One Person's Ceiling Is Another Person's Floor

Yep! You guessed it! This week was all about ceilings and floors. And, in keeping with this entire fairytale treehouse project, the process was a bit out of the ordinary.

Remember a few weeks ago I had mentioned that the treehouse's living room would be a "Great Room"? Well, to me, "Great" means grand or tall. Or perhaps three stories tall? To achieve this, I was going to need to cut some of the second and third floor away. After taking some measurements of the amount of walking width the girls would need to skirt around this chasm, I cut the opening from the kit's second and third floor pieces. On the second floor, this left only a balcony which runs along two walls in the room. On the third floor, with the gables and roof angles, it left only a catwalk. 

The masking taped area is acting as bracing to prevent the kit's die cut staircase opening from popping out during the cutting process. Since I relocated the stairs, I don't need the treads or decorative piece, so I just glued them in.

Here is another example of the potential adjustments that must be made if you decide to construct a dollhouse kit in your own fashion rather than following the instructions. My floor would no longer just simply slot into the tabs because of my "pre-fab" walls. No problem - now my floor slides in in two pieces: the bedroom section and the great room's balcony for the second floor, and Wayne's apartment floor and the catwalk for the third floor.

Once the floor design was settled upon, I had to think about the flip side: the ceiling. Naturally, a treehouse would be perfectly comfortable with an open beam ceiling. To emulate the floorboards, gaps were scribed into the floor in a horizontal direction, then "beams" were installed vertically. The floorboards were treated to a brown wash and the beams painted khaki in keeping with the other timbers in the house. Simple but effective. The discolored area is where the staircase opening would have been. I secured the die cut pieces with wood glue. This area will be hidden by the stove's chimney.

It is always fun to get an idea what the room will feel like to the little folks living here. This room has the potential to feel like a cave. That's why keeping the walls and timbers and masonry light was essential.

As a human looking in, you might only get a small glimpse of the balcony ceiling, but the girls and their friends will see it all the time. It's important to consider these small details for the inhabitants.

Another important factor is safety.😊  That's why I needed to think carefully about how to protect the girls from falling off the balcony. A railing was essential, and there were so many styles and options to consider. For structure, I went with framing that would tie all three floors together. For aesthetics, I kept the design cohesive with the staircase's fairytale style window frames. I was able to make a couple adjustments in Design Space to the window frame and create the balcony railing's openings.

The staircase opening needed a bit of railing next to where the ladder/stair will go. It's important to have things look nice, too, even if you are only peering through the windows.

The third floor catwalk will be a nice place to hide away with a good book on rainy days. To access the space, there will be a ladder and a sort of attic opening.

The ceiling in the girl's bedroom is a little less "treehouse" and a little more "fairytale" with its lilac beams and whitewashed floorboards.

As tempting as it was to keep the floor progress going, before installing the wood floors, I had to stop myself so that I could come up with a more solidified lighting plan. Some of the ceilings will have lighting fixtures with wires that need to be concealed under the flooring. And nearly every fixture will have to be made and/or painted. I also have several fireplaces to create and they need walls to rest against. And the fires will have wires that need to be directed and concealed. Oh boy! I better take a breath and think about things. 😵

While I'm thinking, for a little fun this week, here's a test for your memory. Do you notice anything different about Wayne? See if you can figure it out without looking at older posts.

Let me know in the comments. 💗

xo xo,

Jodi

Enigmatologist?

Enigmatologist? Dissectologist? Puzzler? What do these strange words mean? They essentially mean someone who creates and really likes to solve puzzles. Apparently, I like solving them so much that I create them for myself whenever I build a dollhouse! 😜 Most people read and follow directions, erect the walls and then adorn them. But that's not challenging enough, no. I need to finish and decorate walls before I erect them and then solve the many problems I create for myself when trying to fit them together. But the satisfaction I get when I make it all work leaves me giddy! All joking aside, though, why do I like to finish the walls before I erect them? Because I can see much better working flat and I like my results more this way. 

When I last left off, I shared how I'd been able to avoid the kit's fourth wall and all its complications for a long time. Finally, out of excuses, it was time. I started by concentrating on the second floor section of the three floor wall - Goldie's bed cubby. Since her window wasn't large enough to be a pop out cubby like Alice's bed cubby, I'd have to create a built in. I glued the exterior walls and floor in so that I could get accurate measurements of the oddly shaped space. 

I created a very rough sketch, determined how the space would be segmented, and then added papers from the same Alice pack as Alice's cubby. At the same time, I began to, piece by piece, create and cut the structure pieces using the Cricut.

Segmented wall.

I continued papering, painting and adding trim piece by piece. I papered and glued in Wayne's third story floor, which was also Goldie's bed cubby ceiling. Now it was starting to look like the idea in my mind! I should say here that the kit has these floor sections as separate pieces. Because of the way I am building the kit, I will have to join them up with the main floor pieces later on. Oh goodie! More puzzles!

Bed cubby flanked by shelves and drawer openings.

Finally, it was time to add the front wall, the trim, Dresden, paper covered drawers and knobs. The lighting fixtures will come later, after all the walls and floors have been installed. I also installed Goldie's window to the wall, but forgot to take a stand alone photo once it was attached. You'll see it in later photos

Goldie's window.

The girls and Wayne wanted to give you a size perspective.

With the final wall as ready to go as possible, it was time to start the process of attaching all four walls to the foundation. Russ brought me a couple carpenter's squares so that I could make sure my gluing angles were at a perfect 90 degrees. Staying true to my rebellion against instructions, I started with wall three.

My glue cup and primer jars assisted with the outside.

Russ' squares assisted on the inside.

Next was wall one, and when that was secure and dry, wall two. These photos are after they are attached. While waiting for various walls to attach and dry, I did more aging on the front door and French doors and added hardware. I am getting closer to my vision for them.

Wall two and wall one.

Wall three.

I also got to finishing the kitchen's bay windows. These go in the fourth wall, first floor. I had some window locks and handles in my stash which were perfect for this kind of working sash window.

When it finally came time to install the fourth wall, I naturally discovered that I'd need to make a few adjustments. The most glaring was that on the second wall, where it connected with the fourth wall, I had created and attached the wrong type of trim assembly. There was nothing for it but to remove it.

Removed trim. The glue works almost too good!

Once removed, new, correct trim could be added.

The correct trim at the correct angle to receive the bay window trim.

Where the fourth wall met the second and third walls I lost a little edge trim, but this was perfectly fine. You can also see Goldie's window installed looking through her bed cubby. If Rapunzel lived here, this would be the perfect window to let down her hair so that the prince could climb it and rescue her!

Once it looked like everything lined up properly, I added lots of clamps to keep it in place while the glue dried.

Whew! The individual wall method was successful and mostly trouble free! I am so happy to have these walls up! Here's a look from the outside...

And from the inside. For some reason, it reminds me of the set in a play.

A final look at the bay windows with all their trim. And the fourth wall that had me so fearsome for weeks!

I'll need to remember this triumph as I begin the puzzle of floors and roof. *gulp*

Thanks for being here with me on this adventure! Your encouragement and enthusiasm keep me going! 💗

xo xo,

Jodi