The Dining Room Bay Plus Stuff

This is the printie wallpaper I am tossing around in my head to use for the 2nd floor hallway. I'm considering having it cover the bottom half of the wall with the fairly dark tone of the baby blue used in the Parlor tower on the top half of the wall. There would be a 1/2 " wide chair rail between it and the paint line. Remember that I have a baby blue carpet runner on the staircase and it will run the 2nd floor hallway, too. PLEASE tell me what you think. I want it, I really, really do, but I have still not convinced myself that it'll work. You won't make me mad if you don't like it.


No need for other photos...nothing exciting to see. I have one side and the center of the bay window glued in and spackled. I'll sand and paint those after the spackle dries well, inside and out, and will start a bit of the fabric trim. I'm working on the pieces for the window seat that I'll install and then add the final side piece to the bay. Not putting that last side in until last will give me some room to maneuver around in there. The space is smaller than my hand and, as I've said before, quite awkward.





While I had the spackling out, I also filled in the holes where the floors meet the walls on the exterior to assure a smooth outside wall. It's not necessary inside, as the trim pieces will cover those gaps. And, while I am waiting for the spackle to dry...I wait longer than I think necessary sometimes to be sure... I'm working on those never ending pieces of trim in the Dining Room and Library.





The library has 2 steps down from the room before it. In the company's master plan, they are simple steps. Since I've not let anything be simple up to this point and am always changing something, I've decided that these steps need to be a bit more elaborate that provided. I'm going to fashion a small landing with railing and banister, so when you come from that front room, you'll take 1 small step down onto the landing, hang a short left and come down another step. I think it'll add a bit of grace to the entrance into the room and won't look as hazardous as the simple steps appear.

Not much else going on in there. I have some new plants I must get it that I bought on my day with Melissa and some bulbs to plant on a kitty grave. There are some other outdoor chores that must!!! be done now. Autumn is moving in and there's no time left to procrastinate. Today is "Color Sunday" in the mountains of Colorado. While not in full color yet, the aspens are turning their golden yellow and it's something to be marveled over, even if by only a photo.

The Dining Room Bay Window

Today, I begin what I believe will be a battle with The Dining Room Bay. It will be painted with the Wedgewood green paint and the crown moulding will be the same fabric trim that I used in the room. There will be a window seat in the bay, also. The parts are being painted inside and out....several coats have already been done on the interior side with a couple of sandings in between to insure smoothness....the grain tends to rise at first. I'm doing a couple of coats on the exterior, but the final painting will really happen before exterior trims and maybe even the roof...we'll see.

The battle will be because of accessing the bay from the inside for the final painting, crown moulding, and window seat. There is limited space to get in there and work on it. After I get the parts glued on to the house, I'll need to spackle at the joints ( inside and out ), sand that spackling, and then paint over it. It's gonna be tough getting to it and doing the best job I can and it'll probably be a blind application of the fabric trim. I'm actually looking forward to tackling it, just to see if I can.

I will be able to reach in only from the open back side and from the window on the side of the house, but that's not going to make the area easy to see and do at the same time. This is where we all wish we were Munchkins to get some of the work done.

I'll keep you posted.

Not Much Here

Oh, I've only been sanding, painting, and staining. How many times can one make that sound interesting? I've got a big pile of parts, I'm cleaning them up, sticking them in their spots to see how it'll look and either staining or painting the part, and placing it in a little tray until it's time to glue them in...there you go. It'll stay that way until tomorrow.

Today, my good friend, Melissa, is taking me on a birthday adventure. My day was August 31st and our schedules haven't worked together until today. I have no idea where we're going, how long I'll be gone, what we'll be doing, or anything else. I was told to wear comfortable shoes and nothing else. I am so very curious about what's to happen. The best I can say is that any time I am with Melissa and anything she has ever done for me has always been fun and heartfelt. She's a special lady to me and it's gonna be good. I'll let you know.

Scrapping and Journaling

I spent the better part of yesterday at my friend, Angie's, house, working on my scrapbook for the Garfield. I got four pages done, with journaling, and am almost current with my progress in building the house.



In my idle time before and after going there, I sanded and sanded trim pieces that will go into the Dining Room and Library...44 all total. Each window has 4 pieces, each door 3, and there are 2 doors that need sanding. Even though the store bought doors come pretty clean, there are always some rough spots, especially on the inset panels. There are also kitchen bay pieces and tower pieces.



The kitchen bay is to be assembled directly on the house and it'll be at such an angle that getting into it to decorate will be terribly awkward, both reaching and seeing. I had wanted to cover the walls with the same fabric, but realize that will be harder than I want to mess with, so I've found a matching paint and will get her done that way, needing only touch up once it's assembled. Even that will be a pain. I've chosen an acrylic called "Wedgewood Green" and have started the painting of the section that'll need it on the body of the house and the bay sides pieces.



Today, I'll do more staining and then varnishing. I hope to have a nice pile of trim ready and spend a day just installing it.

Back to the journaling part...a member of one of the online forums had asked if anyone kept a journal. I have the scrapbook, which I do "wallpaper" the pages, but I don't do any fancy details. I use the little journaling cards and document the photos. I've also been keeping a notebook that has pages of this blog that I print out every so often. I need to kind of catch up on that actually. And I have a notebook/inventory of each house I have built with a running cost of the construction and then the furniture and accessories. My very first house, 30 years ago, the journaling was started in an already bound book. I ended up with 3 volumes of books..."The Dogwood Plantation" trilogy. HA.

The End Wall

I have not committed to the wall coverings in the 2nd story hallway, though I have printed out the "wallpaper". Since it takes so much ink, I'm pretty sure that I'll use it, but am waiting for me to think more positively about it. In the meantime, I'm doing other things that can be done.

I've added the end wall to The Garfield....it closes up the Dining Room and the Library..and I finished covering the walls to both rooms. I'll root around and find the trim pieces or use whatever trim components that will be extra and get them cut, stained, varnished, and installed.

We all know how many mini things there are that often get overlooked or need re-doing, how many thoughts of something we'd like to try, and how many ideas pop up while we're doing something else. Like many people, I keep a running list of "things to do" on my work table, a 8x10 legal pad, and it is full of those thoughts. At this point, there are 3 pages of "things to do" and I guess it's time to do some of them, while I'm waiting for my mind to make itself up about the walls in the hall. I could probably fill up a month's time doing the little things.

Yesterday, my husband started on his annual Autumn yard display. He gets some hay bales and decorates around them for Halloween/Thanksgiving/Autumn. The neighborhood kids and cats love them. While he was doing that, I got out the "around the house" decorations and started putting them out. It involves packing up knick knacks out right now that'll be in the way and too cluttered. They won't be seen again until after Christmas. CHRISTMAS!!!! Not all that far away and it's all made me realize that I'm going to have to completely put up things in this spare room to make room for Christmas boxes of decorations, presents, supplies...you know how it is. It means that I'll have to put away most of my dollhouse tools and supplies because they'll just be in my way. Like I said...tiny house...and, for me, Christmas takes priority over anything.

Well, I certainly can't put away Garfield...I couldn't even get it out of this room without major pains, so it'll remain on it's 4 ft. long table and I'll pack up it's supplies and toys and store them under that table. I'll have to move The Alison, Jr. out of the dining area and into the spare room to make room around the diningroom table. I have another 2 months before it's absolutely necessary. I now have a card table up. I use that for my working space, spreading out parts for staining and painting, cutting and assembly. Once it's put up, my working on the house will be limited until January, when everything Christmas gets packed up and stored for another year.

So, back to Garfield, the next few days will be small chores and nothing very exciting, but, I'm sure, will have lovely effects on the house. I'm going to ty my hand a plaster casting, using the pin I found in the antique store. As Holly has pointed out, the dining room will look good with 2 of those and the casts will be easier to work with, but I do need to learn a few things about it first.

Today's a scrapbooking day...I'll be updating my Garfield book with photos and journaling. Isn't it amazing how many things we have to learn to "play house"? Wish I could get paid for all this knowledge and expertise.

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!