I decided to break out my "Lisa's Country Cottage" kit that I had gotten for Ernie's contest a year or so ago but never even opened the box. It is MDF, of which I'm not super-fond, but the size of the kit seemed that it might suit my purposes... (A gift for the little daughters of some family friends, if I can get in done in time...) Spent alot of time dry-fitting and thinking. I really wanted a staircase (I guess that is one of my "things" ) so spent a while thinking about how to do that in such a small space and yet be able to stage an interesting amount of furnishings. Finally after measuring and fitting and making a cardstock staircase first to see how it would fit, I made one from mostly 3/32" basswood (the side that will be glued to the wall is 1/8" balsa), with square dowel reinforcements inside it, since this house will be meant to be (gently) played with. I am going to paint the body of the staircase off-white but I just couldn't paint over the treads so I went ahead and stained them along with the railings. Dry-fitting the railings was an interesting enterprise, since it would look funny to not have a newel post somewhere at the bottom at the end of the rail, yet there appeared no comfortable place to put it, but I figured out something that I think will work which I'll photograph when I finish assembling it.

I also wanted a dormer in the roof, on the front side, like in this entry to Ernie's contest, because that roof just looks too weird without it to me (except in this entry with brick and a dark roof, which looks really good with that contrast, but I have decided to put siding not brick), so I cut a hole in the roof too. I looked at some prices online but I just couldn't bring myself to spend ten dollars plus almost that in shipping for something that I could indeed make, so I have the beginnings of the dormer perched up there too.

I looked at Houseworks windows and door prices also but I don't want to spend that much so I plan to make 'em out of basswood.

I had found some scrap book paper (The Paper Studio's "Silver Damask") at HL the other month and I think it will do well here:

I also figured out all my lighting paths; you can see in that last picture, just on the lower right corner, where I have drilled through the base so that one can reach a finger in and turn on the lighting strip...

I do have to order some porch posts because I only have a pack of four and the porch very plainly wants five, so I will have to break down and pay shipping to whoever's got the lowest price total...