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That's great about your pin hinging experience Emily, those pin hinges are great. I really think they are easier than real hinges, and they seem to be stronger and look much neater than a lot of real hinges.

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I spent last evening getting thoroughly frustrated with my farmhouse flooring!  Well- the staircase hole to be precise.  When I started this rehab project I bought 2 pieces of good plywood to replace the terrible fiber board the house came with.  I tried out some scoring patterns with good results, had it all stained and varnished....then the client decided she wanted a staircase put in after all.  So began the drama...  I thought I had measured correctly, but when I cut out the hole it was off...mainly because I had moved the 1st floor wall and forgot to adjust my stair hole markings accordingly.  :/   SO I borrowed my hubby's dremel again last nite to widen the hole. Well, I realized another mistake and by that time the hole was WAY too wide and crooked, plus I had messed up the wallpaper and will have to re-do it: so I gave up and used the board that was scored for the 2nd floor.  Perfect. :dunce:  Now I just need to buy another piece of plywood.

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Holly    -"With a dirt floor in the cellar, is there any way to work with the warp so it looks like it's supposed to be there? "

Holly, I got the warp straightened out, kept a heavy can on it all night and it 's stayed flat so far. I have a nice piece of sturdy MDF that I'll use as a base and glue the house to that. I know the warp will stay gone then, speaking of which, I should go and put the can back to stay on the safe side.

I put in the floor joists and cut the floor boards today, just have to stain the floorboards then glue them onto the tops of the joists. I can't decide if the next step should be the exterior timbering or should I go ahead and put on the roof. ....... just had an idea about the roof while typing this. I guess I'll go sit in front of the cottage and think about it.

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Spent tonight vacuuming my new Lawbre French Country, and taking pictures. I went back over it more closely and don't see any real damage or mold. I'm thankful for that! I expected I would also rip out the tapewire - who knows what condition its in. Just for giggles, I plugged in my adapter and only 1 coach light came on. I'm not surprised. I used my probe and actually some of the main lines work, but the offshoots to like the front coach lights.So they are all going to get ripped up and all new installed. 

Funny how people think - I found clear tape on the chandelier base on the ceiling in the dining room. I also found out that the exterior was painted after the coach lights were secured, so there's unpainted spots, paint on the lights etc. 

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5 hours ago, jbnmini said:

I spent last evening getting thoroughly frustrated with my farmhouse flooring!  Well- the staircase hole to be precise.  When I started this rehab project I bought 2 pieces of good plywood to replace the terrible fiber board the house came with.  I tried out some scoring patterns with good results, had it all stained and varnished....then the client decided she wanted a staircase put in after all.  So began the drama...  I thought I had measured correctly, but when I cut out the hole it was off...mainly because I had moved the 1st floor wall and forgot to adjust my stair hole markings accordingly.  :/   SO I borrowed my hubby's dremel again last nite to widen the hole. Well, I realized another mistake and by that time the hole was WAY too wide and crooked, plus I had messed up the wallpaper and will have to re-do it: so I gave up and used the board that was scored for the 2nd floor.  Perfect. :dunce:  Now I just need to buy another piece of plywood.

Oooh, I feel your pain, Jackie! At least with the next piece you can make sure you have the hole in the right place BEFORE you go to all the trouble of scoring and staining everything beautifully.  

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at some point in the 30 yrs my Taft has been in its box it has gotten wet...the wood is fine...little discolored but no warping or anything I cant fix or paint....

that being said the instructions are very brittle....so it will be interesting to see if they will last the entire build... I have the foundation glued and waiting for it to dry to continue

oooooo the ideas that Edna is brimming with....Dave keeps warning her not to get carried away:roflmao:

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I got bored with doing stonework this week, so I broke down and bought some polymer clay to try out. I figured I needed a creepy walking stick for my haunted house. I am not sure if this actually looks like snake or not, but it kinda looks like it. I need to glue on his little fork tongue & make a trip back to the craft store to find something for the eyes this weekend.  IMG_2403-1.thumb.JPG.c1a88b245b5885bf753   

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50 minutes ago, havanaholly said:

With a head like that it's definitely a venomous snake! 

lol it did turn out pretty mean & dark looking. I'm hoping to find some small pink crystals or beads for his eyes.  I don't think it will fit in with my house either way, so I started on a broom handle, too!  

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9 hours ago, Trinh said:

lol it did turn out pretty mean & dark looking. I'm hoping to find some small pink crystals or beads for his eyes.  I don't think it will fit in with my house either way, so I started on a broom handle, too!  

Look at mail decorations as those come in really, really tiny shapes and possible colours. Love the look you have achieved!

hugs

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I got the flooring in for the bottom floor of the barn, and cut strips to make the second floor. Glued together the top floor/walls, and plan to get it primed this weekend. Good progress on the barn!

The Franklin...I got a new staircase kit in the mail yesterday, and I think it's going to be perfect (hooray!) but...the interior doors and sample window I bought, not so much. I think I can shim up the doors to make them look OK, but the window is so deep, I don't see any way to get that to work. I have a feeling that I'll be making my own windows for that build. I also bought a proper bay window, and plan to add some trim to the top to make the floor of the balcony. I'll keep it simple, but for now the balcony is till in the construction plan.  

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Tabby, I redid the way I install that flooring, and it was amazingly fast and easy. I'm using the "rustic siding strips" from HBS. Cut them into 1/2" widths, then cut to 8/6/4/3/2" planks. I used contact cement to glue them down. Let that cure about an hour or so, then sanded with 180, then 220 grit. Stained, let it dry overnight, then 2 coats of wipe-on poly. The last time I used those planks, I sanded and stained each plank individually, which took forever. This floor is a bit more rustic, so I didn't mind if there was a little nick or chip or gap between the boards.

I'm priming the shell (MDF) with shellac, which takes about 10 minutes to dry, so you can recoat quickly. I really enjoyed building my last house, but I agonized over things too much and fiddled and planned a lot. It turned out fine, but I feel like I wasted a lot of time doing things the slow and hard way. This build I'm just jumping in and doing, and it's going much faster. I'm making most of the furniture, so I want to get the shell done so I can move on to those things. So far, so good!   

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I got some more done on the half scale cottage, the floor is in and most of the roof is done. I did make a huge boo-boo, though. You know how they say you can't see the forest for the trees? Well, I was admiring the forest and walked smack into a tree. I spent over an hour, maybe 2, trying to figure out how to fix it, and I believe I have my problem licked. I'm not saying what the stupid thing I did was for now. I need to be sure I fix it really GOOD first. 

 

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23 hours ago, Trinh said:

I got bored with doing stonework this week, so I broke down and bought some polymer clay to try out. I figured I needed a creepy walking stick for my haunted house. I am not sure if this actually looks like snake or not, but it kinda looks like it. I need to glue on his little fork tongue & make a trip back to the craft store to find something for the eyes this weekend.  IMG_2403-1.thumb.JPG.c1a88b245b5885bf753   

IMG_2405.JPG

Looks like Ka from the Jungle Book :) 

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1 hour ago, grazhina said:

I got some more done on the half scale cottage, the floor is in and most of the roof is done. I did make a huge boo-boo, though. You know how they say you can't see the forest for the trees? Well, I was admiring the forest and walked smack into a tree. I spent over an hour, maybe 2, trying to figure out how to fix it, and I believe I have my problem licked. I'm not saying what the stupid thing I did was for now. I need to be sure I fix it really GOOD first. 

 

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Oopsie :(

Can you turn them 180?

its really beautiful and I love your half timbering in the first floor.

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Grazhina your build is looking great, and I know I for one can't see any oopsies. Myself, I'm going slow with my brownstone build, but have been having fun working on parquet and my attempt at faux stained glass. Got the majority of one floor glued down and stained, and one of five windows done with the leading. Still have to add the "stained glass" to finish it up -- taking my time, but truly enjoying it. Started another of the projects I have lined up for this house tonight though, and that was microwaving some Bespaq to start refinishing and reupholstering some chairs. I like them for their size and that they can help fill some empty corners here and there, but that mahogany stain and loud floral fabric that they started with had to go... so far the cushions and backs are all off as is most of the stain. Going to work on painting and re-upholstery of them later today.  :)

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After a couple of issues with my glue bottle, I managed to get the porch roof on as well as the second upstairs partition. the patterned wallpaper in two of my upstairs rooms is driving me nuts; I want it to match up perfectly and it isn't cooperating. I have to take a lot of magic word breaks:pullhair: Next up is cutting lots of trim for upstairs. A couple days more of healing for my thumb after a vegetable chopping incident and I'll be ready to tackle it.

 

Grazhina, I love how you blacken your fireplaces! Maybe an ornately carved railing would help?

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23 hours ago, Dalesq said:

Oopsie :(

Can you turn them 180?

its really beautiful and I love your half timbering in the first floor.

Oh, great. Now we're all going to play 'Find the Oopsie'. LOL

 

Lisa and I spent the day on our Glencrofts and it doesn't seem like we got anything accomplished. We actually did, but I think putting a shell together fast makes it seem as though the whole house should be finished in only a couple days. Today was sort of all detail work, so it's hard to see we did anything. We're both of us filling in the space over the bedroom door off the stairs and I worked on Lisa's staircase some more while she finished priming and sanding my house.

Oh, guess what Lisa has? When we bought all those magazines (well, when I bought all those magazines), Lisa picked up a hardcover book of Brooke Tucker's roomboxes by Anne Day Smith. I don't know if she was actually going to get it or not, but I told her to buy it. So when she started looking through it last week, there on the inside cover was a signature saying "Cheers, Brooke" and her book is a numbered copy. Not bad for a dime.

I am so jealous. I have the soft cover version and the pages are falling out it, it's been read so often.

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I came up with a plan for the barn ceiling! At least the bottom floor. I put the finish on the bottom floor, so just waiting for that to cure before I can mask it off and paint the walls. I'll be buying a jigsaw this week, so excited to cut some wood with a proper tool.

Still staring at the Franklin...I need to make up a plan for the windows before I cut anything out, and the stair plan is in limbo for now. I'm using the narrow stair kit for the bottom floor, but may use the kit stairs for the second floor. It's narrow enough and interesting enough (with some embellishments) to stay, but an upgraded door means a shorter landing. The center rooms (with stairs) also have door and window openings, so they're kind of committed to just being hallways. I'm going to add some niches and cubbies and furniture and such, so at least they'll be interesting hallways. The design plan is two bedrooms, kitchen, bath, living room with a small dining area in front and a library.     

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Linda - took a look at the barn floor - very nice! I'm watching now and anxious to see your ceiling and your 2nd floor come together!

I removed all the tapewire on my French Country, just need to remove some of the adhesive that left some areas sticky, and then get started on that. 

I got let go from my job on Friday, after 13 years (position eliminated) so the weekend has been all up and down for me. I was already looking for another job, so in all honesty, I'm relieved - weight off my shoulders. Need to just start on my tapewire, get myself into mini mode while I job hunt!

 

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I have begun gluing Brimble's stair carcase and stained the treads.  I wish the grain of the treads all ran in the same direction, but I can put the ones that run the "wrong" way along the wall section, where they're not likely to show.  I really enjoy building stairways, once I've figured out how the carcase goes together the Greenleaf stairs are generally elegant.  I'm considering making  false door for a "utility closet' under the stairs.  Once it's all glued together and I prep it for paint I'll revisit it.

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