric can be when you only buy 1/2 a foot of it!)

Chose a dark bluish-green to match the swan motif and add a bit more color to the room.

Started by cutting out some window trim…

…stained it…

…created a couple window sills…

…stained them and started gluing the first sill and trim in.

Did the same for the back window.

Added the curtain rod for the first window…

Then started to make the curtains. Figured I would use the ‘fringed’ edge as inner trim.

Realized that if I hemmed the curtains, they would become stiff…so I used some non-fraying liquid instead on the edges.

Used the tiniest little slip stitch to create the pocket for the rod to go through.

Tried the first panel on the window…

Then finished the other one and put it up.

The tie-backs are just temporary…I will hopefully find something better, as well as arrange the pleats more carefully.

But for now, one of the sets of curtains is almost done, and they can blow in the breeze while the kids play with the cat and toss more books on the floor.

Good night.

Next in the series of photo shoots…the scullery, where I’ve added a few details: a flowerpot, an old box of soap, a clothesline, a broom, a dust pan…and the cutest little bottle brush that I placed on the windowsill.

(I also changed the photos in the previous “More colors” entry…took the new photos in natural light so the colors look right now.)

Enjoy.