Grout....

 

 Challenges....

In Spite of a serious Heat Wave (days and days of above 90 degrees temperatures) Dear Readers, I decided that I might as well apply the grout to the Lord's Bed Chamber floor tiles. It would not take too long to do, and I could begin in the early part of the day before it became just too hot to think clearly. Above you can see I got right at it! I am using the pre-mixed grout I have used many times, bought from Hobby Builder's Supply. This time I did not have to wait for months for it to arrive. The basic plan is you smear it on making sure it gets into all the cracks and then before it begins to harden you wipe the extra grout off with a sponge. You have to wipe repeatedly because it doesn't all clear of in one swipe. So you apply it for a while then wipe for a while...

It leaves a film of grout that becomes chalky as it dries,

 so you go over it again with a damp sponge more than once.

I remembered to take some pictures as I went...

You have to not wipe too hard or too soon

 or it just pulls the grout out of the cracks.

You need to keep coming back for a while

 to make sure you have wiped the surface clean.

But as I was making one of these inspections, Dear Readers,

 I noticed an alarming problem!

I noticed that the "varnish" on the tiles had peeled in places!

And on closer inspection I could see it was partly gone from many of the tiles...

 including some of the ones with the painted roses!

Ay-yi-yi! What to do?

I had to just walk away.

It was too hot.

I couldn't think.

I have never had this problem before!

And the following morning... 

(still even hotter than the day before...)

Could I even bear to look....?

I know... you can't see a thing without the spotlight...

but I could tell it had not fixed itself overnight.

I reasoned that I needed to "muddy up" the grout anyway,

 in order to seal it and age it.... this is an old Castle after all...!

If I was going to have to apply more varnish to the entire floor,

 the grout would need to be aged first anyway.

This is another messy task. 

I mix a very watery blend of black and burnt umber acrylic paint,

 and slather it onto the floor with a large-ish paintbrush, 

and quickly wipe the mixture off the tiles

 before it has a chance to dry.

The grout soaks up the paint mixture,

 which is largely water, 

so you can't really tell how dark it will be when it is dry.

You just have to carry on... mix, slather, wipe and repeat.

And I was hoping it would not further alter the partly bare tiles...!

But it had to be done.

Then you have to leave it to dry thoroughly.

And when it is... the next day... or two even...

 because it is too hot and I don't dare look....

Can we see where we stand?

The grout looks fine.....if a little blotchy....

The tiles need a lot of repair.

*Sigh...*

It really does need a lot of repair.

Just when I thought I had tiles and grout all figured out, Dear Readers,

 it appears I have a whole lot more to learn!

Unexpected Challenges.......!

The Lord's Bed Chamber Floor...

 

Tiles....

Way back in the Springtime, Dear Readers, as I was contemplating the future flooring for the Lord's Bedchamber, I could only imagine a deep rich agate-esque green tile floor. I was envisioning a forest glade in springtime with dappled sun on green! So I bought sculpey in various green and blue versions, not being sure how they would combine or look when baked. In the above picture you can see the first run of green, teal and silver tiles. The silver are so beautiful and glittery, I couldn't resist. And once the teal ones were baked, they revealed a lovely iridescence too! But how would they look in the dark gray rocky walled chamber? Well, I had to do a sample test run.

Here you can see a batch of the tiles, on a sheet of cardboard....

Slid in on top of all the construction debris....

 just to see if it looks about right...

And I think it is heading in the right direction!

But I needed to design a "pattern" for the colors...

Not just an ordinary checker-board bicolor scheme.

 

And after some experimentation, 

I arrived at a basic green,

 crossed with diagonals of teal,

and bordered in silver.

But it still lacked something of sparkle....

 until I decided to paint a gold rose

 in the center of some of the green tiles.

As if the blossoms were strewn on the forest floor!

Here you can see them from above...

 all laid out for testing the spacing.

The gold roses are in the centers

 of the diamonds formed by the teal tiles.

Sorry, I don't have any pictures of the "before"

 with no painted roses.

As far as I was concerned, 

it looked good enough for a bed chamber!

So all I had to do was glue them all in place!

This is harder, and slower than it sounds!

First, you have to have enough light, and room to manouver,

So I removed the ceiling and propped a lamp in place.

And spent the hot days of the weekend slowly gluing tiles.

In order to keep the pattern correctly laid out,

 I remove several rows of tiles, in order,

 onto a strip of cardboard...

Here I have already glued all the rows

 from the hearth forward to the open section.

Two rows of tiles are on the cardboard.

 I glue the next row in place, 

then slide the remaining row up

 and remove two more rows onto the cardboard,

 keeping them in order as I go.

Then I glue two rows in place...

 slide the third row up and repeat....! 

It took two days...

But it was hot... and I took breaks....!

 

Another view from above.

I left the tiles in the side alcove unglued until the end.

It was harder to reach into that space 

and the tiles needed careful fitting.

And eventually I got right up to the front...

And realized there was a gap where the floor

 should meet the "proscenium" of the room below... but didn't quite!

I needed to add a sliver of floor to keep the grout in place!

Which meant removing the proscenium of the room below....

(good thing it is still just screwed and not yet glued!)

Here it has been removed...

And because I have saved all sorts of those slivers of trimmed plywood.....

I had a decent selection to choose from!

I think this one looks usable...!

There! Now That is satisfaction!!

(Compulsive savers are vindicated again!)

And with the front row of tiles glued in place!

The bed alcove carefully fitted and glued!

And the chapel niche too!

All we need now is the Grout!

 

I don't know about you, Dear Readers,

 but I love how it is looking!

And I can't wait to see how it looks with the grout!

Lilacs And Love....

Late Bloomers....

You might be surprised to learn, Dear Readers, that our local lilacs are just Now coming into bloom! It is a very very late Spring in this part of the World, but not All of us mind! It is still just as Beautiful as can be with the sun shining and the birds singing. Will and Gabrielle are enjoying the early morning in the sunshine beneath the Blossoming Lilac. Yes, it was time at last to bring it out of the storage box for its brief reign of beauty! This also required a certain amount of shuffling the Houses around, even though it is still too early to move the house plants outdoors which signals the true start of Summer at my house and the rest of the dollhouse seasonal shuffle takes place.

I hope you don't mind if we revel in the lilacs for a minute or two!

 In case you did not remember that it took well over a year

 to construct the lilac shrub, I think it deserves

 a minute or two at least of admiration!

Will and Gabrielle are smitten...

and not just with the lilac!

It is difficult to get good pictures.... 

the sun is either too little or too much...

But, Oh we love it so!

It was one of those weekends when

 there was not much time for minis.

But I did make a Start on the next window

 for the Lord's Council Chamber.

The opening front has one window.

I started by making the paper pattern for the opening.

And cutting the outer framework from 1/8th inch thick plywood.

I must be getting practiced at this.... 

it fits better than the last one!

Yes, I am going to make the bottom section open with hinges again! 

This requires building two separate frames for each half of the window.

Here I am making sure the bottom half

 will fit right with the upper half. 

And you can see the inner side of the opening door

 has been painted to resemble the stone walls.

Both the frames have been fitted,

 now they will be painted while I make the glass panes....

Once again, I have stained the bottom opening section

 as it would not have been made of stone like the upper frame.

You might recall that I had found two panes of glass in my scrap pile

 that were Exactly the right size for the windows.... 

I decided to only use one on the first window

 since I needed to shape the top pane anyway.... 

which means I still had a ready made pane for this window!

What you see here is the top pane which I did have to cut to fit....

 prepped for the lead lines painting.

There are guide lines on the paper

 for the exact size of the window opening 

and the placing of the lead lines.  

Here you see both panes "leaded".

As usual, the lead paint is hard to control 

and my lines are too blobby and badly spaced.

I will be able to do some cleaning it up once it is dry.

And in case you were wondering if I had made up my mind

 about the grouted floor in the Lord's Council Chamber...

Even though it is impossible to get the perfect

 bright sunny morning pictures...

I Absolutely Love it!

 

 

And though the Lilacs are blooming so late, Dear Readers, 

They take my breath away with their beauty!

I Love them still!

About Grout......

About Time....!

I am Sure you will be glad to hear, Dear Readers, that the grout I had ordered weeks ago arrived at last! It came last Tuesday, but grouting is not the sort of task you want to tackle without ample time, so I had to wait for the weekend before getting started. Above you can see the floor with the tiles all neatly glued and waiting. I am always surprised at how nervous it makes me to add the grout. Did I space the tiles right...? Will the grout ruin the finish...? Should I seal them again before the grout...? Will it make the plywood under the floor too wet and warp the structure...? You can see I lose my confidence with too many questions. At a certain point you just have to dive in! In this case I decided to remove the front door panels and the framework to allow better access to the back of the room. The doors were going to need to be painted anyway, so it was practical to do that now.

Without the front panel or the doors you can see 

the structure of the upper room as well.

And then it was time for the grout.

And I will tell you that grout is one of those messy tasks

 that don't encourage picture-taking at the same time! 

So there are no in-progress grout smearing shots!

Just the floor with the grout applied and partly wiped away.

And I was glad I waited for the supplies to arrive, 

because I did need part of the extra bag of mix!

Whew!

At this point you simply have to wipe enough grout away

 that the tiles are essentially clean, if not perfectly clean.

It leaves a silty residue.... 

which will eventually wipe away when it is dry. 

But you want to be sure the tiles are not 

covered where they shouldn't be.... 

dips and cracks wiped as clean as possible.

And then you have to let it dry completely.

Which takes a while. 

I leave it overnight. 

And I refuse to look at it... 

because I am already convinced it won't be right.

The spacing wasn't right... the grout is too thick....

 the color won't be right.....

Just walk away!

Because when you look in the next morning

 you will know you were right....

Aiyi yii.... what were you thinking....? 

It doesn't look anywhere near the way you hoped it would.

(Even the camera shots are bad.... you just don't want to look!)

And with the spotlight shining in.....

It needs a lot of work.

But I was sure that would be the case...

The grout color is much too pale to begin with.... 

and the floor is supposed to look old...

I knew I would have to "age" it anyway.

The first task was to "polish" the tiles 

to remove as much of the filmy grout layer as possible.

I used an old dishtowel, dry not wet.  

(The grout is quite abrasive and tears paper to bits)

And in one or two places I scraped back the grout

 where it encroached too much on the tile....

 (my hand-made tiles are very irregular in size)

But the chief task was going to be applying a

 "muddy wash" to the floor. 

This is another one of those steps

 that is very anxiety producing....!

It is just impossible to tell as you are applying the wash

 how dark it will end up once it is dry.

I used a watered down mixture of black and burnt umber acrylic paint....

 more black than umber... and very watered down.

I started in the back corner by the stairs... 

and it instantly looks much too dark!

You have to apply it in small areas and wipe it off the tiles before they dry.

 I basically want the grout darker, but the tiles not too dulled down.

It is hard to see back there.... but knowing that

 I am probably not making it dark enough....

 I went back over it a couple of times....

I decided to mostly work in from the edges.... 

doing the outer darker tiles first... 

and deciding about the middle later....

The grout drinks the water right up..... 

(And the acrylic paint actually seals the grout nicely)

but you have to clean the tiles off....

 mix, slather, wipe....

(It is rather messy!)

At this point you are sure that it won't be right....

The middle won't look right with the darker grout....

But you just have to carry on!

Because you won't be able to tell for sure until it is dry!

And if you made it too dark..... 

it will just have to stay too dark!

(Like a dirty old floor!)

It does help to walk away.

 

And maybe look in later with a little atmospheric lighting....

 just to check on it.... 

because who can resist....?

I know... you can't really see it without the spotlights!

Which do shed rather a lot of light.....

And maybe make me think it doesn't look too bad...?

But it is night.... will I still like it in the morning....?

On a Dark and Gloomy morning...... 

in a hurry because I must go to work....

I can't tell.... 

but I run my hand over the floor and it feels beautiful!

And much later.... can we add the lights....?

It is growing on me....!

And with the spotlights....?

Is it the right amount of dirty.... or not enough....?

Ah.... perhaps it is too soon to tell!

I will have to wait for a beautiful brilliant morning....

I will have to add the door and the ceiling....

I might have to live with it for a while...

But really, Dear Readers, perfect or not...

I am loving this floor with the grout!

It feels so real!

It's about time!