Scattered

 Since my last post I glued down the flooring. Wallpaper Mucilage does not work at all like Grandmother Stover's glue. There were spots that didn't adhere, and you can kind of feel some bumpiness when you run your hand across it. I put weights on the problem areas overnight. It feels like it's adhered pretty well, so I'll leave it and we'll call it "Barn Wood". I'll be staining it along with the doors and windows pretty soon here.

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The wallpaper I have for the bathroom is the kind that is self pasted. The glue is  supposed to activate after sitting for 5 minutes. Mine didn't. I ended up using watered down Grandmother Stover's and that worked really well. At first it wanted to bead up, but I let it sit for several minutes, then sponge brushed it out again and it spread just fine. I'm so glad I made the pattern for the wallpaper when I cut the walls - It worked great!

I have a little tub & shower kit from MBS. They are the ones that make all the clear plastic tile, sinks, toilets etc. The idea is, you paint the underside and the top side ends up looking like porcelain.

These are actually the shower fixtures. Right now, stuck into styrofoam for painting, it kind of looks like a lava rock! Once they are dry I have to drill holes for them and attach them to the tile shower surround.

The bathroom is only going to be as wide as the shower, so I needed to paint the kit and do a dry fit. Working around the dormer window in the bathroom was a real puzzle. I think it's going to look better in there if I just cover the dormer window with wallpaper and tile and pretend it is not there. From the front side of the barn, when I install the window I will just affix a curtain to it.

I'll have to make a shower curtain and rod, and attach the molding for the front of the tub. I also have to make the sconces, paint the towel bar and TP holder etc. I can't wait to get to the decorating part!

I've run most of the tapewire for the loft. I have 4 plugs hidden under the roof pieces that can't easily be seen. These are what I'll use to plug in the lighting fixtures - I still have to make all of them!

The bedroom is going to have a plug on either side of the bed so that lamps can plug into them. I have put marks on the front wall where I need more plugs installed. I still have to figure out the wall covering in the bedroom and kitchen before the front wall can be attached. Then I'll have to tie in the bedroom plugs to the main taperun. There's also going to be a light outside the french doors, so I need to drill a hole for the wires and install another plug in for that.

This is the kitchen space. I haven't cut the stairwell hole out of the wood floor yet. I am worried that the floor will become unadhered. Yikes!

I'll need to paper the three walls and the ceiling in here, too.

I have lots to do and feel very scattered! I guess I need a dry erase board like Russ has in the garage! I used to be so organized! Oh well, old age, I guess!

Challenges Make The Achievements All The Sweeter

Now that all of the openings have been cut I can finally start gluing the structure together! The bottom and the top are designed so that you can take the top off to play with the horses, if that's what you have the barn for. In our case, I need to join the top and bottom so that I can run the electrical tapewire. In this photo, you can see the bottom floor glued, taped and weighted together.

The roof pieces have an interesting barn shape. I took the end pieces and traced them onto some 1/4" plywood (minus the groove) before I glued them to the roof floor. This way, I have a pattern for the interior walls that I need to cut. In this photo I have the two interior walls cut and then used them to make a cardboard pattern for the future wall coverings.

In this photo I have placed the interior walls into their approximate location. I think the adjusted floor plan from left to right will be living room, bathroom then bedroom. My original plan was to also have the kitchen up here, but now I think it will have to go downstairs.

In this photo I have cut out the door openings. I'm seriously considering gluing down the woof floors before the interior walls are installed. It might be sooo much simpler. 

Later, I was able to get a couple coats of primer on the first floor and the main structure of the second floor. I drew all the lines for the shingles on the exterior of the roof pieces, and will hopefully get them primed tomorrow.

Our experiment using the miter saw to cut the unique roof angle on the dormers didn't go as smoothly as we'd have liked. Remember in my previous post the styrofoam jig we made for piece # 2&3? Well piece #1 slipped while Russ was cutting, leaving it a little "different" than 2&3. That left us an opportunity to make lemonade. The whole front roof piece looks a little Frankenstein-ish, but with a little love and a lot of trim I think we can make it look passable.

I think the next step after I primer the roof pieces will be to begin the tapewire process. Russ suggested I leave both floors as separate until absolutely necessary so that it is easier to work on both floors. He also suggested I make it so that the second floor just plugs into the main floor. I think he's on to something! Unless I decide to run power to the 2 interior walls for the upper floor, I can basically attach the small roof sections, run the tapewire, install all the plugs for the ceiling fixtures, install the wood floor, and leave the partition walls and front roof piece for last. That way, I can paint or paper them before installation and that is so much easier!

This is where things start to get both exciting and frustrating! You see your vision coming to life, and you have all sorts of little issues to work out. It makes the achievement so much sweeter, tho, because you have to get creative!

Here are a couple of inspiration photos for those of you who have a hard time visualizing what I have in mind for the end result. Hopefully, it I'll be able to incorporate some of these ideas, even tho the space I thought I was working with has been dramatically reduced.

Wish me luck!

We pulled out a victory!

Thanks to my awesome man, I now have all the openings (except for the dormers - story later) cut out for the barn!

It took me all afternoon, several "do-overs" and a good bit of my pencil eraser, but I finally got the openings laid out. I'm blaming the full moon for why I traced everything on the wrong side and had to do it over. It was beautiful, tho, and the night was one of those magic warm summer nights I look forward to all winter!

The dormers were a bit of a challenge. They are made for a regular pitched roof. The barn roof, well, it's a barn roof and not nearly as pitched as a normal house. This meant some adjustments. The hubs said we needed to figure out the angle. I asked him how to do that, and he pulls out this funny looking dial tool and says with this. He's a genius, and apparently our barn roof is a 22 degree angle.

The next challenge was how to cut a 22' angle using a giant miter saw on a triangular shaped dormer. The first attempt did not go as we'd planned, and did not achieve the results we were looking for. Luckily, the dormer ended up mostly in tact, Russ still has all his fingers, and I can camouflage the cosmetic and structural damage.

Next, we put our brains together and came up with a jig using styrofoam pieces I had tucked away. The next 2 dormers turned out great! I retraced their outlined onto the roof piece and we will cut them out tomorrow.

I am super excited to finally be beginning the barn structure, and so grateful that my husband is smart, supportive and owns lots of tools!

More exciting stories to tell tomorrow! Night everyone!