Roofing: Project Nears Completion

According to last week's weather reports, most of the mid-section of the USA and the eastern seaboard suffered unusually cold and snow. Here in Northern Colorado, we were cold, too, and received less than two inches of snow, which by the way lingers. I'm not an outdoor winter person anymore, so I retreated to my basement workshop last week with one goal in mind: roof the Manchester Country Home! 

 

If you have followed the saga of this miserable roof project,  you know the challenges that I've had. The mish-mash of guide lines tells the sad story of my inability to get the roof right. My first attempt on the left shows my failed faux metal roof look. I just didn't like the looks and then I tried the shake shingle look and had a lot of trouble getting them straight and removed them. 

 

So now with a clean slate, I ordered speed shingles for Greenleaf Dollhouse supplies. I've used the before on the Bellingham Texas Farmhouse, so I thought they would be a good alternative. 

I began by making templates of each roof section to assure a more accurate cut of the angles on the roof, taping each row in place with masking tape. The shingles line up off set with the above row barreling covering the slit in the bottom row. 

The shingles line up fast and neat.

Next, I trim off the inside edge that butt up against the peaked roof. I trim the straight edge slightly and will finish trimming once the shingles are permanently placed.

  

Now I attach each row one at a time with tape, lift the shingle, and run a bead of hot glue then press the shingle in place and remove the tape and add the next row.

  

Wow. The first elevation is finished--well almost. I had already added the roof moulding so I will have to creatively finish the top edges. Ideally, the speed shingles will be place all the way to the peak of the roof and trimmed to fit then covered with trim, but my roof moulding is already in place, as well as some of the edge trimming. 

Now the right elevation has shingles in place on the template.

The shingles line up so easily with out having to mark lines. That was one of my problems--I could never get the lines straight. 

Another finished roof.

Felling pretty good now. I can do this!

I am quite pleased with the work because cutting the angled ends and getting each strip of shingles correctly place does required concentration.

The front pitched elevations are particularly troublesome, but I followed my plan: place on the template, trim the inside seam and then the out side edge after the shingles are in place.

  

My worst fear: an offset lineup. I will share with you next time how I fix this problem. Once again, don't add any roof trim until after the shingles are in place. The same holds true for the trim work on the edge of the roofs. It's much easier to get a clean line when you trim the shingles to size before the decorative trim has been added. 

This side lined up much better.

To finish the roof with the moulding already place, I will cut down the shingle strip

And add some gingerbread to give a finished look.

Once all the shingles are in place,  I have to decide how to finish them: stain? or paint? I've had in mind all along that this house house will have a gray roof.

So there you have it. For the most part the Manchester has a roof--except for the wretched addition.

This roof should be easy. Ha. I had to try my hand at kit bashing and added a sky light window. 

I'll have to do some fancy trimming to get the shingles placed properly.

I do have a template, but I'm going to add each shingle one layer at a time, trimming as I go.🤞

So. There you have it. The back side still needs shingles, but I had to order another package and I'll have enough to do the garage. In total I purchased 4 packs of shingles at about $15 each--but then I don't have buy a ski-pass, so I'm good. 

Thanks for joining me. 

Have a fine week. 

Fondly, Ann

Angie Has a great Youtube tutorial on using speed shingles

Purchase your speed shingles here: Greenleaf Dollhouse Dollhouses

 

Shop 'til ya Drop

 All the Christmas decorations have been stored for another year, but the basement family room is still a mess, so I've been working on getting it back into order so that I can get the Manchester finished, all the while shopping on line for little things and scouring Pinterest for ideas on the how to decorate the Newbury. I've sworn not to even take it out of the box until I've got the roof on the Manchester and the attic floor finished. 😆😐. We will see how long that declaration  lasts.

I've found a new Etsy shop that has nice very 3-D printed items. I just received her sewing machine that will go in the Manchester sewing/craft room, a blender that most resembles mine of the '80s, a free gift bottle, and the hand pump. Nice quality and reasonably priced. The Etsy store Shop Mini Decor and More is located in Las Vegas, NV, so shipping time is fast--for me at least.

The pump will be painted weather red and will have a floral arrangement. I found the whiskey barrel in the Tim Holtz collection in a package of two.

I finally found a lovely Cricut Machine in another Etsy store located in Sweden, Dear Josie Miniatures.  I watched the item for months and then decided that I should just go for it. The printer? I think came from My Miniature Emporium. And I made the Cricut mats myself.

Now for an exciting, easy project. I ran across these floral craft embellishments at Hobby Lobby and had to have them. I posted a while back about my work intensive project creating my lemon tree for the greenhouse. It's a great project, but for beginners or those who just want a simple little fruit tree and don't want to invest in all the supplies to build one from scratch, these would be perfect!

There are 3 colors: orange, yellow  lighter orange, and red with two stems each. I began by removing the large, really out of scale bottom leavers then I arranged the branches to create a more realistic tree. Next I put the two stems together and taped them in place with floral tape--so if you do this project go over to the floral section and get yourself some floral tape.

A quick dig in flower making stash yielded some floral styrofoam, a pot, and some moss. 

And there it is. I think I would use a clean acrylic glaze to liven up the leaves and the fruit. The fruit could even be painted a more realistic color.

Next to my hand created lemon tree, the "fake" fits nicely, I think.

One more purchase: a mechanic's creeper sourced on ShapeWays, a website that has a multitude of 3-D printed miniatures. To locate it, got to ShapeWays.com>MarketPlace>Miniatures>Interior Designs

Key Chain Barbie, now a top rated Mustang mechanic, is very excited to have the creeper.

She'll have put the coupe up on blocks to get under it; still she's thankful to have such a necessary mechanic's tool. 

Thanks for joining me today. I hope you are enjoying your mini projects. 

Cheers,

Ann

Groovin' to "Mustang Sally"

 Happy New Year, Friends. How did you survive the holidays? This year was a little rough; mostly because I was just didn't seem to be very organized. I did manage to pull off a nice family dinner on Christmas Eve that serves double duty, celebrating Christmas and our daughter's birthday. The grandchildren are growing up so and now two of them have sweethearts who joined us for holiday. 

The basement serves as the staging area for decorating and looks like Christmas exploded down there, but most of the boxes are now stored, but the dollhouse work is scattered.

The Manchester still needs a roof.

I've go a good start on the roof, using Greenleaf's speed shingles. The third floor needs flooring and papering. I've got the garage held together with masking tape, so its needs to be assembled. 

If families can have an official car, ours is the classic Ford mustang. This is my '67 coupe that I bought in 1971, my first car. It's stored in our barn, but in August 2019, we moved it out and dusted it off so that we could host the husband's 50th class reunion and a wedding. I'm not sure what I'll eventually do with this classic coupe, but for now it stays warm and safe. 

So the Manchester will have two cars. One the Classic '67 mustang coupe and the everyday car, an EV Tesla. 

It's a fixer-upper-- like the real one.

The canister vacuum is a handy tool in the garage.

And the Manchester will have a lawn, so it needs the lawn mower.

And tools: battery cables, wrenches, pliers, an oil can, vice scripts, and of course screw drivers.

Pink's Cousin, Key Chain Barbie couldn't wait to get under the hood.

She'll have the 4 barrel carb so fine tuned, this baby'll hum like honey bee.

Truthfully, once I got the cars in the garage, I realized that they aren't 1:12 scale, so I'll be shopping for a larger mustang--one in perfect condition. 

As if finishing the Manchester and assembling a garage aren't enough to keep me busy, I bought a new house this morning. I found this Real Good Toys on Facebook Market Place last night and just had to inquire. The seller messaged me at 6 this morning and the deal was made before the sun came up.

It's a small house and I think it will be a lot fun. I'm thinking Country French cottage. I have sworn not to open the box until have the Manchester done!

So, the New Year is off a sweet start. I had a birthday just before Christmas so I've got a fresh new year to work on. I'll spend time with the granddaughters helping them work on their English literature credits since they are home schooled. I have a major DAR project to complete. I spent all summer researching a tiny church in Northern Colorado to get it designated as a DAR historical site and there is more work to do on that project. 

The Denver Miniature and Toy Museum will have its Little Show in Denver in February, which is always so much fun. My next project, actually, will be to recreate my grandmother's mountain log cabin she called Shangri-La. A local miniaturist vender and builder David Nelson will help me design it. I hope to have plans ready for the the show so that we can get a kit prepared. This will be a wonderful trip down memory lane for me and will be a way preserve those memories and share with the next generations. 

What plans do you have for 2024? It'll be fun to see what everyone accomplishes this year.

Thanks for stopping by. It's always a pleasure.

Fondly, Ann