Tree House Improvements....

 

Wall Paper Deja vu.....

I Could not find a can of the right colored wood stain, Dear Readers, at my local hardware stores. The big box store had changed brands, no longer offering the kind of stain I had used all those years ago. I bought the new brand in the "same type of color" and it was not the same at all! It was much too "orange-reddish" for my tastes and would not match the already completed paneling. The smaller old Hardware store chain did still carry the old brand, but did not have it in the old color ("Early American" it was called) but they did have one of those "pens" for fixing small scratches in the proper color of the old brand! I bought it and applied it to the matchstick paneling and the steps to the Bednook on the Nursery Door. And it looks much better than the "wrong" brand. The matchsticks absorb the stain a little irregularly and I will give it another coat, but I think it saved the day! So I applied it to all the other newly "paneled" areas.... chiefly the Balcony interior on the Bedroom Door.

 

As you can see here, it tones down the "new wood" look

 of the matchsticks but is not as dark as the walnut stain of the doors.

 

And I applied it to the bunkbeds too.... 

over the too orange-ish color of the "wrong" stain.

 It did not erase the orange completely, but it toned it way down 

and I think it will end up looking just fine in the Nursery

 when all the rest of the parts are assembled.

 The "stain pen" turned out to be much easier to use

 on these already assembled pieces too!

 No drips, no spills, hardly any vapor. It was a great relief!

 

And while I was working on all those walls in the Nursery,

 I decided to test an Idea I had first had way back in 2014

 for the wallpaper of these rooms.

 

Well, really, there was no question in my mind and never had been!

 That old rose patterned wallpaper was perfect for the Nanny's Bedroom!

 All I had to do was find enough scraps to

 match the pattern across the adjoining wall sections.

 And some of you Dear Readers,

 if you have been hanging around here long enough

 will recognize this wall paper!

 It was also used a few years ago on The Dollmaker's Studio project,

 and way back in the beginning on the 

Dining Room walls of The Cupboard House.

I got right on it...

 

I made my patterns and cut out the pieces and glued them in place!

 

And because the Nursery Wall is on the other side

 of one of The Nanny's Room walls, 

I needed to get that one papered now too.

 

Doesn't it look Familiar too?

 Yes! It is the same wallpaper that I used

 on the other room in The Dollmaker's Studio project! 

And while you might think I am just copying

 the Dollmaker's Studio decor, 

it is really the other way around.

 I have always intended to use this paper

 in The Tree House Nursery!

 It just seems to feel like "Leafy Nature" on the Walls.... 

with its birds and butterflies that the Little Ratlings would love to see!

 And in a funny way, it is a good thing that

 I used the paper on the Dollmaker's Studio first 

because if I had used it in the Tree House first, 

there would not have been enough

 left over for The Dollmaker's Studio

 which needed the larger sections. 

As it is I had to piece together scraps

 to complete the Bednook wallpaper....

 

Here you can see the four little scraps that are needed

 to complete the opening Door Wall....

 

Which looks like this!

 I wanted to make  one of the birds.... 

and while it is not actually "correct"

 it is convincing enough!

 Those Rats had to make do with whatever

 scraps they could scavenge, after all!

 

The back wall has the only "complete" bird in the pattern...

 

And here you can see the Bunkbeds wall in place...

 and I even had to piece together the papers for this wall too.

 

And here you can see I have put the ceiling in place... 

it makes the space look so much cozier!

 

 And The Nanny's Room too....

 I am going to have to get working on the lighting for this!

 

And in the morning with just the natural lighting of daytime,

 I think it looks wonderful!

 

And the Bunkbeds wall too.... 

I think it is looking just as I hoped it would!

 

And The Nanny's Room..... 

a much darker, cozier space...

 But just as I had imagined it would look!

 

So you can see, Dear Readers, 

I have been making some Real Improvements 

And I don't mind at all that it is 

a Little bit of Deja vu! 

Tree House Structure...

 

Growing Upward.... 

In Case you wondered, Dear Readers, the Tree House Structure was deliberately designed from the beginning to be a bit flexible, but based on a few basic principles. The House would be vertical, like a tree trunk with the rooms stacked one on top of the other as far up as would fit the landscape of The Folly Garden, with the opening doors to access the rooms all on one side of the Tree, and hinged to a sturdy post which was attached at the base and runs all the way to the top of the tree trunk. The other "corners" of the rooms, or the tree trunk depending on how you look at it, are made from a sturdy metal wire that also attaches at the base and runs all the way up to the top of the tree trunk. Because the wires can be bent a little and are not rigid, the size of the rooms can vary in shape and dimensions. Each floor, above the ground level kitchen, that is, is made from a piece of thin plywood which has holes drilled through it where the wires go up and can therefore be slid onto the wires forming a very sturdy structure when it rests on the walls of the room below. If you look closely at the above picture, you can see several of these wires as they continue upward between the floors and stick out at the top. The only problem with this structure happens when you add rooms to the side of the main room and then need another hinged outer door on a different side... so I managed to add several other wooden "hinge posts" along the way, notably for the dressing room and the Nanny's Room. They have to be carefully "based" on a part of the floor that can be screwed into from below in order to be sturdily attached. As I was recently reviewing the Tree House structure, I realized I was going to want or need another sturdy corner post at the top for the "branches" of the Tree House to be attached to when we get that high!

 But before we could get to that step, I realized that I would need to have the next "floor" or the ceiling of the Nursery properly cut and fitted, which required making a floor plan or map in order for it to fit right on the wires and around the posts already in place. Here you can see my beginning steps... a piece of paper poked through by the wires and cut to fit around the existing posts. Then I could cut the plywood and know right where the wire holes needed to be drilled!

 

Here you can see the new correctly fitted Nursery ceiling or Attic Floor.

 It will not be glued in place until all the construction and decorating

 for the Nursery and Nanny's Rooms is finished,

 but it can be slid up or down and provides a very sturdy 

alignment guide for the room walls as I construct them.

 

And while I was making new correctly fitted sections, 

the Nanny's Room opening Door inner wall frame

 needed to be re-cut as the first (very old) version

 was an eighth of an inch too short

 and a 1/16th of an inch too narrow. 

 

And another wall section that needed lots of fixing was

 the inner wall of the bump-out that will hold bunk bed

 sleeping nooks on the side wall of The Nursery.

 This had been started all those years ago

 but had very poor shaping to the opening. 

I made the opening more symmetrical by carefully cutting

 a patch to fit the already cut opening 

and gluing them together.

 The crack will be covered by all the future

 construction so it is not a problem.

And Along the way, Dear Readers,

 I was constantly "strengthening" many small parts 

of the previous construction. 

The windows all will need a layer of the "paper twist"

 that resembles a wooden root or something like it,

 as an edging before the paper-mache outer bark is eventually added. 

 

As you can see here with the Bathroom outer window.

 

And along the outer edge of the Balcony structure.

 Because the shape of the balcony roof is irregular,

 the twist didn't want to stay put while the glue dried....

 

 So I had to wrap it with thread to hold it in place

 for several hours as the glue dried.

 

While I wrapped the twist the rest of the way

 around the opening and glued it in place. 

And those bunk beds...? 

I have been planning them forever, it seems,

 and finally just got going on them!

 

I am using plain old corrugated cardboard for the shape of the hollow.

 

Adding the platforms for the mattresses... thin plywood scraps.

 

 

And starting to add the thin

 matchstick paneling to the insides....

 yes, these are cut from match sticks!

 

 

Of course, It has to be constantly tested in place

 in the Nursery to see how it fits and looks!

 

And eventually getting the matchstick paneling all around the bunk beds.

 

The bunk beds have to have some of 

that Twist to frame the openings...

 

And a coat of stain applied... 

although it doesn't exactly match the other walls... 

that old can is long gone!

 

And then we finally get to the point of needing to remove

 all the walls to The Nursery and Nanny's Room

 so I can "engineer" the attachment of the Extra Post

 at the back of the structure beside the stairs.

And in order to be able to use my drill, 

I discover I even have to remove most of the stairs! 

 

And the next steps were so complicated 

and required so much careful focus..... 

I forgot to take any photos...

 but the "operation" was a success! 

The Post got firmly attached (glued and screwed) to the floor...

 

Here you can see it in place at the back on the left side,

 with the Nursery Walls and the ceiling in place to make sure it all fits right.

 

Here you can see the new Post with the 

bunk beds wall in place and the stairs reattached. 

And you can see the tiny little piece of floor I had to attach it to!

 

And here's the view from the front opening side... 

those taller posts can now have the tree branches built onto them

 and the bulk of the weight will be at the back

 of the Tree instead of the front side...

 the Tree does lean a bit out towards the brook... 

it needed to be balanced!

 

And the Balcony also needed the matchstick paneling

 added to the inside of the opening.

 This increases the sturdiness and will look more "finished"

 when the outer bark surface is added.

 

And lest you think I have ignored the original 

sleeping nook in the opening door wall, 

I have added little steps up to the bed level

 and am adding more of the paper twist around the opening.

 These are supposed to be hollow interiors of old cut off tree branches...

 so they need to look cozy and very rustic.

 

And the matchstick wall paneling too,

 to match the rest of the Nursery walls! 

These will be stained to (hopefully) match the first walls. 

 

And even the tiny wall with the tiny window

 in the Nanny's room is getting the matchstick paneling!

 

I hope I have not completely bored you, Dear Readers,

 with this very technical description of the 

Tree House structural improvements, 

But at least we can see it is finally 

Growing Upward again!

 

Revisiting The Tree House....

 

Revisions, Repairs and Rocks.....

I Will not bore you, Dear Readers, with every tiny alteration I have made to the Rocky foundation upon which The Tree House sits, but suffice it to say that progress has been very slow! This is partly due to the very hot weather we have been having this summer, which saps one's energy and causes the need to keep the windows and blinds closed making visibility a struggle inside even in the daytime, and mostly due to the indecision about exactly what shapes I am trying to create in these rocks. And even the local Geology has to be taken into consideration... because I need the landscape to look somewhat natural. And in this part of the World, we have some very interesting geology! I am not a geologist, but the simple explanation is that the Connecticut River Valley (in which I reside) is formed by the ancient collision of two tectonic plates on the Earth' surface... when North America collided with North Africa long Long LONG before anyone was calling them such. The North American plate went under the North African one, and then when the land masses decided to split up and move apart (what a divorce that must have been!) the North American Plate took a large chunk of North Africa with it! The evidence of this happening is in the rocks to this day... on the Western side of "the divide" ie The Connecticut River Valley, the rocks are largely Shale and the mountains are waaaay older than the ones on the Eastern side of the Valley, which are mostly Granite of a type that is only found in North Africa! The collision formed what is now the White Mountains, the tallest mountains on the Eastern half of North America, with Mount Washington standing at approximately 6000 feet tall and only about 100 miles inland from the coastline. And all this is the reason I will tell you that the Bedrock at The Folly Garden is made up of the shale type of rocks, a dark gray multilayered and flat type of stone. It is used often for making slate roofing shingles because it can be so easily split into smooth flat layers. In the above picture you can see my "extended" base is trying to look like this sort of bedrock. The "real" rock you can see next to it is attempting to help me match the colors right.

But that is only Half the story! The other half is all the boulders that were brought in to support the foundation of The Folly house which are made from the Granite which is so prevalent just across the Valley from here. Granite is a much harder rock less inclined to erode and is mostly a much lighter gray tone, but can be found in tan and pinkish colors too. The structure allows it to be quarried in large blocks or chunks. And those are the grayer boulder shaped rocks in this small setting.

So while the rocks get endlessly fiddled with and altered and primed and painted and varnished and re-varnished and painted all over again, Dear Readers, I am also beginning to find my way around The Tree House again. One of the dangers of leaving a half-finished project for so long is forgetting what you did.... to make the various parts.... where you put the materials.... and what you intended to do in the first place. And what all the "not quite right and need fixing" parts there were already started and you would get to fixing someday when you had the time. Well.... those are completely forgotten now!

So I am searching high and low for the same type of wood that I used to make the stairs.... so I can complete that half finished staircase to the top floor (dare I say it will be the last floor?) and surprise of surprises, I found the already cut sections of wood!!! I almost didn't recognize them!

I had been looking for strip wood in the right thickness... in this case 3/16ths of an inch, which is fairly thick for strip wood. It turns out I had made mine from sheets of basswood cut to the right width (1/2") and then divided into squares for the steps. Yes, this makes for very narrow little staircases running up through the walls, or in this case spiraling up through the side of the tree trunk. (Remember, this is a 1/48th scale project set into the garden of a 1/12th scale project.... just to be confusing.)

But meanwhile, one of the very first fiddle around and fix it steps I accomplished was adding a tiny strip of wood to the bottom of the Nursery outer opening door. Can you see it in the picture below? 

 

The repair is not perfect... 

but it makes the bottom of the door actually meet

 the floor of the Nursery  at one edge, 

and helps the door stay closed even without the magnet to hold it.

 (For how many years has it been annoying me

by swinging open and needing to be taped shut......?) 

And when I could stand on my new step ladder

 and actually see into the Nanny's Room from above, 

I noticed a big hole where the floor did not meet the support post accurately....

 

Can you see the tiny patch   I put in place....?

 Oh, Dear.... time for the flash again.....

 

There.... now you can see it on the left by the post... 

as I said, not perfect, but much better!

And another small thing I had noticed was that

 many of the outer opening doors I had built

 stood "outside" the edge of the floor of the room they were closing.... 

so those floors needed small "extensions"

 to make the structure more "finish-able" 

when I get to adding the outer tree bark!

 

 In particular the Tree House Toilet Cubicle

 needed the floor extended.... 

you can see here the "before" picture....

 

And the "after" picture with the increased floor structure.

 

And the little Bathroom Dressing Cubicle too.... 

which still is not all completed. 

It needs the window panes and the furniture at the least!

 These doors both need the magnet closures,

 even though they don't swing open on their own.

 

And yes, the little spiral stairs are continuing upward now...

 I had to straighten the support wire a little bit first... 

This is how far they had reached twelve years ago.....!

 

Now they reach just about to the level of the next (and I hope final) floor!

And while I am revisiting all these doors, Dear Readers,

 there is the Bedroom Door with the "promise" of

 a "Juliette Balcony" overlooking the brook below....

Do you remember me mentioning this "Someday" Balcony? 

 

Here I have added the first layer of the balcony "surround" 

to the floor that has been there since the beginning.

 

And the rest of the "surround" structure.... 

it is another place where a tree limb was cut off long ago

 and left a big scar..... and a hollow ...... 

it will eventually look much more "tree-like" 

when I get to adding all the outer bark to the Tree!

 

And this morning, I surprised Lady Arabella

 out on the Balcony for a moment of fresh air!

And did she look down at the Rocks 

and wonder if the brook would ever run past below....?

 

The bright morning light reveals so much about those rocks....

Can you see the "real" rocks up front for help with the painting....?

 

Oh, yes, and with the Final Rock... 

The "Balance Point" of the Brook.....?

 

And shall we have the Rhododendron in its place... 

showing how much it hides the Tree House from view....?

And can you spot all my "Pet Rocks" in the picture....?

 

And yes, you can rest assured... 

Mr. Gnome is keeping a watchful eye on all the "Rock Business"!

 The Balance Rock is not yet complete and will blend in better soon...

But I make no promises about the Brook for now....

Some things just will not be rushed! 

I am really Loving, Dear Readers,

 Revisiting the Tree House

 and Finding little things to

 Repair and Revise

And even if the Rocks take Ages to make.... 

They are finally becoming Rocks!