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About this blog

Community Members go head to head against the seasoned Team Builders in a miniature show down!

Entries in this blog

Medieval Chappel Completed

Well here it is - at last - the completed bash. From this: to this The front entry way Interior: Exterior angles I'd like to say thanks to everyone the Greenleaf Forum who helped with landscaping tips. painting and paperclay tips, opinions and ideas on how to tackle the various problems I encountered while trying this bash experiement. Without their enthusiasm an
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hydroped

19

It's pretty much a wrap!

Well, it's taken just over a month from beginning building to completed decorating on this little house. The build was SO easy and went together quickly so that it left lots of time for the fun stuff!! The only problem I ran into was with the porch posts. They didn't meet up with the porch rail, but I figured it out. My gable addition was not straight . . . it pointed upwards, which made the porch posts short, so I had to add in pieces to accommodate the difference (just call it a d
MiniMadWoman

MiniMadWoman

12

Day Thirteen - October 5, 2006 - FINISHED!!

Ray and I completed the Orchid today. We really enjoyed the opportunity to build and blog as a part of the Community Team. I counted the days in my blog as I knew Ray and I couldn't build each day due to work and other family obligations (my dad suffered a brain injury a couple of months ago). We were very surprised to see that we could build a lovely house in under 2 weeks. Ray and I had never built a house using a kit before this Orchid. What a lovely e
Missymew

Missymew

11

Day Nine - August 23 2006

Today was a day with accomplishments and a major disappointment. The cork looked real good over the three gables. Today, however, when I applied it to other areas of the roof, it kept spring up. I tried glue and extra double sided tape, but it wouldn't hold down firmly. We've decided that we're going to take the cork off and redo the roof. You win some and you lose some. I have a couple of other ideas that I'll try out befor
Missymew

Missymew

9

Fallen Acorn Gallery is done

Ta da! I finished her yesterday. I had alot of fun building this house. I have no idea what I am going to do with her or where I am going to put her. Here is the staircase area. I made this stained glass before and I mounted it and secured it to the ceiling. One view of the gallery area. I put bowls with tiny star fish in the window. Here are another views of gallery. This is the
heidiiiii

heidiiiii

8

Davids Interior nearly finished

It's been a day of frustrations. The house itself is a dream to put together however making mitred corners for an octagonal window without posessing sufficient math skills can be quite challenging After all the time I spent today on it I don't care if I ever make another octagonal window frame. I cut it out of scrap, recut.. recut.. glued in place.. pulled it off.. recut again.. <sigh> I'm sure tomorrow though I'll feel differently. It took a lot of time to figure out the angle to cu
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8

Flooring - try number 1

You may be wondering why I titled this Flooring - try number 1.. well I've never done this kind of floor before so if it doesn't work out I'll be writing up a try number 2 heh :lol: I decided to go with a smoother stone floor than I've done before - previously I've used paperclay under stone print scrapbook paper and I was really happy with how it turned out but for this I wanted a smoother less bumpy floor and one that looked more like stone. So I went with vinyl floor tile, only I couldn't f
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7

Almost there

Well as I said in my last entry the interior is almost there. A couple more things and it's done - it's the exterior that's been perplexing me now, but it too - finally- is almost there. I've gone over some of the paint to try to even it out - it's still too dark but I'm afraid that's just how it will have to be. I've found I an lighten it but it lightens very unevenly so I'm going to let it be dark. I've also spent a bit of time filling cracks, filling window gaps and in general just trying
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6

Roofing Done

I finished the roofing on saturday. It was kinda tedious but I loved the way it looks. I just glued and trimmed lengths of the twine to the house. I let them overlap so I could get a good tension and pull without messing up the glue. I used twine and made a spiral on each side of the gable. I noticed later that they werent even. I dont care at this point..LOL I waited to finish the whole roof before I started to trim. &
heidiiiii

heidiiiii

6

Day Eleven - September 11 2006

Yesterday I cut shingles out of my corking material. I traced them using the shingles that came with the Orchid kit as a pattern. While I was at work today Ray got most of the shingling done. He would have completed the job, but he ran out of shingles. Tomorrow I'll pick up some more cork. We used aluminium foil for flashing material. -Susanne
Missymew

Missymew

5

Let's go shopping.

The Green Leaf is done and open for business. Care to look around? The workshop. Once we start to show some profit we plan to get more inventory. We just planted the seeds for the landscaping so they will take a awhile to grow in. Come back and see when they are mature! It has been so great to be apart of this build! I wanted to thank everyone at GreenLeaf and everyone here for letting me a part of this community! Everyones houses are s
Shakyshaky

Shakyshaky

5

More paperclay

I've gotten more paperclay done. A question I've heard fairly often (and have asked myself) is how much paperclay does it take to cover a house. That always makes me think of the tootsie roll tootsie pops - how many licks does it take to get to the center lol :lol: I'm beginning to think houses are the same way. At this point I've used most of 2 large packages of paperclay. These are the 1lb packages. This sounds like a lot just to do the front of a small house but then you have to consi
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4

Landscaping

Well I'm there - at the end. Tomorrow will be my last blog entry for this project. I've built a couple of small retaining walls - this time out of polymer clay and put some of my preserved plant material in the retaining walls. It's doubtful that I'll have enough coffee grounds by tomorrow to put in some nice walk ways but we'll see - I'm amazed that used and dried coffee grounds look so much like rich mulch but after this project I know I won't be throwing the coffee grounds away anymore. &
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4

Orchid Chappel - the front

Here's a photo of the thick paint job that I really didn't like. I almost forgot to take a photo before sanded it all off. All that was left was this one little wall but you can still see the very flat grey color I had painted it. and here at long last is the front of the building - not finished but I'm much happier with the way it looks. I've added yet more to it but am not so worried about how the paint will go on. The roof may be a bit tricky but it can be a little un
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4

Day Eight - August 22 2006

Ray and I went for a beautiful ride out in the country this morning. We didn't start on the Orchid until late afternoon, but got a fair amount accomplished today. I painted the exterior with a stucco/acrylic paint mixture. It was great fun - kind of like icing a cake. I'm quite happy with the results. Tomorrow I'll touch up any areas where I didn't completely cover. I wanted a thatch roof effect for the roof, so t
Missymew

Missymew

4

Some oops and some ahs!

I debated whether or not to share this with you all, but in the end it shows how a bad thing can turn into a good thing. I started off washing the stones in preparation for painting them. I then proceeded to sponge on the three colors I had chosen. Talk about a disaster!! It looks like someone came along and spitballed ju jubes all over the house! Needless to say 'IT HAD TO GO'!! So, I then decided to just paint over the stones. YUCK!!
MiniMadWoman

MiniMadWoman

4

Saturday August 12

I have gotten the flooring down in the gallery space on first floor. I am keeping the flooring and trim pieces nude. I want a blonde tone to the gallery area. I found these pictures at the $1 store. I put them on the ceiling of the gallery. Also keeping the nude theme. I also used one on the wall as a art piece. The studio area on the second floor has a sky wallpaper. I wanted it to be inspirational.. :lol: Of course the
heidiiiii

heidiiiii

4

Flooring part 2

I still haven't gotten any pencils and I gave up with the crayon after one stone heh - so I've been cutting the stones as I go - freehand. The drawn stones I did in the beginning definitely look better and more random than the freehand ones I'm doing but I'm not too unhappy with the flooring. Changing blades often REALLY helps - Tracy wasn't kidding! That's the best tip I've heard for doing this kind of flooring. Of course being somewhat cheap - I hated the idea of changing blades but then I dec
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hydroped

4

MiniMadWoman's Orchid

I'm so excited to be part of the community build on this house!! Let the fun begin!! Woo Hoo!! I received my Orchid on Saturday (July 23rd). I love opening a new box to the smell of fresh wood! Day 1 On Sunday Brian and I started "the build". While he read the instructions (he's that kind of guy) and took apart pieces, I started gluing the windows onto the frames and began painting the trim. . . which meant I had to decide what colors to paint the house. I
MiniMadWoman

MiniMadWoman

4

Chuggin Along Take Deux

Okay the stones were not what I had wanted. They didnt stick. There was a big mess. Alot of swearing. That is all I want to say about that. It took me an hour to pick off the remaining gunk and figure out HOW was I going to cover this mess.. Papier Mache! I was thinking it was going to look kinda gnarly but I like it and it will look good painted with little touches here and there. I have finished bot
heidiiiii

heidiiiii

3

Shingles are on

It's been 4 days since I made a blog entry - unfortunately weekends are fraught with distractions however things are progressing. There's a bit of wait time with paperclay waiting for it to dry, filling cracks, waiting for it to dry again, and then painting (or repainting) and I have the bad tendancy to put things together and then remember that I forgot something and have to take it appart again - case in point the small upper octagonal windows.. I forgot to put in panes of glass.. which of cou
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3

Plastering and gluing - more bits n pieces

It would be So nice and helpful if I were to start a house and work from start to finish in a nice neat organized and orderly manner but I don't think that's going to happen any time soon :o Unfortunately my poor ol brain just doesn't think that way so I end up working a little on the front, the inside, the front, the inside, one day stones, the next wood then back to stones. .. So here's my latest escapades with the Orchid I have been racking my brain to come up with an easy way
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3

stairs

I finallly decided what to do with the stairs. I had seen someone else do this but I can't remember who it was. I cut the risers and made a platform so the stairs angle and are useable. As you can see I also added the chair rail and made some tables. I made all the tables and shelves from punch outs from the kit and a bag of wooden spools. ( except the table in the middle of the second floor.) I need to finish painting them. Some of the pieces looked just like f
Shakyshaky

Shakyshaky

3

Day Six - August 9, 2006

Ray and I spent the day putting the windows together and installing them. We've almost completed the interior, except for baseboard, crown mouldings and some window trims. The windows took a while as it was something we'd not done before. The front porch has also been partially connected - we've still got to add the trim. On the exterior this house has lots of gingerbread embellishments which I'm loo
Missymew

Missymew

3

All done

Some how with my amazing technical abilities I deleted my last blog entry, so here are the pics of my finished Orchid, The Greenleaf plant shop!
Shakyshaky

Shakyshaky

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