Tree House Electrical...

 

Just A Tiny Light In The Darkness.... 

I Hope You will be patient, Dear Readers, as there is really not much to show, and nothing at all about those new branches so recently lauded in this blog. But these things take time and the leaves for the Willow branches are still a distant hope on the horizon. More immediately needed are some lights for the Nanny's Room and the Nursery, because until they are addressed, no walls can be attached and no real structural security achieved. I have always assumed the Nanny's Room was the "ultimate cozy security" spot for the little Ratlings... nightmares and boo-boos all disappeared once the baby was ensconced in Nanny's Room! The huge bed frequently held many little ones and there is a small window seat too for sitting and having a quiet moment of "emotional repair" before rejoining the wild siblings in the other room. There needed to be a spot of light but there is hardly any wall space to affix a lantern or sconce because the bed and all those doors take up all the space. The one spot available seems to be the post beside the tiny window across from the bed... could I put a sconce on a bracket there? Above you can see the initial test of the spot with an LED taped to the post. But the biggest concern was going to be how to bury the wires as they traveled to the back of the Tree House structure?

 

There was really only one option... 

to run them through a crack in the floor at the base of the post

 and along the underside of the floor above the

 Little Toilet Cubby and the Dressing Room... 

and through another small crack on the other side at the back....

 could the wires be made to do that? 

Whew!

 Yes they could! 

 

 

Anna Maria came by to help me test the

 exact positioning for the sconce....

 clearly the initial spot is much to high!

 (The ceilings in the Tree House are all rather tall!)

 

So I set about making the sconce and the bracket.

 The sconce needed to be mirrored to reflect extra light... 

above you can see the frame for the mirror being painted with gold paint.

 

I found a scrap of the mirror paper often used in dollhouse kits,

 (this is left over from the Secret Christmas House project...)

 I cut the "outside" of the scrap into four

 (I didn't take a before picture) 

and glued them together in reverse

 so they make a solid shape in the middle.

 Then I cut out the frame to fit it and glued it on top...

 

And there you have the framed mirror for the candle sconce!

 

 And here it is all assembled on the wall 

with the bracket below it which really

 is more like wainscoting than just a ledge. 

Of course, I don't have any photos of it working yet... 

the wires are too short to reach the battery pack

 which dangles six floors off the ground

 and is difficult to safely use...

 I really don't want to create any failed circuits

 by crossing the wires!

 

And while I was wrestling with the electrical parts, Dear Readers,

 I decided to test the little "Ceramic Stove" I had made all those years ago

 with its little door open so you could see the glowing fire within. 

I had not attached the LED, but the opening was there in the back of the stove. 

Just how would those wires exit through the wall when the stove was in place...

 and how much light would "bleed out" in disastrous ways if I did not test first?

 

 The answer to that last question was "lots"

 if I did not encase it completely

  and so I added a cardboard layer

 to the back of the stove with the

 wires protruding through two tiny holes at the back.

 

And here you can see the stove being tested

 with the wires going through the walls at the back... 

yes it gives off a lovely warm glow!

 

And while I have not decided on the location 

or types of lights for the Nursery itself, Dear Readers,

 I hope you are as happy as I am

 to see even a tiny bit of Light in the Darkness!