In Shambles With No Direction...

Oh good gravy where to begin...

I cracked open the Sugarplum box, mostly because my life and home are in shambles, and there's no clear direction which way to start. You see, my family room is getting new floors, but the hubs also has other work to do so it sits now as is...

Which means that all of it's contents are residing elsewhere for the time being - mainly my kitchen and main hallway. I can do nothing about anything until the last pieces are cut and installed, including the new quarter round trim to cover the gap in the baseboards where the carpeting used to be. Once that is done I can begin to put the room and it's contents back into functional order...

Happy ending, right? But wait......... After this part of the house is finished then we begin to empty the living and dining rooms - also known as my office and workshop area to install new floors there too. This of course means more shambles and work progress based on the hub's schedule of paying jobs which take priority. More importantly, it means I am out of the mini business until that project is finished. While I love the idea of getting rid of 8 year old carpet in favor of easier care wood floors, I feel a little like a captain without a ship to sail. I may be leaving on Friday to go on a little sunshine seeking trip with my mom, so I am just doing what I can until I have control over anything again...

So today I decided to crack open the Sugarplum Cottage kit and at least do some planning. I have never been known to leave well enough alone, so I'll be making lots of modifications. I did a dry fit to get an idea of the size, and to mark out where I need to make new and bigger openings for the doors and window upgrades.

Here I have traced the new door opening I'll need to cut

Here's the door I'll be using

These will be the new window frames


I am adding a different round window to the upper level. This meant I had to leave in the cut out for the original window. Inside the original cut out was a roof brace. I had to trace a new one using scrap plywood to fill the hole back in with. Now I will trace and cut away the material for the round window.

It was a pretty thick window, so luckily I was able to pry two of the layers off so that it will better fit the thin plywood opening. I have another window, but not sure where to put it at this point since the space on the opposite end of the upstairs wall is slated for the chimney.

The upgraded windows and doors are made by Allesso and sold on eBay through Manchester Woodworks. I've been collecting them for a while now, just waiting for the perfect project to use them in.

I am going to cut away the majority of the second floor, leaving only about a one inch display shelf all of the way around. The second floor really blocks off the view into the ground floor, and since this is going to be a frilly fru-fru type soapy shop, it's better to be able to see in.

Everything is in shambles right now, and that is really out of my comfort zone. I like an organized sort of chaos, and the way my house and work area stands, it's really driving me crazy. Is this yet another lesson in tolerance lovingly given to me by the universe? Well, that's how I am choosing to interpret it... for now...

BTW... Anybody have any idea what this is?