The Gnomist

It is amazing how Love and Kindness defy the usual laws of the universe: The more you give away, the more you get back. We could all use a little more kindness. Give a little extra this week. You may just change someone's life. You may just help them heal.

The Gnomist

Thank you, Brent! I needed to see this today!

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)