Happy Place

I spent a lot of hours in the basement last week, working on various projects that have been in various stages of development for months One project that I started way back when were the stairs and the wall surround. With the help of Julie Warren's YouTube on installing stairs, I was finally able to enclose the space underneath the stairs. 

In the beginning, I had illusions of grandure  of adding a powder room underneath the stars, but there just isn't enough room. I also toyed with a shelving unit to fill that awkward space, and then I just decided to wall it off. Julie turned her dead space underneath the stairs into a lighted pantry. I managed after much fiddling and cutting and re cutting I finally got that triangle to fit just the way I wanted.

Using 1/16 inch basswood, I attached it the kitchen wall.

Looking in through the front door to the back of the stairs, I can get a better idea as to how to finish the back of the stairs. 

The wood is now primed and ready for paint and final installation. At first, I was going to wall paper everything in the dining room, but  I'm going to paint the wall white. I tired some green paper but it jut didn't do much more for me.

The dining room is almost done. It will just need paint and the furniture and lighting added--a chandelier above the dining table and sconces on the wall leading to the family room. 

With the stairs pretty much finished, I moved on the addition, making that final commitment to actually attach it to the house. I had a lot of problems getting the walls to line up, finally realizing that perhaps it the table that the house was on wasn't level--it's an old computer table, actually, so we put the house on its final board, a sheet of plywood 24 wide by 48 inches long, and about 3/4 of an inch finished wood that we buy at Lowes that makes a very nice platform for the house, especially with the attached addition. What a difference that board made. Suddenly and with out a whole lot of effort, the addition lined up with the main house--mostly. 

Even the roof pieces to the addition lined up with the each other at the peak and along the side of the house. There was one glich that required that second set of hands that expertly notched the roof of the addition to fit with the back part of the house roof. Perfect! Thank you, dear.

The skylight fits perfectly. I painted the ceiling white--several coats of interior latex house paint.

Here you can see the slight gap. One of the the walls isn't exactly straight. I'll add trim and a climbing vine and only you will know.

So, a lot of the main construction of the Manchester Country Home is finished. It was time to take a break and I am happy with the progress that I made.  Time to emerge from the basement and go have some real fun.

The Denver Museum of Miniatures Dolls and Toys held its annual Little Show in Lakewood, CO. Oldest daughter Heather and I made plans to meet there Saturday morning. She lives just a few miles from where the show was being held; we are an hour and half away--without traffic. The drama began the night before when she let me know that it was snowing and the roads were slick and she had a clogged drain so she probably would be going in the morning. 

The Little Show was canceled the last 2 years  (we know why), and I missed their big show in the fall, so I was going. Period.

Denver received 10 inches of snow and we had none, but the highway to Denver was clear until we reached the outer city limits. My husband who drove, navigated the icy city streets and so did Heather. 

Her big find was this pagoda. She is thrilled with it and will surround it with a Zen garden. She is and arborist and a gifted gardener, so her mini project will be amazing.

The show was small. The same venders who always do the Little Show were there, and it was great to see them again. At the beginning of the show, the organizer announced that Denver's Mask Mandate had ended at midnight, so those who wanted to, were able to remove their masks.  We were in our Happy Place.

I came home with little treasures like this pitcher with William Shakespeare's face. I couldn't resist him, English major that I am.

Heather surprised me at the end of our shopping with this little hen. Isn't she just the sweetest!

  

And garden urns for the Manchester garden and a very yellow pot.

I had Heather pick out Christmas ornaments for the Christmas tree that I'm making for her birthday.

I saw this vendor's Facebook post announcing that the first 3 visitors her table who mentioned her Facebook page and her name would get a free gift, so I took a picture of her page to remember her name.

When I reached her table, I looked for the picture on my phone. Do you think I could find it? Of course not. So I said, "I took a picture of your Facebook page so that I could remember your name. Um. Katherine?" She carries a line of secret books, those tiny little books with a spine that pulls out to reveal a secret inside. I've made one of Robin Betterly's secret books that are made from laser cut wood, but I suspect that these are 3D printed. Very nice.

She was so excited. I was the first one to get a free gift. I chose the Winnie the Pooh book and purchased the True Romance kit. These will be fun to assemble and Winnie the Pooh will go in the Toy Store. So will this adorable pull toy. . .

. . and this little sheep, another surprise from Heather.

This lovely lady was with Will. I thought she looked like the Queen, but her label says Catherine. Still she's a lovely Elizabethan Lady.

For now the Elizabethans will live on the self.

Finally I spent the better part of two days redesigning and even rebuilding this kitchen cabinet that holds the cooktop.

It was a bad design from the beginning and a sloppy job. The narrow drawers on the left side of the sink got glued in place, which I really didn't mind, but there was a very narrow faux cabinet door that I just didn't like. Nor did I like the that the cabinet extended out to accommodate the cooktop. So I redesigned and rebuilt this cabinet.

 

Originally I designed all the cabinets in Cricut Design Space, but lost all of my projects during a software update, so it was back to square 1.

I duplicated the drawers on the left, making the cabinet look balanced. I worked on the doors this morning to give them a better fit and added the counter top.

But it was this sink unit that caused so many problems. Another poor design. I didn't rebuild it because the sink was so much work, which I did not want to have to reconstruct. I hadn't added a door underneath the sink. The space was too wide for a single door and the because I used sewing pins as hinges, I didn't want to fight with that installation, so I built two more drawers and they look very nice. The narrow door on the right was supposed to be 3 drawers. After an afternoon of measuring, cutting, remeasuring and recutting, and etc., I finally decided on a single narrow door. 

The cabinets are finished. I had a piece of 1/8 inch basswood in the stash, so I cut the countertops now I have to decide on how to finish them--what to use for the top

I have one more project for the kitchen to finish and that is the exhaust hood for the cooktop. It is built and ready to paint and install. 

We still have snow on the ground, though it is melting, but more is due later this week. It looks to be a quiet week where I'll spend a good share of time working on the Manchester--another happy place for me.  

Where's you Happy Place?

Thanks for visiting.

Love you guys! Have a Happy Valentine's Day