Not A Pretty Picture

Wiring The Castle

Some of you, Dear Readers, MAY remember LAST Winter when I moved my rather Large Castle from it's position along the wall TO the center of the room, where it now stands. The reason for this move was so that I could get access to the BACK side of the Castle walls in order to properly run the wiring of all the newly added torches and the fires in the hearths, to the power strip located on the back wall of the Castle! Well, for SOME reason, this task has still NOT been completed! And Now that the Holiday Season is here I need to return the Castle to it's position along the wall so the Dining Table can be made available for Dining, and the Christmas Tree can be fit into this room! I REFUSE to move the Castle until I have completed the wiring of at least the central Great Hall portion! So The pressure is on to get the wiring DONE!
But Before we go there...... Some of you may remember that I discovered that in this location the morning sunlight was able to shine directly into the windows of the Chapel in a way that it NEVER will when the Castle is against the wall. And here I Must share with you the morning sunlight shining on the First Sunday of Advent into the Chapel........

Lighting the Windows so Beautifully................

And from the Peter & Paul window......

So Radiant!

Striking across the Chapel to the Nativity painting on the opposite wall......

Because, Sadly, once I have moved the Castle we will not be able to see the light in JUST this way.

Meanwhile, in order to work on the Castle wiring, I have had to move the sections of the Castle apart from each other, allowing access to all sides of each section. For now, I am concentrating on the central Great Hall portion as it is impossible to reach the back when it is against the wall, and that is where the power strip is located. And while the sections are separated, I find it interesting to take pictures of the light coming into the doors onto the floors where it never can once the whole Castle is together.....

It creates pictures I never would have imagined...... but make me wish I had..... such as a Cloister with a row of arched doorways looking onto a tiled floor.....

Maybe another project for Someday......?

But for now, the project is to carve or gouge channels for each wire along the outside of the walls and around to the back where the plugs are.......

Here you can see I have made a start on the side wall........ after breaking the end of my old "U" shaped gouge, I ended up using the wide blade of my exacto knife to carve the channels. The plywood is VERY tough in the dark parts of the grain.... so the carving was NOT easy!

Here is a closer shot of one of the channels ..... it needed to curve up over the doorways......

And here you can see the channels as they go around the corner... to the back of the Great Hall...

This is the rather ugly back side of the Great Hall with the "Privy" buttresses temporarily removed in order to run the channels across to the center of the back wall.......

Here you can see a close-up shot of the (messy) wires as they are currently plugged into the power strip..........

Here you can see I have added the sides of the back "Chimney" which will cover and disguise (and protect) the power strip and all those plugs........

The bottom section will hinge open for access to the plugs........

Oh! Look who has come to be HELPFUL!

Meet Jackson, my Kitty.......

Sorry about the poor lighting ..... here you can see more of the channels .... one for each wire........ and I have drilled through the corners to protect the wires from the added stress of going around a corner!

Again, here you see the channel carved over the doorways....... now I must glue the wires carefully into the channels and then cover them with wood filler............

It is tricky to make the wires stay in the channels while gluing them...... I still have to do this step on all the wires.......

I have only completed ONE of them..... and that doesn't include shortening it to the correct length........ or for many of them lengthening the wires which means splicing them with those little shrink tubes I have yet to try........

Here you can see the back side with the "Privy" buttresses added back on ..... temporarily.....

And I realized after I had FIRMLY attached the sides of the "chimney" to the Castle that I cut the back too narrow by half an inch...... or rather I attached the sides in the wrong place and will need to make a new back piece....... ! My GOAL is to complete the wiring by this weekend so that I can go get my Christmas Trees! But Meanwhile.... THIS is where it stands!

Very much in the Middle of Everything!

Not A Pretty Picture

Back To Building

Floors Continued

Before I got SO Distracted by Halloween, Dear Readers, you might remember that I was working on the Cupboard House hallway, painting the wall murals. Well, I realized that in order to complete the wall murals and attach them in place, I really needed to have the floors completed first! And having had Such success with the egg carton bricks and REAL mortar in the Kitchen..... I thought I should continue with this method in the front hall.... only THIS time I wanted to make "marble" floor tiles from cardboard! I have read many other blogs where people use this method quite successfully, so I thought it was time to try it myself!
So I pulled out some sheets of cardboard.... the kind that is the backing for pads of paper..... and painted the "marble" patterns in the colors I wanted to use. In this case the floor would be black and white squares with accents in red and green. I really was very quick with the painting because once it is all cut into small squares the pattern looks quite realistic with a minimum of detail to the "graining" of the marble.

Here you can see my painted cardboards.

Next I cut out a plain piece of cardboard in the shape of the Hall floor and drew the pattern on it to guide the placement of the tiles.

And here I have begun to attach the cut squares to the piece of cardboard.
I left a small gap around all the pieces for the mortar to fill.

And I worked around the circle where there will be a "Compass Rose" as another reminder of the years Clarence spent at Sea......

Here you can see the beginnings of the Compass Rose......

And the Compass Rose Completed....

And here is a closeup of the Completed Compass Rose, Mortar included......

And the whole floor completed....

but not yet in place in the house.....

Here it is glued in place in the Cupboard House.....

forgive the dark NIGHT Photo......

Oh Dear.... an even Darker and Gloomier view.....

(It is so DARK here now.....!)
I will have to get some better shots for you soon......
But I am VERY pleased with the way it turned out!

And I have also started to work on the Floor of the Dining Room of the Cupboard House! This floor is to be a dark stained hardwood floor of the type so common to Victorian Houses here in the States. They were rarely made in any fancy patterns because they usually were covered in beautiful plush carpets! So I started to attach the "woodsies" which make lovely hardwood boards. I started by gluing several perimeter rows around the room. I figured that once the small corners by the chimney were filled in I would just complete the design in simple rows. But then for some reason I decided to get a little fancy in those corners....... and now I am not sure whether I should continue with the plan to have a plain floor.... or make a more elaborate pattern to continue what I have started!

Here is a closeup of what I did.... just put a couple of "vertical" rows with the "horizontal" ones...

And here is the other side..... where I realized that because the woodsies are NOT all the same width..... the pattern on one side was larger than the one on the other and I had to carefully adjust it so both sides would look the same.......

Here is what it looks like right now.... with a stand-in for the fireplace........ and me not able to make up my mind! Should I torment myself to build a complicated patterned floor that eventually will just be covered in carpet? And if I go with the plain model.... will I always regret NOT taking the opportunity to explore the fancier floor? Will I build other houses where I can make elaborate floors, or is THIS my opportunity? Am I the only one out there who torments themselves like this?

Decisions.... decisions.....!

And meanwhile.... lest you think I have FORGOTTEN it...

I AM still working on the Great Hall floor tiles for my Castle!

I am getting closer and closer to having enough tiles painted and sealed to begin the process of attaching them! But here again.... I have to decide whether I am going to use real Grout or not....

The tiles are really irregular in size and thickness.... and they are much thicker than the cardboard tiles that worked so well with the grout. I think I am going to have to make a small test sample to figure out what works best.....

But meanwhile, as you can see... I still have a ways to go......!

Back to Building!

Afterword

A Babe Is Born

Dear Readers, I KNOW that some of you Mothers out there have been wondering WHERE are the Parents of these lost children, as you have been reading these Tales of their Adventures! But you have been too polite to ask or to chastise about their carelessness with the safety of their children. So I will tell you how it came about that the youngsters were left so much to themselves that they went astray!
Some of you have guessed that Maybe there would be a new addition to the Family now that Clarence was staying home and no longer absent for months at a time.... but we must remember that the Victorians were very reluctant to talk about these very Natural events.... and they Certainly never allowed the children to be a witness to something as "embarrassing" as the birth of a child! So the minute that Charlotte felt her "Time" had arrived, the children were given an early supper and sent to bed! Mrs. Butterworth, the Cook and sometimes also the Maid and the Nanny too, was too busy helping Charlotte to notice that Tommy had not returned in time for the supper.
And poor Clarence was of NO use at all! Can you believe it, but in all the years that their Family had been growing, he was NEVER home for the birth of the Children! He was always away at Sea for these events..... so he was under some illusion about the easiness of the process. THIS time, he could not help but be aware of the struggle Charlotte was undergoing to deliver the new child into the world! He found himself becoming more and more anxious as the hours wore on. WHAT if he lost the Mother of his Children? What would he do without his Dear Charlotte? Why did it have to be so difficult? Why was there Nothing he could do to help?
At last he decided that he MUST go and fetch the Village Doctor! So he climbed onto their gentle horse and rode off into the dusk to find the Doctor.....

But when he got to the Village, he found that the Doctor was out visiting another patient.....

so he rode on to the next Village......

And on.... until eventually he caught up with the Doctor!

By the time he found the Doctor it was quite late........

And even later still by the time they returned to the House........

Where they found, much to Clarence's relief, that Nature had taken it's course and Charlotte had delivered a beautiful healthy baby boy!

Mrs. Butterworth had done a wonderful job assisting Charlotte,

and the baby was clean and wrapped in a blanket.....

The Doctor stepped in just to make sure all was as it should be........

And Mrs. Butterworth held the new Baby for Clarence to greet.....

Please remember that he has never met any of his other children when they were this little.... he has NO idea what to say or do..... it is NOT the usual thing for Fathers to involve themselves with the Infants! So he can be forgiven if he just looks on in a bit of shock....... They baby is so tiny and red faced! He does not know what to do.....

But then he thinks........ "We'll call him 'John' after my Father...."

Mrs. Butterworth is completely in charge.

She shoos the Men away so Charlotte and the baby can get some rest.........

Charlotte is too tired to even lift her head from the pillow....

she is SO glad Mrs. Butterworth is here....
She knows everything will be alright now......

It has been a long night, but she is happy.....

And as the morning light creeps into the room, she thinks

"We'll call him 'Joseph' after my Father."

And so a new Baby is Born!
And perhaps his Parents can be forgiven for Assuming that their older children are safely tucked in bed the whole night through!

And now I must tell you, Dear Readers, that this baby is the ONLY doll that I still have from my childhood years! I can still remember the Store where I bought it when I was around eight or nine years old. I had saved up my Birthday money and was determined to spend it on one of the expensive little treasures available in this small department store in my home town. It was a very old fashioned place and there was a toy department on a second floor mezzanine with glass fronted cabinets full of toys just at child eye-level! The little doll came with his own little dresser filled with tiny baby accessories........ all of which are still here.....

The rattle and the funny looking bottle......

The baby blanket...... and a fuzzy hooded bath towel........

Still tucked away in the drawers.....

At some point I clothed him in a Victorian era bonnet and skirt.....
At least they are a gender neutral yellow......

Victorians clothed their boy children in dresses until the age of five or six......
(I do think he is a boy.......)

Here he is in his original underclothes.......
Perhaps not as clean as when new.......

But still very, very cute!

I can't believe I still have him!
Welcome, Little Jo Jo!

Just a Little Afterword!