Ah, The Folly, The Folly!

Ch...ch...ch...Changes.....!

Dear Readers, As I imagine Some of you know.... Blogger has changed! So I Really don't know what I am doing! But I shall persevere and try to get this posted tonight! Maybe this is appropriate, since the Theme of this Post is New Beginnings! So I feel as though I am stumbling around in the Dark as I try to figure out what button does what and where my pictures are all going! Since they all loaded differently, I am dragging them into place.... and I only HOPE they go where I want when I get this Posted!
 As some of you know, as I was beginning to make Miniatures, The Folly was my First Kit House (as opposed to The Lovely Old Dollhouse which has been mine since childhood!), and because I get distracted, it is FAR from finished! By it's very nature, a "Folly" is supposed to be VERY Elaborate and Fanciful... and My Folly has always been intended to sit in the midst of a Garden..... a Garden that I must somehow Build... even though I have NO Experience with Mini Landscapes!And in order to make a Garden.... there must be a BASE for the House to sit upon....
For a Long time now, the Folly has had no real base... which makes it easy to drag the house out into the World for Photo shoots.... Like This..... and This.This....
And when it is not being carried about (which can be hard on the delicate trims...!) it usually sits on this small wooden frame (see below) which is JUST big enough to hold the house... but NOT big enough for any real Garden Landscape. So I have decided that I Must make a bigger base!

 I have chosen to use the lightweight but sturdy builders foam insulation panels to construct the Ground. Here below you can see I am planning to use more than one layer because I want the effect of the House being perched on a little knoll next to a small brook.....
I have marked on the top layer the outlines of approximately where the foam should be cut.....

 And here you can see that I have sawed off the extra bits..... 

leaving a ROUGH Hill-shaped piece.... 

with room on the one side for a small patio and on the other for the small brook.......

 This is the side where the brook will run...... 

I truly have NO idea how I am going to make the surface into a landscape....! 

Lots of research needed here! 

But I have made a Start!

 And BEFORE I can attach the House FIRMLY to this new base..... I realized I must get more of the Electrical Wiring done... and Figure out WHERE I am Hiding the outlet strip...! This is not easy because  this Kit has the Skinniest walls imaginable.... they are about 1/16 of an inch thick! NO room to carve channels and bury the wires! So I am having to be inventive and hide them behind the baseboards.... Here below you can see the wire for the Parlor Ceiling fixture that comes through the floor of the bathroom and runs all around the walls at baseboard level... and will be covered when I add the baseboards!

 I have added a Porch Lantern on the Front Porch..... the wire comes through the porch ceiling.....

 Which is the sleeping nook in the bedroom above! I have decided to run the wires on top of this surface, and then cover them with a layer of cardboard which will be completely hidden by the mattress......

 Here you can see the wire for the Porch Lantern.... 

as well as the wires for the "candle" I have made to sit on the little window shelf which I also added.......

 And here you can see that I have drilled holes in the corner for the wires to go through into the bathroom where they will be hidden behind the baseboard with the other wires.......

 And here below you can see the outside wall where I have taped the wires from the Parlor Ceiling Light... where they will need to be concealed behind a piece of molding with a channel for the wires... from there they reach the Ground on the New Base.......

and I still have not decided how I am concealing the plug strip!!!!

Below you can see the Baseboard in the bathroom.... concealing the wires!

I have debated with myself for AGES over what type of light to use in the Book Nook.... and have finally decided to use the simplest old fashioned candle sconce. This has bi-pin bulbs and the old fashioned style suits the Antiquity of the era "The Folly" was supposedly built in. It sits far enough into the corner that it hopefully will not get bumped into too much..... and it can light the Nook as well as the stairway. I still have to make some Concealing strips for the wires.... which will run to the back corner under the window.....

Here you can see the lights being tested.... They WORK!

And a close-up of the pillar candle I made for the window shelf in the bed nook...... 

isn't it Romantic.....?

 And the view from outside..... in the dark..... 

Little lights to show the way......!

Still SO FAR to GO..... 

So Many Changes......

and I didn't really get the Base made at all.....

But it is a Start!

Ah, The Folly, The Folly...!