Moving right along

Today I am beginning to put all the finishing touches on the house.
I am posting a picture showing where I am in the process.

I have put a bit of antiquing wash on the roof but it shows better in real life.
There are several more little things and I must finish the back roof shingles.... not too many of them. I need to touch up paint here and there and finish stenciling the front door and then putting on the porch. And finally putting up the rest of the "gingerbread." I am hopeful to finish up today. Yesterday was busy in my shop so I didn't get very much done.

I really need to finish this up in the next couple of days because I will be having some minor surgery on my right hand on Thursday and won't be able to do much for a few days afterwards. At least I don't think so but you never know.

The Shingles are nearly done

Here is a picture of the shingles in their almost finished state.

If you notice they are not really straight all the time.... a bit messy... I plan to age them too...... Don't want them to look all fancy and neat.... this is a cottage folks, not a mansion.

So here is the current state.... I plan to finish the roof, do the antiquing and then start adding trim this afternoon.

This has been the slowest part of the job so far. All the little fussy cuts and trying to make it look a little messy.... not that easy actually.

And the saga continues

The weather has improved a lot so I have been running errands and such and as a result my work on the doll house has slowed down a lot.
AND I have run into a couple of minor complications that sort of took the wind out of my sails at first and then just plain slowed me down.

However, I have been slowly getting the roof shingles on.... It is a VERY slow process since I have to constantly cut strange little pieces to fit where the gable joins the roof. Also ran into a bit of trouble that has since been resolved. I didn't like the way the shingles went on to the top of the roof so I thanks to a suggestion by my doll house shop lady, I added a piece of wood along the top edge to glue the shingles to. Before that, they were at a bad angle and since they were so short they stuck out wrong. This probably makes no sense to you but I did it and it works. SO... I am moving along.

The window shutters have also caused me a bit of a problem I don't really like the stencils they gave me for them so have been spending way too much time looking for something better. But so far nothing. I will keep looking though. I don't want to attach the shutters until they are complete.

I hope I have something picture worthy by the end of this day.

Thanks to below freezing temps I can stay in and play.

I got a bit of work done on the dollhouse yesterday. I mentioned I might do the windows, or I might start the shingling. Well, I did both.
The windows, which I thought would be hard, turned out to be easy and quick.
I put the windows together, glued them and put rubber bands on to hold until the glue dried.
After they were dry I painted them. The cream ones are for the inside of the window. The red ones are for outside the house. If you click on the picture of the unpainted windows it will get larger and you will be able to see the rubber bands in place.



Since I had to wait for things to dry I started putting on the shingles. It is very slow cause some have to be cut to fit. Now I know that what I have done so far looks messy, but it supposed to. When it is all done it will get a "wash" to make it look weathered. This is an old house you know.

I plan to work on more shingling today and maybe get the windows in to place permanently.
Hope I have good stuff to share tomorrow.

Any comments you want to make?????

Snow coming... need to get the roof on....

Well maybe not for real..... BUT the roof is on and the Gable in the front as well. It wasn't so easy because of making sure the pieces stayed in place til the glue dried. My hubby let me borrow some of his strapping and clamps to help with the job and it is now done.











I am not sure what to do next. I could shingle or I could make windows. The latter job is quite fiddley so may do the easier one of putting on the shingles. If you notice I have drawn little lines on the roof to make sure they go on straight. It is a boring job but will begin to make the house take real shape.....

Tune in tomorrow to see which job I chose.

Gluing, nailing and housecleaning

Yesterday I spent a lot of time working on my doll house, gluing up the main body of the house. Then nailing to hold tight and finally using a nail set to push the nails in and acrylic Spackle to fill the holes. All the little bits that must be done so it will look right. As promised, here are a couple of pictures.

Today I am taking a break. It is Monday so that must mean housework, errands and such.
And tonight we will have steak, potatoes and onion rings.

I was talking with a friend this morning discussing the fact that I don't cut back the flower seed heads in the fall but leave them on for the birds to feast on in the winter. I looked out my kitchen window today and there were a couple of finches doing just that.

House Construction Begins today

I have finally finished all of the painting of main pieces of the doll house and so today I will be putting the basic house together. I will take pictures a couple of times along the way. It is my goal to have it all together by the end of the day.

Then I can start the fun stuff......

So check in tomorrow for pictures