Unfinished Business

Without intentionally planning it, 2022 is shaping up to be a year of finishing undone things. It's apropos because the motto that I have adopted this year is:

How can I embrace the future if my arms are still wrapped around the past? 

To continue this liberating trend, the next project on my list of things to finish was Starbucks. It is housed in the bay window shop of the Houseworks Street Of Shops set. At one time, I'd envisioned having an entire street of downtown Seattle landmark shops housed in them. That was the plan in 2013 when I bought the kits, but as you know, ideas evolve, time changes us and I lost interest in that idea.

Bay Window Shop

Nonetheless, here sat my little Starbucks shop nearly finished and collecting dust. It was a shame, really, because I had worked so hard on it at the time. 2013 - 2014 was a time in which I was able to get over my fear and lack of experience with building furnishings/fixtures from scratch and working with things like FIMO and resin casting. By the time I'd finished the Starbucks shop interior, I was pretty proud of my efforts. What I took away from the project encouraged me to never stop dreaming, trying new crafts or pushing the boundaries of my mini skills. It's a kind of time capsule now, so though it needed some minor interior repairs, I wanted to leave the interior pretty much as it was in 2014. The exterior was totally unfinished with the exception of a little trim paint and a remodeled front door.

Shop photo from 2014

I pulled the room box off the shelf and I think I actually heard it gasp in shocked surprise! Taking it over to the work table, I began to assess it's condition after being so long forgotten. Surprisingly, it wasn't too bad, though it really needed a good cleaning! The front wall, left, having never been attached, is leaning against the store. You can see where at some point in it's history I had applied Magic Brik tape in order to create the faux brick front. On the right is the tiny, separate restroom box that I'd originally constructed to attach to the outside, just on the other side of the restroom door in the store. It's front wall had not been installed, either.

Once I relocated all the dust colonies, I was amazed to see that almost all of the wee items had stayed in their places. You see, this shop was done diorama style, and everything was glued into place. Some of the clear resin pieces have yellowed over the years, but I decided to leave them as is, too.

Now was the big question: Do The Lights Still Work??? I had big doubts because:

1. This structure is made of MDF.

2. The lighting system is powered by tape wire.

3. My long term success rate with MDF + Tape Wire is 0/4 (the brads and eyelets always seem to wriggle themselves lose).

4. It was installed 9 years ago.

Make that success rate 0/5 because only 2 out of 5 LED light strips still worked. It wasn't all bad news, though! The LED light strips themselves still worked. And, I had just enough strip light connectors left to hard wire them in. I could remove all of the tape wire and go with a totally hard wired set up.

LED light strip still works.

Display case light still works.

The plug had to be jiggled to get a good connection or the
LED strip lights and display light would go out.
Definitely time to move on from tape wire.

These are the LED strip lights once they'd been removed from the walls and their connections to the tape wire strips had been removed. The strip light connectors I installed on the ends will now allow me to hard wire them into the transformer wire. One of them was broken, where the two plastic pieces connect to hold it onto the light strip, but I repaired it as best I could and crossed my fingers. 

I kept checking the lights and connections at every step since I didn't quite trust them. Phew! Still working!

With the tape wire removed from the shop, I installed the light strips again in the same place, just not on top of tape wire. I had to drill holes for the new wires to exit to the exterior of the room box.

I also added a strip of two rows of clear plastic tiles to the bottom of the original corner molding "shades". I painted them with Mod Podge and a drop of white paint to make them opaque. This gave me a little extra depth to prevent seeing the strip lights underneath.

I had to replace the strip lights in the food display, too, because the wires ran under the flooring where they connected to tape wire. Instead of adding another strip light, I opted for LED bulbs, one under each of the top two shelves. I ran the wiring under the floor, through a channel I cut, and then out the back to meet up with the rest of the wires.

5-12 volt, 3mm LED bulbs to light up the top two shelves.

New wires run down through the floor.

Wiring channel chiseled out. 

By this point, as you can see in the photo above, I had finished and attached the restroom box to the shop. This is a good time to talk about the restroom here because I don't think I have ever mentioned much about it on any previous post. It's constructed out of 1/8" plywood, made to be the same height as the shop and made to attach as a pop out to the side of the shop. Drinking coffee = having to pee, so I thought it was important to have a restroom.

Back in 2014 when I made the restroom I wanted it to look as authentic as possible to real Starbucks bathrooms. I made an industrial sized TP dispenser out of a clear plastic jar, painting the inside dark gray. Attaching dangling TP to the bottom sells the illusion. I used a plastic lid for the toilet seat cover dispenser, gluing a reasonable facsimile of one onto the front. In my family, we affectionately call toilet seat covers "ass gaskets". :O)

The toilet and sink are MBS plastic models. The sink is mounted on top of a painted Chrysnbon butter churn and the soap dispenser is made from beads and a nail. The wall and floor are also MBS clear plastic tiles where you paint the back any color and they look like porcelain. I made the light fixture from wood, more plastic tiles painted opaque white and LED strip lights.

The front fits into a channel created by installing corner molding with enough clearance for the wall to slide in and out. I made it like this in case the inside of the restroom ever needs to be accessed in the future. The paper towel dispenser s made from a clear plastic Chrysnbon box, painted on the inside, and then a brown paper towel is glued to the bottom.

With it attached and connected to the main shop, it was time to check the lights...

Phew! Now how about the rest of the lighting...

This side works...

The display unit works...

So far, so good... WAIT!!! What's this??? The left wall light strip is not working! ARGH! Wouldn't you know, my "repair" to the connector didn't hold. I can either pull the shade off and try to re-repair (but the result would probably, eventually be the same), or, I can live with it. Guess which option I chose...

At this point, I decided to attach the front wall of the shop and just move on. There is plenty of light without the left strip.

This is the last chance to see the window display unencumbered. Here's where all the coffee fixins are located.

And here's the progress on Starbucks so far...

Next week, I hope to be back with the plexi tops made and installed, decisions made and implemented for the exterior finishing, and with a little luck, just maybe another abandoned project will be done! It is June, already, and that means 2022 is halfway through! Better keep crackin'!

xo xo,

Jodi

Filling The Happy Tank

When you love something so much, when it's just an integral part of who you are, and nearly nothing else in life fulfills you as much or creates as much internal joy, it's really hard to give it up. Over the past couple months I felt my SELF shrinking somehow. Don't misunderstand - my heart has been FULL of family and plans for a future making incredible memories together, but still, something important was missing.

Last week, I found myself in between domestic projects and longing for something creative to do. Did I have a small kit or project I could do? It was then I looked across from my desk and saw the incomplete flower shops waiting patiently on my shelves. So patiently, as I haven't worked on them since February of 2017. When I did the math on that one I nearly fell out of my chair! Could it really be 5 years?!?!? That was when I started the chipboard storefront kits from Alpha Stamps that had the working title Botanique. One was planned for me to keep and one to give to a special person in my life.

When I left off on the projects I had only just scratched the surface - wallpapering and adorning the interior walls and ceiling with trim.

Then a panicked thought shot through me! Where had I put the kit's front pieces??? It had been five years, after all. And loads of other "stuff" has come into my possession in that time. I should learn to trust myself more. They were safely stored in the first drawer I went to. Phew!

They were blank canvases! Nothing holds more possibility than that! So, what could they become? My original ideas came flooding back into my mind. And in fact, I had started an idea folder for them on my computer way back then. Looking through the saved photos, my heart was still leaning in the same direction: A sort of old Paris type street shop that had seen a couple centuries, but was loaded with gorgeous fresh stems of all varieties and bouquets of every colorful combination. Herbs and plants, too!

So to start, I added a little detail and it didn't hurt that adding the wood trims strengthened the chipboard storefront, too.

And then came the fun part: the details! I used Dresden trims, jewelry findings, laser cut fretwork trim pieces leftover from other projects and some chipboard lettering.

I was having so much fun, and my happy tank was once again overflowing! This project was exactly what I needed, and here they were waiting for their turn in my hands! Hallelujah!

I forgot to mention that these shops come in two sizes: a standard depth and a deep version. I have one of each.

To finish the outside, I thought to keep them the way it might have been a couple centuries ago. A brick building encased in stucco. Of course, the shop has been through many things in it's lifetime, so some of the stucco has fallen away with time, exposing brick beneath. Luckily, I have some Magic Brik materials and Greenleaf Stucco mix in my stash from past projects.

The photos below are just after applying the Magic Brik around the foundation and in strategic areas on the walls.

And then below, laying on the stucco. The best tool for the job turned out to be my finger! I smeared it where I wanted, then took a moistened sponge to remove my fingerprints. And what a mess I made! A vacuuming break was imperative while the stucco dried.

Not knowing just how much of the original bricks color I wanted to show through, I painted individual bricks with washes in tans and grays. I got out the heat gun to assist the water evaporating. Time is of the essence!

The shop owners over the years have opted for the inexpensive approach, painting the exposed brick and the stucco in a unifying color, and not spending the money to make restorative repairs. But time and grime have left their mark, lending character. This was achieved with many layers of color washes and sponging until I liked the look. Right before I had taken them into the garage to apply spray sealer, I realized that I could add another layer of character by going over some edges with an ink pad. I hope to get to that fun step later today! 

Each of the shops will have a 12 volt chandelier hanging in the center of the shop, with a supplemental bulb on either side. Hopefully, this will be enough to light the shops well. If not, I may add candles with candleflame bulbs to the fireplace and lamps. The only issue there is concealing the wires. I would like them all to come out through the ceiling. That way, the battery pack or transformer can be hidden beneath a false lean to roof on the back behind the sign portion of the front cover. We'll see!

I can't say whether these shops will reach their conclusion this year or five years from now. I only know I am so grateful to have found the time and the enthusiasm to work on them again. It has been so good for the soul!

I miss my daily visits to everyone's blogs to see your progress, but hope to be able to roll that passion back into my routine soon. Until then, I hope each of you are filling your happy tanks and making progress on all your mini dreams!

xo xo,

Jodi