Search the Community

The Ananda family have moved into the store and are gathering to give thanks to Lord Ganesh for the opportunities for success in my little community. The family includes Mamma Ananda, Mrs U.S. (Laksmi) Ananda, Mr Upani Shad Ananda, daughter Parvati and baby Sita.

The family who own the store are of Asian Indian heritage but proud citizens of the US, so much so that Mamma Ananda named her baby boy Upana Shad; so the store sign quite correctly reads "USA General Store". I made a parlor stove for heating & cooking out of a plastic egg, a film canister cap, a medication bottle "child-proof" cap, four oval wooden beads, a jeselry finding and a Sonic drinking straw. The sub-assembly is visible in the left side of the previous post's picture of the canned goods' components. I spray painted everything with black glossy enamel when the glue was dry & attached the finding for a door with superglue after the paint was all dry. I used the Corona Concepts diningroom furniture kit to finish furnishing the upstairs: I made foamcore diningroom chair seat cushions and covered them with scraps of the red acetate scarf. Here are how the stove, shrine, table & chairs look: I found an old watch dial I liked a whole lot better for the face of the case clock than the printed one that came with the kit. I stained all the furniture pieces golden oak except the clock trim, I went with red mahogany for that. I used glass beads for hinges and knobs for the hutch base doors (which are fake). I made curtains for the end windows out of the red flowered scarf and had enough scraps to glue to an acetate package "blister" shaped like a bathtub & just the right size to fit under the bathroom dormer window. I made a surround from foamcore and covered that with some vinyl shelf liner with little red flower buds (or strawberries?) all over it. I sculpted a lavatory & commode stool from white polymer clay in flower shapes and sprayed them white when they were baked. I covered a restaurant jelly packet with some of the vinyl for the WC tank: When I installed the fixtures I made the mirror over the lavatory using an idea I got from a "Crate & Barrel" catalog: Finally, here, at last, is the USA General Store in all its stoned & shingled glory:

I made storeroom shelving using tongueblade-size craft sticks for the verticals and popsicle-size craft sticks for the shelves: I painted them with a wash of yellow ochre & burnt umber: and installed them: I made a rolling set of storage bins from the October '06 issue of American Miniaturist, #42, page 25. DH was delighted to see me actually use some of the table trash I've collected... From Making Miniatures: Projects for the 1:12 Scale Dolls' House by Christine Berridge I made the open-back counter on page 55; I closed off the back. I used a scrap of 1/8" basswood, foamboard, toothpicks, a tongueblade and a scrap of posterboard. In a Goodwill store I found a ladder-type shelf unit that had an "Avon" label on it (that later fell off). I "aged" the three items with my INdia ink & isopropyl alcohol mixture. I finished off the bead curtain & hung it in the storeroom doorway. I began making stock for the store by painting some of the "woodsies" I'd collected: I cut acetate to make "glass" shelves for the bay window. Note: Superglue gel "frosts" acetate & doesn't stick worth a darn, I will NEVER use it for that again! I had to cut & paint craft stick sections to help support the shelves. Elmer's all-purpose white glue did the trick. I painted turned woodsie bowls & acorn cups with raw siena to resemble terra cotta and then painted them with "folk art" designs in red, white, yellow, blue & green. I needed to make more shelves for the store to display "groceries" and "sundries": I went bit berserk at www.printmini.com and printed cigarette packs and cigar boxes. I painted over the printies with clear nail enamel and scored the folds with the back of the point of my utility knife before using it to cut out the pieces. I used foam core to glue up the cigar boxes, and posterboard stacked to make the cigarette packs: Then I cut 1/4" diameter dowel into 3/4" lengths with my hobby saw and sprayed them silvery and covered them with the labels I printed from Jim's site: I used printies from www.geocities.com-boopmini40 to make other grocery items. I used a RED flowered acetate scarf I found in a charity thrift store to cover a styrofoam mattress & make draperies for the bed area I'm using the gable space for (Thanks, Sabrina's mom). The Ananda family who own this store are devout Hindus so I made them a family shrine dedicated to Ganesh, the Bringer of Prosperity. I had some kit scraps to make the stepped base and two sizes of HH porch punch-outs to shape the shrine around and somt stairrail punchouts for pillars. We had found a wee little metal Ganesh figure in a shop in Racine, WI. I made the body of the shrine with poster board I embellished with paper lace. I sprayed it all silvery and completed the assembly with carved "ivory" (I think they're actually bone) beads & flowers & a filigree gold-colored bead cap for an offering bowl. Once I placed Ganesh's figure within I installed the pillars and mounted it on the wall of the living space.

I unpacked the Orchid and the lower porch fell off :whistle: . I measured and cut the upstairs baseboards and painted the ones for the bathroom red and for the other room blue and when they were dry I installed them. It was then I noticed I had installed the guardrail backwards... So I removed it and reassembled & reinstalled it. Since I was on a roll with gluing things I re-glued the bottom of the porch and then I installed the stairs, the handrail and the downstairs divider wall. Since the way I did the dormers and gable precluded "bricks" I went with shingles stained mahogany. Once they were on I began to paint the "stones" and noticed the mahogany was too "loud", so I toned it down with a wash of the stone colors: I used blue, umber, siena, ochre & black for coloring the stones and I used a combination of washing and dry-brushing.

I sanded smooth the spackled side of the stairs and painted them white and dry fit them facing the back. I cut a length of 1/8" diameter dowel while the stairs were in place, to make a handrail, and I painted that red. I was stymied for the downstairs interior wall treatments because I had left all my siding strips you-know-where, and by this time we were camped at Natural Chimneys. On our way in to Harrisonburg the first time I spotted The Miniature Cottage (it was closed) and when we went back when it was open I found a ten-piece package of basswood clapboard siding that was 3/8" thick X 3" wide X 24" long. One piece was enough to cover completely one side of the downstairs divider wall. I covered both sides of the divider wall and when they were dry I primed them. I made a newspaper template for the stairway wall to make the clapboard for the wall; I laid the newspaper sheet along the wall and creased it along the corners and cut it to fit. I put it back in place and put the stairs back in and drew along the top & bottom of the stairway side along the wall. When I took it all out I cut the newpaper along the stairway lines and taped it together and glued up the clapboard pieces to fit and the retraced my line for cutting the clapboard apart. As only I can do it, I got the clapboard going horizontally instead of vertically, like the rest of the downstairs interior walls (my story is the Ananda family deicided it was too much trouble to install vertical siding against the original interior wall because of the stairs! ). I sanded a bit to try to flatten it a tad, then realized I'd sand out all the grooves! and stopped. It took six of the clapboard pieces to cover all the interior downstairs walls. I masked the floor. Next I began to make the bead curtain to go between the main shop and the storage room with the stairs. I traced around the door opening on the divider wall to get the measurements I needed to cut a length of 1/8" dowel for the rod and for the length I'd need to make my bead strings. I wrapped the ends of the dowel with bits of masking tape to keep the bead strings from slipping off of it. Once I began to tie off the strings one of the tape bits slipped off, but left a sticky residue. Since I glued the knots of the strings to the dowel as I completed them it didn't really matter at that point. 1) I threaded a regular sewing needle with a long piece of thread and knotted one end around the dowel. I laid it on the tracing of the doorway. 2) I threaded the beads in a design of alternating shapes & sizes and random colors (except for the oval pearl-colored beads) and continued until it was the length I wanted. 3) When it reached the desired length I threaded a small seed bead last and tied it off after "snugging" up the beads on the string. 4) I brought the needle back through the last half-dozen or so beads on the string & cut the thread. 5) When the dowel was full I ran a bead of Elmer's all-purpose glue along the dowel over all the knots and when it was dry I clipped off all the thread "tails" and removed the other bit of masking tape. I set the bead curtain aside until the rest of the construction is completed downstairs. Placing the Orchid in the Linda Cullen Position I primed and painted the remaining walls and ceiling. When it was dry it went into its placc under the camper bed to await coming home to the rest of my supplies :whistle:

I noticed a BIG "oopsie", white primer from the exterior "stones" had run in at the bottom of the left dormer & all acros my lovey striped wallpaper & dried :angry: ! I stripped off the old paperand primed over the green. Judith Abraham's suggestion of warm water & vinegar worked a charm! I spackled the seams & gaps generously. I found Linda Cullen's method of ceiling painting to be most effective. SERENDIPITY NOTE: We stopped at a charity thrift shop in Johnson City, TN, where for US$1 I found a strip of "prepasted" wallpaper border and a sample pot of Benjamin Moore paint in a red that coordinated with one of the colors in the paper's pattern. How good is that? I spackled the downstairs front and left walls , carving the "stones" to match grout lines. As soon as the carving was done I carefully removed the masking tape. I smooth-spackled the porch ceiling and when it had all dried I primed all the exterior spackle. I masked off the large upstairs room floor and painted the walls I wanted white. I masked off the lower part or the dividing wall to paint it red. I gathered together the assemblies & parts for assemblies and sorted them into ziplock bags so as not to lose or mix them up. Next I assembled the stairs and dry-fit them with the dividing wall to get a "feel" for the storage area. Last I applied the border strip upstairs. I shall wait to trim it until it's dry. Now it's time to pack it all away, we move again tomorrow!

In our travels to the campground at Natural Chimneys I spotted a house with a turret (brick) with the roof entirely shingled in a diamond pattern. While processing the prior roll of film at Wal-Mart I found wonderful 4-packs of 9" X 11" 60-grit sandpaper that appeared to be in scale to do the job :angry: The thickness looked mighty close to scale and I figured 1" squares would give the roofing effect I wanted for the Orchid. The first step was to mark the back of each sheet into 1" grids, which is easy-peasy with paper in whole inch dimensions such as this; 9" X 11" yields 99 shingles per sheet of sandpaper. I had to cut strips 3/4" wide along the 11" side to give me flat-edged strips for the roof tops & bottoms, as well as 1" wide strips to cover the peaks. Next I cut out my edge strips and the individual squares. The first step I did to shingle the roof was to cut 1/2" wide strips of aluminum foil to glue over the roof seams for "flashing". The roof I'm copying had copper flashing, but my copper foil is, you guessed it, at home! Next I glued the 3/4 strips along the flat edges of the roof pieces (and below the dormers) and I began to glue the square shingles on in the diamond pattern. Using paper, any sort of paper, for shingles makes trimming for odd angles to get fit along the joining seams a whole lot easier! I wound up making shingles from both packs of sandpaper, although I have some left over. I shall probably use the wooden shingles that came with the kit to cover the dormers and gable when I get home. Beware the smug feeling of accomplishment, I missed the lower edge of the back roof opening with a straight strip of the 3/4" wide sandpaper, but here is the completed shingling job ready to pop back under the bed to finish drying.

Really rotten weather for paint to dry has delayed things, we got in a lengthy hike of the Iron Ore Trail... In Clifton Forge we found a True Value Hardware store that carries its own brand of sample decorator paints for about 75% the cost of the Benjamin Moore version and I found a shade of blue that matches the shade in the wallpaper border. By now many of you may have noticed I am VERY partial to blue front doors! :angry: :lol: I used it to paint the exterior door and trims. Wow, this is turning out to be a patriotic color scheme such as I haven't used since my very first build, the Dura-Craft San Franciscan. I find it very appropriate in light of the 5th anniversary of 9/11! I installed the acetate door inserts and prepared to assemble the front door. By now we all know I left everything DH & I considered unessential at home, now expecting to be gone this long... I have two sheets of chamois at home for hinges & not about to go buy another to hinge one door, so I found some 1" wide twill tape to try, instead. I glued it to the doorframe edge and clamped the door parts together to sand all the edges even & have them fit in the doorframe, and then I glued the door parts together. I also installed the acetate inserts into the exterior window trims. I installed the exterior doorframe and window trims and painted the porch blue and the porch trim & railings white; I painted the door & window pediments white & the pediment trims red. I'm leaning toward having naturalized American citizens own this store, the proprietor's initials being U. S. A. (this thought began buzzing in my brain long before the 9/11 anniversary hype). The gable trims, naturally, have to be red. I painted the bay blue on the outside. I like the eaves, I'll paint them metallic when we get home & install them then. I installed the windows and door, the pediments and porch & porch trim. :lol: Next I sanded, primed and painted the upstairs stair rails white with a red bannister. This time I dry-fit the stairs the way I'll install them, facing the back of the house, and installed the stairrails (backwards! I have since corrected this, <mumble, mumble>. I spackled the outer side of the stairs and when it was dry I painted the stairs white & the handrail red.

I primed the porch, railing, all the trims and the stairs. I painted the interior door and downstairs window trims white and interior upstairs window trims red. I used two of the porch railing punchouts to trim the lower panel of the exterior front door instead of the rectangular pieces so provided, and painted them red for contrast. I installed the acetate window inserts to the interior window trims and installed them. I trimmed the wallpaper border. I didn't mention it earlier, but I applied the "prepasted" border with dilute white Elmer's all-purpose glue.

Now I'm setting up outside our camper in a campground 9 miles from Abingdon, VA. I've had marvelous luck finding store fixtures & merchandise. So far I have 4 Country Crock serving packets (empty & clean) for galvanized tubs ceiling covering found at AC Moore beads for a bead curtain divider signs buckets flower pots in two sizes 4 barrels 6 finial dowel caps for planters 10 round mini mirrors I primed the house exterior (it decided it wants to be "stone")I masked off the areas I don't want to be stone and bought a new tub of spackle (KISS). The new primer takes a second coat (!) I installed the downstairs ceiling, which required piecing. The plastic didn't much care for diluted Elmer's, but reinforced with undiluted Elmer's made it much happier! :angry: Next I primed the business out of the bay. I have great trepidations regarding installing ANYTHING that can be ruined by paint (I have found some really awful paint damage on my pretty striped paper bad enough it'll have to go, <SOB!>), but I have to install the interior & exterior bay casing with acetate inserts to install the bay roof. I used the bay bottom piece to make a paper pattern for display shelves for the bay. My only complaint about the instructions so far is that they only give the location for the bay top & bottom, I had to use the schematics to find the casings & roof. I primed the casings & assembled & installed the bay. Once the bay was dry I installed the roof (note: It makes more sense to run the masking tape across the outside of the bay roof pieces). Next I R & P the porch parts and one door casing so I could mark & mask the house front. I primed both sides of the porch ceiling and assembled & primed the trim & railings. As soon as I installed the porch ceiling I saw what a good idea Suzy & Sabrins had to make it into a bed . Since this space will be the proprietor's living quarters, it'll free up much-needed room for other items. I began the spackling process by rubbing it over all the raw edges of the plywood. I began with the rear foundation and carved "stones" with a toothpick (tool of choice). next I smoothed the raw edges of the bay and then "iced" the right wall & "stoned" it. I also assembled the porch floor & step.

I'm set up in DS' basement next to the stairs, lots of horizontal surfaces to spread out on when no one else is home. First I dry-fit the shell and it was sweet! No "surgery needed to fine-tune the fit! Assembled & glued the shell & reinforced the edges with heavy-duty staples. The downstairs shop & storage room have informed me they want to be finished with vertical boards (like the second floor of the Coventry Cottage). The siding strips for this are sitting next to my worktable in Havana, FL; I'm standing in Burke, VA <mumble, mumble>. I set aside the downstairs divider wall & marked the placement for the upstairs divider wall. Next I dry-fit, assembled & installed the dormers into the roof front without any sanding or "shaving". Wow, is this kit a honey to put together! The gable also fit & installed without any problems! Way to go, Dean & crew! :angry: Next I masked the floors and and primed the interior roof front & back and both sides of the gable & dormers, which want to be either brick or shingle (all in Havana, FL). I also primed the window areas inside & out, and the divider wall. I papered upstairs with really great scrapbook papers from Michael's. Oops, the bucket of wallpaper paste is in FL; I cut down an empty Dasani bottle and mixed half & half white Elmer's & water & painted both the walls & the paper with it and it seems to be working very satisfactorily. I painted the unpapered surfaces. Need I say where all my paints & small brushes, etc, are? DS offered his unused set of acrylics (all my boys turned into wonderful men, BTW). Some of the needed colors were dry in the (unopened) tube, and went on much more transparent than was consistant with the look I wanted. I must look for a Benjamin Moore paint store. Thank you, Linda Cullen, turning the house upside down makes painting a lot easier. I installed the upstairs divider wall & roof.

Because I'll be building on the road again, so to speak, I can't take everything with me, and I have no clear idea how it wants to look yet. Rather than list each & every building day/ session I'll group this into sessions of time blocks, since some days will be short due to environmental factors, and the Coventry blog got tedious. The kits go together very easily, it's what they want me to do with them and thinking it through that takes time. The first thing I did was open the box to sniff & pet (carefully) the wood & read over the instructions... uh, oh, right off the bat I see this isn't going to follow the instructions, since most of the decorating will come after the build and much of it after we get back home. I put the wood sheets into numerical order & removed the floor pieces. I scribed the "floorboards" & nailholes and stained the floors and primed the first floor ceiling and put it all back in the box & stowed it under the front dinette seat in the camper; then packed up the toolbox and put it & the folding table into their places in the camper.