Wall Coverings

Today was all about wall coverings...

I started with the bedroom walls by applying a couple coats of honeycomb paint. The wood strips I'm using as the wall treatment are very thin and they tend to curl when I apply the glue. Some glues are worse than others, so I used Grandmother Stover's. I'd apply a few strips and then clamp them for a while before doing the next section.




I could only do half of the french door wall, because I can't cover the tapewire until I attach the front wall/roof and tie into the taperun. I did cut the pieces, tho, so it will be a lot easier when it's time to paste and clamp them in.











I like the contrast in the wood strips. It gives it a nice reclaimed wood look. I'm not sure yet if I'll do any staining, or just a varnish. One of my wall plugs is crooked. Good thing there will be a nightstand in front of it!

You can never have enough clamps!










This is the bedroom side of the wall. The bathroom is on the other side.














The kitchen wallpaper has also been installed on all three walls.









The next step will be to stain all of the windows, doors and trim. It will be a lot easier to trim out the dormers before I attach it to the front. This means I have a major clean up and reorganization project before I can start the stain. My dining room is a mess, and I'll need my entire table to turn into a stain factory.

Fun Little Project...

In between dealing with all of the technical issues this week, I managed to finish up a fun little project!

This is the tub/shower that will go into the retirement barn. I like rustic living, but there's no harm in having a few modern conveniences, too!

This unit measures just 5-3/8" wide x 6-1/2" tall.




The MBS kit was fun, although since I needed to make it a freestanding unit I had to get a little creative. The kit comes with adhesive sheets. You're supposed to stick them to each of the three tile wall panels, then affix them to the dollhouse walls. Since I have no walls ready yet, I had to use clear packaging tape to make all the walls into one unit.



Gluing the tub to the walls was challenging. I made a couple of stacked wood braces for the underside ends of the tub so I'd have a better gluing surface. I did one end at a time and made sure the epoxy was fully set before I moved on.






The shower faucet, tub spigot and mixing valve were included in the kit but were an ugly grey color. I coated them with flat black enamel and then gave them an aged bronze finish coat. It did not come with the drain unit or the soap dish. I made the drain from a jewelry finding.








The shower curtain is made from an old placemat. I've had it for years, and it had a couple of mustard stains on it! The pattern and weave were right, though, so it took one for the team. It was two pieces with batting in the middle, so I used a seam ripper to separate the pieces, then in true OCD mode, pulled all the batting from the fabric.






I was able to find an area without stains for the shower curtain. I cut the piece I needed, then ironed the seams flat. I used fabric glue to affix the seams. I ironed pleats evenly in the fabric, made a small hole with the seam ripper, then inserted a jump ring into the center of each flat area between the pleats. This is so the shower curtain can slide across the shower curtain rod.

The shower curtain rod is a piece of 1/8" dowel cut to size. The parts that hold the curtain rod ends to the tile are just bead caps. I sanded them down then painted them the same as the shower hardware.







It was nice to have a little reprieve from the electronic issues, and now I can move on to the wall treatments in the bedroom and kitchen!

Technology Trouble...

I seem to be having one of those months where anything electronic goes wrong. Last week, our Wi-Fi just stopped working. I finally tracked it down to the Linksys wireless router. Well, it is over 5 years old, so maybe it was time to replace it...

I ordered a new one from Amazon. Because of having Amazon Prime, it would only take 2 days to get here. In the meantime, I just linked up to Russ' Verizon hotspot and we were back in business...

The router arrives, I go to set it up, and it wants me to plug it into my computer using the ethernet cable. What! Did I really order a non wireless router? Damn it! I did! Arghhhh...

While on one of the many trips upstairs to the router (where the cable modem lives) I realized I had the old power cord. The old router was plugged in with the new power cord, and suddenly, it was working again! All of this for a bad power cord? Back to Amazon the new router goes, order a new power cord for the old one and wait 2 days again.

In the meantime, my computer is running really loud. And, suddenly it just shuts itself off. It did this about 2 years ago, too. The video card was full of dust and was unable to cool itself off. This would heat up the CPU to a dangerous level, and as a safety feature, so as not to fry the motherboard, it shuts itself off.

I spent the next 2 days computer shopping online, only to realize that my computer is still better than anything out there under $1,500. Then I began looking for a replacement video card and finding that mine is still better than most mid-level gaming cards. Time to pop open my tower and see what's what.

20 minutes and 12 screws later I found the problem; a dust ball festival was in full swing in the copper cooling unit of the fan on the video card. I feel kind of bad that I had to destroy a whole colony of dust mites, but my computer is back to quick, quiet bliss!

Then Russ' new iPhone and iPad arrive. Let's just say we've been working on setting it up since last Friday. Wiped the phone clean and started over 3 times. All the information from the old phone is living somewhere on a cloud, but the new phone can't seem to find it. 2 days with tech support, and there are still issues.

But... 2 days ago, I go to print a letter I had written to one of Russ' old school friends (who just happens to reside where you can't get emails ) and I'm out of black ink. Again, Amazon Prime saves me. I can wait 2 days to print.

Finally, today at 2:00 the ink arrives. I pop it in the old HP All In One (that's been a royal pain in the @$$ since I bought it), and immediately it gives me an error code. I get my Google on, find a dozen pages on the issue, and 2 hours later the printer still does not like its own HP ink cartridge. Arghhhh!

1. Return the ink cartridges to Amazon
2. Order highly rated $100 Canon all in one (plus extra ink)
3. Buy the extra 3 year warranty for $8
4. Wait 2 days...

Oh God I hope this ends soon!!! Anyone want to come over and help me Office Space the old printer?