As Darkness Descends...

 

Is Madness Far Behind....?

I was only going to look in the box, Dear Readers, to see if I could find the kit and check out what supplies might be needed and see what the construction might involve, and maybe have a glance at the instructions... Well! The very first thing the instructions said would be needed was to spray paint all the pieces (except for a few) with flat black paint... which I did not have...! And then I realized that we were at that time of year .... possibly the last weekend of outdoor spray-painting weather for the year! Was there still time to buy the paint and get all the pieces sprayed.... both sides with drying time between..... and daytime temperatures hovering in the 50's (Farenheit) and early early night fall with frost in the forecast....? As you can see from the above picture... yes, just barely! And as you surely can guess.... I was suddenly and unexpectedly launched into the mini mini Madness of another Robin Betterley Kit, the "Ravenwood"! In case you don' know this kit, here is a picture...

I bought it quite a few years ago, and stashed it with my multitude of kits... 

waiting for the right Time to begin...

Ready or not... here we go!

I was careful to read all the instructions first... 

so I could get a picture of what came first and why...

(the better to know when to make changes...!)

for changes there must be!

Here I have begun the assembly of the House body.

This kit is like the Secret Christmas House kit

 in that it has pull-out sections inside an outer shell... 

but this kit has three pull outs instead of just two...

one on each side and a central Tower that lifts out from the top!

 

Here the outer shell is mostly assembled.... 

just lacking the side mansard roofs...

Using a rock to weight the roof as it is gluing... 

while I make supper.

Starting the Tower pull-out assembly....

fitting the Tower attic floor and testing it in the house body....

And testing it with the mansard roof  in place to see how it goes....

and then I realized that this attic was going to be

 all closed in and Inaccessible...???

Really?

A Perfectly Wonderful Spooky Attic going to waste???

Well, I was going to have to make some changes here!

Here is what the space looks like with both side roofs but no top roof...

and the "roof support" that you can see in the previous picture is a bit clunky.

I abandoned the idea of trap doors and ladders to make it accessible to little people... 

but I feel strongly that the bats will need access to this space! 

There needs to be a window.....

At the very least!

I carefully marked the spot....

And started drilling in the center with my smallest drill bit 

(I didn't want to risk cracking this fine piece of wood!)

I kept increasing the drill bit size all the way up through my bit collection,

 ending at 3/16th of an inch diameter.

Then I took my small round file and continued to shape an opening...

The sides needed to slant correctly as the roof sits at a slant.

I split the attic roof support and made it two legs... 

so the bats could fly straight in the window and not hit a wall!

Here the roof and the Mansard side roofs have been attached.

Testing the fit inside the house body...

And starting to build the window frame...

A very small piece of cardboard,

 curved and shaped to fit the slant of the roof... 

making a dormer window.

Of course, I got really involved and forgot

 to take any pictures of making the tiny window! 

Which you can see here... all assembled and glued in place.

It is a cutout of plastic packaging material...

 fairly stiff, with a notch cut out for the broken window pane.

And the gothic framework is made from fine cloth covered florist wire,

 painted black and cut to fit and glued in place over the plastic.

Here it is attached and in the Tower.

But can we see the window pane...?

There!

Now you will know,

 that the attic is not Inaccessible!

At least for the Bats!

And you can rest Assured, Dear Readers,

 that there will be a few more changes made 

to this Wonderful Enchanting Kit!

Because the Darkness is Falling...

Let the Madness begin!