After The Punch and a Touch of Excitement

The many, many pieces of parts that I punched yesterday are now sorted in plastic baggies, waiting for their turn in the house. Would you believe I have 4 more pieces of plywood to punch and will work on those later this evening. ( There are 39 total, plus the 4 acrylic pages) I ran out of patience and baggies yesterday and had to go buy more. Found the baggies, but couldn't find what aisle the patience was on.

I did buy one of those cabinets from Michael's at the garage sale. I don't know what I'll do with it. It's more appropriate for a kitchen, so I may just bash it for parts to something. And I bought a few knick knacks with plans to send them to some friends, but nothing more in the mini line.

But, EXCITEMENT happened. When I asked the lady having the garage sale about the dollhouse, I was disappointed that the house had gone to an "early bird". She told me about another lady who was interested in having a show of miniatures. Oh, I was thrilled, since I have looked and looked for someone in town that does miniatures and have found no one. She gave me the lady's name and I called her when I got home. She told me there IS a group of ladies in some semblance of a miniaturist's club here in Grand Junction and will get one of the ladies to call me. And, she was serious about a show and I offered to help...a place to have it is the problem. I know nothing about organizing one, but I know of a small shopping center with empty stalls that may allow such an event. Tomorrow, I'm going to try and find some places that would be practical. I'm so excited about it, I could pop!!!

I have no one to talk mini to except for you wonderful people on line, but we all know that face to face can have more to it and I look forward to having "play dates" with people here in Grand Junction. I feel like I may be walking into a new world.

Today on my Garfield, I haven't done very much. I painted the window cutout section and glued on the acrylic to the windows in the Dining room. After the Denver/Jacksonville football game, I'll work on the trim pieces for the windows and baseboard. I'm not sure if I'll paint them or use the Cabernet stain. I'm leaning towards the paint, but will hold up examples of each and ponder about it before I take a glue brush to it.

It's getting colder ( freeze warning for tonight ) and the arthritis is digging in...I can only work short times at the Garfield before it starts to bother me, my back and right sided joints especially. This condition will never go away, darn it, and I never did find what aisle the patience was on...could be a long winter.

Tomorrow, I promise some photos...it's been a while and it's time to show and not just tell.

One More Session of Punch

Would you believe I STILL have some pieces to punch out??? Well, they're going to get it today...I need the room. These final pieces are of the roof, the porch, and the millions of trim pieces for the porch and roof. I am keeping count of the pieces...at the end of the building, I'll tell you how many pieces...I'm thinking close to 7oo. Anyone else out there know? Mine will have many not used..remember I had to order extra plywood sheets since some were missing, so there'll be some pieces floating around that'll end up in my scrap wood bucket. Once I get them punched, I'll do a simple sand, just to rid them of the nasty splinters, and then put them in labeled bags.

Besides doing the punch, I'm painting the interior/exterior of the 2nd floor hall bay. I've changed my mind about leaving the bay removable. I don't like the look of the seams where it meets the house, so I'll end up gluing it to the house and use the French doors at the balcony for access. It's not like I'm moving big pieces of furniture in the hallway. I will want to get whatever window treatment I choose in place before I do the final gluing. I'm also following the plans and having a window seat there for my lady and the cat to sit and read a book.

There is, of course, a little roof that goes on this bay window, but I'm going to wait until it's attached to the house and the final coat of paint before I install it. My hopes are to have siding on the house, but I've not made that final decision yet, so those pieces will go in a bag labeled "Still to do".

Sometimes, I make great plans of what I'm going to do on a day...I even write it down do I'll have the right order. I get started, do a little, and end up just sitting there looking at the house or room and make new plans, move things around, try out a piece of furniture, or, lazily, just stare at it, doing nothing. I've had a lot of those days lately, sitting there, fantasizing what I'm wanting, or even making up a little story about it.( I keep saying I'm going to write that little story down, but I never do. My friend, Kim, has done that and she's inspired me some, but not to the point where I've put it to paper.) Other days, I can just rip it out and get more work done than I ever imagined.

I found another dollhouse ad in "garage sales" today and am going there...NOT for another house, but in hopes of neat stuff to put in the Garfield. A couple other errands and then it's punching time!!!

See ya later, alligator

Bits and Pieces plus the Bay

I went to the new Habitat For Humanity store here in Grand Junction. It's a big improvement from the dive they used to have. I found an old bottle of stinky perfume that I threw away, but kept the cap. It'll make a great ceiling lamp fixture for someplece. I haven't decided yet, just put it in the box of things I'm going to use sometime.

I had ordered the laser cut room dividers from Miniatures.com. Oh, I loved them so!!! but could find no place to put them, so I returned them in exchange for some more French doors, some doorknobs...the Opryland knobs...and a few other things.

I've got the bay for the 2nd floor hall complete and sanded the edges well and spackled the seams so they won't show. Oh, how I love spackling stuff!!!! It should be dry in the morning and I'll sand and paint the inside and out.

My other time spent with the house today was housekeeping. It gets so dusty and I'm trying to keep it and me neat. Easier said than done. That's it for today.

My garden looks good, but I still have good planting time, so I divided some more plants and plan on doing more. It's hard to devide my time between all the things I love to do.

The Hallway Bay

I'm putting the puzzle of the bay window piece by piece in the hallway.This is supposed to be a removable assembly, in order to easily access the hall area. We'll see if that proves practical or not when it's finished.



I had previously sanded all the parts to this-10 not counting the windows. I had to square up the tabs some to assure a tight fit; no big deal. Then I started gluing the pieces to their designated spots and used masking tape for keeping them together. And, so I wait, and wait, and wait. ( In the meantime, I'm writing this and printing off some of the photos on my camera's disc to put into my scrapbook, then deleting from the disc. I still have then saved in my Kodak program online. )

This is a photo of the hallway so far..it's a little dark, but I think it's just the lighting in the room and I didn't use a flash.I think it's going to be real nice when it's all done. Lots to go, but making headway with great excitement. Building this house makes me so happy.

Still In The Hallway

I'll have some photos tomorrow of what I've done today, but I need to get new batteries first. Sorry. I have the 4 walls painted the blue...so nice and clean looking...and I cleaned up the corners at the tabs to make sure everything fit snugly. I measured and cut the wallpaper and got it up on 2 of the walls. I can't do anything more on the walls until I get the ceiling put in, as it holds up the 2 inner walls.

The doors and trim have been stained and, tomorrow, I'll work on the transom windows. That's about it for the day. I had several things to keep me away from the work on the house today, darn it. I'm loving the ideas I have in my head and can't wait to see them working.

Sorry there's not much more to entertain you today. I should be able to get more done later.

The Second Floor Hallway

This hallway really started several "chapters" ago with "Walls, Doors, and Walls"..parts 1 and 2. I fought with trimming the ceiling, the doors, the walls, and even the staircase getting everything to fit. It's all been in the dry fit stage while I did the library. Today, I took all the doors, walls, and ceiling out and what you see here is the area with a newspaper drop cloth, taped to the floors.

I'm sure you remember me sweating over my paint and ( printie ) wallpaper and I've made my choices with the wallpaper I showed you and the darker blue paint. I've sealed the wood with a light coat of Bullseye spray shellac and applied the first coat of paint to the 4 walls. It did bring out the grain of the wood some, so I sanded it smooth, painted again, and sanded one more time. I've since done 2 more coats, a total of 4 coats of paint and it looks good enough to move on to putting on the wallpaper. ( I'll start that tomorrow.)

The walls are about 8 1/2" high, so I'll put the paper on the bottom of the wall going up about 4 1/2" high. Where the walls and paper meet, I'm adding a 1/2" stained flat strip of wood. Nothing fancy. Where the opening of the stairwell is......1st floor ceiling meeting the 2nd story floor, I'll add stained corner guard, which will cover up the confused look of the 2 surfaces, giving it a nice clean cut look.

Once I'm finished with all that, I'll stain the doors and make the transom windows that will go over each door, then I'll work on the ceiling. ( I'm waiting on an angel friend to send me some paintable wallpaper to be able to finish the ceiling ) I want to add some sort of design to each of the transom windows for a crafted look.

This hallway has both a balcony with French doors and a bay window, which can be made to be removable for easier access. I'm going to leave it removable, unless it looks badly and will then glue it. I need to see how it'll look.

I've been looking forward to doing this area. I think it'll have a delightful effect on the center of the house since I'm carrying the same blue ( but with different shades ) up the center of the house.

Back To Work On The Garfield

Before I tell you about my work on the house, I want to tell you about 2 yard sales I went to on Saturday. The first advertised dollhouses and there were 3...1 was like a fort for the backyard, the second for a Barbie, and the 3rd, made from plans by the child's Daddy, was a huge 8? room house with stairs and balconies, hallways and doors. "Daddy" did a great job, but it stopped there. No decorations were done except for one room done in life size wallpaper, overwhelming the room with huge polka dots. They were asking only $30 and, if I'd have had the room in the birdhouse I live in, I'd have scarfed it up in a heartbeat. It could have become a true beauty. It reminded me of my very first house built 30 years ago from plans, The Dogwood Plantation. Miss Scarlet would have been happy there. I bought some of it's furniture, well beaten, colored on with crayons, hardware missing, and some without legs. They can all be easily fixed according to my imagination. For $5, I got a high head/foot board brass bed, 2 upholstered sofas, 4 upholstered chairs, 2 chests of drawers, 1 dresser with mirror, and an end table. With my purchase, a little girl gave me a free cup of hot chocolate, too. The second yard sale provided another interesting piece for a ceiling medallion...an old brass belt buckle in a circle with flowers and leaves on it. Since flowers and leaves are on the library walls, I'm thinking the medallion will go in there.

Well, I told you about what I did in the garden and I won't repeat myself, though I do have that habit. I didn't completely ignore the garden, working in little bits in the library. When we last were together in the library, I'd had the walls covered with blue rosed fabric ( tan background ). I'd turned the closets into bookcases on both sides of the French doors, and was creating a small staircase and landing. The plans called for 2 dinky steps to come from the room in front of the library down into the room. It seemed rather meek and ugly, not to mention unsafe with no railing. ( No offense, Greenleaf ) I wanted something with more style so I built a small landing, 2 1/2' X 3 1/2", with 2 steps down on the side. The wall to the landing and the spindles are painted the same linen color with the floor, banister, and steps stained in Cabernet. I was wanting a fireplace on that wall to share the chimney, but it was too crowed, so I put the chimney across the room and will just create a new chimney. These houses were built oddly with chimneys everywhere anyway.

I get all confused with placing the pictures. I wish Sumaiya would come to Colorado and teach me. Anyway, the 2 black and white photos are what Greenleaf wanted the room to look like..see the dinky steps. The other photo is what I've made it look like. The other photos came out too dark, but at least I got one good one in there. There green/white curtains are NOT in the dollhouse, but on my windows in my room. I don't know where the purplish glow comes from; perhaps a poltergeist is in there. To the left of the French doors is where the niche is that's so very difficult to get my hand into and decorate. It's about 2" wide in there. Can't even turn my hand over. Holding molding was a pickle. Check out that belt buckle ceiling medallion!!!

Trimming this room was a real pain in it, especially in the far deep corner. I'm afraid the pieces don't fit perfectly, but they were installed using no eyes, just hands. No way could I put the trim piece in there and look at the same time. The only way I can see them is if I peek into the window across the room from them AFTER I did the work. ( Another Greenleaf design quirk )

Note to Greenleaf-please don't consider these things I call "quirks" as bad things. These old Victorians were full of quirks, so, none of them do I consider bad quirks, except for the fireplace on the stairwell. I'll never understand where you thought the smoke would go.

The crown moulding was another awkward piece to do. I used plain flat trim instead of actual moulding, because the door casing took up some of the crown room and I couldn't figure out anything else that would work. Too small for a transom, a decorative panel would have looked silly, so I just used what would work. Even using the easiest piece of wood, with no need for proper edges, just flat against each other, it was hard to do since I couldn't watch what I was doing, even with a mirror. I was in more positions than a magician.

I think the room has turned out beautifully, with the feeling hat I wanted. I bought some cheap books for the heck of it to test the look, but plan on making some in the future with highbrow literary tastes. I am so doggoned proud of this room and am fighting off the urges to rummage around in my boxes of furniture and put some in there. No, now, don't even try to talk me in to it. I'm going to wait a long time till it's done. I don't want it to be in the way and maybe mess something up.

I will try to get better photos to you though.