Slow Tiles and Snow Tales....

Details and More .....

I was Home all last week on Vacation, Dear Readers, so I was able to (almost) ignore the weather and concentrate on some of my bigger more challenging projects! I say almost ignore the weather because it was impossible to ignore that it continued to snow and snow some more.... I was thankful that I did not need to go anywhere! We are not as buried in the stuff as they are in the Eastern part of the State.... but with several feet of snow piled everywhere... it is difficult to get around! So I stayed inside and tackled some of those big projects, and many small ones as well! It was Wonderful to just be able to dig in and jump from project to project! I have so much to show you, it is way too much for one post! The largest project was the tiles for the Conservatory floor.... I still needed to make more tiles, and paint them, and varnish them....

I needed to be more specific in the colors and patterns of the tiles than I was with the Castle Hall floor, because here I wanted to make an overall design that resembled a carpet. I repeated many of the patterns I had in the first carpet, but I also made a few new ones. And then I needed to make them into a design....

Here above you can see the basic design of the first "carpet" 

composed of all the left-over tiles from the Castle Hall floor.

And here is a view of the layout for the new "carpet".

I did end up swapping around a few of the new tiles with the old carpet.

I replaced a few of the central tiles to make the circular pattern complete.

And once I was happy with the pattern of the tiles, I needed to start gluing them in place!

To do this without losing track of the pattern, 

I lifted a section of three rows, in order, onto a piece of cardboard.

Then I glued them in place one row at a time.

After the first two rows were glued, I removed two more rows,

Being careful to keep them all in order.

This is a tedious and Slow process!

It took an entire day of gluing and shifting....

while the Snow piled up outside!

But eventually they were all glued in place

with space between for grout....

I let the glue dry completely overnight.

Then began the grouting the next day....

Of course, I was so busy adding the grout, 

I forgot to take any pictures until it was almost done...

Here you can see the grout only partly washed off the tiles.

As the grout dries you need to keep going back over them with a damp sponge.

You want to only leave the grout in the cracks, 

but if you rub too hard it removes too much of the grout.

Here the grout is all done and all dry.

But there is only one problem....

It looks too clean and new!!!

So I had to "dirty" the floor with several washes of 

watered down brown and black paint.

This also had to be left to dry in order to see if the color was dark enough.

And then I needed to decide whether or not to "seal" the floor with polyurethane.

I was afraid it would make it too shiny.... which it did!

But I figured I could always "scuff" it up again with an abrasive sponge.

Above you can see it before I did any scuffing.... it's a bit too glossy!

And while I was "muddying" the floor, 

I also dirtied up the base of the walls a bit too.

This is supposed to be an old and well used building!

This whole process used almost half my vacation time!

But I got it done!!!

And rather than leave you there, 

I will show a glimpse of a few of the other projects I worked on.

Beginning with the painting of the Willowcrest....

Yes, there will be more trees on the bedroom walls....

Eventually they will look more like Spring than Winter!

These wall murals need to be finished before the walls are glued in place!

I also added a light over the door on the front porch....

Which I realized I had to do before I closed off 

access to the upstairs Hallway....

because the wires needed to be run across the floor 

and down the kitchen wall, same as for the inside hall light.

And while I was tackling Big Old Unfinished Projects...

I decided to make the Ceiling of the Castle Great Hall a priority!

Yes, those Saints are patient....!

I have removed the ceiling and set it up on my "easel"

really just a chair with arms which can hold the heavy roof panel!

This is really difficult to photograph... 

it is a curved surface, so the light reflects off it 

no matter where you position the light.

I worked a lot on Saint Hedwig.... 

here is a "before" picture.....

And here is an "after" picture!

I don't know why I am so concerned with 

making these Saints so detailed....

It is nearly impossible to see them on the ceiling....

But I guess it is a case of "I will know it is there"

so I must make them as detailed as I can!

The Saints on this side of the ceiling are now pretty much done...

it is the other side where the Saints are still very incomplete!

 

Believe it or not, Dear Readers, These were Not 

the only projects I worked on this week!

I really astonished myself with how much got done!

But I think the rest is better left for another post....

but before I go, I just wanted to show you more of the Tiles....

And the Snow....

Because surely, one of the Great Pleasures of being Home all week

was being able to play in all that snow when the sun came out!

Piled high around the doors....

Burying everything  in white...

But perhaps we can just have a glimpse inside....

at the sun on those amazing tiles....

And somewhere in there the seeds are still sprouting...

And we are so busy admiring those tiles,

we have no time for re-potting the seedlings!

And just in case you need to see the real life snow....

My garden gate barely shows above the drifts!

So there you have it Dear Readers,

Slow Tiles and Snow Tales, or Snow Tiles and Slow Tales....

Details, details, details!

I have been busy on my Vacation!

The Conservatory Elevation

Taking the Next Steps.....

I was finally able to spend several days devoted to my mini projects, Dear Readers, and made considerable progress with the Conservatory! I managed to get the end walls aligned and held together with a serious 1 and 1/4 inch screw to counteract the warped wall section which you can almost see in the next picture. (I will apologize now for the poor lighting... my house is old and lacks overhead lights and it is the time of year when it is dark almost all the time!) I ended up drilling through the upper corner of the wall decoration bracket, and into the side wall, and using a screw to pull the sections together. You can see the screw if you look carefully. I will need to add a plug to cover the end of the screw head. After that I completed the new roof cornice sections on this end of the Conservatory, and except for attaching the roof sections, that pretty much completes the basic structure of this building! Hooray! I have succeeded in my original plan to make the building have opening sides! Now I could move on to the tile floor! Or so I thought.

It was about this time that I had an idea.... 

an idea that would actually make the Conservatory function better... 

and look better.... and I thought I better give it a test to see if I liked it.

The idea was to raise the conservatory up on an elevated "foundation" base!

This would be especially helpful when opening the side wall "doors".  

Because if the conservatory sits right at ground level, 

when the doors are opened they sweep all the things in front of them out of the way....

which basically means there could be no garden flowers 

or urns or fountains sitting along this whole side of the building. 

Whereas, if I raise it up on a foundation by two inches or so.... 

the ground at the base could be planted with flower beds 

and they would not be disturbed by the swing of the doors when you open the side walls!

So I bought some pink foam insulation panels 

and cut a piece the same size as the conservatory base. 

And set the Conservatory upon it like so.

I think it makes it look much more realistic, and impressive this way!

Of course, then you need to add steps up to the doors....!

Which requires a little bit more "landscape" around the Conservatory....

and I think you can guess where this is going!

I was planning all along to have a "small" amount of landscape 

surrounding the Conservatory.... 

because I cannot imagine a Conservatory without any Garden...!

But how much is a "small amount" of landscape?

Should the steps have a walkway at the bottom.... 

or dump the little people right off the base onto the floor?

And should there be a "small" amount of terrace at the end where the doors open....

a space where the citrus trees are wheeled out for the milder months.....

or where you can arrange a table and chairs.... 

or build another set of grander steps leading down into a sunken Garden.....

And if there is a Terrace, should there be a bit of a wall a the back....

to keep things from falling off.....?

Oh, why do I get so carried away? 

I do not have space in my house for a large garden around the Conservatory....

but I can maybe justify a small terrace.....

And at the very least.... 

I think the elevation is a good idea with the sides opening....

Because otherwise nothing can "grow" along the side of the conservatory!

So while I am wrestling with the practical aspects 

of increasing the Conservatory Landscape...

I have also started to work on the floor inside.

I originally wanted just to use up the tiles 

I had left over from the Castle Great Hall floor.

And I had arranged them in a "patterned" arrangement 

on a piece of cardboard so they could easily be 

moved out of the way and not be disarranged.

The idea is that they might look a little like a "rug" made of tiles.

So I began experimenting with different borders to surround the rug section...

And I made a lot more tiles in different colors, but undecorated, 

and tried them out as borders for the rug section.

And then tried some of the other patterned tiles....

With some other color tile borders.....

Oh, I really love that blue....!

This could take me a while to decide!

Meanwhile I do need to make a lot more tiles... 

even some of them with patterns.....

Because what I have doesn't quite cover half of the floor space!

And there will need to be another entire "rug" at this end.

And I will need to decide how much "terrace" to add at the end.....

And this new foundation is going to require 

a whole lot more bricks as well, Dear Readers!

I am going to be making Bricks and Tiles for quite a while!

I think it is gradually becoming clear that 

the Elevation of the Conservatory

 is going to require a whole lot more 

than just a few Next Steps!