Time For the List

I can't believe we're already at the end of May!  This is freaking me out a bit because it means there's only six more months before the house has to be done!

So today I worked on the shutters for the casement windows and got them ready for the hinges.  Then I got all the windows in a box so I wouldn't break any of them while I waited for the hinges to arrive.

The inside of the front bay window just looked really messed up so I got out my wood putty and began to fill in and smooth out all the cracks and round the inside of the corners.

It has to dry and then I'll put some plaster on it and off white paint.  It needs window trim for the inside too and I'm debating making shutters for it.  If I have enough hinges to pull it off.  It would be tricky but I might be able to do it.

My next step was to figure out the layout of my second floor.  I need to know where all the furniture will go, sort of at least, in order to figure out where I need my lights.

The second floor is going to be set up as a sort of workroom.  The back side will be for the loom and spinning wheel.  The front is going to be a sort of stillroom/laboratory.

I'm planning on taking the slats off the tables...and the middle table, I'd like to redo the top so it looks more like wood planks.

And the cupboards next to the white boxes... Those might end up being smaller or of a different style.  The white boxes represent the fireplaces.

Again, not sure about the cupboards.  But the loom, stool and spinning wheel are definite.

I'm planning on two old style chandeliers hanging from the beams over the two rooms.  And I'll run the wire down the beams and beside the window down to the back wall.  And the stillroom/laboratory needs more light, a candle stick on the main worktable and one near the bookshelf, and another on the small table under the front window.

I've got a couple more bookshelves to go in the larger gable over the bay window and that'll fill in that space a bit.  Plus the frame around the casement window will have a wider ledge on the inside.

You've seen how I want the lower floor set up.

I'm planning on some candles over the fireplace, and there's also the fires that will be in the fireplace on both levels.  But the kitchen will need a candelabra on the table most likely.

I also want a candelabra in the bedroom.  On the bedside table and then maybe a standing one by the foot of the bed or near the fireplace?  And I'd like to have one in the tower room as well as the sconces I want in the tower.

So my list (not necessarily in this order):

Drill & Route out channels for lighting wires.
Finish shutters & interior trim for all windows on main cottage. (my hinges arrive 6/1/18. Yay!)
Build Fireplaces & chimneys
Cut bricks and stone for outside of lower walls and tower.
Add brick/stone to fireplaces.
Plaster upper walls and third floor of tower.
Add timber to upper walls and third floor of tower.
Paint stone.
Add grout to stone and brick.
Ceiling beams on first floor.
Ceiling beams and roof support for lofted ceiling on second floor.
Ceiling beams and roof support for the tower.
Build furniture:
          Make sink
          Make curved table for tower room
          Make loom
          Adjust tables for lab
          Make stool
          Make telescope
          Make orrey
          Make tapestry
          Make rush mats
          Make bedding
          Make books & scrolls
          Make paper pottery
Furniture in place finalize lights.
          Make candelabras
Add flooring
Plaster inside walls
Inside window trim & shutters
Build base for house.
Create 'slate' roof
Create front garden
          Make tree?
          Make stream?
          Make lake/river to go alongside house
          Make stone wall to go around garden
          Iron front gate.

I'm sure there'll be revisions to the list and additions and of course a million and one details to add.  And I'll have to rearrange the order in which I'll do things.  But I'm hoping I can figure out a way to get most of the outer walls finished.  If I run all the electric so it goes down the back wall and under the foundation I can put my outlet strip back there and make a little shed or lean-to to cover it.

I also was thinking of making a little bee house... like Jodi did for her Three Little Pigs Revenge?  I need to look at her posts and see how she did that.

Lots to do!

Dovecote & Dormer Windows

Yeah I know, windows again.  Are you guys sick of them yet?

I'm trying to give the windows on the second floor a similar look.  So I got a few more little ones and gave them the Tudor treatment.  The window boxes they came with were too wide to fit them all into the space I wanted so I made a new box and trim.

I did the windows and the glaze first so while they were drying I could do everything else.

I stained it before I glued it together and then roughed it up with my Dremel to look hand cut.  Then I restained it.

I cut out more boards and roughed them up for shutters.  And began the laborious process of adding hinges.  I had to order more hinges because apparently the tons I ordered weren't enough for me.

This little pile is for the Houseworks casement windows.  I have to build trim for the windows but I want them to have shutters so  I need to get them started at least.  

Here's one actually attached to the trim for the little window over the front door.

My big dormer windows needed trim for the inside so I could attach the shutters.  And I wanted a window ledge to put things on.  Plus I knew I needed something a little deeper than normal because the handles of the windows would hit the shutters if the trim wasn't deep enough.

Once I got the trim for the inside built the windows were all dry and I was able to attach them to the frame.

You can see I got all the shutters hinged together and a couple of them attached to the inside trim.

I've still got to attach the rest once my hinges arrive.

I'd glued boards to the edge of the roof to extend it.  Once everything was dry I did another fit of everything.

I think I like how everything looks so far.

Then I got the dovecote drilled out and little ledges glued to it.

You can see my first attempt.  I didn't like how crowded it looked.

It's not glued in yet, but I think it'll look pretty good.

I'm going to work on the rest of the shutters tonight and tomorrow.  And then figure out where I'll be putting the lights and doing the wiring.

I'll need to start cutting out stone for the lower walls of the main cottage.  And for the windows of the tower stairs on the outside.  I'll admit I'm not really looking forward to that but it'll be worth it in the end.

Hope everyone else is having a good holiday weekend.  Happy Memorial Day everyone!

Making Dormers

This was another weekend where I didn't feel like I got much done.  Mostly because geometry isn't my friend.

But I did get the dormer above the front door finished.  And the one to cover the skylight is almost done.

There are a few little things left on the roof but I got the window for the dormer over the front door finished.

I've got an idea of what I want to do with the windows for the side dormer and I think they'll fit in with the rest of the upper story windows.

I'm working on extending the roof still but I think I'll be ready to glue walls and drill holes for wiring soon.  Then I can start on the fireplaces and chimney.

I started measuring for the dovecote today and I have an idea of how I want it to look.

Thanks for all your help yesterday with the window over the door.  I really appreciate the feedback.

Hope everyone else's weekend has gone well.

Round or Rectangle

Just a quick little post to get your opinions on the window in the dormer above the door.

I found my round and rectangle windows and taped each of them up.  The round one I put in two different places since it's a small window.

I debated for a while about the diamond vs square window but neither of them looked right to me.  While the diamond echoed the lines of the dormer roof, it looked too modern.  And it was really big.

The square matched the lines of the other windows but it was just too big for the front wall I think.

So here's the rectangle.

They're just phone pictures so they're not that great.  But I like how the rectangle looks.  I could even move it up a bit more so it's about three feet from the floor and it still wouldn't crowd the roof too much.

It's narrow enough for the dormer and it has the advantage of matching the shape of the other windows on the main body of the cottage.

I'll admit, after seeing it I almost didn't bother to try out the round window.  But I figured why not since I'd dug it out to test.

Here it is a bit higher on the dormer.

It's pretty but it's such a small window I'm not sure it works.

Here it is a bit lower.

Much as I like the round window, it still feels a little too modern and it's very small.  So I'm leaning towards the rectangle window.

What do all of you think?

Making Things Fit

This weekend was an exercise in measuring, fitting and measuring again.  But finally I did some more gluing.

I started with adding a bit more wood to the side of my tower 'tunnel'.  Shifting the position of the tower makes it easier for me to deal with the third floor and the roof.

Then, before I lost my nerve, I glued the third floor of the tower onto the stairs.

When the glue was set I added some braces to the underside of the floor.  When I get the bricks on the outside I'll add beams to support the outer portion of the third floor so it will look like the beams are continuous.

And then because I wanted to get the full effect I taped the windows to the outside and took a picture from the inside of the tower.  I think I like it.  It's definitely what I've been going for.

I think once I get the sconces on the walls looking at the tower from the outside is going to be really cool.

While I was waiting for the glue to dry I added handles to the oriel window.

I also worked on getting my front gable centered and built up a bit.

And I worked on extending the length of the roof to fit all the way across.

And remember how I was thinking about a dovecote but couldn't figure out where to put it?  I figured out the perfect place.

I dislike this stupid little shelf and it seems pointless.  But if I cover up the entire area with a dovecote.  So it looks something like this...

Mostly the triangle part I think.

Then the area makes sense to me.

I'm working on a roof for the tower.  I'm doing paper mockups at the moment.

The slope is a bit too shallow and it's not wide enough but think I'm getting a good idea.

My last bit of work took me a while but I managed to get a cardboard template for the dormer over the front door.  But I'm not sure about the window.  Should make it a diamond shape?

Or leave it as a square?

I'm leaning towards the diamond, but I'm not sure if that would be too modern.  I could always do a circle.  I've got a round window around here somewhere.  Or would that also be too modern?  Help!

Obviously I'll have to make another Tudor style window for this one.  But I can't do that until I'm sure of the shape.

It doesn't feel like I got very much done but at the same time, I know there was a lot.

How are the rest of you?  I've got to go catch up on my blog reading.

Another Two Days Of Work

I took another two days of vacation this Monday and Tuesday.  I'm back to work tomorrow and had some time taken up with appointments yesterday.  But I still got a couple days worth of work done on the dollhouse.

It's probably more like one and a half days since I'm stopping to clean up my mess a bit.  And some of the house too.  Lots of sawdust.

I'll admit part of my day was setting up my birthday present.  My husband got me this awesome saw.  My birthday isn't for another ten days but I don't mind getting it early!

I haven't really gotten to use it because it needs to be higher up and fixed to the table and right now it's too low.   But I've been reading about it and putting on the blade guard.  The poor thing has sawdust all over it because I kept using my Dremel on balsa wood and that throws off sawdust like nobody's business.

What I've been doing since Sunday is work on the third floor of the tower and trying to get the second story of the cottage situated.  I wanted to see how it looked with the windows in and the walls up as much as possible.

See anything wrong with this picture?

I knew the third floor of the tower would be a bit of an issue with the main cottage roofline.  But I think it's workable.    I'm going to move the oriel window up a bit on the wall from the above position and add a few pieces of wood to fit it to the wall better.

I thought about doing the third floor in wood but thought it might be too heavy and the corrugated cardboard is a good width and curves easily once I've cut slits into it.

The front bay window is way too close to the entryway.  So I did some revising of my walls and openings to give it a bit more room for the casement windows and make it look more reasonable.  I also took some time to give the window a roof/top for the part that isn't covered by the second floor overhang.

Even though the entry is narrower now, I think it works pretty well.

And since part of why I'd done the dry fit again was to measure for the boards to fit the tower up against the back wall I started to work on that.

This is where the sawdust from the Dremel comes in because I was sanding down balsa wood boards so they would fit up against a rounded tower.  And then I glued them on.  I used painters tape to hold them in place and then my binder clips to tighten everything up.

 Then I tested it with the third floor on and realized I needed to make one wall a bit wider than the other.  So now all the glue is drying.

I did a dry fit of the roof too since I'd build up the brace for it.

I need to center my front gable, thankfully the little piece of wood on the right side isn't glued in, it's just taped.  I move that, more likely split it in half, and then add some height to the gable and that part of the roof will fit better.

Once that fits a bit better I'll work on the little dormer above the door and extend the roof length so it extends a bit over the sides of the four inch second floor wall.  I want to make sure the roof is shaped properly before I cut out the rest of the opening for the side dormer.

I'll admit that I'm not really anticipating accomplishing a whole lot else today.  I think I want to sit and read some and relax before I get going on my chores.

Hope everybody's week is going well!