Glencroft - Day 27

I'm on to the landscaping portion of my build, this is where I'm finding it difficult to keep the pace up, There is just so much to do and I don't know what to tackle first!  The last couple of days I have been working on the fence and yard on the house.  I'm fairly certain the light on the front of the house has been thoroughly destroyed by the cat so I have to figure out how to replace that fixture with the least amount of damage.

 The paperclay shrunk an incredible amount on the paving stones, I'm not sure why but I"m fixing the issue with moss and grassmat.   The shrub is actually supposed to be an orange tree.  the raised bed will be filled in, some gravel/soil and tiny plants made for a kitchen garden.

 Overall, i just need to find the window frames for the upstairs west window, I still haven't had any luck tracking them down.  I may have to raid the second kit in the garage - but then what would I do with that one!

Glencroft Table and Scratch Build Progress

I have been spread between two houses today.  I started with a table for the Glencroft to sit on - just to get it off the floor if nothing else.  The kitten had far too easy access to the house while it was on ground level.  The table has some work left on it obviously, I'm going to dress up the table top a bit - I struggled to keep the design somewhat simple to go with the "basic" style of the house.

The centre of the table top was cut out so the wiring and fuses are still accessible.  The benefit to the table is that I can now do some landscaping!  The house oddly doesn't seem nearly as big now that it's elevated.

On my scratch build, it was a two steps back day - I had to knock down the walls I had up and rip the base in half.  I cut / added a 5 inch spacer to give a bit more room to the hallway and living room. Now I play the waiting game until the glue has fully set.

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.