Sunday 18 April 2010

Several coats of paint later...

In a classic case of 'less haste, more speed', I have been regretting spraying some of my plastic doors and windows with gray spraypaint after we ran out of white spraypaint.  It has taken numerous coats of GW 'Bleached Bone' to cover up the gray.  At least it has given me an easy job in the evenings after work when the light isn't as good.  My new job gets me home later than my previous job, so we are having to forge a new routine which unfortunately doesn't leave as much time for crafting in the evenings.

I was able to buckle down this weekend and get a bit more done.  I have:


  • finished filling the unneccessary slots and holes, and sanded these to a smooth finish;
  • applied scrapbooking paper in a 'pine' colour to the ground floor, sealed it, then cut through to open up the slots again.  I experimented on a scrap with drawing 'planks' in very fine Pigma Micron pen, but decided I didn't like how obtrusive the lines were;
  • started painting the base a dark green while it is still easily accessible.  I'm not sure yet what treatment I will apply to the base but it seems prudent to give it a starting coat now;
  • cut the round window false wall for the bathroom out of foamcore, which pads out the Grandtline round window thickness quite nicely;
  • started gluing my chimney together, having cut two bits of thin wood (each slightly bigger than each other) to give a moulding effect between the two chimney segments;
  • drawn around the shape of my hexagonal floor to use as a template for railings later;
  • started drawing around the shapes of some of the attic walls to use as templates for wallpaper later;
  • applied scrapbooking paper to the bathroom floor and sealed it (in a slightly glittery white which looks like linoleum);
  • finished painting the plastic doors and picked out the lock plates in 'brass' paint.  Just need to glue on the knobs now;
  • designed the false wall for the kitchen (see below).

False wall for attic












The original Pickett Hill house (PH) has a built-in kitchen installed on a projecting wall - deep enough to allow a cabinet to run down the side of the projection.  As discussed in earlier posts, the Fairfield has smaller dimensions and the kitchen isn't going to be as big.  Also, the replacement 1/24th kitchen kit that I bought from Judith of 'In Some Small Way' is not the same layout as the PH kitchen.  After considering this all for a while, I have decided to build a projection out of foamcore to give additional depth to the centre wall where it backs the kitchen area, and to kitbash the kitchen kit to give a similar effect to the PH kitchen (with an island etc.)  In order to have the cabinet at the side (which will be visible through the doorway when you are looking at the living room), I will not take the false project to the full width of the centre wall-between-doorways measurement.  I reckon my false wall needs to be 12.6 cm high (sorry to American readers but I find metric more accurate for these small measurements), 3 cm deep, but only 9.5 cm wide.  This will give me an alcove on the right as you look in at the kitchen, where I can place a cupboard.  This will all make more sense when I've actually built and installed the false wall and can take a piccy!

Volcanic ash from the explosion in Iceland has grounded most flights in or out of Europe, so my Houseworks bay window is missing somewhere in transit.  I won't be able to glue the house together until I get the window, as I need to check I have cut the aperture the right size and also work out how I am going to do the window seat. 


Base with flooring and first coat of paint, painted doors, and chimney being glued.

1 comment:

  1. I love the shape of your balcony, it will really be an eye-catching feature. Great job1

    ReplyDelete

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