Yeah! Finally Starting On Alki Point!!!

Photo courtesy of robcizek.com/the-best-things-to-do-in-seattle

Once used as Washington State Seal

The official translation of the word Alki, a name the Native American Chinooks of the area  gave to the peninsula long before it existed within the state of Washington, is "Bye and Bye" or "Hope For The Future".

The actual Alki Beach neighborhood is home to many old Seattle family homes, some great modern ones, some amazing restaurants and some magnificent views including the Seattle city skyline, the Puget Sound, and the Olympic Mountains.

We were lucky enough to live and raise our kids there for six years!

When I first saw the Greenleaf kit from their 2012 Spring Fling contest (the winner of the contest named it the Asahi Tea House) it immediately made me think Modern. This was new to me, because I never fantasized in that realm before! It reminded me of the spectacular modern homes dotted along Beach Drive. I knew that someday, I was going to fulfill this modern fantasy, but I didn't expect it to be so soon!

After putting the barn aside, I started getting my workspace (dining room) cleaned and organized. Boy it was nice seeing my table again! And being able to see into the kitchen! Even my son said "whoa" when he walked in. Sometimes you forget how big something is until it's gone!

I'm planning on combining two kits, side by side, and changing the orientation so that the lower roofed side will be the front. This should give me room for a small bath and kitchen, and a bed and living space combined. Think small and modern beach rental.

My friends at the Greenleaf forum have assured me that I am going to LOVE working on 1/8" plywood as apposed to 3/8" MDF. Anna from Sweden was also so kind when she took photos of hers in progress and made a .pdf of instructions for me! Hers is going to have a Steampunk theme!

I took out all of the pieces, familiarized myself with them, and then laid them out on the table. This really helped me to visualize what I needed to do to each wood panel to make this new arrangement work.

I measured the back wall and determined that with the floor height, once connected to the walls, it is less than 7" tall. I'm thinking that this is not going to work well, because it might be an issue with the 3D printed tiled shower stall I made. It is 7" tall. I had to guess the height before the kit came, and I was a little generous.

So, in researching how to add an inch or so to dollhouse walls, I came across Daphne's blog post from April 2012. She raised the height of her Primrose using the walls from a second kit, then covered them with 3mm cellfoam to keep them straight and add strength. Sounds reasonable to me, so I ordered the cellfoam from Amazon. Gotta love Prime. I'll have it by Thursday!

I'm going to add 1/8" x 3/4" basswood to the bottom of every wall, minus where a door opening is going to be, then glue, pin and laminate each exterior wall section in the cellfoam.

So in the meantime, I added some window openings to the left end wall (bedroom/bath wall). I used an engineers square (newly acquired) to mark and score the plywood, then just slowly scored, and scored, and scored until I had cut it through. It wasn't bad in terms of being my first time bashing 1/8" plywood, but man I used a lot of #11 blades. Good thing I had a new pack on hand!

The original kit has a three ply beam that you can see in the opening end, and the walls have a notch where it sits. Mine is no longer opening on that side, so I had to re-position the beams from both kits. I decided to center them on each of their walls, and made the new notches to accommodate them.

Tonight I'll figure out what to do with the walls which will now be the front of the house. I am thinking large windows and/or sliding doors. That's going to take some brain power, a little coffee and some sustenance. Maybe even some ice cream! :0)

Forcing The Issue...

WARNING:

The following rant has been approved to be read only by miniature enthusiasts who've ever been; disappointed in their work, failed to properly plan, left a project unfinished due to a complete lack of vision fulfillment, had a better project standing by or who just got board. Others need not go on. You may come to the erroneous conclusion that I am whining.

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It has been an uphill battle bashing the Real Good Toys barn kit from the moment I opened the box. To summarize the issues:

1. The loft floor arrived in the kit warped. I thought I could fix it. Clamped it for 4 days, it did not work. Didn't realize how warped it was until it was way too late.
2. The front wall I special ordered from RGT arrived too short. Wrong model number. All emails related to the special order deleted once the part arrived - before I measured it (rookie mistake). 
3. Tape wire installation was extremely difficult. The MDF was so hard, harder than any I have ever worked with, that it broke several #55 bits and pin vices. Including the specialized MDF tool that I paid $10 for. Lights would work, then suddenly not work. Rewired and reconnected several times. At this point, I don't even want to check them.
4. Because the loft floor was warped, my divider walls did not sit very flush to the floor. I can tell, and every time I look at it, I cringe.
5. In general, it seems sloppy to me. Cracks that need to be camouflaged because the walls don't sit right (because of the warp), Ill fitting trim work, using the wrong adhesive on the flooring, crooked and blemished wallpaper, lighting fixtures that I ended up not liking.
6. Poor space planning that lead me to believe that I had way more room than I do. I made lots of  things ahead (like the kitchen unit, 2 bathroom sinks, a baking station, appliances) that ended up not working at all. The compromises I had to make essentially ruined the possibility to achieve my vision. It is nowhere close to what I wanted.
7. It was supposed to have a dedicated miniature workshop in the project. That is now the living room because the loft was not large enough to accommodate bedroom, bath, kitchen and living room. I have several 144th scale dollhouses that I was looking forward to building for the space. I had to install a landing in order for the stairs to work with the ceiling height. Once that happened, I lost the space for my dollhouse workshop.

Those are just to name a few. Each new step forced me to come up with compromises and find solutions to the previous solutions. I would have just enough successful things happen to encourage me to want me to soldier on. Dollhouses aren't supposed to be like battling in war!

Last night, sitting here telling my husband (whining) why I was so bummed out, he came up with a simple.plan...

"WHY NOT JUST PUT THE BARN PROJECT ASIDE UNTIL YOU FEEL LIKE WORKING ON IT AGAIN? WORK ON SOMETHING THAT YOU ARE EXCITED ABOUT. THAT'S THE POINT OF A HOBBY, RIGHT?"

Did I mention that he is brilliant? And so much more supportive (enabling) than I ever deserve?

Why do I believe that I have to finish something before I deserve to go on to the next exciting thing? Probably for the same reason that I believe I have to organize the linen closet before company comes. Judgement? Guilt? Ingratitude?

It's all a load of you know what. And I am over it. Come one, come all! My house is messy! And I don't always finish things! And I eat way too much Ben & Jerry's! Who cares!

Ahhhhhh..... Deep. Cleansing. Breath.

I have decided to move the barn to a place outside my work space. I will get to it when I get to it (if I don't decide to dismantle it, strip it down and then smash it - evil grin). It is NOT the BOSS of ME!

I am cleaning and reorganizing. I ordered some nice tools and organizational things I wanted from Amazon. And then...

I am going to do whatever I feel like doing.

Happy Halloween Everyone!

Today On The Barn...

Today On The Barn... I was able to complete the grout around the fieldstone. I updated the Product Review: Andi-Mini Fieldstone page with more specifics. Overall, I am happy with the results.










After completing the grout, I installed some of the trim pieces. I'm so glad that I had stained the trim in advance. It made it so that I didn't have to change gears. My dining room table is a mess at this point, and I have too much crap that I am trying to work around already.





I was able to finish staining both decks last night before bed. The balcony was dry and ready to be installed this morning.








I wasn't ready though. I must have been sleep drunk because when I had slathered it in glue and went to install it in place, I realized that I had glued the "beams" flush with the back. This interfered with the trim on the wall.  I was supposed to leave a 1/4" space. I did not.








 Therefore, I had to pull off the beams, scrape off the glue, re-measure, re-glue the beams, and then install the balcony. Sheesh... I never fail to trip myself up on this project!!!








I like the front deck a lot! It looks great with the fieldstone! Once I get started on the lanscaping, I bet I'll like it even more!


But first, tomorrow, I must clean up my messes! I can't stand looking at or working in it any more!!!

Then, I will take some photos of the AWESOME 3D items I got in the mail today! I am so excited! I can't believe I made them!!!