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Today I began my first-ever build from scratch house kit. Up to now I've just decorated, renovated, landscaped, and built roomboxes and mini-garden scenes. When I first looked at all of the sheets I'm only able to recognize where some of these giant "puzzle" pieces will fit. Ray shows me how he dry fits the construction (puzzle) pieces using the sitemap. This really helps as I can more easily identify where things fit together. I then paint the window sashes and gingerbread trims with an off-white paint while still on their sheets. I'm thinking that it will be easier to do this pre-prep work rather than fiddling with lots of small pieces and a paintbrush. I might be wrong, but I have to give it a try. After Ray has assembled the house (but no glue yet), I decide on the route of the electrical wire so that I will know which walls to not cover in wallpaper before we run the wiring. I have decided to wallpaper the interior walls before installing the wiring. The walls which are going to have wire run on them, I trace the outline and cut out posterboard. I then wallpaper the posterboard cut-outs. I will glue these to the wall after wiring. Anyway, now that we've papered all of the walls (and posterboard cut-outs), we laid them to dry. Tomorrow we plan on gluing the house together. All in all it was a fun day. I love wallpapering, and the house seems to fit together very nicely ..... but there are a lot of pieces still left. My plan for this dollhouse is to create a Goldilocks and the Three Bears Cottage Scene. I'd pre-ordered all of my supplies beforehand so I'm ready to work without interruption. I live in Canada so it can take a while for supplies to get to me, so I've always got to be well-prepared before I start a project. -Susanne
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Day Twelve - Orchid - September 23, 2006
Missymew posted a blog entry in The Orchid Construction Blog (Community)
Yesterday Ray finished shingling the roof with Cork shingles that I'd cut. We're satisfied with how the shingles went on, but we're going to do some shading with a highlighter to add definition. Mother Bear had a surprise for me. She'd hidden it very well behind her apron, but now the 3 Bears are four. I've created a place for the newest Baby Bear in the charming little alcove off of the Master Bedroom. I took pity on Mother Bear having to heat baby bottles over the fireplace, so found her a small stove that would fit into her kitchen. I think it also works better for cooking her porridge. Oh, and another surprise. Goldilocks will have to be jockeying for space on the former Baby Bear's bed. It seems that this bear family already had a Raggedy Anne little girl that comes over for naps. I'll take more photos when my camera battery recharges ... I'll get some photos of the cork shingles. This week I'll finish up my landscaping, and when Ray's off work again (next weekend) we'll shadow the cork shingles and the Orchid will be completed. -Susanne -
Day Eleven - September 11 2006
Missymew posted a blog entry in The Orchid Construction Blog (Community)
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 -
I had the day off today and decided I'd do nothing but read my book and work on my miniature projects. It was a wonderful restful day. The "big" jobs I have left on the Orchid is to fix the roofing job. Ray and I both have Monday off, so we're planning on finishing off the roof. Otherwise, I just have to glue my landscaping in place, install the crown mouldings and finishing trim on the back of the dollhouse. Today, I painted shelves (Mama Bear insists her kitchen be put to order today) and helped her unpack Bear Family food. She didn't want a stove in her kitchen. She only cooks porridge and says she can do that fine over the fireplace. Oh, and Goldilocks has already moved in!! So far the Bear Family doesn't even seem to have noticed her. -Susanne
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Ray connected the light fixtures into the tape wiring that he had installed the other day. He found the brads too small to handle, so he used flat thumb tacks to make the connections. Here on the second floor he pushed the thumb tacks into the divider for the first floor. This way the thumb tacks were embedded in this divider wall. I've also added this photo of the light fixtures on the main floor after Ray had run the wires through the ceiling. For the second story light figures, Ray made the connection using thumb tacks through the roof, and then just cut off the sharp protruding end. We then stained the pine hardwood flooring and laid it on the second floor. Tomorrow we'll install the windows and mouldings. -Susanne
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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 before tacking the roof again. Like I said before, I'd like to achieve that hushed forest effect. We painted the window trims and applied some of the gingerbread mouldings today. Wow do they ever change the appearance of this house. Ray and I are back to work tomorrow, and have out-of-town company coming for the weekend. I won't be working on the house again until early next week. I took some photos to show what it looks like so far ... including the disastrous roofing job. Mama Bear isn't happy with the delay, but I've let the family move in until I can get back at the roof. I've only allowed her the "bear" necessities for furnishings. She insisted on the large casket of honey, but I told her she'd better not get everything sticky. I also lightly landscaped so that she'd have her raspberry bushes and some strawberry plants. - Susanne
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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 that the house will look (and sound) like it resides in a forest. What I mean by sound is that quiet muffled sound that you get when you walk through the heavily mulched floor of a forest. I've not found a satisfactory method of thatching using loose fibres yet. And it was very important to me to attain that forest floor effect. I found a substitution that was acceptable to me. I'm gluing down sheets of thin cork. I bought the cork in rolls that were being sold as shelf liner. The material is very flexible. This evening I started the roofing and have found the cork is working very well. In the photos, you'll see that I've reinforced the "caps" with masking tape until the glue dries. I'm hoping that tomorrow Ray and I will be able to finish the house. -Susanne
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Today Ray worked on painting, cutting and installing interior trims. It's amazing how this detail completes a room. I traced the house onto the base we will be attaching it to. I then cut out four foamcore pieces and glued some grass onto each of the pieces. I bought the roll of grass at a Miniature Railway Hobby Supply store. Previously I'd completed a mock-up of how I want the landscaping arranged. Since the house will belong to the Three Bears, it will be located in a forest. So, I'm looking at lots of trees and shubbery (but not so much as to hide the fairy tale look of the Orchid). I was hoping Ray would be able to finish the interior trims today, so that I could start to finish the outside of the cottage. But you can't hurry a perfectionist. I was able to put a second coat on the exterior trims today while he was working on the inside. After looking at the photos that I've taken, it looks like tomorrow I'll be scraping some paint off the windows. :angry: If Ray had painted the exterior trims he wouldn't have gotten paint on the window panes - he has a much steadier hand than I do. This is such an enjoyable house to work on. - Susanne
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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 looking forward to painting. Sorry that my notes are rather short this evening, but I'm missing Dudley something terrible and so I don't have any interesting stories to tell of my build. It was nice to have this project to keep me busy today. The work in constructing this house is very relaxing and enjoyable. -Susanne
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Day Four - August 4th, 2006
Missymew posted a blog entry in The Orchid Construction Blog (Community)
Ray wired the house today with electrical tape wire. He didn't like using the tiny brads, so he got some tiny brass screws and used them instead. He would follow the tape wire and check the connections and they work fine. Ray has to go in to work tonight, and so the installation of the light fixtures will have to wait until his next days off - that'll be next Tuesday. I'm dying to get going on my exterior, but Ray would rather I wait until he finished hooking up the lights. So I'll look and see what other jobs I can do while I'm waiting for Ray's help again. Hmmmmmm.....wonder if the other guys at the plant where Ray works would mind if his wife showed up with a partially built dollhouse??? ...... and a few tools .....??? ...... and maybe a plate of banana bread ??? -Susanne -
As many of you know my dad (80 years of age) took a bad fall several weeks ago and suffered a head injury. He's still unable to drive (might not be able to drive again), so today I took my mum and dad out to run some errands. I won't be able to work on the house today, because Ray and I also need to run a few errands of our own. The Bear family wasn't very pleased that their house is just sitting there with no workers on site. So, to appease them, I did have the movers bring in some pieces of furniture so they could decide where everything will go. (I didn't tell them that I'd already decided on the furniture layout ... I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.) Here's some photos of the Bear family. -Susanne
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I was excited to get started on my project this morning. I even got out of bed before Ray and put the coffee on. This never usually happens at our house, Ray is usually the first one up and makes the coffee. Today we put another coat of off-white paint on all of the trims. We then used a straight-edge razor to cut the window areas out of the wallpaper. When wallpapering, we always let the wallpaper dry completely before we do any cutting. We've always found it gives a sharper cut without tearing. Just a matter of preference. We then laid the main floor flooring. I'd chosen a brick. As I'm not that experienced in building, and am not entirely sure how long the build will take, I chose an easy floor. I just laid down a latex brick. It will also give me the soft muffled sound that I want for this particular house. I'd like the floor to be soft, springy and silent like a forest floor. I'm pleased with the result. Ray and I then put the house back together (dry-fit) once again just to ensure that the addition of flooring and wallpaper did not interfere with the interlock. There was only one area that we needed to re-sand. Everything fit well. We then re-constructed the house shell using Elmer's Wood Glue. We didn't have any suitable clamps, so we used masking tape to hold the corners together nice and strong. We laid a couple of books that we felt were heavy enough (but not too heavy) and laid out a nice even weight distribution ratio on all corners. Being avid readers, we had lots of books to choose from. We then bid the house a good night and went outside for a walk. It was a beautiful evening ending with a lovely red sunset. -Susanne
