Let the Fun Begin

 The sides walls and second floor of the 1998 Duracraft Manchester Country House are glued in. I used regular wood working 36" clamps to hold it together. They run about $30 each, so they are an investment, but you plan to build more than one house, they are easier and clamp more firmly than tape, but I had a really hard time getting the tape to stick to the MFD. I let the glue cure over night. Actually, I should have used 4 clamps.

Next I used an all purpose latex--clean up with water--primer. I had to buy this large can, but I'll use it around the house, too. Cost $11. 

Here's are the common questions about priming wood:

• Why Prime: To seal the wood (or in this case MFD and to create a smooth surface that will make a good foundation to add wall color and wallpaper.
• Should I prime before or after I assemble the house? I have done both. I like painting the shell after it is glue together. It's faster. I've done piece by piece and have to spread them out on a large table in the garage (it's winter and too cold now to work out there) and I have to paint one side, let it dry then turn it over and paint. It's just easier to paint the entire assembled shell inside and out.

Next I will add the copper electrical tape while the house is still open. I'll add the 3rd floor and the roof later after I've done more interior work: paint and paper walls, add flooring, and baseboard. At this stage, it is easier to do these things while I can turn the house on its side or front for easier access.

I bought a different painter's tape--that I don't like--. When I removed it from the edition floor, the floor pealed up because it is paper! I wasn't committed to this flooring any way. 

It's just so hard not to play around, so I'm using scrapbook paper to make my wallpaper templates--so much easier with the ceiling removed. Scrapbook paper helps to work out color scheme. I may even use it wallpaper. I've not clued in interior walls yet because I'm still trying to decide where they will be. As I said: just playing.

I've even fashioned faux kitchen cabinets. The photos are not the best. Sorry. In the beginning the addition was destined to be the kitchen, but it has a very nice double window the that seemed to go to waste in a kitchen and I thought I needed more wall space for a kitchen, so I decided to put the living room in the addition with the dining room next then the kitchen on the other side of the stairs.

That floor plan just didn't work. So I went to the original plan and moved the kitchen to the addition, which really does make more sense for the dining room to flow into the kitchen. I cut out the wall (well, hubby did) to create that open space--you know--for large family gatherings. The disadvantage to that is loss of wall space, but  the kitchen will be modern, full of light, and functional. 

In real life, I'm over the plain color pallet for the modern home: essential shades of white--gray--black--ecru. I was watching HGTV Flip or Flop where the designer brought in this beautiful slate blue for the backsplash. Love it! So I'm playing with scrapbook paper again to work out my colors. I cut faux paper cabinets on my Cricut Maker. Still working on them. Fashioned my exhaust hood, but it will have to a rectangular box that will fit between the upper cabinets. I spent days creating my own refrigerate, but it's not very good. I'm looking for a kit online, specifically at Elf Miniatures in the UK where I will also source my stove, (this one is paper) and modern bathroom fixtures. Yes, it takes a while for orders to come from the UK, but have you ordered from online shops in the USA located on the other side of the country? The Denver USPS hub is awful. Sometimes my shipments linger there for weeks--yes weeks before being delivered. COVID. 

Anyway. Elf has wonderful service and authentic looking kits. You can email the company and Elizabeth is quick to reply.

So here is the kitchen assembled in the addition with the large window. Not as much wall space. The stove will be 3" wide, which leaves less room for counter space.

For he center island, I use Julie Warren's instructions, but with modifications. This piece was failure, so I'll build a new one. I don't like the legs either, so. I'll cut my own using 1/16 or even 1/32 bass wood on my Cricut Maker. Stay tuned.

Conversely, here is the kitchen on the opposite side of the house where a living room would naturally go. More wall space, more counter top space, but once I moved the pieces to the addition there was just a better use of space and a more natural movement though the house.

A final comment on planning; making faux pieces out of paper really helps to get a feeing for the space and using scrapbook paper helps visualize color and patterns. 

I don't think I will use such a bold peach for the bedroom. I've been playing with the colors, maybe a teal blue for the walls or stripes. I haven't worked it all out. Definitely using this fabric for the bedding. I'll be building a modern 4-poster bed, too. 

This will be my 3rd big farmhouse from a kit. I have learned so many things and grown so much over the years since I built my first kit, the Ballet Studio. I can now make some of my own furniture, but I prefer to use kits, but the cupboards will be truly custom By Me, especially since I purchased my Cricut Maker--truly a wonderful addition to my workshop. 

Next to come will be the electrical. I've purchased two kits from Bindles in the Netherlands, another fine company to order from if you want to make your own lighting, so the next few days, I'll be assembling my two chandeliers kits. I'm also going to use Cricut-Kit Concept's quick connect adapters to attach the chandeliers to the electrical tape. Stay tuned for that tutorial.

So I'm off and running. It's still winter and cold. We are still social distancing. I have had my first COVID vaccine--no side effects other than a sore arm at the injection site. I'm scheduled to get the second shot Feb. 9; still I'll be social distancing a a couple of weeks for the shot to take effect, so I have plenty of time on my hands until the weather warms and it's time get my hands in the soil. 

I am very excited for this house. One problem I faced before I even took it out of the box was how to make it different from other two large farmhouses. I tend toward the traditional, 19th century furniture, the rustic farmhouse, but I've 3 houses that are just that, Victorian and traditional. The Texas Farmhouse, the Bellingham, is a little more modern, but this house will the departure for me: a more modern, clean, less cluttered house. It'll be fun.

Thanks for visiting. Stay Tuned. 

Just the Beginning

 I've been at this dollhouse building for a while now, fumbling my way through each build not really knowing what I was doing, making mistakes then trying to figure how to fix them so that they don't show. Seldom satisfied with my work and ever curious to find out how others do their miniature things, I discovered bloggers who are master builders, artists, and interior designers, and I learned where to go for help. So I am tackling another big kit house, with the hopes of building a charming house that looks well planned and well crafted, with as few amateurish mistakes as possible. I came close with Lily's house, the Cranberry Cove, but I followed the kit exactly without any modifications.

With my project there will be modifications or more accurately, I'll be kit bashing-- a very big leap for me.

Every now and then I cruse through the local Craig's List and eBay looking for good bargains on the vintage kits no longer in production. I am finding, however, that bargains are hard to find as the dollhouse building hobby seems to be regaining some popularity. But I got lucky and found this house for $40 in Denver on Craig's List not far where my daughter lives, so she was able to pick it up and deliver to me.

This kit is MFD wood, not the kit with the punch-out pieces from sheets splintering plywood, which makes it a solid, sound house that will easier to assemble with not tabs, slots, gaps between walls, and splinters. The floor plan is similar to the Real Good Toys Vermont Farmhouse.

        

Even with the seven room floor plan, I wanted more rooms. Both of my big houses have 3 room areas across the house, and 3 floors, so I decided to purchase Real Good Toys addition to add two more rooms. I assumed that it would be a perfect fit based on the photos on the company's website. I suggested to my husband what he could get me for Christmas and he was paying attention.

                       

Note that kit does not come with doors pre cut in the side panel that will fit next to the exterior of main house as shown in the photo on the box.

After putting away Christmas--the basement is the staging area for all the decorating that goes upstairs--I unboxed the main house and did a dry assembly and partially assembled the addition. At this point the second story floors don't line up. I am hoping that they will line up once the the buildings are placed on their foundations.

The stairs in these kits are either right in the middle of the house or set off to the side, neither are very good locations. A third option for the house is to eliminate the stairs all together, but I am a literal thinking and I would be bothered without the stairs. So, I played around with an old stair case that I didn't use because I did such a poor job of assembling it, so I cut it apart to see if I could fashion a stair with a landing.

In some old farmhouses, the staircase is in center of the house and perhaps in the main entry, so I tired facing the the stairs toward the door, but they are too long and crowd the door, so the only choice is facing them  the way the kit is designed, to back of the house. I did some research to see how other builders customize and redesign the stairs and liked the idea of creating a landing to add some interest. I am thinking that the stairs will go on the other side of the wall and the landing will go other direction into the living room, for this room will either be the kitchen or formal dining room. I am trying to decide if the kitchen should be in the addition, but the big bay window screams dining room.

I like to switch out the windows in these older kit houses because the windows and doors are punched out the plywood sheet and have to be assembled. The RGT addition came with a lovely double window so I ordered replacement windows doors from RGT, hoping that they would fit and prepared to modify the openings if I had do, but I did not.

Here I need to mention that I wrote the company a not not to send the Lilliput doors if they wouldn't fit the Manchester to which they responded on the invoice that they had no way of knowing if they would fit. In all fairness to RGT, it is important not to assume that their pieces will fit the old kits. I got lucky. Certainly measure your openings before you order to compare with the dimensions of the parts that you are ordering. 

I ordered a door to connect the master bedroom to a library? Not sure which room will be the bedroom.

Worried that the second floors won't line up, I glued the foundations together, hoping that I wouldn't have to modify one or the other.

When I first began building my first house, I purchased these corner clamps but I couldn't use them on the houses. 

But they are perfect for lining up and clamping the corners of the foundations.

Because the addition does not have precut doors, I set about measuring to cut out a doorway on the side wall of the addition and the side wall of the main house.

I decided that the kitchen and dining room would be an open space, so instead of standard door, there will be a wide opening. Easy for me to plan, but a little harder to execute; however, my husband came to the rescue.

Another gift: a Rockwell Blade Runner jig saw, a sander, and a vacuum that attaches to each one to suck up sawdust. The man knows his stuff and is sweet and generous. He created a little workshop in the storage closet in the basement.

          

The saw rather intimidates me, but I'll get the hang of it. My first project today required his expertise, though.

He had to drill holes in the corners of the cut to make the turn at the top of the cut.

The saw worked so well. The alternative would have been to use a box cutter. No way. My old hands don't have the strength anymore.

Next we have to cut out the door on the second floor between the bedroom and the addition. Oh, and the floors do align now with the structures on their foundation.

Once we have the upstairs door cut, I'll be able to glue the main floors of the house together then I'll plan the lighting for the first two floors. 

Thanks for visiting. See you next time.

Sanctuary

 We are blessed to have such a home where we can feel safe from whatever happens down the road and around the corner--Elsewhere. While at times it seems a bit overwhelming with all of the work that the Garden Spot requires, we know that it is the only place we want to be right now. I would imagine that you feel the same about your home. 

May is just the best month at the Garden Spot. I won't declare it my favorite because each month has it's own splender; it is fun, though, to look back at May 2020.

As May begins, the garden begins to produce. While little is planted, the perennial asparagus yields the first harvest. We have about 13 plants that produce more than we can eat, with the stalks  growing faster than we can keep up with them. I've tried to freeze it, but when it's cooked it turns mushy, so we eat it everyday until we can't eat any more. Actually, I waste a lot because it grows so fast that, often a stalk has matured to the point that it is pithy and stringy over night. I feel awful wasting it, so I give a lot away, too. We enjoy it most grilled (or oven-roasted) drizzled with olive oil, salted and peppered along with salmon on the grill or just juicy hamburgers. 

It will be weeks before the tomatoes go in. At this point the seedlings have germinated in the barn underneath the grow lamp, and most of the summer will pass until they are harvested, but the weeds will come--oh--they are already thriving in May. 

 

The pasture is green in May and the daffodils are in their glory and I'm really enjoying May. 

In May the soon to be 8-year-old got her first driving lesson on the EZ GO golf cart, a rite of passage here. 

A feral kitty moved into the barn and soon blessed the Garden Spot with two baby kittens. They were so cute. Mom has become our barn cat. The Head Gardener has become quite attached. The boys were posted on a local neighbored board and found new homes by the end of the day.

  

And butterflies. We don't attract many, but every year we can count on the Tiger Swallowtail. I took dozens of photos of this beauty.

And the birds of May

The female oriole arrives first and we know that it is time load up on the grape jelly--cheap, generic brand.

The male arrives later--. He's coming in for a landing now. About the same time, the scarlet tanager arrives and digs into the jelly. The females of both species are so similar, it's often hard to tell which is which. The orioles will hang and raise a clutch until mid July then they leave. As much we'd love see the tangiers hang out, they leave much sooner. We keep hoping that they'd nest in our pines, but they prefer to cooler, higher altitude in the mountains.

I keep my camera hand, taking hundred of bird phots each summer, always looking for rare migrating songbirds. Sometimes I get really lucky to see a rare bird that is just passing through.  

Like this Indigo Bunting. We see them often, but not every summer and they don't stay long. The female looks so much like a female English sparrow that we probably never realize that she is here too. I love the little guy. I just happened to look out at the right moment, for he didn't stay long.

The gold finches are residents here year round. The feed on the black oil thistle. They will nest here, too, in the pines. We usually have 3-6 pairs. They can be put on quite a show at the feeder and bird bath.

OOOOOH LOOK, another bunting, the Lazuli. We see them here often too, but not every year and sometimes two males and not for very long. They are passing through, too. 

 

Another lucky motions shot.

I love this guy. His bright red head and bright yellow breast.

A sanctuary isn't complete without water, trickling water, and lilacs.

And bench to enjoy the water.

  

Even  the storm clouds that bring May Spring Showers are welcome at the Garden Spot.

The little North Star Cherry tree full of blooms previews June and fresh cherry pie--if the robins don't get to the cherries before me.

Thank you for visiting. 

I'm joining Angie for Mosaic Monday. See you there.