Won't be on for a few days...

I wanted to update that I have been working on shingling, something that is mindless enough at the moment I won't mess it up. Have been scheduled for more hours this week at the bar, and will in all likelihood be away from home here for a funeral. Still very much reeling in shock at this point, and honestly don't have words at this point to share what is going through heart and head at the news my family received.

For those in your life that matter, let them know.

What you can do in a bed for a dollhouse build...

Yuppers, you all read that right! lol I went out to the shop to work on the House of Hope for a bit tonight, and after being out there realized that even with the heater going -- it was COLD! So I looked around to see what I could bring into the house to work on... and so I have the house's roof before me in bed with my cork backed steel ruler. I've been drawing on my shingle lines -- only thing I'm contemplating changing is the shingle color. I dyed the first 400 a Spanish Oak color -- the color itself isn't bad, but it seems to have dried spotty on a good number of them. Considering thinning some black paint with denatured alcohol and just making them a darker color -- if I do, I'll not thin the paint so much as what I would normally do. I want this stuff to really cover the spottiness of the dye job!  ;)

Hope tomorrow it may be a bit warmer to work on the main house body, and get some more walls painted for the exterior. Though I do have a birthday party to attend for my surrogate niece(she's turning 3,) and from there a "Haunted Trail" to attend to raise money for our local fire department. Have several friends working on this as those that are awaiting guests in the woods to scare, some of whom have a bet going they can scare the heck out of me... I doubt it'll happen, but it aught to be fun if nothing else!


So, until I may next log in here -- have a great one!

Couple days longer...

In other words it took me a couple days longer to get all of the first floors flooring done -- but it is now! The faux hardwood I did in the dining room I really like, I used an antique white color as opposed to the light brown or tan suggested in the tutorial I was following. Gives it a nice weathered wood appearance... Just goes with my idea of a farmhouse I guess. For the living room though I decided to do some parquet flooring.

In addition to getting all of the flooring done, I also have paint stripper on several of the walls. While there was nothing paint wise done to the interior of the house, the exterior had plenty of bad(in other words exceptionally ugly brown paint in various shades) paint over globs of glue. Sooo unfortunately have to strip some of that off before I paint it red. However, I did get the first two walls up, glued, and currently clamped in place. Besides that I also went ahead and cut out my roof supports as well as my porch roof pieces. I've seen one other person change the balcony to a porch roof, though I believe she bought RGT's porch addition -- which for those that can spend that kind of money, great idea. But for myself, since the house is a free rehab to begin with... just can't see spending over $100 on something I feel fairly confident I can do from scratch. So we'll see if I'm right or not on that! lol

For now not too much more to update you all on, so going to call it a night and see if I can force myself to sleep. Have a great one if you can!  :D

Faux flooring in the making!

This will be a short post due to the matter I'm headed back out to the shop to continue working on the House of Hope. Wanted to make sure to update though on my progress. Got all of my floor in the dining room area scored, and went ahead and got the base layer of paint on -- then wiped off. Tomorrow I'll see if I can't get the stain on, and again wiped off to give the appearance of wood grain.

In addition I went ahead and used some of the tiles that I've used on the Petite Dreams house for the entrance hall floor. Not sure what color walls I'll do in that area yet, but I do like the tiles! If the hard wood effect works out in the dining area, I also intend to do that in the living room. Last but not least will be using some of the wood flooring from my Townhouse rehab to do the porch floor in. Though I intend to sand it down and paint it white in all likelihood... I may yet sand it down and just stain it for a more natural look -- but when I think of old red farmhouses, white porches/decks come to mind first!  :)

For now that's all, and giving everyone the heads up, as I will be bartending this weekend I may not post til late tomorrow and Saturday. Hope y'all have a grand day tomorrow!

Think I'm nuts!

Yes, you read that right! It's about 5:20am here and I'm just now getting in from being out in the shop working on the Victoria's Farmhouse. I've taken to thinking of it as The House of Hope currently. I managed to get that attic floor off last night, and then ended up taking the entire house apart. Mainly due to realizing that not only was the lower side wall glued in crooked, but several panels were glued in upside down... I found that part odd to say the very least!

Anyways, no eye candy for now because I got so caught up in taking everything apart. However, I have managed to strip paint and glue off of several of the panels. Primed a couple of walls to seal them that I will be putting in to change the actual room layout of the house. Also got out the disc sander and plugged that in to sand some of the pieces smooth on the edges... and so as to not just deconstruct today I also graphed out and laid the kitchen floor. I had an old set of faux slate flooring by Lawbre, so did the middle of my floor with that and then finished out the edge in the dark brown vinyl tile by Greenleaf that looks like marble(mainly because it will tie in with my counter color better.) All of the tiles have been glued in place, and the faux slate is already sealed! Would say tomorrow, but instead guess I'll have to say later today I should be able to grout that floor.

Only other bit of news with the house is I'm going to attempt faux hard wood flooring. With mdf I figure this is going to be an interesting journey, hopefully fairly simple to do. Tonight I did get my lines drawn out, and scored several of them to get a start. However, as I was finally starting to wind down and realize how much my back was aching -- decided to come in and update you all before I hit the sack. lol

Hope it's been a great one for everybody!

Construction/destruction

Yuppers, you read that right -- I've done a bit of both today! On one of my niece's Christmas gifts it's been designs for flooring and figuring out if I'll have the luck/skill to pull off an in-laid veneer floor. Basically I think the main key is to remember patience, thus why I'm glad I've started as early as I have! lol

As for the destruction I'm trying today to focus my efforts on the Victoria's Farmhouse. I've now managed to remove every last trace of glue and paint from the roof sections as well as the attic floor. When I get done typing this I'll be headed back out to the shop to use the heat gun to remove that floor. Think if I can I'm going to attempt to do a faux wood floor(this kit is mdf.) Should prove interesting...

For now, hope everyone's having a good one and I'll see if I can't remember to post some eye candy in tomorrows blog entry!  :)

Little bit of work on everything!

Had the day mostly free for minis -- so tried to do a little on everything! Finished painting my stucco in the Tiffani that I've done in a Tudor style... Was just too stark a contrast between all the beams and that white, so I've softened the look to more of an oatmeal color. Like it better because it also really shows the texture of the stucco better. In addition, finally grouted my chimney for my Victorian puzzle house. Working on pin hinging the doors(changed them out from what came with the kit and made my own.) The Petite Dreams house I started free-handing a zebra pattern on the playroom wall, but am not sure how I like it. I was told one of the little girls that will be playing with this house loves zebras, one loves monkeys, the rest all like kittens and horses. Got the horse themed room done(bedroom), a nursery styled with fairy tale images with the basic wall color of pink(crowd favorite for these gals), but the playroom I thought I'd do with a fun zebra print over the wall and then possibly some monkey pictures and other jungle animals on the other walls to make it cohesive... Just seems really busy to my eye at this point, and I've not even painted it yet! Think it's back to the drawing board for that room/house. On the Victorian Townhouse I did manage to get the electrical wires removed finally. Hated doing it, but have not been able to find Playscale lamps that could be electrified and look decent -- so have decide to just remove the outlets and wires, that way I can get down to really refinishing both inside and out. Last but not least -- on the Victoria's Farmhouse, got the roof completely apart and all old glue removed. Have drawn in my guidelines for shingling, though I do need to figure out what color I'm going to stain the shingles yet. Do have a red picked out for the body and some cream for the window trim, not sure yet if I'm going to keep the shutters on or leave them off...

Have also set up a meeting for Wednesday night with the county commissioner for our Relay for Life program(where I'm hoping the Victoria's Farmhouse will go to.) He and I are to discuss raffle options and where to have pictures taken for fliers if they want them made, and also if the local businesses will be willing to display in their windows throughout the holiday season to build interest in it... They don't often have too much to fund raise with in the winter, and it seems this is being looked upon as a great opportunity. Just feels very much like it should be a win/win situation -- this is a very depressed area, so a child that would probably never know the pleasure of owning a dollhouse like this will be treated to a great surprise for Christmas, and hopefully some decent money is raised to help fund research etc...

Til tomorrow, I'm going to go work on the niece's project -- it's progressed to being more of a showy piece than what I originally figured on doing for her. But I'd really like to think of her being able to grow up with it, and when she's an adult still look at it and know it was built with oodles of love for her. Not sharing any of the real details on it til after Christmas though... don't want to ruin the surprise in any way for her.  ;)

Creative genius... kind of

Basically meaning I've had some great flooring ideas today, but my exactness is kicking in that I want everything "just so."  You wouldn't think a design that is basic geometric shapes would be so exacting, but darned if having one line even a 16th of an inch off doesn't just throw it all out of whack... So yeah, I've been drawing lines -- occasionally over and over, but I think I have at least one design done... Three more to do at least tonight.

Oh, and to let you all know I think I'm going to attempt at least one of these designs as an inlaid floor(cross your fingers I don't mess it up!) lol

Til tomorrow, hope everyone's having a great one.  :)

Hmmm...

Getting used to some changes here with the new Blogger layout, not so sure I like it yet -- but figure it's better if I get used to it rather than fight with it. Been working on getting the last of my shingles painted on the Victorian Puzzle House. This will be a gift to a friend, and I believe I've mentioned the theme was to incorporate her favorite colors -- black, red, and purple... It's definitely an interesting look to say the least! Anyways, once they are dry I'll have the chimney glued on and the porches and should be officially done. One down -- and I'll try to remember to get pics uploaded both here and in my GL gallery.  :)

Also, had removed all of the shingles from the Victoria's Farmhouse(found a splinter today that's been there since I did that, oops) but still needed to get the glue from them off. Found a wallpaper removing gel called DIF, spray it on let it sit for 20 mins and you can scrape the glue off like nothing! Loved using it, and have started making my lines for new shingles. I also have replicated a rear roof piece as that was missing. In addition to the rear roof, one of the room dividers was broken by the doorway... So that got me to thinking I could make a new one of those from my 3/8" plywood. Then of course I realized that while the difference wouldn't be overtly noticeable to most -- well, it'd drive me nuts looking at one wall in one section be thinner than the rest of the interior walls. So yeah, I made new dividers for each floor and then made a couple extra for the simple matter I want some defined areas. I like the changes, as this way I'll be able to have a door into the bathroom and one into a bedroom, without having to go through one to get to another.

Also, I have a meeting set to set up this week with the county commissioner for our Relay for Life program. Had mentioned the possibility of donating a dollhouse to help raise funds for this, and with Christmas coming up we both thought now would be a good time. Sooo, hoping we can work all the kinks out and I can kick it into gear in getting this dollhouse rehabbed and looking good. I've already got a kitchen set I originally bought with my niece's Laurel in mind last Christmas, but it was a bit large for her kitchen -- thinking it may fit well into this house however. Also have a Chrysonbon(sp?) bathroom set for it, and am going to see what other kit furniture I may be able to use. Have that living room set from the estate sale as well... Don't know if I should try to completely furnish it, or if it would be better to leave some rooms for the family that may win the raffle for it to furnish. Any thoughts?

I'm baaack!!!

Lucked into a couple of different stoves...

Hopefully I really am this time, with no more hospital visits or anything such as that! Last couple of months I know I've been really quiet on the mini front, both here and the GL forum -- so am going to try and update what I have managed in the last couple of months... both on the mini front and the RL side. lol  Started bartending again as a side job to make some extra pocket money for minis -- mainly because it seems my collection keeps growing.

as well as a couple of different fireplaces!

As of this last weekend I not only went to my first estate sale for the express purpose of miniatures, but I was also blessed in the house department too... Have to share the story of course! lol I normally keep my eye on Craigslist and Freecycle for any dollhouses or kits that may come up and be a good deal, as well as ebay, and a couple of other sites. Anyways, a post appeared stating "Large dollhouse vandalized by neighbor child - $50." I emailed the woman and mentioned to her that I build dollhouses and have taken to rehabbing some for charity purposes. While she couldn't tell me what model it was, she did say if I could make it up to take a look I could have it free if I wanted it, she just needed it out of her house. Got there and realized it was a RGT Victoria's Farmhouse! Yeah, I got excited because I love the layout of this with the side opening access panel. It was put together kind of shoddily(ex. walls were glued crooked, bad paint, and a hideous job shingling) but on the bright side, I think it should be easy enough to get past all that.

The white chair is signed and dated.

Figured though if I'd be driving the distance to see the house, that I wanted to make the trip worth my while -- and realized this estate sale(also a Craigslist find) would be right on the way... I think that house was like my miniature nirvana last weekend -- floor to ceiling minis, and boy did I ever drool! lol I did take some pics and thought I'd upload throughout this post for your viewing pleasure.  =)

In addition to these I have a cousin whom I was unaware was into dollhouse building as well. After finding him on Facebook when we discovered the similar interest he told me he was downsizing his kit collection, and then gave me first dibs on a couple of kits so that he could more easily work on what he's got... Not like I really need any more but I've always loved the look of old houses and painted ladies, and one of his kits definitely screams that! It's called the Golden Gate View by American Craft Products. I truly love the look of this kit!!!  In addition to this I will also be receiving the Lily by GreenLeaf, also another house that I love the look of.

Basically what this boils down to is I really need to make sure that a couple of the ones I've basically finished but been tinkering on, get completely done. That way I have room to work this winter! lol OH, and there's my other big change -- I moved from having one little desk in the work shop outside, to cleaning out a good portion of another outbuilding so that I need not worry about anyone touching any of my houses again. Had an issue with a family member destroying some pieces for my Harrison that I've been working on. After becoming royally ticked off, I decided that there are just times you have to take it that a person's word means nothing, and that if I wanted to make sure everything was safe and sound it needed to be moved elsewhere. Sooo, managed to accomplish that as well.

HOM kit, $2.00  :)

A couple of kit tables in a lot box

Got this with the wood burning cookstove 2 for $5.00

Reeve's Line bathtub - $2.00

Resin fireplace in lot box

Mini garden from shells.

For now that's all I can think of to update everyone... Hope you all have enjoyed at least a little of the eye candy. I personally fell in love with the flowers to the right, they're made out of mini seashells and were a complete surprise to me when I started going through the $2.00 box of shells I had bought. This woman had a definite love of miniatures, and extraordinary patience. I feel truly honored to have even a bit of this collection to incorporate into my own...

Reeve's Line Toilet - $2.00