Finally the Balcony!

Yes! Yes I have made serious progress on the balcony.  I'm so excited.  But first...

I got some more work done on the curtains.  For the kitchen I had to actually cut down the first cornice I made or it would have run into the dividing wall.  So I reduced the width a bit and then glued in the little half drapes.

I also did some work on the bedroom curtains.  Got the panels attached to the cornices and pinned to the board so I could get them glued into place for the pullbacks.

So, so far so good.

I also figured out what was bothering me about the stairs.  The wallpaper shouldn't go to the treads. Most stairs have a stringer along the side of them.

So I cut some wood into triangles and added some trim.

Before I started on the balcony I glued the pediments over the doors and windows on the front of the house.  I decided against adding them to the windows on the side, mostly because every picture I found of the New Orleans homes didn't have as much fancy trim on the sides of the houses.  The front elevations were gorgeous and the sides more utilitarian. 

I had some more trim to age and paint so I did that while the glue dried on the pediments. I also got the board and batten underside to the balcony and its ceiling painted and aged.  The toughest part was getting the thin wood to stay flat while the glue dried.

Yes, those are my Fred Flintstone feet. But I spoiled myself with a pedicure so at least my nails are nice.

You can also see in the above picture that I've got my lights wired in for the balcony.  That one will hang down next to the front door.

They're battery operated so I'm going to (hopefully) make the balcony roof hinged so I can lift it up to plug them in to the battery packs.

Here's a shot with my fancy corbels attached to the underside.

You can see where the entry light will hang a bit easier here.

Here are the rest of the shots.  I need to work on the roof, hopefully during the week or next weekend.  Maybe I can get my tiebacks for the bedroom curtains made during the week. 

I was really worried that the balcony would look too busy with all the trim and railings but I think its wide enough and tall enough that nothing looks cramped. 

It looks beat up.  But that's good, I want it to look a little worn down and warped.  This house has probably survived a hurricane or two so water damage wouldn't be unheard of.

So? What do we think? 

I've got to decide on curtains or no curtains for the balcony doors.  I'm wondering if I could make some curved rods or very small curved cornices and having the curtains mimic the curve of the windows on the doors.

I'm wondering about gutters along the sides of the house, and if it would just make things look too busy.  Would it be a case of authenticity overkill?  Have to see.  I don't even have the roof on yet so I have to wait on that before I can decide on the gutters and downspouts.