Humming a New Tune (since I can't carry one)

I made great progress last week. Most of the wallpaper has been cut and is laying out in the garage so that I can seal it with Kryon sealer--stuff stinks so badly that I have to mask up and open the garage door when I use it, but it will protect the paper from fading and yellowing. 

The rest of the wood floors are stained, waiting to be glued in place. I used a light pine finish, wanting to use a bit darker stain that had more character, but I grabbed the wrong can and before I realized that I had used the wrong color it was too late. Oh well. The flooring turned out nicely and once glued in place will look beautiful.

 

I spent another morning trying to figure out how to make some dresses for the closet that I've spent so much time trying to build and now maybe won't use in this house, but I did manage to create a facsimile of a dress by finding an image on Design Space. I use fabric glue. Just an easy way to make such a cute little dresses.

  

Through trial and error I finally had a close facsimile of a dress that fit Miss McDonald Happy Meal Prize at least in length.

Because one dress will be the back, it has to be flipped horizontally so that one will be the wrong side and the other dress will be the right side. You can see the two different sides in this photo.

This little dress was easy to design and easy to make. I'll be making more and dressing them up some lace and ribbon.

Now for the real conundrum.

The original floor plan calls for the bedroom to be the room on the left second floor with an entry into the addition which will be some sort of studio with the bathroom in the second room on the opposite side of the house. I like that; however, the stairwell in the center of the house ruins that space if you don't use the original kit half wall aligned on the left of the stairwell I could still do that because I haven't glued the walls in place yet, but then my flooring would have to adjusted and I'd have a very large bathroom.

A new plan is complicated by this very large 4 poster canopy bed.

I played around with putting that bedroom on the 3rd floor, but it just didn't feel right and then Jodi suggested making that 3rd floor the bedroom. So I took a second look at that possibility. With the tall bed, there will be a lot of wasted space with the slanted roof and the tall canopy; still, a 3rd floor master suite is gaining appeal.

Some time ago Jennifer scored a a box of vintage dollhouse furniture on a garage sale that had been exposed to some water damage. The are some lovely and unique vintage pieces, but I flipped-out over the bathroom fixtures, especially one piece, the bidet. Not many homes at least here in the USA have such a fixture unless it is a custom home. Our last house, a custom house, had a urinal in the half bathroom by   the garage. It was quite a conversation piece. The house has sold a couple of times since we moved and the new listing photos so that the piece had been removed, so some are not into those customized bathroom fixtures. 

    

But. Here is the dilemma: would it be out of character to use the vintage bathroom fixtures in the second bathroom? Are two bathrooms too much? I tend to think literally, that is to say that even a dollhouse bedroom needs the ensuite bathroom. 

Who would buy a house with an attic bedroom and no bathroom and worse, no stairs! I can suspend the reality just so far and not insist on stairs.

I rather like the idea a vintage bathroom on the 3rd floor to retain the original character of an old farmhouse that has been modernized. I justify the new modern bathroom for guests and so the homeowners don't have run all the way to the third floor when they need to use the bathroom.

I know. I'm thinking too literally. Or am I?

So I am open to your suggestions.

Now, a trip down Memory Lane. Heather sent me this photo a while back as she must have been traveling around memory lane herself. Back in 1979, Mom was still with us--she would have loved all this dollhouse stuff and Heather would have been 4 years old. I didn't get the house finished in time for Christmas and tried to do some more work it afterwards, but she never really took to it. You can read the story of this house which began my miniature obsession. It was the story that launched this blog. 

While Heather doesn't have time to curate her little house, but she does love her house and loves to go to the miniature shows with me, so we are humming a new tune these day: "Do You Know the Way to San Jose?" The plane tickets are purchased and the hotel room booked for the Good Sam Show in October. I can't believe it! 

Visit my very first blog post: Hello

RE the title: My mother had an amazing voice. Some family lore has it that she trained as opera singer. I had trouble singing. She once told me that I couldn't carry a tune in bushel basket. As little kid, I never understood what she was talking about, only that I couldn't sing--so I hum--probably still off tune. Only as and adult could I understand her metaphor. 

 

Thanks for visiting. Have a wonderful week.