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Magnolia finally taking shape


HelenV

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Not as fast as I'd like though; have been hampered by a week of real life issues and migraines :weep:

I've also discovered I'm more of a perfectionist than I thought I was but am learning to accept that not all the walls etc will sit flush and that I will become the queen of polyfilla ...

On the plus side my husband has come on board and has helped me make some changes ... I decided I wanted straight railings for my porch and he very kindly cut all the curved bits off for me (took him quite a while). He's also working on a way to hinge my doors - he's an industrial electrician in a plastics factory and thinks he has some track that will do the trick (I got a bit lost with his explanation) if it works I'll post photos.

Speaking of photo's there's not much to see yet but I'll try to upload some today.

Here's hoping real life doesn't interfere with my miniature world this week as I'm getting frustrated at the slow rate of progress.

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Helen, your walls will sit flush, that's part of the purpose of the dry fit. It's also why you cannot have too many clamps, and also why I go behind my lue joints and hit them with a heavy duty stapler. And I read somewhere that polyfilla is the same as spackling compound, so you can be First Vice Princess.

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Helen, your walls will sit flush, that's part of the purpose of the dry fit. It's also why you cannot have too many clamps, and also why I go behind my lue joints and hit them with a heavy duty stapler. And I read somewhere that polyfilla is the same as spackling compound, so you can be First Vice Princess.

:oops: Sorry Holly I hadn't clicked that spackle and polyfilla are the same thing.

Re sitting flush I was meaning how there's gaps between the walls in the bays etc. have the rest of it sitting well and yip I've definitely found out there's no such thing as too many clamps.

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Awwwww Helen I can sympathize with your migraines.......I suffer from several a month and its really miserable. A big HUG for you ok?

Awwwww thank you Roxy - big HUG right back at you. They sure are miserable aren't they - I used to get them occasionally now I'm getting several a month too.

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Hang in there Helen! Looking forward to seeing your photos. I've been thinking of changing up the railings on my house. Nice to hear of your creativity and helpful husband.

Thanks Angela I will - btw I love what you're doing on your house. Yeah I'm lucky with my husband I get the vision and he helps find the solutions.

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I used to get "silent" migraines at work, about an hour or two before the end of the work day; first the fractured halo, then the flashing lights, then go blind in one eye for about fifteen minutes to an hour; when I could grab a couple of swallows of strong, black coffee, that usually did the trick.

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Re sitting flush I was meaning how there's gaps between the walls in the bays etc.

Because of the thickness of the wood, there will be a space on the outside where the bay panels meets. If you glue a thin dowel in it (think bamboo BBQ skewer), that will serve to bridge the gap. Rub some spackle/polyfilla into the area for a nice, clean finish.

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Helen, Kathie's description is how I did the bay joins on my Maggie:

gallery_8_988_151141.jpg

I think the Westville was the first house with bays I did that; prior I just went in with the spackling compound and an old credit card. The skewer gives just enough fill to make credible corners.

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Because of the thickness of the wood, there will be a space on the outside where the bay panels meets. If you glue a thin dowel in it (think bamboo BBQ skewer), that will serve to bridge the gap. Rub some spackle/polyfilla into the area for a nice, clean finish.

I think the Westville was the first house with bays I did that; prior I just went in with the spackling compound and an old credit card. The skewer gives just enough fill to make credible corners.

Thank you both sooooo much ... now I can move forward - well when I get my real life obligations over and done with...

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Well today's been a day of tears and tantrums - the stopping compound my husband gave me to use is silicone based and needs really coarse sandpaper to sand it back and because I like to over do I'd gone onto the house with it. Now I can't sand it back enough to get a semi decent finish without sanding the house back quite a lot ...I had already done 3 coats on the walls and in some places I will end up back at the primer layer ...

It's looking pretty ugly right now and I'm thinking it might have to go on hold until I can afford and source weather board cladding (I think it's called clapboard in America).

Feeling pretty devastated and kicking myself for not trialling an area first.

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Is it somewhere you could scrape first, then sand? You must be so frustrated.

I've been trying to scrape it back with my knife but it's stuck too well and I'm worried I'll gouge my house ... it's definitely not like any stopping compound I've used before guess that's because of the silicone in it.

It's on all my bay wall joins - I'd successfully glued and scraped skewers to fit the gaps and this was the filler to go over the top and fill any gaps left, I took it on to the house on each side of the join thinking I'd have a more uniform finish.

Yeah I am really frustrated - I was so close to having her built and starting the decorating :bomb::cry:

Edited by HelenV
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Just checking in with you Helen. Its hard to work on ANYTHING when you have those headaches. I get them at least once a week and when I do I can't function at all. I am sorry you are having such a frustrating time. When that happens I just put the project on the back burner for a while and take a break! Feel better! :bear:

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Helen, I don't know if this is appropriate for your build, but I Googled how to remove silicon sealant or caulk and there are products for this. One product is DAP Silicone-Be-Gone. There are also gels. I'd definitely do some tests before trying it on the house, but it might work for you. Silicone is very hard to remove, which is one of its positive characteristics.

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Just checking in with you Helen. Its hard to work on ANYTHING when you have those headaches. I get them at least once a week and when I do I can't function at all. I am sorry you are having such a frustrating time. When that happens I just put the project on the back burner for a while and take a break! Feel better! :bear:

Thanks so much Roxy and yeah you're right I haven't had one this week so was excited to be able to work on my house ... oh well...

I'm wishing I had another project to work on then I would put it to one side and work on that - have a couple of ideas so I'll have a play today and see if I can come up with plan b.

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I Googled how to remove silicon sealant or caulk and there are products for this. One product is DAP Silicone-Be-Gone. There are also gels. I'd definitely do some tests before trying it on the house, but it might work for you. Silicone is very hard to remove, which is one of its positive characteristics.

Thank you so much for doing this it hadn't even crossed my mind (guess frustration will do that to you).I'll see what's available in NZ and i it can be used on wood. Yes I can see it is one of it's positive characteristics - probably not something I should work with though ... at least until I perfect less is more ...

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Thank you so much for doing this it hadn't even crossed my mind (guess frustration will do that to you).I'll see what's available in NZ and i it can be used on wood. Yes I can see it is one of it's positive characteristics - probably not something I should work with though ... at least until I perfect less is more ...

Let us know how things work out. :)

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So I've scraped and sanded back as much as I can and because it hasn't fully removed it and I've ended up at bare wood in some places I have decided to try to give her an aged look. So I have sanded back to wood in some places and put little patches of the silicone filler in other random places and will see what it paints up like - I have only tried one wall this time.

If this doesn't work I'll be turning her into a weatherboard house.

The only silicone remover I could find here would cost more than wood for weatherboard's and may stain the wood so I figured it wasn't worth trying.

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Well, it sounds like you have a good plan B. You know we all talk about these houses having a mind of their own and how they let us know (ahem, demand) what they want. This might be one of those times!

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Well, it sounds like you have a good plan B. You know we all talk about these houses having a mind of their own and how they let us know (ahem, demand) what they want. This might be one of those times!

Thank you I'm hoping it works. Funny you should say that I've been wondering the same...

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I think my Magnolia must be a very forgiving house because when I painted my test wall the colour came out completely uniform there is no sign of where I sanded her back and the silicone filler unlike any filler I've used before painted up identically!!! there are some ridges still where I couldn't get the silicone filler sanded down enough which is a bit annoying. So I'll either try sanding again now I know how hardy it is or I'll count my lucky stars and plan ways to camouflage them i.e vines growing up the house ...

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