iseecerulean

I still haven't cut the new walls for the contest kit.  I have wiring supplies on order, I need to get all that stuff figured out because it's going to determine how thick certain pieces of wood need to be.

No additional progress has been made on the English Cottage Kitchen either, because I put in a crazy number of hours at the office this week.

I've purchased a few new goodies...

The leather goods came from Argentina, they were made by Jorgelina Ferreyra.  I bought them over a year ago, but misplaced them almost immediately.  They have been found :)  Perhaps they were waiting for the right time, they'll look fantastic in the contest build.

The iPhones came from Thailand, from lilushop.

The coffee maker came from Poland, it was made by Lady Fanaberia.  I will be buying more of her kitchen appliances, they're wonderfully precise.

Susan's gratuitous cat picture....

My daughter and I are headed out of town for a couple of days.  We're going downstate so she can take the state board exam to get her RN license.  We're going to do a little shopping, eat gourmet meals, and take in a museum or two while we're there.  I'm sure I'll have pictures to show you later in the week.

Ceiling

Windowsill

Door

Chimney....still working on

The sides are done...the ends are going to be a pain...

Susan's gratuitous cat picture....

The roof is glued on, now I'm working on the ceiling.  The walls for the new contest house haven't been cut yet.  I'm so in-the-zone and close to the finish line with this kitchen that I'm not ready to change gears yet.

I want the pantry roof to look old and kind of decrepit, while still in good repair, so when I put the shingles on I did a bad job, while try to make it look like I didn't do a bad job on purpose.  The shingles were curling up and sliding around in the glue a bit, it looked great...but then they settled down when they dried and I hated it.

I'm not sure which is uglier, the pointy tips, the color, or the neatness.  Yuck.

Yesterday I ran silver foil tape around the edges, then put another layer of shingles right over the top.  The shingles looked better wet, they calmed down and uncurled when the glue dried, but I was expecting it this time so built in a few 'lifted' ones

I stained them a lighter color, aged them with washes of paint, then applied moss quite liberally.   Moss application is quite tedious and more time consuming than I anticipated.

I may tinker with it some more later...split some shingle edges and perhaps pull one or two out and replace them with clean ones, to simulate a repair....but it's done enough now to call it finished.

I haven't cut the new walls for the contest kit yet....maybe today, depending on how long it takes me to shop for new bedding and get the housecleaning done.

I laid a large piece of MDF on my studio floor....drew out the new walls on paper, then on the wood....

but now how do I cut them out?  I've only got a little table saw, not a full size one.

There are a circular saw, jigsaw, and plunge saw out in the garage, but none have a straight edge guide.

Perhaps I can clamp a straight piece of metal on to act as a guide?  I also wonder if I should clamp two pieces of MDF together to cut both walls out at the same time, so they'll match.

 I'll have to think about this.

I fixed the duct coming off the water heater...straightened it, and ran it into a more sensible place on the main duct, to give that one a reason to increase in size at that junction.  I don't like using plastic straws, because the paint doesn't adhere well, even when they're gessoed first, but I did insert a little section of it on top of the aluminum armature wire because I couldn't think of anything that would work better.  I'm not sure if I'm going to do more with the stovepipe duct that runs along the very top of the wall...I'd like to replace it with a painted plastic straw, but again, the finish is so fragile that I'm wary..I'm still thinking about it.

I wish I could buy black or gray bendy straws.   Hmm...I've never searched on them for the internet...and here they are...duh!...I should check the local party supply store next time I'm on that side of town, I bet they have them.  

Something I did a few weeks ago I haven't shown you yet....I inserted a piece of  mirror finish scrapbook paper in an arc behind and above the fire, to bounce the light out.  It's hard to take a picture of...it works great.

I spent most of the weekend out shopping.  I told husband I needed to go to Home Depot Saturday morning...he said he want to go to a new tool store...I replied "I like tools!".  First we stopped at the locally-owned hardware store for everything I could source there...spray paint, stain, and a few odds and ends.  Then we annoyed our daughter the barista at her workplace with an order for a "small skim soy half-caf mocha extra-foam caramel macchiatoccino decaf  upside-down double-shot low-foam vente extra-creamy medium doppio pour-over chocolate sprinkle latte no-sugar super-dry 2%  grande espresso, and I don't want to see one speck of cinnamon on the top or you'll be schlepping hot cocoa in Alaska, sweetheart!" (she said no, then made me an ordinary cappuccino just the way I like it). 

The new tool place was super cheap, in all possible ways, but I picked up a few things...more than husband did.  A quick stop at Home Depot afterward gave me more MDF to build out the contest kit, and husband a new shower head.

Now I should have all the supplies I need to start the contest build...final stop was the liquor store...just need to find some energy.

Sunday we went mattress and bed shopping....that didn't take too terribly long, but I sat in the world's most comfortable recliner and refused to leave the store without it, so husband had to spend a couple of hours sitting in all the recliners several times to pick a new one out for him.  Now I need to, at some point this week, before the new, smaller, bed gets here next week, buy all new linens....sigh....and clean and find a new home for the theater chairs that need to come out of the living room to make room for the new recliners....which will arrive when the bed does, since there was no way I could fit mine in the trunk of my Volvo.

Also...more changes, changes, changes....my boss is retiring....the new CFO starts today.  I suppose I should dress in something more professional than sweat pants this morning.  (Our offices are spread out over the country, only the accounting office is in Michigan...we don't see customers here which means I wear anything from jeans to my cookie monster pajamas, depending on what mood I'm in.)

Congratulations Janine, Candice, and Heather.

I've sent an email to get your address (don't post it in the comments).