Search the Community

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 decorative detail!) :angry: After much #*%*(* and digging out the jujube stones and re-paperclaying new ones, I finally got the stone effect I was after. They turned out pretty nice (if I do say so myself)! Once the house was done I was able to go ahead with landscaping. I attached the house to a piece of foam and plywood, glued on the grass and commenced planting flower beds! :lol: I then started on the pond. I dug out the grass and foam to create a divet. Then I used paperclay to create the pond and stones surrounding it. I painted the 'water' with Avalon Blue and painted the stones with the same colors on the house. It turned out great and is one of my favorite things about the landscaping. The interior is pretty much complete also. My kitchen finally arrived! :lol: I just have crown moulding to install in the parlor and kitchen and I want to paint the dining table and chairs. I also would like to add towels and whatnots to the bathroom, but other than that, I'd say I'm done (famous last words)!! :lol: Today I put a coat of varnish on the shingles and trim and I'm done!! This was a very fun project and I want to thank Greenleaf for the opportunity to participate!! :lol: It's also been great fun to see all the other "Orchid's". Everyone has done or is doing a fantastic job!!

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!! In the end, I gauged out the troublesome stones . . . . . . and re-paperclayed them. What I got was a raised stone effect in these spaces, which I really, really like! Now, I'm going to wash over them and leave them until I can get some pointers from Tracy (I know Tracy, if you haven't told me once . . . you've told me a thousand times!! :lol: ) The tin ceiling is painted and installed on the ceiling of the main floor. Once my bath tub arrived and I tried to set it in place, I realized that I did not leave enough space . . . so out came the wall to accommodate the new bath tub. Now you're probably asking why I didn't just set it in a different spot . . . well then you wouldn't be able to see the lovely detail on the side!! :angry: I then reinstalled the wall, set the bath tub in it's spot and proceeded to install baseboards throughout the house. Brian finished the shingling over the weekend and it turned out magnificent! I was going to paint something on the interior of the door, but I found this cute picture and diddy, so I mod-podged it on instead. This finished off the door for me. I installed the door, but not before dressing it up a bit more . . . okay, so I went crazy with the dots, but I LOVE IT!! :lol: While still working on the stones, I went ahead and installed trim where I could. Yesterday (Monday) the new bed arrived!! I'm so happy with it I could burst!! I set it in place in the bedroom and also moved Susanne's cat in basket up to the bedroom . . . it was far too noisy downstairs with contractors and workers milling about!! :lol: Addendum: Now that Miss Pennethorne has had a chance to snoop in MG's house, she's asking me if she can have the bed for the BH! How can I say no to her? I guess I'll be redoing the BH bed for MG's house and giving Miss Pennethorne the new bed!! :lol: I'm just about at the finish line. I just have a couple pieces of trim left to glue on, wash the stones, varnish the shingles, furnish the kitchen and do some landscaping and 'Mother Goose' will be all set to move in (I'm ordering her from HBS tomorrow . . . yippee!!).

Today I started with painting the stucco. I used a lot of water to water down the paint so that it would flow on nice and easy. I installed the kitchen stairs and baseboards. I created trim for around the bay window (if there was some with the kit . . . my dog ate it! ) and installed baseboards. I want to paint something on the botton of the interior side of the door, just not sure what yet. I also have a tin ceiling I'm going to wash with the 'custard' paint and then install that. Wish I would have waited to install the stairs . . . now I'm going to be cutting around them! :o I got the upstairs rails and some baseboard installed. I have to do a supply order . . . I ran out of baseboard. After supper Brian pilfered the house again, so I was relegated to painting trim. I got it all painted . . . FINALLY . . . and tomorrow I will set about installing it. I was going to do it yet tonight, but tomorrow is another day!! This is the shingling Brian got done tonight . . . so far he's spent a total of about 12 hours shingling . . . bless him!! I bought little wooden flower pots and painted them and will fill them up with some little daisies I bought at Michael's. You can see my 'dot' motif throughout the house . . . inspiration struck for better or worse!! Tomorrow I'm also going to tackle painting the stone . . . I'm going to spend all night dreaming about how I'm going to do it perfectly!! HA!! :lol:

Today I had to run around and get some errands done . . . one of which was to get more stucco at Michael's. While there I saw this awesome stone wall outside of a store, so I thought I'd take a picture and use it as inspiration when painting the stone on my house. It has all the right colors! :o This is the left side of the house all stucco'd. This is the front all stucco'd. I also inserted the porch rails. I stucco'd the side edges and bottom edge of the back of the house. Okay, so I didn't plan for this to happen . . . but as the stucco is drying it's getting all these cracks . . . which is kind of cool because now it looks like the stucco is falling off of the house exposing the stone wall underneath! Sometimes you just can plan for a good thing!! All in all, I spent about four hours today stuccoing and used about 1 1/2 jars of Americana stucco (Light Ecru, which I'm going to paint 'custard' like the window trim). Now, if only that stucco would hurry up and dry so I can paint it!! :lol:

Day 7 ~ Saturday Well, after getting the grass cut and various other chores done, we headed out to the backyard for dollhouse playing! Brian prepared the shingles yesterday, so today he can begin shingling the house. He started on the bay window roof. He started out with the Elmer's bond glue, but the shingles began to warp, so he taped them down . . . and then was perturbed about having to wait for the shingles to dry before he could go on to the next level. I suggested he use the glue gun and see how that went. So, I ran upstairs, grabbed it and ran back downstairs again, plugged it in and waited with trepidation for it to warm up. He put a little dab of hot glue onto the back of the shingle and stuck it on! SUCCESS never smelled so sweet! He was in love with my little $1.99 glue gun!! :lol: I normally don't like to use hot glue, but Brian said on these thin shingles it's the best. BTW, he loves these thin shingles that came with the house. He says they're so easy to put on and cut. This is the completed bay window roof. I am going to be stuccoing this wall and this side will be complete. Brian then moved onto the back roof and that was it for him for the day!! Tonight I found some plastic geese on eBay! 'Mother Goose' will have geese!! Day 8 ~ Sunday Brian spent about four hours today shingling the left side roof and dormer. It's looking awesome! That's it for now . . . stuccoing . . . and lots of it . . . is next on the agenda. The moon looks so cool tonight, I thought I'd throw in a picture . . . it's not that great, but you get the idea!

At this point I've had the house for about two weeks, but have worked on it a total of six days (give or take a few hours :lol: ). Today I did more paperclay and painting and removing wallpaper from under the eaves! This is the left side of the house. This is the front. I also glued all the window trim pieces together and installed this one on the right as the paperclay and stucco are dry (but not painted yet). I glued the front steps together and once they were dry I painted them. I also installed the front door trim. Brian came home from work and started preparing the shingles for installation! Since he was going to start shingling, I thought it was a good time to get the trim pieces installed and painted as well. It was at this point I realized that I had wallpapered all the way to the end of the eaves! So, I had to remove that nasty mod-podge wallpaper from the eaves before I could paint them. This time I used a solution of Downy fabric softener and HOT water! It worked like a charm!! I waited for the wood to dry and then proceeded to paint. It was at this point that I also realized I had paperclayed to the bottom of the gable not allowing room for the trim piece. So, I carefully used my utility knife to remove the excess paperclay, painted the trim piece and installed it. At this point I've been working on the house for about six hours and I'm tired and ready to hit eBay!! This is where I left off . . .

Whew, what a blast! I just spent the last hour and a half paperclaying and stuccoing one side of my house. It took a while to get the paperclay just right . . . I started over four times! Then I went ahead and applied the stucco. What fun! It's just like icing a cake! And even better . . . I don't have to caulk because the stucco filled in all the gaps!! Woo Hoo! I hope you can see it in the photo . . . it will probably show up better once I paint it. Well, that does it for today . . . I'm off to take Chloei to school and then out for dinner with Brian . . . darn, I want to stay home and play!!

Well, I took the day off today and went to buy supplies at HL. I bought some paperclay and a bunch of minis at 1/2 off! Thanks, Tracy, for the coupon!! I was disappointed though, they didn't have the Paper Perfect that you used. :lol: Then I went to Michael's and found a little lamb (Mary's) and a tabby cat. I bought some stuff called 'Americana Stuccos' that I'm going to use on the outside of the house. Wish me luck!! Well, off I go to paperclay and stucco . . .

Day 2 Deciding after the fact that I wanted the floors to be in a checkerboard pattern, I had to remove the Mother Goose wallpaper we originally mod-podged onto the floors. That was a bit of work! Finally with that removed and a heavy handed sandpapering, I was able to mod-podge on the checkerboard flooring I found on a website, and printed onto legal size sheets of paper. It turned out pretty nice all things considered! I was also able to get all the window trim, door and bay window painted. I also used Gallery Glass on the dormer windows to give them a frosted appearance. Day 3 Today I put the house together. It went together easily enough although two sets of hands would have come in real handy! I also glued in the base piece at the back of the house and set books on it to dry. I also added on the roof at the back of the house. Since I don't know where I want the wall partitions to go in yet, I will leave them for later (I did dry-fit them though just to make sure I could get them in with everything else in place and glued together). I put the dormer together and glued it in place. Well, after getting this far and stopping to admire my progress, I realized with a heartfelt "THUD" that the staircase would be sitting in front of the bay window. HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?!! It was at this point I decided that I needed a break to make supper and wait for Brian. He is the fixer-upper guy! With great pains he measured and measured and re-measured and then finally cut out the opening for the bay window on the other side of the house. He glued the new cut-out into the other window opening and presto 'diaster averted' yet again! I still don't know how that happened, but I'm just happy that it got taken care of. I spent the rest of the evening painting trim (a mindless, thankless job) . . . Day 4 Today I glued on the two smaller dormers. and glued the bay window together. I really had to put my thinking cap on to get this baby glued together. Smooth side faces window? . . . I just didn't get it until I put away the directions and put it together the way I thought it should go . . . guess what? The directions were right!! LOL!! That's all for now!!

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 decided on 'custard' for the main body and double-hung window trim. And what would a dollhouse build be without 'Picasso' supervising?!! We had a hard time figuring out the instructions for the trim on the double hung windows (okay, this IS rocket-science). We finally figured it out . . . part of the main body of the house becomes the trim on the double-hung windows, which means I needed to paint around the window openings before we could glue on the windows. Whew, disaster averted and the world is saved! :lol: Brian then proceeded to dry-fit the house (this took less than 10 minutes). We were very happy with how the house fit together . . . like a glove and very easy! Brian was just about to glue it all together when I realized that we should probably wallpaper first. I have good ideas every now and then!! :o Since this is going to be a house for "Mother Goose and Friends" I decided to wallpaper all of the interior walls (and floors) with pages from an old 'Mother Goose' book. We used Mod-podge to glue all the pages into place. That was on Sunday . . . today . . . being Friday, I've decided to paint the floors with a black and white checkerboard pattern. So, that means I have to somehow get all the paper off of the floors. Hind-sight is 20/20. I also have to get all of the interior window trim painted . . . it'll just make it easier once the house is finally glued together. I've decided not to wire this house for electricity because I think 'Mother Goose' prefers to read by candlelight . . . you know mood-setting and such! Well, until next time . . .