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!
