A House in 22 days - Day 13 - Christmas Eve Eve

 The elves are thoroughly whipped and the house is thoroughly done!  The house wasn't quite 22 days, we actually did it in 13... with an average of 10 hours per day... each... so 260 hours all said and done.  I feel like I've run the Boston marathon!

The final trim bits have been glued in place, the paperclay is done on the chimney, and the cap is on (not pictured).  Ben and I came close to killing each other only once during the whole process which is pretty damn good if I do say so myself.

Things I would have done differently on this build - more time.  I hate a rush build, I like to agonize over placement of everything, this is a hobby that definitely appeals to my OCD tendencies.  I would have used a saw to cut the siding rather than a utility knife to get cleaner edges, and I would have added plexi glass to the sunroom rather than the GL plastic window.  I definitely wish we had taken the few extra hours to electrify the house.  I wouldn't use the wooden shingles again, I would go with paper clay and simulated the terra cotta shngles.

 Things I love about this house, I love the front entrance bash.  As much as some light was lost taking out the floor to ceiling windows I think the functioning doors and steps / planters more than make up for it.  The pink is growing on me, at first I really hated it but as everything came together I think it actually suits the house pretty well.

I really like the lay out of the kit, it's different than your standard four room box, I'm quite pleased with the stairway and we're already planning on getting some appliances for a kitchen set and finding a smaller dining room table for the "dining hall" (blue room).

I will actually be sad to see this house go in spite of my aggression towards it earlier today when I thought it might not be done in time for christmas :)

A House in 22 days - Day 10 & 11

Day 10 was siding and stonework.  Ben tackled the MDF siding boards while I slaved away at the pasta machine.  After the clay was secured to the wall I wet it down and scrubbed the pieces of clay together.  The slick surface is easier to work with I find - and often spritz it with a plant mister to keep things moist.  The lines were pressed in with the lever on a set of nail clippers, and then the wet clay drug back up over to create raised edges / texture.

The MDF siding appears to be extremely difficult to cut, I have to say I'm quite glad i'm not working with it :)

 The sunroom tip out has been a quandary - I really didn't know how to approach this one.  I had cut out a room sized rectangle of foamcore and was prepared to do the floor on this to keep it all on one level.  This involved bringing the paper clay foundation up higher however as the foamcore was visible through the windows.  In the end I used the foamcore as a pattern for a lino tile.  I then finished off the ledge between rooms with thin slices of lino tile.


The paper clay foundation was then ready to go on, I really like the look it gives to the sunroom, it makes it look more substantial!











The paper clay stone work which went on in day 10 was painted today with layers of watercolour paints.  I filled in the lines between the stones first and then applied different layers of yellow, brown, and grey over top.

 The next segment of paper clay to be done is the front entrance.  I have glued together the planters which came with the kit (pardon the tape) - the plan is to paperclay the planters and steps into one piece which can then be glued to the deck

I really wish we had electrified this house, I think it would be one of the neater ones to see lit up!  With 2 days to go until christmas, I'm beginning to think we just may make it (as you can see the roof is going up currently)

Glencroft - Day... who knows now

I'm not nearly as religious about blogging when working on my own wee house it seems, I suppose it doesn't help that the majority of us seem to show off our hard work at the green leaf forums these days!  Regardless, despite radio silence, I have been working diligently on the Glencroft in the desperate hopes of clearing off some table space so Ben might work on the house he was planning on giving his neice for Christmas, or should we fall behind schedule, her birthday.  Although it doesn't matter how much space is cleared off, it never seems to be enough, he may be intimidated by the amount of work these tiny houses appear to contain!

That said, here is my progress.

1.  The paper clay shingles.  Greenleaf supplies sheets of thin shingles with this kit.  I actually did consider using them until I realized that my house would look like thousands of other ones out there if I did that.  I also remember having a hell of a time getting them on straight, keeping them from migrating, and an even colouring throughout because of glue spots and whatnot.  I went with my tried and true method from the Chantilly and dug out the pasta maker then cut inch wide strips, notched the strips for the look of individal shingles and glued them on with modpodge.  Every couple of shingle rows I would go back with my knife and texture them to look a bit more like wood-grain, specifically pulling at the lower edge with the blade so that it both cut in a bit and pulled back.  I think this gives you more of a realistic yet story book illustration type of roofing shingle.

2.  The base coat - to get a colour variation between shingles, I applied a base wash of greys and yellows, mixing on the fly so no two shingles are actually the same colour.  It's painstaking, and to be honest I don't know if it actually makes a difference once you put the stain on.  I was thinking of leaving the shingles in grey tones but it was too much grey on the house between the stonework on the front/chimney.

3.  Wood stain - I coated the roof in Minwax "Provincial 211".  I definitely prefer the darker shingles, but love that it doesn't match up whatsoever with my timbering on the front of the house.

Last but not least, this is my first electrified house, for months the little roundwires have been played with by the kitten, tripped over, painted over, glued, taped, moved, trampled on and yanked upon.  At long last I was able to locate a transformer.  The unfortunate side to this story is that I wasn't able to test any of my lighting before moving forward.  I am currently sitting at a higher than expected success rate with all lights working but the upstairs ones.  I need to check bulbs at this point, if there's a break in the wiring I have no way to access them and the lights become purely ornamental.

1.  interior lighting shot of the living room

2.  Exterior shot of the ground level.

Next the interior progress.  I'm almost done since the last post anyways.  I have flooring left to do in the study and a bit of trimwork to figure out, but the interior finally made it over the slow hump or the ("to hell with this I'm leaving you on the side of the road" stage).  The floors on the bottom level are cut up lino tiles in a stone pattern and then grouted with spackle, toned with watercolours.  The second floor bedroom is strip wood stained and glued in place.  I also have the doors up and hinged aside from the dining room door, it is waiting patiently in the wings, and the windows leaded and half installed.  

Glencroft - Day 22

I've been terribly busy with work so the house has gone on the back burner so to speak.  I think I needed a break from it regardless, the interior work was dragging on terribly and after being left alone for a week or so, the house seems to almost be putting itself together!.

Since my last post I have finished wallpapering.  The smaller upstairs room is becoming a study and was papered with fabric swatches.  The larger room has been paneled, papered, and stucco'd using the TP Stucco method.  The bashed window in the now dining room has also been finished.  The leadwork was done with silver jewelers tape and transparency film - with a coat of clear nail polish over the finished product to give a glass look.

I had a bit of difficulty with the roof on this kit, I think that's the one part of every house that causes the most grief.  After several gluings however, it seems to now be sticking.

Tonight I tackled the paperclay exterior.  Riverstone for the chimney and flagstone for the main house structure.  I'll attach pictures but there will be another wash or two of colour to go on before the stone work can be called completed.

I've also hung the front door and started the interior doors.  These are by far the smallest "nails" I have ever encountered.  I got around the size issue by driving pilot holes with finishing nails, and then filling the holes with super glue.  Then I put the tiny nails into the hinge and lowered the hinge/nails into the pilot holes and clamped them in with pliers.  I've been swinging the door all evening and everything seems to be holding so I think this approach will work.

Glencroft - Day 18

Day 18 was a relatively short day focused only on the windows for the dining room.  I managed to get the 5 remaining panes leaded, stained, and sealed.  The leading is done with silver jeweler's tape, the staining with sharpie markers, and sealed with clear nail polish to dissolve the film on the transparency sheets.

Glencroft - Day 17

Happy thanksgiving everyone!  Now that my gut is full of turkey, I figured rather than cleaning up the kitchen I'd put some work into this ever-growing house that is the Glencroft.  I really can't believe how big this house is, and it just seems to be getting more massive daily!

I've been working mostly on the cantilevered window casing for the dining room.  I have the case built and have started on the windows themselves.  I picked up some silver jewelers tape and cut it down to a size which may still be too big, I have to sit on this one window and try to make my decision from there.  The centre window will be open while the other two will be closed.  I'm thinking the upper portions of the window will have some sort of stained glass effect.

I've also papered the upper floors.  I will continue with the paneling on the larger room and stucco on the lower portion of the library room.  The library is "papered" with fabric and mod-podge (matte) so seepage isn't an issue. lol I will never use mod-podge again for hanging paper however, it's only good for fabric.

I've also picked up some fabric bags from the dollar store which will be used to make seat cushions and possibly draping for the lower floors.  That's still up in the air however.

Glencroft - Day 14

Well the move is finally over and the boxes are rapidly approaching "unpacked".  I even have the place to myself tonight so I dove head first into the miniature land and worked on my Glencroft with fervor for the first time in weeks.

I had been debating the idea of making larger, oriel windows in the smaller main floor room of the house because I want to use it as a dining room.  With a sample dining set in there the windows are far too high for the room to function at all in this capacity.  I had been debating building a larger window before I got the kit, and this approach is far out of my comfort zone, but I knew I wouldn't be happy with the finished product if I didn't try.

The trusty dremel eventually made it through the wood and I ripped the window opening on the right hand side down an additional two inches, and thus became committed to figuring out how to build windows from scratch.  Tonight I started building the oriel casement but soon realized that it was a bit much to take on considering I have no idea how to build scratch windows.  Instead I am building a cantilevered window with a tall exterior casing.  I want to add carving detail to the upper "cabinet" of the structure, or possibly just stucco the upper portion and frame it in Jacobean stained wood.

I am happy with the results so far, it's really opened up the room.  I briefly toyed with expanding the front window slot to allow for two smaller windows to be installed to centre them more from the interior.  It may still happen, nothing has been ruled out yet :)


I then wanted to feel like I got something done so I started on the stucco for the outside of the house.  I knew I didn't want to use the spackle and paint method because of the small spaces between the 2nd floor brackets, plus I find the texture is too "big" for this scale I'm working in.  I went with the toilet paper stucco approach and I think it's pretty bang on - not to mention easy!

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Glencroft - Day 10

Day 10 is something I haven't attempted before, plasterwork.  I picked up Poly spackling compound and thinned it out with white latex paint, it mixes to about the consistency of oatmeal and not much smoother than that it seems.  I started out dabbing it on with a brush but I really really hate stucco.  after doing two walls in bumpy stucco I decided "to hell with this" and grabbed a discard piece of wood, loaded it up, and started smooshing the plaster on to the wall.

The photo is the first coat, I will put a second on, sand lightly, seal, and add timbering trim / beams.  Plastering is actually a helluva lot of fun, I have to say it's been my favourite wall effect to date.

Chantilly - Day 24

Ah unpacking, it's like christmas on a budget.  All these boxes and no idea what's in them.


I finally unpacked the furniture for mom's house tonight, so I thought I would snap off a few pictures of it so I have an idea of what I still need to get.

 I need to find a living room set that will work with orange.  This is obviously no small feat - pardon the pun!

I would also like to find a vanity and a dress form.  The vanity will be easy enough but I have no idea where I will find a dress form in half scale.

Glencroft - Day 4 through 6

I've been working sporadically on Glencroft while I was sick this last week, mostly because everything I need to finish off the Chantilly is still in a box, somewhere, probably wrapped in paper and dust.

I have the second floor installed and glued.  I put white cardstock up in the living room rather than try to plaster, and I was very sure I didn't want stucco on all the walls.  I then undertook the paperclay fireplace.

First off, Paperclay is vastly superior to the DAS modelling clay I used in the Chantilly.  It has virtually no odour, isn't sticky, and takes longer to dry so it is far easier to work with.  Also it goes through the pasta machine much slicker which is again because it isn't sticky.

I rolled out numerous strips of paper clay and glued them to the bare plywood, then with a moist paper towel I smoothed the pieces together and built up some texture.  Next the stones were shaped by pressing the lines in and pulling the clay towards the centre of the stone to add depth.

After the clay dried I added black watercolours to the cracks in the stone and blocked in stone colours with the left over paint on my watercolour palette.  A few dirty washes of grey with a bit of yellow or red and the tones were evened out quite nicely.

The wiring was a touch trickier than I thought, i dug out a channel for the right wall sconce with my dremel and built the clay up over top.  the left sconce and the candles on the second floor have individual holes for the wires to run through, at this point I know the power strip is either going in the chimney or in the foundation,either way the wires are traveling through the chimney to get to their destination.

When I built the baseboard in the living room I left them high enough to accomodate hardwood flooring, they will also accommodate the roundwire should I decide to add table or floor lamps.  The dining room / kitchen will have ceiling fixtures.The hardest part of the wiring so far has been the planning by a long shot.  It's hard to know where you will want lighting when all you have built is a portion of a large box!

Glencroft - Day 1 through 3

Well my move is finally almost complete - almost because I still haven't finished unpacking everything.  It certainly will be nice to be able to use the garage once this endeavour has been completed.  One of the boxes that did get unpacked however is my Glencroft.  I really have enjoyed working on the Chantilly for mom, so I have decided to build another slightly larger (ie. full scale) house, with full electrification, to sit in the hallway of the new house.  I've had my eye on the Glencroft for years so this is actually quite an exciting undertaking.

The first difference is of course the scale, this house is freaking huge!  The second massive difference is I'm now working with a die-cut kit rather than a laser cut.  The difference in detail is definitely noticeable, but then it will be easier to add detail to this scale as well - it all comes out in the wash.

The third difference I've noticed is the cost to work on a larger scale house.  I got wood for the 1st story flooring today and it cost about as much as all the flooring for the Chantilly, and possibly the siding as well.  The entire Chantilly will easily fit in the living room of Glencroft.

That said, I have a stack of HOM furniture kits kicking around, so it will be cheaper to furnish :)

I completed a few dry fits and I think I have narrowed down the problem areas in this house - they are the ceiling beams, the stair well, and the yard if I choose to install it.  Today I papered the stairwell and started staining the lower portions of the living room walls and exposed framework with Minwax Jacobean.  Any of the wood with the "good side" exposed seems to take another coat of two of stain to match the stain put on the "bad side", but at least I'm getting it to match.

I also think I will forego the kit mantle for the first floor fireplace and fashion a more elaborate fireplace to compliment the siding, and then plaster or paper the upper portions of the walls to keep the room from becoming too dark and depressing.  I also need to mark out the lighting and find a place to hide this electrical panel.