Christmas Preparations

Every Little Bit Counts.....

The days are Flying by, Dear Readers, and the Christmas Countdown has begun in earnest here in the States. I am sure you have heard of "Black Friday" when everybody goes Christmas shopping all at once.....well, not Everybody, as I absolutely avoid shopping on Black Friday! But that does not mean I have done No Christmas shopping. I was at Michaels two weeks ago and spotted the lovely miniatures shown in this picture! The cakes were separate from the cake stand.... but they all were begging to come home with me! I keep telling myself I will learn to make tiny food..... but I have yet to do it.... and the little people in my houses are at risk of Starving unless I give in and Buy the food!

In my defense, I will point out that I am Rather Busy trying to just get the Houses built..... 

(don't remind me that I keep adding to the list of unfinished ones.....)

And the Real Life decorating and Christmas shopping has to be done too!

So I grabbed the goodies and brought them home!

 

 And while the Conservatory is still Far from Finished.....

I have made some progress!

As you can see, the side wall on this end swings open....

I apologize for the Darkness of the photos.....

It is very difficult to catch the sun these days!

Here you can see the end that is nearly complete...

And here you can sort of see the entire structure, 

with Both sides open!

The roofs are not yet attached, 

but the walls are all completed and glued in place!

But the part I am the most excited about is the windows.....

Here you can see them (on a Sunny Saturday morning)

from the outside looking in.

Believe it or not,

I wanted at least Some of the windows to be able to open and close!

If you have ever been inside a conservatory on a sunny day 

you will know that it is essential that there be some means to Ventilate the room!

And with all the windows in this structure.... 

only the smaller ones would work to add hinges.

And even then, the way the walls joined at the corners 

did not allow room for the hinges.

But I was determined to try on the end wall!

I succeeded with the hinges once the corner "posts" were 

"strengthened" by adding strips of wood. 

This was necessary in order to build the framework 

that allows for the side to swing open.

And then, once the windows were successfully hinged, 

I was in need of a latching mechanism to keep them closed!

But they needed to be functional latches, not pretend ones!

So I decided to try using wire.....

Here you can see my latches in the open position.....

Here is a close-up view....

the wire pivots on a nail......

Here it is in the locked position.....

the "catch" is a piece of painted cardboard and a tiny bit of plastic 

from a clothing price tag (I am sorry I neglected to take a picture.)

And here is the window opening....!

The latches really work!

And the remaining door hardware has been attached too.

These are commercial lever-style door openers....

(but they don't really move or latch!)

Here you can see the completed end wall glued in place....

but the roof framework is still not finished.

There is a small amount of warping in the end wall 

that I need to solve before I can complete the roof framework.

It may not look like much, Dear Readers, 

but it is a Very Satisfying Little bit!

Oh, and just to reassure you that I have made a start 

on decorating the Real Life home....

The trees are up and have the lights on!

Here is the little tree in my upstairs studio...

And the bigger one in my downstairs "living room"....

really the corner of my "dining room"......

which is really my "Workroom"! 

So you can see, Dear Readers,

Christmas Preparations have begun in my Worlds,

Big and Small.....

And while not much has been done, 

Every little bit counts!

Doors and Hinges

And a Little Bit of Light.....

I Left you at the Top of the stairs in the new Willowcrest House project, Dear Readers, where I confess, the mural painting had come to a screeching halt! It had become clear to me that I was going to have to solve several technical issues before I could go any further with this build! The first one that needed solving was the Doors.... the bedroom doors and the front entry doors, both of which are accessible through the hallway. The kit instructions have you attach them in the final steps.... and have you glue them in place! The above is the view through the bedroom doors (not yet in place!) to the hallway where the Moon Maiden murals are barely visible.

This is the view through the opening to the front hall..... 

it would not be visible if the doors are glued in place!

I insist that my doors can be opened.... and that requires hinges!

So the doors need to be completed before I can finish the hallway...

as well as the window to the stairs that I mentioned last week.

So I pulled out the sheet of window "glass" that comes with the kit....

I am sorry, but I just can't go with the white painted window dividers!

And here I am testing the panes for the front doors....

The white dividers just look ridiculous to me!

So I had to cut new pieces of plastic.....

I used sections of plastic packaging that I have kept....

And here I am gluing them between the layers of the door panels.

I will figure out some way of adding the decorative "panes" that I want.

But the doors needed to be assembled before I could attach the hinges....

And I also need to figure out how to attach the hinges to this thin plywood kit....

I think it would be best to have the exterior trim already in place to add depth for the screws!

I have yet to do any of the exterior trim!

And the next issue I need to solve is the lighting.....!

I will not be able to reach into the hallway to attach anything when the kit is done....

So the lights will have to be done first.....

I haven't had Time to buy the lights I will need for this house!

So to distract myself from these unsolved problems....

I decided to build a better fireplace for the parlor....

The ones that come with the kit are rather pathetic.

I started with some plain pine stock and added decorative trim pieces.

It is a bit rough because the fireplace will be difficult to see.

It sits against an angled wall.....

which is angled Away from the open side of the house...

And can only be viewed head-on when looking in through a side window!

I will gesso and paint it to resemble stone.....

But again, I could go no further without getting the lighting issues settled.

I think the best location to run most of the wires will be on this chimney wall,

the back side of which is the kitchen wall 

and can be covered in a "brick" facade to hide the wires.

So with all those unsettled issues getting in my way, Dear Readers, I did what I often do....

I jumped to an entirely different project!

Remember the Conservatory?

A year ago, on this blog, I described the way in which I hoped 

to make changes in the original kit design, 

causing it to open on the sides and have the roofs attached.

But those changes would require some engineering to work!

All year the kit sat "put together" with masking tape holding it up!

And since I recently had to move it away from the windows 

to bring the house plants back inside for the winter, 

it now sits on the corner of my work table....

"Sort of in the way" of all the other projects!

and if you bump it wrong.... it all falls apart.

So I decided it was Time to tackle those engineering challenges!

I hope you will not be surprised to learn that it involves Hinges!

Above you can see the doors to the kit as they come...

 they are hinged with pins which poke into the door from the top and bottom.

If they are not centered just right they run the risk of breaking the wood when they are opened.

You can see that problem on this door, the wood at the bottom is cracked. 

I had debated whether I would change the hinges on these doors, 

but when I saw the crack I knew I would have to.

It is So much easier to do this Before the walls are attached!

Here you can see the doors removed and the new hinges attached.

I debated using smaller hinges.....

 but I knew they would see a lot of action, so I went with the larger hinges.

I had to cut the screws down by half their length....

and even so, the holes I drilled penetrated through the doors.

This caused me to need to add a layer of Trim to the exterior of the doors.... 

(which you will see in a later photo...)

And on the inside I "disguised" the brassy hinges 

by making them appear to be old patinated brass.

But the biggest engineering challenge was building the new roof support structure....

so that the roof would be held in place firmly when the side was opened.

The kit is designed for the roof to sit on the top edge of the walls.

So I built an extension of the walls vertically, raising the roof line....

(And I also added a shelf as a window ledge.)

I had pondered for ages how to build this new roof support structure.

But the idea for the raised roof edge was made simple for me when I realized 

that a particular decorative trim I get from my local Home Depot 

would make the perfect new Cornice at the top of the walls!

Here you can see the front end wall with the added Cornice...

and if you look closely you can see the doors with the screw holes....

before I added the new trim to cover them!

And because I needed to get at least One wall "finished" 

and attached firmly in place in order to figure out 

the attachment for the hinges on the opening wall.....

I needed to add the lights on the back wall before attaching it in place!

I had bought them a while ago....

They are simple brass bi-pin bulb "candle" lights.

I painted them black to look like iron, and "aged" them with a little bit of rust.

Because this is an old conservatory.... the lights are supposed to be candles....

(the bulbs are not in them for protection while building!)

The wires are being sort of hidden by running them 

under the window ledge and out to the back side.

No, I have not yet figured out where I will hide the plug strip!

Here is the re-built wall from the inside....

The cornice is taller than before, 

and I think it makes a wonderful improvement!

And here is the view from the outside.... 

forgive the blue painters tape, 

it is holding the corners together!

And here is another view from the side 

showing the old structure on the left side of the brick chimney, 

and the new raised side to the right.

And here you can see the new trim added to the fronts of the doors....

and the door hardware too!

But by far the trickiest part has been the engineering of the hinged "wall"!

The kit was originally designed to have the side walls "dovetail" 

into the end wall, with a nice deep groove 

and little rabbit ear tabs that overlapped at the corners.

I had to remove all the rabbit ears and fill the groove 

and add another thicker stronger piece to receive the screws for the hinges.

Here you can see the hinged wall after the hinges were attached!

I got too involved in working out the kinks to remember to take photos!

So far, the back wall on this side is the only one that is glued in place!

I needed to get the hinges attached to the opening wall 

before I could glue the end wall in place....

and I still want to make sure all the clearances are good with the chimney side 

before I glue this end wall down. 

That, and I discovered that the plywood base is a little bit warped....

I will need to shim the front wall slightly!

Meanwhile, I have started on the other end of the building....

 By extending the top of the wall with the new cornice...

 But, the placement of the doors on the side rather than the end wall,

creates an entirely new bunch of engineering challenges!

For now it still sits "in the way" on the corner of my worktable, Dear Readers,

But I have made a whole lot of progress with the Doors and the Hinges...

and even a little bit with the lights!