Walls, Doors, Walls, Part 2

I have succeeded in ripping this Garfield new ones....walls and door frames, that is. The original doors were about 2" wide, not enough for any good sized resident to get through comfortably. They now are Houseworks door suitable, after doing a lot of trimming. I did have to trim some of the casings too, to make it all work, but it'll look just fine. I don't know if you can tell, but in the 4th photo, the light shines on a wall that is behind the door. That's the wall in the master bedroom I was telling you about that gets walked slap into when you go in the door. It's about 1 1/2" behind that door and you'd have had to make an immediate left turn to enter into the bedroom proper. The wall extends up into the 3rd floor tower and is essential up there, but not for the second floor. I will have to assure good glue contact between it on the 3rd floor to maintain the structure of the tower. .....it'll be out of there as soon as Ed wakes up and I can make a lot of noise sawing. ( It's only 6am and he's in the room next door. SSSHHH ) Yes, there is a space empty over each door. I will make frames for transom windows there for each, though the plans only called for one.

I am now free to stain those doors, after a little more cleanup sanding, and paper those walls. I have to decide which paper I want.....one is a printie, the other is paintable wallpaper that Kim Hammond sent me. I will be complimenting the baby blue carpet runner on the stairs and what is yet unlaid on the hallway floors with whatever my choices become.

Oh, there WILL be a trim around the rims of the stairwells, both on the ceilings and the floors to cover up the rough/mixed colored/material edges. That's still a long way from now. I've got to get it right first before I decide what needs to be hidden.

Doing these walls was very frustrating and hard work, but I am so-o-o pleased that I made those changes. The originals just didn't make sense to me. I've tried to look at it from the prospective that real people live there and need to be comfortable. Leaving the Master bedroom as it was originally planned would have many a person say a few unkind words and maybe even cause an injury. It's all safe and logical now.

Walls, Doors, and Walls

I have spent the day trying to get the walls for the 2nd floor to work right, but am doing things that are NOT part of the directions. To get to the walls, I had to first make sure the floor fit correctly, which took some whittling and trimming. Finally, after lots of whittling, the floor fit perfectly. On to the walls, which took more and more whittling and trimming. I'm moving a wall and had to trim some of the top of the staircase newel and banister that presses up against the master bedroom wall. Bought a door from Hobby Lobby and it'll have to have the casings trimmed some to fit, but it'll go. The wall to the second bedroom was tougher. It was crooked, tabs WAY too big, the doorway was too small to fit a store bought door and, when I trimmed the wall and attempted to fit it into the stairwell, the doorway and transom window ( both held on by only a small piece of wood ) broke off. Oh, well, I can fit a piece in there, but I don't know now about the transom. Finally, I got the wall to fit perfectly in it's spot and with the master bedroom wall connection. Now, I'm fitting the doors to fit the spaces, removing only enough casing to make it work.

Now all that sounds quick enough, but it took hours, not just the work, but life continued along with it. Tomorrow, I'll have the doors finished and can move on to painting and wallpapering. I'm still days from gluing those wall to the house.

Boy, is it fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Newel Caps and other Miscelleny

This is the first floor landing. Sumaiya asked about the newel caps and I promised her better photos of them. The flat square was provided with the Garfield kit. I found the brass jewelry "whatever you call them" and the wooden mushroom looking caps at Hobby Lobby...a bunch in a baggie for a dollar or so. ( It's obvious I don't do photos well; there's a lot of glare showing little white flecks that aren't really there. ) I will, of course, do the same thing for the 2nd floor staircase. The bead mats I found came in real handy for this...I had to add the brass thingie to the wooden cap first and then top the square piece. The mat kept things from rolling around.

I've started sanding the second floor partitions. I don't like the door arrangements, so I'm going to do some destruction before I do the construction.

First, to enter into what appears to be the main bedroom to the left of the staircase, you get off the stairs and turn left immediately into the skinny doorway. If you go through that door, you instantly face a wall for the tower, which is absolutely necessary, if only for the 3rd floor. I'm going to whack that wall off, at least to the point where I can fit a standard Housework's door into the spot, though I'll have to trim down the door casing some. It'll mean I'll have to build a 3" wide wall section to connect it to the stairway partition, but that's no problem. It all looks easy enough and worth the shot at doing it.

Next, is the entry into the other bedroom, which is also though a skinny door. I'll do surgery on that door frame, too, to allow for a Houseworks door to be used, again needing to trim some of the door casing. There is a transom window that'll need some adjustment or maybe completely covering up, though I sure like and want to keep it. I need to get there to make that decision.

Neither of these adaptions are going to be tough, but they'll take some time and patience. The master bedroom wall that I'm trimming is attached already, so cutting it will be in a limited space, fitting the tools and my arm in there will be awkward, and I'll probably have to stand on a chair to reach it ( or put the whole house on the floor, which would certainly be safer for me, but open game for Aimee, the cat. The other 3 will leave it alone, I'm sure )

Then, again, I must decorate the hallway walls before I install them and I keep changing my mind with what to do. I'll pop up with the final answer while I'm tearing all the walls apart. The hallway has both a french door and a removable bay. Unlike the first floor entry bay, I'm going to keep this bay removable. It's not in the same order of the directions, but I'll work on those while I'm working on the hallway, so I can keep my thoughts all together. Besides, building this baby hasn't been completely by the directions to this point. Why start now?

I've realized that I've not always explained what I was doing, which was the point to the blog in the first place, so I'm going to try posting every day, even if some of what's been done is minor and not worth a hoot. I love, I love this Garfield house. I hope that you are enjoying watching it go up. I sure am.

Looking Down From The Second Floor

All three views are looking down from the 2nd floor. The photos looking up were fairly dark and you couldn't see much. The carpet runner is a simple flannel, cut to 1 3/4" wide with a satin ribbon on each edge. The color matches the blues on the 1st floor and the walls in the hallway on the 2nd floor ( but they're not yet painted. ) I did add newel post caps, except on the 2nd floor itself. I'm waiting to add the walls first. I know I'll knock them off if I don't wait. In one of the photos, you can barely see a brass ornament between the stair and the post cap. I'll take better photos of the 2nd floor staircase and hope they'll show up.

One of the 2nd story floors ( the part over the Dining room is done and ready to install. I had some problems with the ceiling of the 1st floor side and had to do it twice. I'm waiting until I get the main floor section done and installed before I show the photos. It won't be long.

I've been pretty busy with other things that indirectly affect the Garfield. I cleaned up my dust bunny covered computer area and installed USB pots so that I can connect both the photo printer and the camera. The dust bunnies were the hard part. Some of them could have carried off my cat! After doing that, I realized I need to be brutal and clear out some spare wood parts and other things around my work area.

I'm also getting out my winter clothes and putting up summer...it's snowed in some parts of Colorado and it's getting down in the 40's at night, so it's time.( How that affects the Garfield is easy. The clothes are in storage boxes under the twin bed in this room and I had to move supplies that are blocking the way to get under the bed.....I told you, it's a small house. )

One day this week, I'm going to a scrapping party at my friend, Angie's, house and my Garfield scrapbook will get caught up. I've printed out many photos and I want to get it up to date or it'll get carried away from me. Plus, I need to print out some pages from this fun blog and keep that up to date too. When I die, whoever gets Garfield will get these books telling it's story. ( While he's way too young right now, I'm secretly hoping my grandson, Mark, will one day have a little girl and it can be hers. )

Something else that I must do, but has nothing to do with Garfield, is to cut down some foliage in the garden and I'd best do it now!!! It's a mess and I need to clean it up so the Autumn plants will look better, so I'm putting the Garfield work aside for a few days. ( I can't play dollhouse ALL the time, though I wish .............................)

Well, off to act like I'm doing all those things.

From All Sides

My work area was a mess, so it was time to clean it up, put everything back in it's place, dust the Garfield, and start fresh. These are shots from each side of the house; exterior doors are NOT glued in place; fabric is hanging, waiting for the back wall; the upstairs fireplace is not stationary, waiting to see if I'll further decorate it. I removed the staircase and partition from the Parlor. I'm carpeting the stairs right now and finally adding the decorative parts to the newel posts.

I'm also working on the ceilings of the second story/floors for the third story.The directions have me installing those when complete and then the walls that separate the stairs/ bedrooms. I've not decided if I'll need to decorate them before I install them, but I'm pretty sure I'll have to, to make it easier reaching inside this baby. This house has such awkward angles that decorating would be so difficult if I completed the building before I painted/papered it. I have not followed the directions to the letter, obviously. It won't let me.

In the photograph that shows the front of the house..the one where you can see both exterior doors... you also see a good 1/4 of this room. It shows how much space I ( don't ) have to work with in this small 2 bedroom house. The Garfield dangles over the twin bed that's in here and to the front of the table it sits on is a card table that I use to work on, with boxes under both tables holding wood, parts, tools, and whatever. In front of that card table is where I am right now, at my desk, typing away. On the wall to the side is a cabinet full of all my crafting supplies and my own personal closet. Thank goodness I'm the only one that uses this room or the chaos would be much greater.

Today, I'll finish the staircases and the ceiling/floors and maybe sort more of the supplies and spare wood. I'm usually an organized person, but I've let that get away from me this past month. (My husband is pretty much recuperated from his accident and I don't need to ignore my own needs as much.) I want the house to sit around and talk to me, too. I need to learn where it wants to go from here, what to make the rooms do, and what they want to look like. I want to think about the lady who lives here-her name is Novella-and how she spends her time. And, of all things, I need to read the directions and do some dry fitting.

Thank you for your visit. I always enjoy it when you stop by.

We'll Call It The Library For Now

So, here I sit with 2 rooms half finished and they'll be staying that way for a while. The directions are sending me to work on the 3rd floor floorings/2nd floor ceilings...2 different sections that need to be prepared.

The blue flowered room will be the library. The shelves were closets in the plans, but I liked the idea of bookshelves, so there you go. The fireplace is one purchased from Hobby Lobby. It's really the same tan color of the bookshelves, but shows up white. It cries for some decoration and I'm waiting to decide what that will be before I glue it in ( IF I glue it in. ) The trim work will all be the Cabernet stain. I am going to buy the French doors rather than use those provided and there will be casing around the bookshelves.

As you've already seen, the room below is the Dining Room The post is just to keep the floor level until I can install the end wall, which is a long time from now. The fireplace is one that came with the kit, with some modifications. The "marble" is a photograph of rose colored Tennessee marble. ( Appropriate, since I was born in Tennessee. ) There will be wood trim around the base of the hearth.

I have to get those floors done. Since the floors will be for the third floor, ones not very important to the "living areas" of the house, they will be nothing too fancy. I have a lot of sanding to do and I think I'll be marking them with lines for planks and staining/shellacing them. In between waiting for the stain or shellac to dry, I'll work on the baseboards, crown moulding, and steps for those 2 rooms.Once the floors are complete, I'll flip them over and work on the ceilings that will be for the 2nd floor. Kim Hammond sent me some "paintable wallpaper" that I plan on trying, using that which looks like plaster. She couldn't have sent it at a better time and the wood that will be covered is not very nice looking, so the paper is going to cover a multitude of ugly spots. Thanks, Kim!!!!

I'm in the process of carpeting the staircases, but will save that for a later time, just in case I change my mind about what's happening there. I can't seem to commit myself to what I want yet; you know how that goes.

As I've said repeatedly, I am thoroughly enjoying myself building this beauty. I'm spending several hours every day on it, but not all at once. I paint, go do something, glue, go do something, on and on. And, I spend a lot of time thinking about it, not adding paint or glue until I'm positive it's what will work. I've realized that there are many people following the construction of the Garfield and your comments make me very proud. I truly appreciate it and welcome your thoughts and ideas. ( Got any for that fireplace??? )

Thank you for visiting.

Dining Room Update...

I'm on hold again...the directions for the house are sending me to the second floor for a while. I did have to get what you see here decorated before I add on the back wall.....I have things to do upstairs before that happens.

The "wallpaper" in the Dining room is a material I found at Wal-Mart, as is the coordinating trim. ( Looking at the photo, I see a crooked spot that I'll correct...can't have that in Ms. Picky's house! ) It's not my original plan. Staring at the room for hours caused me to change my mind several times. I am almost finished with the fireplace that will go on the wall you see here. The doorway on the far right is not the original. I didn't care for that door and have a Houseworks door ready to go in, but that'll be quite some time, after the exterior is finished being painted. I plan on continuing with the Cabernet stain on all the trim and will also be working on that this coming week.

The gold pin is something I found in an antique/whatever store. I'm hoping someone can tell me something about it. There is the word "agnew" in small letters on the back....no other identification. There is a small bolt in the very center. I'm hoping that I can fit a chandelier through the center and it'll hang in the center of the dining room.

Directly overhead on the second floor, I am back to sanding, and preparing pieces. I have to install 2 closets, again cover walls, and prepare the french doors, even if I don't install them yet. I must get into those small spaces before I put on the end wall, so I'm working in many areas at once. I need a bigger table, room, house, world to do all these things at once.

I am having a ball..........the ideas keep popping in my head and I need to write them down as fast as I think of them before they fly out again. As I've said repeatedly, I'm very serious about this construction as never before. I plan on making the features in this house as exquisite as it's would have been 100 years ago.