Stairway to Heaven

Staircases are always challenging. In the past, unhappy with how the kit stairs looked or turned out, I purchased Hobby Lobby stair kits that were already assembled except for the railing, which is always murderous to build. With the Newbury, I decided to use the stairs provided with the kit because I'll be adding an extra wall so that I don't have to do the railing. I am also going to make that wall removable and the stairs removable because that is where I am going to hide my electrical nightmare, but more to come on that later. First, let's build the stairs.

These older kits by Green Leaf and Real Good Toys made circa 1990s were punch out pieces on pretty poor, splintery, rough plywood. They require a lot of tender loving work to get good results, such as sanding and multiple coats of paint. I'll show you what I mean. 

The pieces will punch out easily, but be careful of splinters.

With all the pieces punched out, I did a dry fit by laying the pieces out on 1/2" 12x12 piece of styrofoam. I used toothpicks to hold the stair casings in place. Before I began the dry fit, I sanded each piece front, back and raw edges to smooth out the rough wood.

Of course I referred the kit instructions to determine which piece was the stair tread and which was the riser: narrow piece was the tread.

I had to play around to make sure that I had the pieces positioned correctly. Sometimes stairs can become an optical illusion--which is the up way as opposed to the down way?

Because I couldn't line the treads up evenly, I added a flat rule as support.

Dry fitting pieces really helps to figure out  how pieces are going to fit together before applying glue for the final assembly.

  

I decided to stain the stair tread using a water based stain gel. I applied a thick coat then wiped off the excess with a paper towel. After I stained the treads, I realized that real stair treads had rounded front edge, so I created the rounded edge but sanding in on direction holding the piece at an angle and drawing it across a coarse 120 grit sanding block. I could have left the edges bare to create worn look; however, I don't think wear and tear on the stairs would be so even, so I added another coat of stain gel.

 

The risers were pre-sanded smooth then I applied 3 coats of  this creamy acrylic paint, sanding lightly in between coats.

The Hobby Lobby or Michael's water based stain and paints lend great results. I top coated all the pieces with a couple of coats of clear acrylic water based varnish. 

   

Somewhere during the dry assembly process, I realized that the kit does not proved a back piece for the stairs, so I cut a piece to the length of what the instructions indicate the stairs will be from a piece of 1/6" basswood. This piece does not need to be painted since it won't show.

Next: Glue everything together. 

  

From the beginning to the end, it took me two days to complete the project. Day one I spend figuring out the dry fitting then the sanding and painting were the most tedious part. I let the painted and stained pieces dry overnight and assembled the stairs the next day.

With the stairs completed, the house assembly will go quickly; however, I have a huge obstacle: wallpaper. I bought a digital download wallpaper that I absolutely love, but I cannot get it to print the right color, so I'm having to figure out another paper. I want to paper the ground floor walls before I assemble the house--you will see why, hopefully in the next post.

Until then--so glad you popped in. Here, we are staying inside for the next few days simply because it is COLD, a -1 this morning. Stay warm, friends. Winter is here.

Have a wonderful week.

Ann

Martha Comes to Stay

 I did not realize that it has been so long since I've posted--way back in October. I am back, hoping to keep up with posting the progress on the Newbury. Really,  pictures are worth a thousand words.

The current project pieces lay in a jumbled mess, scooted aside so that I could work on other projects. The Fairfield remodel remains another unfinished project. 

I spent a good part of last week organizing my dollhouse making supplies and inventory storage, a narrow space beneath the stairs. I had all of my Christmas decorations stored on one end in the cubby under the staircase which required my sweet husband  to lug tubs and boxes upstairs, so we decided to move all those containers to the garage, making more room to sundry odds and ends. When finished, I had a stack of odds and ends of boxes that went to the garage for recycle. These shelves hold a lot of mini items from furniture to wood scraps. At the end, the shelf stores my card making supplies.

I replaced  all the actually shoeboxes and odd containers that I used for storage so that now all the containers are uniform and clear.  Next to the shelving I have my mini saw and sander with wood scrap storage and the odds and ends of "stuff" that I can't seem to give up--yet.

  

I also do a lot of card making for my DAR chapter. We send handmade cards to the veterans at the Cheyenne, WY VA nursing home and to veterans in a life care facility on the other side of the Mountain (the Rocky Mountains, that is). I invite ladies in to make cards, so I need a large work area and lots of supplies. Last fall I shipped 100 handmade greeting cards to an organization, Cards for Soldiers the ships literally thousands of cards to military serving over seas. Now I have a nice shelf to organize and store my card making supplies.

The Newbury has a mansard roof, ie. a flat roof with sloped sides and two front bay windows so my building strategy has been to complete the first floor first because it has 9 separate wall pieces, each with a window. I will wallpaper them before assembly.

Before the holiday season I spent a lot of time working on the kitchen. The pieces are all finished. It will be very small, so not a massive cabinet building project. I used Houseworks cabinet kit pieces. I still have some minor things to finish up, but the kitchen pieces are all ready to go.

And just the other night I decided to make my own chandeliers since they are so expensive. After piddling around with my current supplies and looking a handmade lighting on Pinterest, I came up with a design and ordered new beading and finds from my favorite company for mini light making, Bindels Ornaments in the Netherlands, so it will be a while for supplies to arrive. 

Here is peek at the bedroom and the bed that I built from scratch. I've just remembered that I have so much more to tell about how I made the bed and designed the kitchen. I've got a lot of catching up to do. Basically the bedroom pieces are finished and the wallpaper which I purchased and downloaded from an Etsy shop is ready for the final print. Future posts will detail each room.

Finally, I have to share my birthday present from daughter Heather--what a sense of humor the girl has, but she knows her mamma. I am, in fact, a Martha Stewart fan. I make no apologies for my admiration, for she taught me how to make the best pie crust, roast my Thanksgiving turkey, cook my Christmas prime rib, bake the best lemon poppyseed cake. So instead of the popular Elf on a Shelf since all the grandkids are past the stage, I have Martha in the Mantle with Snoop on the Stoop yet to be delivered. They are indeed the odd couple.

The daughters decided that Martha would be horrified at the current condition of the vintage Barbie Dream house circa 1980s and think that she and Snoop should renovate it.  I am toying with idea of some sort; maybe buying a more modern Barbie house to play around with, but. . . 

So that's how the new year begins. I've cleaned and organized to make space to assemble this house, There's more come,  so stay tuned. 

Happy New Year, Friends. May the year bring you health, happiness, and peace. 

So glad you stopped by,

Ann