Just a Little Progress

 I don't have much to write about this week, maybe later in the week. I pledged last week to work on the Manchester exterior to get it finished, which a a big job. I did make some progress toward that pledge today.

But the last few days I've been playing with different ideas and layouts for the interior. That's what happens when you take forever on a project--you tend to lose focus or in my case forget the original plan.

First, I worked on the walls for the 3rd floor walls. For some reason, they did't fit, so I used my electric table sander to sand them down just enough so that they would slide right in place. I haven't decided yet what the space will be. Another bedroom, perhaps. It does bother me that there isn't stair access to this floor. It wouldn't be too difficult to cut a stair opening in the floor, but I'm not sure that I really want to build another set of stairs.

I have also toyed with the idea of moving the bedroom on the second floor that I have dedicated to the bathroom. 

In the end, the bedroom will remain to the left of the stairs. 

I've been searching the web for wallpaper that I can print. I found some plaid prints and settled on this one. It's printed on computer paper for a test run. I've decided that there is just too much blue plaid and I'll paint the walls or find a subtle contrasting paper that doesn't dominate the space. The only problem with painting the window wall is that I need paper to hid the tape wiring.

I absolutely love this plaid and this wall. At this point, I'm just fiddling around with ideas. I bought the shelf brackets online which will allow me to fashion a rustic wood shelf above the counter. I'm playing around with creating the sign. Eventually the wood will be painted and aged and the sign will be printed on  clear water slide decal paper. While the floral tray was created when I was just playing around trying make little round trays, I'm going to keep it. I like the floral Washi tape as nice contrast. 

I'm still playing around that old entertainment center. It could be modified to hold the coffee bar, but then I don't have room for the refrigerator. See how easily distracted I am?

The base of the house has caused so much stress. The original MFD base had to be rebuilt. My husband used good hardwood this time around. I glued the base for the addition to it today, which simple as it was seemed to cause me a lot of anxiety.

I have more work to do inside, but now I must focus on completing the architecture elements of the exterior.

Finally the bases are glued and clamped! Progress. Next, I think I have to install the front porch. It has an extension that needs to installed then I believe I can glue the house and the addition in place. Once the glue has set, hubby will screw the two foundations together to make them solid. 

While I have painted the pieces with a light gray, I considered using the kit's brick stencil; instead, however I'm going to use the stone stencil that came with the Dura Craft farmhouse, hoping that I have enough product to cover the base--but first I have to locate the stencil and the powder. UGH. 

Last week I had 5 DAR members sitting at my tables making Valentine's Day cards for our veterans residing in the Cheyenne VA nursing home. We made 40 beautiful cards. Twenty will be sent to the veterans and 20 will be sent to Michigan to Cards for Soldiers that ships greeting cards to military deployed over seas. 

Today I laid out the parts that I would need to complete the exterior of the Manchester, including punching out decorative pieces from the plywood sheets and locating the pieces of the kit lumber for the porch assembly. I had to look up the instruction booklet, and I was ready to begin measuring to cut the porch supports and for the railings.

It would be so tempting to go online to shop for more decorative laser cut gingerbread, but I've committed to assembling the kit as it was designed.

And that's what I did this week. The new week begins, sadly with a memorial for my husbands dear friend tomorrow morning, eye doctor appointments for both of us, dinner with friends, and a consult with a diabetic dietician on Friday. So the week is full. 

Wishing you a fantastic and productive week.

Thanks for taking time to visit.