Back To The Grind...

Hello friends! I'm back home in the northwest, safe and sound, and mom's new place is adorable! Arizona was beautiful and although very hot (108 was the highest temp in Lake Havasu City while I was there), not at all intolerable. Stepping outside from the air conditioning felt like getting into a warm tub and my 48 year old joints felt like they were wrapped in a heating pad! Just one day back in our moist climate has reminded me why lots of people retire to the southwest. Hello again arthritis...

There was lots of moving, lifting, unpacking and shopping for mom's new home. In between and while waiting for the moving truck to arrive, we toured the surrounding areas and got a taste of all the southwest has to offer. I think mom is going to love discovering her new city, and adopting a new routine will be a great adventure for her and my dad.

One of the fun excursions we enjoyed was a trip to the Mesa swap meet. Mom had seen some pottery cut out back-lit scene lamps there last year and knew she had to have them. Can you believe I didn't remember to take a picture? Well, they look something like this, only hers has a saguaro cactus, a jar and a wagon wheel. I have a feeling I may just come home with an empty one on a future visit - imagine the mini scene you could create inside!

Mom also bought her first two pairs of sandals - ever! Yep, she's never owned a pair and now she'll be living in them. Needless to say, we also had pedicures. Her tiny feet and newly painted toes looked stylish and adorable in them! Again, no photo - where was my head?

I got to stop at Auntie Em's in Glendale, and this time we got there early enough so that I could see everything! I made myself right at home, and methodically went through every box and basket of vintage and clearance miniatures. While sitting on the floor in between the pegged lighting displays, another shopper stopped by to ask where the picture frames could be found. She thought I worked there, and oddly enough, I knew right where they were! I found several unique fixtures for the Glencroft kit (third project in line as of this writing)...

And nearly cleaned out a basket of fixtures marked down to $2.50 each. I am thinking these will work well for Brimble's, although starting it is nowhere on the radar at the moment.

I found a mate to the window I picked up there in February - now I have two. I am thinking they will work in the Glencroft's stairwell. There I go cutting walls again! I can't seem to leave well enough alone. The little jug is slated for this build, too.

I found a couple unique doors made by Timberbrook - no idea on their age but I liked that they were unique and marked down. The third door has no makers mark but I loved the shape. If I make a pattern from it I can use it again and again on future builds.

I liked the look of this balcony kit, and although I don't have a dollhouse kit that it will work for, I thought it would make a neat stand alone and space saving little scene backdrop. Sometimes it's nice to have a quick build idea on hand when the big projects become a little mundane.

I found a couple packs of newel posts for the New Orleans stair balcony and a couple carved wall panels that I might use on the upstairs doors. For Brimble's, I found a kit to make a hot dog warmer and condiments.

The next build in the queue is a Christmas cottage. I'll be using the Dura-Craft Columbian kit and I think I've got pretty much everything I need. I was going to build a sink and cabinets, but when I saw these I just couldn't resist them. I want to go totally cutsie with this build, so we'll see where that leads. With less than six months to go until the holidays, I may need to get started on it concurrently with the New Orleans.

And just to prove that I am indeed mad for miniatures and am also an optimistic soul who will apparently be living a long time and be healthy enough to complete several more dollhouse projects before I die, I came home to the kit below which I had purchased using the eBay app on my iPad from Arizona. It was way too easy.

I had been thinking about looking for a Dura-Craft Heritage, but when I've seen them available, I didn't like the asking price or the shipping. $50 for the unopened Linfield was just too good to pass up. And what will I do with it now?

Add it to the pile of future hopes and dreams. :0P

Last but not least, I am woefully behind on my blog reading and commenting. I am going through withdrawal! It is amazing how a 67 year old senior citizen can keep you from sitting longer than 5 minutes at a stretch. Let's just say that it's good to be home with my butt in a chair and so many good blog posts to catch up on!

Back to the grind :0),

Jodi

Very Little Progress...

I started to wonder why in the heck I wasn't making encouraging progress on the New Orleans build when it dawned on me: I've been busy doing other real life stuff for the past seven weekends! No wonder! And it's not about to get better any time soon. I am heading down to Arizona with my mom tomorrow morning to get the new retirement house all set up. We'll be gone at least two weeks, and when I get home, we have a family Father's Day camp out. Good thing all of this real life stuff is so fun and interesting - it makes the slow progress on mini dreams more bearable!

I got the enlarged stairwell opening cut, then traced out the rooms onto the ceiling so that I could decide where and how many can lights to add.

I laid out some of the ceiling decorations to help decide on the light placement.

I decided not to put any inside the living room ceiling decoration because I will have the fireplaces sconces and a couple of lamps. I did leave myself the option of adding a ceiling fixture later if it looks like the room needs more light. The hall at the back of the room will have two can lights.

The kitchen is going to be a little more modern, so I decided to plan for four can lights and a possible hanging fixture over the sink. I still have a few left from all of the 3D printing and testing I did for Alki Point.

I'll have two in the porch ceiling in addition to a wall fixture by the door.

The lights I have are spotlight LEDs from JS Miniatures. They come in a set of 10 with the lights and eyelets for around $30 including the shipping from the UK. Although the bulbs are not flush with the ceiling, they are a much more economical option that the Novalyte can lights which run about $12 each. 

They don't seem too intrusive, so I think at 1/4 of the price that they'll work out fine.

Once I had all of the 1/8" holes drilled, I had to make the channels for the wiring. The large hole in the center of the floor is the hub where all of the wires will run to the power strip behind the chimney breast. I basically just marked, scored then chipped out the plywood to make the grooves. Hopefully they are all deep enough or it will mean more sanding.

Oh! One quick tip for getting a good non slip grip - put a silpat under the board or saw. It's nice not to have things move on you! This one is dedicated for minis, and I also use it to cover the cookie sheet when I bake polymer clay.

Here is the ceiling after the ceiling paper has been applied.

And the test fits.

Next I dug out a whole mess of stickers, Dresden and findings to try and come up with the ceiling decoration for the living room. I hope in the end it's not too busy and not too plain.

For the dining room, this is all it needs. The crown starts where the pencil lines are, and because it is behind the kitchen and the arched doorway you will hardly see it at all. I'm going to add a fancy chandelier from the center above the dining room table.

I debated adding the faux tin ceiling in the kitchen, but in the end decided to add it and paint it sea foam. The rest of the kitchen will be white, including the tile, so it was a chance to add some texture and a little color.

Here's the living room ceiling after two coats of ceiling paint. I also added trim to the columns, but haven't gotten to paint them yet.

I hope all of you have a ~W~O~N~D~E~R~F~U~L~ Memorial Day Weekend! I'll post anything interesting and/or mini related while I'm basking in the Arizona sunshine. A Trip to Auntie Em's, perhaps? I hope so!

Jodi

Everybody's Catching Spring Fever!

Every day when I come to check out my blog roll, there seems to be new posts! It has made it such an awesome week getting to see what everyone is working on - seems like we all have a touch of mini spring fever!

Russ and I threw a bag in the Jeep Saturday morning and headed for one of our favorite places to camp: Gifford Pinchot National Forest. Skate Creek Road, closed seasonally as soon as the first snow appears, was finally open. It's a beautiful and lush drive that starts just before the Mt. Rainier National Park entrance gate. So many waterfalls, and thanks to record rain and snow pack, the rivers and creeks were running high. We found that several forest service roads had been closed due to severe storm damage, but we were lucky to find a beautiful spot on FS Rd 26 just north of Mount St. Helens. The weather was beautiful, it was so peaceful, and we came home Monday with a full tank of zen!

With the remaining free time since my last post, I was able to make some ground on the New Orleans living room and stairs. Because of the sunny/cloudy/sunny/cloudy light fluctuations this week, I had to use a combination of flash/no flash in the photos. I usually don't like using the flash - it makes the photos seem like they are caught with their panties down in some weird way. Anyway, I apologize in advance for the lighting in the photos.

No Flash

With Flash

I never have built in a staircase, so I wanted to give it a try. It seemed that the best material to use might be illustration art board. It's very sturdy, cuts easily with an Xacto and is made for watercolor, so it's not going to mind moisture from glue or paint. I took a piece and placed it behind the staircase so that I could draw the correct angle to cut.

I planned to box in only a portion so that there was plenty of space to enter the front door. I love how old houses have these quirky little features. When I cut the piece for the left side, I left it a little higher so that it would also become the stair trim on the wall.

Sun is out!

Once all of the pieces were measured and cut, I did a dry fit to make sure all of the angles were right and that the bottom edges were even. Tippy stairs are no good! Luckily, it fit and functioned perfectly! There is no room at the end of the stairs, but it is what it is and I am okay with pretending that the floor extends beyond what is presented.

To make everything square and secure, I added support strips to the art board and to the stairs. This made the gluing and clamping much more stable.

In keeping with the little touches of frou-frou in the build, I added some pre-fab resin wainscot molding. The stuff is easy to cut with a scroll saw, but not at all easy with a razor saw (at least that was my experience). Sanding the stuff is also very easy. I don't have a way or the right tool to miter the edges vertically, so I had to play around with the trims I had until I came up with something acceptable where the corners met. I am okay with the cornice molding, and hopefully when I fill and paint, it will look meant to be. One other note about the resin pieces from Unique Miniatures - I had 5 pieces of the wainscoting and none of the thicknesses were consistent with each other or from one end of the piece to the other. Also, two of the pieces were slightly taller than the other three, and the baseboard relief was a little different. The stock numbers were the same, so maybe they were just manufactured at different times? Anyway, if you are planning to use it, maybe ask when you order for them to check the consistency for you.

One of the changes that I am making to the kit is to eliminate one of the three upstairs dividing walls. I'd also like to expand the staircase opening so that the house has a more open feel. The opening is going to be roughly 10" deep x 5-1/2 wide. I'll add railing around the opening upstairs so that it creates a balcony looking down onto the hallway and stairway.  Because I am removing some of that structural support, I decided to add in a half wall with columns. I am hoping it will not only support the ceiling, but will add visual appeal and more space for displaying decor.

Between the chimney breast and the divider/support the floor space in the living room is getting tight. I'll have about 8" x 12" left to fill. I think it will turn out fine as long as I carefully choose the furniture. I do like the look of a crowded dollhouse, though - it seems more homey and less formal. If I can achieve a nice amount of architectural detail in the background with a lot of lived in too, I'll have reached my vision!

I left the top free from the shelf thinking it would be a good idea to attach the columns to it with glue and nails. Then I'll add some trim where they meet the surface and ceiling.

Next I have a lot of filling, sanding and painting to do before I can begin the ceiling lights. It will be so nice to have consistent interior lighting to help with the touch up and trims. Prudence tells me NOT to install treads and railing to the stairs until I absolutely HAVE to. It will be so much easier  to install the remaining trim work with removable stairs.

Happy Mother's Day to all of you who are moms and caregivers! I hope you feel all that love coming back to you, and that you are as treasured as you should be!

xxx ooo.
Jodi