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.

Started on the second floor today. Glued in all the beams and joists first, with little holes through which the wires pass.

Then I cut out the floor as one big piece.

Measured and drew where the walls would be.

And cut part of those wall areas out so I could pass the wall studs through them later on and help strengthen the framework.

Next I cut out the walls for the bathroom, including an opening for the doorway. There will also be a window somewhere on the left, but I haven’t decided where yet.

Added a ceiling on top and you can almost imagine the bathroom done and ready to go….almost…

Good night.

So I got back to work this evening on the cabinets. Cut out, stained, and varnished the rest of the doors…

…attached them by their hinges and added knobs…

…glued the cabinets in place and loaded them with glasses and teacups…

..and there you go. I will need to collect plenty more things to put on the shelves and counters, but for now…the butler’s pantry is finished.  (Three rooms down, nineteen to go…)

———————————–

Then I turned my attention to the second floor.  Four years ago I had used some sort of design program to make a detailed plan of the house, with all the measurements worked out. Since the only version I had left was a printed one and the ink from that was sadly fading, I thought it would be safer to create an electronic copy again.

So I downloaded Sketchup and was about to enter in the dimensions I already had, when I noticed…well, I noticed that I’m not quite sure what I was thinking four years ago, but the dimensions of the three rooms I had just finished had very little to do with those on the plans…

Since I wasn’t about to chuck the rooms I had made and re-make them with the ‘correct’ dimensions, I figured my best bet would be to start from scratch again for the measurements, using what I had made as a basis and the previously-drawn plans as vague guidelines.

So far I have only sketched out the back section of the house on which I am working.  The completed first floor:

And the corresponding second floor which I am about to build:

The hallway will link these three rooms to the front of the house and the stairs.

I started gluing in the beams and joists that will go between the ceilings and the floor above.

I also drew the approximate dimensions of the three rooms onto the ceiling and added objects to see if the sizes worked before I cut out the floors.

The walls are drawn in green…I think the sizes should work fine. So next time I will finish the beams and joists and create the floors. (I bet the workmen who are building this house will be pleased when that toilet gets hooked up properly…no one likes a porta-potty.)

But for now, I will leave you with one last look at the completed pantry…

(Ack! I just noticed on this photo that the new shelves are pulling away from the wall on top as the glue is drying…I have added a clamp so it’ll dry correctly overnight…good thing I take so many photos!)

Good night.

I settled down to get through my checklist of things to do in the butler’s pantry.

Crack in the back right-hand corner filled and painted. Check.

Ceiling trimmed and glued on. Check.

Angles between walls and ceiling painted. Check.

Wooden strips cut out 3/8″ across to make cabinet doors. Check.

Four doors measured, cut, glued, stained and varnished….

Oh…right…didn’t quite get those done. Two of them have been measured, cut, and glued but that’s it for tonight.

I’ll leave you for now with a view of both rooms next to each other–the most utilitarian of servant workrooms on the left, and the pantry leading out of the staff quarters and into the dining-room on the right.  The difference in style is rather striking.

Good night.