iseecerulean

I had a detailed plan all worked out in my head for painting the exterior of the house...but that was a year ago.  I remember what colors I chose, and know, in a broad sense, which color goes where, but don't remember exactly what it was I was planing for the trim, porch spindles, etc.   I should have written it down...but then again, I didn't think it would take me this long to get this far.

I just now realized that I've been misreading this brand as 'Creamcoat' for years...

I dug out the paint I bought to take another look, hoping it would jog my memory...it didn't.  I need to make a sketch of the house, so that I can play around with crayons on paper until I get the look I want.

Originally, I was going to paint the siding light grey...then I changed my mind and decided to paint the siding green.  Since then, I've remodeled the studio, coincidentally using almost the exact shade of green on the walls.  Look just above the bay window on the left side of the picture...you can see how the green on the house blends into the green on the wall behind it.

Now I want to paint the siding grey again, but I've already painted the edges of the exterior walls, where you can see them in the cut-out sides, green...I'd have to paint those grey without messing up the finishes inside the rooms.  Or...I just had a thought...I could cover those edges with grey trim pieces.  Sigh...I don't know.  I might just paint the house green so I don't have to monkey with the edges.

Octagonal tile roofing sheets...to go with my octagonal windows.  Sweet! 

Sometimes I find better stuff searching G scale (model railroad scale), instead of half scale.

I can't fix the downstairs fireplaces the way I want to.  The dining room fireplace is off center, so if I add a side to the mantle it will stick out past the edge of the wall.

So...I have to decide if I want to leave them alone, or if I want to fix the living room mantle and put a trailing plant on both ends of the dining room mantle, to hide the unfinished ends.  I'll have to think about it.

Something else to think about...I can't make up my mind if I want to paint the roofs over the bay windows copper, or if I want to shingle them, like the rest of the roof.  I like the look of copper, but that's a relatively modern trend, and this is supposed to be an older house.  What do you guys think?

I finished the fix to make the tower windows even...now I feel better.  After I got that done I re-papered the inside wall, made and installed a floor, then cut, finished and installed baseboard.  The tower room is now done.

I'm all giggly giddy, check out this next picture...

TA-DA!

The house looks a lot better with a roof!

The main roof was easy, the porch roof was pretty easy, the roofs over the bay windows were kind of a pain, but the tower roof was a BITCH.  In fact, the tower roof isn't quite straight, but when I put the leaning corner on the inside, toward the intersection of the main roofs, it isn't really noticeable.

I have to decide whether I want to use the unfinished wood shingles that came with the house, which I would have to glue on shingle, by shingle, by shingle, by shingle, by shingle...or if I want to buy a couple sheets of this.

I glued the trim in yesterday...because I didn't think it was a good idea to have a bunch of tiny pieces of wood still sitting loose on my worktable when I'll have a house full of people tomorrow.  With as much time as I spent cutting, sanding, and painting, I'd be pissed if any got brushed off onto the floor and lost.  I haven't wrapped any of the Christmas presents yet, but I'm sure I prioritized properly.

As it was, I lost three pieces anyway.  I crawled around on the floor for five minutes but the only things I discovered were a bead and that I really need to vacuum.  Thankfully Kate found one on the floor, and Matt found one on my worktable...the third is gone forever.  That's not too bad, really, for as long as I've had them sitting there loose waiting for me to finish them.  The piece I'm missing is a teeny piece of chair rail that goes on the wall on the left side of the dining room fireplace.  I forgot to cut corner pieces for the living and dining room mantles, so I'll make another piece of chair rail when I make those.

Click on the picture of the dining room to see the chair rail in more detail, it turned out really good.  I made it in two pieces, flat white styrene trim, with a piece of wooden chair rail trim on top.  The styrene is a brighter white, even after being painted, but the wood trim part is the same color as the rest of the wood trim, so it worked out okay.  Plus, it's on straight!!! I'm so proud of myself.

Most of the rooms are practically done now.  I've got to buy room divider trim stuff for between the foyer and living room, put the banister on the stairs in the foyer, finish the kitchen, then do the tower room and attic.  I'm not sure if I want to do all that next, or if I want to start on the exterior of the house.  Hmm...I think I'll move to the exterior, just for a change of pace.

I did figure out a way to trim the sides of the downstairs bookcase without trimming the side of the fireplace wall.  I got these unbelievably small pieces of half-round styrene trim at the hobby shop..the stuff is one mm in diameter.  I glued some on the outside edges of the sides, but I think I'm going to add some to the inside edges of the sides too.

I don't know if you can tell by looking at the picture, but the bookcase is painted a shade of white that's more ivory colored than the trim, but not as ivory colored as the living room walls.  The color difference makes it a separate piece, not a continuation of either the trim or a continuation of the walls...so the white half-round is what ties the white trim at the top and bottom of the bookcase together and gives the bookcase sides. I did all that so that it doesn't look like just a bunch of shelves stuck in an empty space, which is what it really is.  Does that make sense?

I drive by this house every morning on my way to work.  I'm not a fan of overdoing lights, but there's an artistic sensibility to their display that I really like. 

 

It has to be done, all the knots are cemented so I can't fuss with it anymore.

When I started the focal cluster I tied on the cut shell, then put the copper turtle on top of it on the right side, and the silver turtle on abalone on top of it on the left side.  Somehow, while adding the coral and copper colored pearl, the copper turtle moved to the left side, half under the silver turtle, leaving a gap on the right side where he was supposed to be.  Sigh...

Moving him could have been disastrous, so I added a glass turtle to fill the gap.    The necklace didn't turn out like I wanted it to, but it's not bad.

My latest Etsy purchase, from Willows Creations...a 1/12 scale cushion for the chair in the artist's studio roombox, and a 1/24 scale afghan for the dollhouse.

Normally I ask my mom to make these types of things for me (she made the curtain you see in the picture, which I still need to 'drape' and starch yet), but these were so reasonably priced that I couldn't pass them up.

Oh where oh were could my Susan be
The furnace men took her away from me
She's gone shopping so I've got to be good
So she'll send Christmas pictures like she said she would