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Project Updates - PROGRESS!


Kells

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20 hours ago, havanaholly said:

I bet that trick wasn't unique to Lincoln, either, and for the reasons you mention; and lots of doll houses had fake exterior windows for just that same reason.

This was actually a very common practice on old homes.  To keep the balance on the exterior, but not interfere with the layout of the inside, many homes with exterior shutters used this trick!  I have seen several 1:1 size houses that have done this.

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On 7/18/2019, 12:37:11, havanaholly said:

I bet that trick wasn't unique to Lincoln, either, and for the reasons you mention; and lots of doll houses had fake exterior windows for just that same reason.

4 hours ago, madtex1967 said:

This was actually a very common practice on old homes.  To keep the balance on the exterior, but not interfere with the layout of the inside, many homes with exterior shutters used this trick!  I have seen several 1:1 size houses that have done this.

Y'all are more worldly than I! I figured Ole Abe didn't come up with this all on his own, but his is the only house I've seen where it had actually been done.

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7 hours ago, KathieB said:

It's a bit hard to see, but the windows in this café are a combination of effects. The larger windows left and right are cloth. The adjacent windows that appear to be in a recessed entryway are painted, as is the door itself. The shutters are non-opening, glued in place. Look at sidewalk level to see that the entire back wall of the set is one flat plane.

The groups of people are silhouettes painted. They, too are flat. But when the entire layout is viewed, they are quite believable. I'll say it again, folks: smoke and mirrors :) 

Mardi Gras Float

That is a very cool project. Probably more accurate than mine will be. Every single one of the shutters closed is very French Quarter. I'm always surprised when I pass by a house you can actually get a glimpse into. Most are shut up tight.

I'd love to once in a while decorate mine for Mardi Gras. I don't collect dolls but oh boy, would I love to put some guys throwing beads from the second floor gallery down to a young lady on the sidewalk pulling up her shirt, lol.

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12 minutes ago, KellyA said:

I would I love to put some guys throwing beads from the second floor gallery down to a young lady on the sidewalk pulling up her shirt, lol.

She's not likely to be a NOLA native. I wouldn't let a  drunken tourist within a mile of my Mardi Gras float. :D 

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30 minutes ago, KathieB said:

She's not likely to be a NOLA native. I wouldn't let a  drunken tourist within a mile of my Mardi Gras float. :D 

That is so funny you say that, I recently gave some travel tips to someone heading for NOLA this Fall. Once the bouncers start throwing the drunk tourists out of the bars on Bourbon street (usually around 11:30), it's time to catch a cab to Frenchmen Street. At 7:00, someone bumps into someone else, it's all good. By 11:30, it's a fist fight.

I will never forget a bunch of drunken frat boys on the St. Charles streetcar late one night. They kept saying (yelling!) NAWLINS this and NAWLINS that! The young very pretty Loyola student across from me was scowling. Or at least as close to a scowl as you could get from a true Southerner, lol. She leaned to me and said, "WE never say NAWLINS. It's New OR-linz. We're just too nice to correct people, bless their hearts." Which you probably know is Southern for, "Oh you sad little idiots." LOL

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52 minutes ago, havanaholly said:

Actually "Bless their hearts"  loosely translates "They just don't know any better".

Maybe I'm thinking of "Well aren't you just precious?" I love Southern colloquialisms. We Westerners don't have as colorful a vernacular. Not to generalize and I realize it's not everyone, but we tend to be rather blunt and just say what we mean. Euphemisms don't seem to be our thing.

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My dear mother (a Yankee, bless her heart) beat it into me that if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all, which temporarily cured me of bluntness; it has worn off over the years, but old habits die hard.

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PAINT! GAH! *clunk* head>desk

So I just sang the praises of Benjamin Moore paint on another thread. I may have to take it back. I drove MILES out of my way to get a pint sample of Yorktowne Green for my Dutch gambrel. This color. Pretty, right? And so Colonial!

https://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/color-overview/find-your-color/color/hc-133/yorktowne-green?color=HC-133&source=%2Fen-us%2Fcolor-overview%2Ffind-your-color%2Fcolor-collections%2FHC%2Fhistorical-colors

Green my @$$. I tried it on a window and then a long piece of siding to double-check. It was battleship gray. There is no other way to describe it. Hideous. There is no green or blue in it that I can see. I should have taken a picture. Maybe tomorrow. I was too ticked off to think of photographing it.

Tomorrow I'll pop over to Michael's and give this one a try. Americana is my usual go-to. I should have just stuck with it. I'm going for the picture below. This one might be too bright a blue. I'll find out tomorrow.

https://www.michaels.com/americana-acrylic-paint-2-oz/10132048.html

I'm using this for the front door. I painted the frame bright white and the front door bright cherry red. I looove it. Could it match that front door any more perfectly?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dollhouse-Miniature-Windsor-Door-Frame-by-Town-Square-Miniatures/192406686188?epid=1560759056

So in happier news, I searched through box after box for those really plain basic Houseworks windows. You know the ones, where the framing is basically just flat board with no cornice or anything fancy? I knew I had a few. I didn't know I had EIGHTEEN, lol. I have no idea why but oh well. Going to paint those with the same color as the clapboarding (if I can find the right color!).

I ended up sorting through more stuff and filled up four banker's boxes (FOUR!) with stuff to list on Ebay. Or just throw in the trash. I wouldn't offend any of you by offering it in the Trading Post forum. It is all utter garbage. Stuff that came with mixed lots I bought to get a few items. I just never got around to getting rid of the awful stuff.

The happier news I mentioned is that I found a lovely Colonial dining set that had belonged to my mother. I'd glimpsed it before but had no use for it so didn't really examine it. This time I thought, okay, this is nicely made so I turned it over to see if it was Concord, Town Square, Bespaq? No, it's Roger Gutheil (!!!). It was one of those suck-in-a-breath moments. Now, do not take that as humble-bragging, la-ti-da, I got Roger Gutheil furniture. I freely admit I have never in my life been able to afford even one piece of his work much less an entire dining room set. So yay Mom for being willing to pay more for a dollhouse dining room set than I paid for my RL one.

Tomorrow I'll put that set into one of her roomboxes and snap some pics. It's sooo pretty! There are some nice wingback chairs and camelback sofas with it as well but no maker's marks. I think they're Bespaq and not artisan made, but I don't recognize the upholstery fabric as one that Bespaq ever used. Maybe someone else will recognize it.

Hubby spackled the Lincoln house today. Going to let it cure overnight and then he'll go at it with the belt sander again tomorrow. I'll post update pics of that one if it ever looks showable. Sue Cook is selling me some simple column bases and capitals sans dowels to do the French Quarter gallery. I can get dowels for something like six for a dollar at my local hobby shop. The shipping alone from England would cost more than that!

Mill Street.jpg

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I have that Americana Blue. It is very dark. Ok for trim but I don’t think I’d do an entire house with it.  BM paints need to dry really well before the true color comes out. See how it looks in the morning.

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Thank you for telling me that Sable, I will do that! I'll give the window and the siding a second coat as well and see how it looks later in the day. I'll post pics of it under good light after the second coat has had time to dry well.

I was unsure of that blue. The sample pic on Michaels.com looks perfect. The pic of it in the bottle, eek, scary dark. You may have saved me a trip to the craft store.

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Probably a worthless pic because colors can show up differently on various monitors, but this is the siding strip I painted Benjamin Moore's Yorktown Greene in direct sunlight. I can sorta-kinda-maybe see a tinge of blue-green in bright sunlight. Indoors it is nothing but battleship gray.

I'm taking your word for that dark blue, Sable, and not going to bother with it. I guess I'll have to continue looking. I tried Americana's denim blue on the window I'd painted. It was so bad I didn't bother taking a picture of it.

Yorktowne Green.jpg

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I should have just trusted my paint-mixing skills from the start. Could have avoided the headache. I tried a dozen variations using two different shades of gray, three different shades of blue, and three different shades of green.

This is what I wanted. Equal parts Americana's Dark Gray, Hunter Green, and Denim Blue.

Mock-Up.jpg

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3 hours ago, Debsrand56 said:

That is a beautiful color combination, with trim and door.

Thanks Deborah. I used paints I've apparently had for longer than I thought. I went to Michael's to get more so I could mix up a batch to do the whole house, and I found every single one of those colors has been discontinued. I'll take the bottles in to see if I can find good substitutions. It's never easy, is it?

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6 hours ago, Debsrand56 said:

That is a beautiful color combination, with trim and door.

What she said ... I hope you can find the right colors to reproduce it. [Typing with fingers crossed. :) ]

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9 hours ago, KellyA said:

Thanks Deborah. I used paints I've apparently had for longer than I thought. I went to Michael's to get more so I could mix up a batch to do the whole house, and I found every single one of those colors has been discontinued. I'll take the bottles in to see if I can find good substitutions. It's never easy, is it?

Oh, no!  How frustrating!  Hope you are able to reproduce it.

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Back to Benjamin Moore. "This doesn't look right, could you please check it?" They agreed and mixed up a new pint at no charge. It still looks awful.

Back to Michael's to match paints. Forest Green is brighter than Hunter Green, Mediterranean Blue is brighter than Denim Blue, Zinc is lighter than Dark Gray. Let's try them anyway, maybe I can darken them with Dark Hauser Green, Navy Blue, and Black, respectively. No go.

Hubby asks what I'm doing that is frustrating me so much? I hold up the jar of my original mix. "Trying to match this so I can make a batch large enough to paint the entire house." :crazyeyes:

Hubs: "Why don't you just have Home Depot color match it?"

Me: expression on my face that reveals I'm thinking, "Garsh, I guess I better never try to walk and chew gum at the same time, DERP!"

*kiss* "LOVE YA, BABE!" as I run out the door to Home Depot, coming home later with a gallon of this: :cucumber:

Home Depot Color Match.jpg

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2 minutes ago, Sable said:

A quart should be plenty.

They would only mix me up a gallon. :(  Do they special mix quarts? Maybe I had a new employee who didn't know any better. She got the color right so I'm happy about that.

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8 minutes ago, KellyA said:

They would only mix me up a gallon. :(  Do they special mix quarts? Maybe I had a new employee who didn't know any better. She got the color right so I'm happy about that.

You can always use it for other builds, lighten it with white or whatever.

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