Chantilly - Day 1

As soon as I got home I had this kit in about a billion pieces.  The cat, Karl, was more than happy to help scatter the pieces about the living room.  Thankfully she isn't much for the smell of paint so once I started priming she lost interest and went off to drown something in the toilet.

I'm rather impressed with myself, not only did I read through the instructions fully, but also the warm up sheet.  The first thing I decided had to be done was getting a primer coat on to the main structural segments of the shell. This house seems to have an awful lot of sides, but I'm going to run with "that's normal" for now.

To my horror, the wood warped quite badly as it sucked in the primer, I'm going to have to stack the segments under books to try and flatten them back out or construction is going to prove challenging. I've decided to paint / wallpaper the interior prior to construction as I just can't fathom trying to paper these tiny tiny walls once they're put together.

A few more coats of primer (I'm actually using ceiling paint having forgotten to buy primer) and I will call day 1 quits.

A note on the priming, I started off with one of my artist brushes, but this wood is so dry it was sucking the paint up faster than I was able to apply it, and the artist brush applied far too thin of a coat.  I moved on to the cheap foam brushes (you know the ones that disintegrate almost instantly) and was able to apply a more even and effective coat of paint, and then a light sanding got rid of the foam brush bits rather nicely.


Hours later, I finally have a decent paint base to work with.  The blessing of the ceiling paint is that it dries quickly and evenly, a light sand and it's completely smooth.  I complete a dry fit on the walls (because now I don't remember which walls were for which part) and the house is thankfully starting to take on some size.  I'm reassured that it isn't too small any longer and definitely has some potential.

I'm leaving the pieces pressed beneath two books and a bucket of paint in the hopes that this will flatten out the warping from painting.  As the coats went on alternating sides the warping became less drastic, so again there's hope for this house yet.  Crisis for the time being - averted!