Waiting...

In my last post I was making windows. I forgot how long that takes. Apparently, for me, on a project this small, it takes three days! It would have been faster, but I had to wait for the garage to heat up a bit before I could paint.

I had something like 14 frames to make. That meant I had something like 14 frames to sand, fill, sand, and paint. That meant a lot of waiting in between. I found myself getting really board, so I took lots of TV breaks while I waited. I watched the first episode of Master Chef Junior. How cute are those kids?!? Guess I'll have to wait until tonight to see the next episode!

I had to be very gentle. I have a tendency to get really enthusiastic with my sanding strokes. There were at least two frames that I broke apart and had to re-glue. Then, I had to re-wait for them to dry.










One of the mullions broke off just as I was getting ready to spray the paint on it. I told it to go take a flying leap, then just left it apart from the frame. I'll wait and re-glue it on after the paint dries. If I don't smash it first. Just kidding... kind of... I'm waiting for paint to dry now.

I kept waffling, too... Should the window frames, front wall, door frames, and beams be black or grey? I looked at a bunch of photos, thought black was the way to go, but just before I went out to the garage to do the deed I chickened out. I imagined the finished project sitting on the shelf in front of me. In the end I decided black was just a little harder to keep clean. Rustoleum Satin Granite seemed like a more neutral option. I'm almost out. If I run out before I am finished I'll have to wait for more to come from Amazon.



I could start the wall texture paper. Oh, wait... I am still waiting for that to come in the mail.

I could start painting the little accessories from Shapeways. Oh wait... I am still waiting for that package to come in the mail.

I could start making the platform bed. Oh wait... I am still waiting for the fabric to come.

Oh wait a minute! The tracking says there was a notice left in my mail box. A notice? I was here all day! What the b-l-e-e-p!

Oh! The notice says that the carrier lock on our box has been broken since 11/10? A work order has been put in to fix it? We are still waiting for the fix? Until then I have to drive to the post office to pick up my mail? I guess I'll have to wait in line there, too.

Oh brother. Do you ever feel like the universe is conspiring against you? Just to teach you some patience?

But I don't wanna wait! I wanna live by the motto on my garage door!

Mid-Century Modern, Or Just Plain Modern?

The next step in the building process was to get the front window wall window frames figured out. I needed them done before I could truly do a "dry fit" and make sure there were no fatal flaws (remember the barn? Boy I do!). I removed a good part of that wall for windows, so I needed to add some strength back.





I had a general idea of the size and number of windows I wanted, because I had drawn them out on the piece before I took the scroll saw to it. I based them on the window cut outs in the kit.

I set off the smoke detectors taking measurements. Add a 3/4" x 6-1/2" piece next to the door frame, measure the hole height and length, add the 1/4" thickness of the trim wood, subtract the 1/8" mullions x 3... There is still soot coming out of my ears when I sneeze or cough!

Once I was fairly confident in my measurements, I decided to draw everything out in Publisher. This way, I could print it and hold the mock up to the window opening to see if I had measured correctly. Plus, I could then use the pattern to square my frame up. My gluing jig is not wide enough!





I had to cut everything for two frames, one for the outside and one for the inside. I made the cut list, and and just cut the pieces one at a time with my Easy Cutter. I ended up needing 32 1/8" x 1/8" mullions. For those, I broke out the rip saw and taped 6 pieces together so I could cut six pieces at a time.

Once I began gluing the pieces in place, I started to realize that with all of those mullions, the frame was kind of taking on a Mid-Century feel. Whoa! I had to stop and reevaluate my whole plan here! Was Mid-Century really what I was going for? No! No, no, no, no!





Too bad I didn't figure all of this out before I hacked 6 pieces of 1/8" x 1/8" x 24" into 42 1-1/5" pieces.

So, I glued only the outer frame pieces and the 3 horizontal inner frame pieces. Much better! But wait, what was I going to do with the pre-cut window mullions in the walls, the ones in the roof wall pieces, and the ones I'd purposely left in the door frames? Oh yeah! I can just cut those out!





Phew! Not that I am against Mid-Century in any way. I made a fantastic Mid-Century home in Sims 3 that at last count had about 300 downloads, but that was not my vision for this build!

Where I am trying to go with this build is Modern-Modern. In other words, the Contemporary, current version of Modern. Not the modern that was modern in the Mid 20th century. Make sense?

Oh, well. Whatever. I am not a purist in any sense of the word. I just want what I want and it is not vertical mullions... We'll see what I actually end up with... :0)

Alki Point Veneer Strip Flooring

One of the things I find myself ogling over in photographs of modern interior design are the wood floors. Sometimes they are very linear with thin, long planks. And sometimes, they are surprisingly rustic with wide reclaimed boards. Somehow, this combination of clean and minimal along with some well loved accents really works. In one of my inspiration photos, they even carried the wood planking onto the bed wall in lieu of a headboard.

With the interior of the Alki Point, white and grey are to be the prominent colors (a combination which can seem cold if you're not careful). I needed an element to balance their cool tones with some warmth. The floors seemed like the perfect palette! And what a perfect opportunity to branch out a bit in terms of working with a different wood medium.

I have used Houseworks wood flooring sheets a number of times, and I have even made wood floors and floorboards using basswood. These are great solutions and give you really nice results, but I really wanted to achieve a custom look with these floors. One option, which I have seen beautifully done on many mini blogs, was to make wood flooring from veneer, This seemed like an exciting endeavour!

I found a nice pack of wood veneers on Amazon, and they really had some great reviews. I got them within a few days, and I am very happy with the selection. After calculating what I received in my pack, I will have enough veneer to make ten 11 x 17 wood floors for the price of two. There are a couple drawbacks; 1) You never know what you are getting. They are truly a sample pack. 2) None of the veneers are labeled, so unless you know a lot about wood species, it's anybodies guess what they are.




I found 4 sheets that I liked the pattern on for this project. They were in the brown or grey-ish brown family to add some warmth. Kristine from Paper Doll Miniatures used her paper cutter on her veneer, so I gave it a try! I cut all of the pieces 1/2" in width, then made several lengths ranging from 6" down to 1-1/2". It was a great solution!




I had to be really paying attention when I made the cuts, as some of the types of wood were more brittle than others and wanted to shift. As long as I held on good to the piece I was cutting, they were pretty good. There was a bit of a scrap pile from my learning curve. I painted the floor burnt umber as a background in case there were gaps.




I read a few How To articles on real sized wood floors, and basically came to the conclusion that I just needed to start in the center and work my way from there. It took the better part of the day to get them glued down.






Although I didn't really have any trouble with the Grandmother Stover's glue, I still would do a section and put a lead weight on them for a bit. When it was all finished, I put a layer of waxed paper, then plywood, then all the heavy stuff I have on hand and let it sit overnight.

This morning I set about the detailing. There were some gaps that I thought were a bit large, and due to the slight variance in thickness, it needed a good sanding. I watched a couple YouTube videos, and was surprised to learn that even real life wood floors have gaps! One of the things that they do to fill them is to mix sawdust and a little wood glue as a filler. Then they stain it along with the rest of the floor. Who knew?






I filled in a couple slivers with scrap pieces, then kind of left the sawdust in the cracks as I sanded. I wondered how my sawdust was going to blend in since I was going to leave the floors natural. I started with 220 grit, then did a 400 before my first coat of satin varnish. It was nice and smooth! I let it dry for a couple of hours, then came back with an 800 grit light sanding before the second coat.







After the second coat, I wasn't liking the satin finish. It was just a little too shiny. The cabinets are going to be shiny, so shiny floors would just be too much! I sanded again with 800 grit, then applied a matte finish.


Here is the end result, and for my first time, I am completely happy!











Here is the three sided mock up with the wall lifters. One of the slots I cut on the back was is a little off, so I need to work on that. Before I can dry fit the last/front wall I need to make the window frame. There is barely any wall left to stand up as of now! The walls have been spackled, sanded, primed, sanded and probably need another round.



My Shapeways order is almost finished in production, so hopefully soon I can do a little decorating mock up to make sure everything will fit.