iseecerulean

I had an accident yesterday morning cutting down wood on my table saw to make books with.  It's not bad, I still have all my fingers...in fact, I was being so careful to watch my fingers as I moved my hand to grab the wood exiting behind the blade that I forgot my thumb hangs lower and zinged the tip of my thumb against the blade.  The cuts aren't deep, but the tip of my right thumb is a bit mangled...it's nothing I even needed to go to Urgent Care for.  It hurts like a bitch, though.

I wasn't up to making books after that...I can't fit my bandaged thumb through scissor holes, and I didn't want to have to wash glue off my hands every five minutes...so I used some washi tape I've had in my stash since before washi tape was a thing to make books with matching covers.  I'm not a fan of the look in real life decor, so I'm not really sure what I was thinking, but it's done.

Done!  I'm going to give it a good cleaning today, then start furnishing.  Also on my to-do list today: the dreaded making of hundreds of tiny books.

I haven't accomplished much on the mini-house so far this week; I'm sick.  I'm not horribly sick,  I'm just fighting a bit of the cold that's been going around up here, but it's fatiguing.  I may stay home today instead of going to my sister-in-law's house for Thanksgiving dinner and birthday cake, I haven't decided yet.

I have two house updates. First the miniature....

Because the headboard is attached to the back wall, which swings open, I can't prop pillows against it.  To remedy this, I cut a piece of plastic packaging, slipped it between the sheets, then pinned it in place.

I made a couple of flat no-sew pillows to prop against it, I'm going to sew and stuff two fuller ones to set in front of those.  (The cat pillow is from Brae.)

I also stained the planter box and planted the palm.

The little stone cottage update....

The house was inspected this week.  It was built in 1940ish so has some issues, but structurally it's solid as a rock (ha!).  There are three issues considerable enough that Kate needs to get repair quotes for, then her realtor will renegotiate her offer.  The house needs all the windows replaced, the electric rewired (possibly), and the bathroom remodeled, as the subfloor in the bathroom is bad and the tiling was done poorly.  There are other, lesser, issues as well, but those can be handled later.

I'm almost done with the critical list, I just need to finish wiring the retrofitted lamps.  But...the strip lights on the ceiling don't work anymore and there's not a damned thing I can do about it.  :(  

I feel better knowing I'm far enough long that I can enter the contest as is, even though the house isn't technically done yet.  I'm not going to work anymore today though, I'm going to watch a movie while soaking in a bubble bath, cry about the broken lights, and drink a bit too much expensive scotch.

There's nothing like the first coat of gesso to show you that your prep work was grossly insufficient. 

There was much more sanding, filling, sanding, etc, yesterday morning before I started painting the roof.  The prep work left such a hodge-podge of colors, between the white gesso, tan MDF and red filler, that my first layer was a thick coat of black, to give the roof a consistent color.

After that dried completely I spent several hours painting and sanding innumerable coats of white paint until the roof was beautifully pristine.  I hated it.  After a netflix break, I assaulted it with a sanding sponge until it looked a bit weathered, then rubbed on a few layers of eggshell colored wax finish, to tone it down a bit.

After I was satisfied with the roof I did some touch ups on the supporting beams.  Then, with the painting finally complete, I was able to remove the tape and film from the plexiglass.

Oh yeah!  Whoo!  I am super excited to get the trim and mullions done today, I want to see what it's going to look like finished.

I didn't get much done on the mini house this week, what with daughter buying her first house and all.

The top of the front and sides of the fireplace have been trimmed out with 1/16" quarter round.  The back side hasn't been yet.  Trim that small is persnickety to work with.

I've got the roof prepared to prime and paint, and the front wall is on (but I'm scared to take the tape off). 

My goal for this weekend is to get the roof painted, the sliding doors installed, and the plexiglass walls trimmed out so that they look like windows.

Not a miniature house, but a little old, newly remodeled, house...960 square feet...daughter is putting in an offer today, cross your fingers!

Pics from the online listing....

I glued and nailed the roof in place Sunday morning.  It fell a bit short on the front, so I'm using layers of caulk to fill in the gap between it and the dowel....because the caulk was right there and if I don't use it for something it's going to dry up and be thrown away.  Once I get the gap filled and smoothed I'll wrap the paper around to make it seamless so I can paint.

I spent most of the day cutting the front wall.  I'm using 1/4" thick plexiglass, and don't want to ruin either it or my power tools, so I cut it with a hand saw.  I marked each cut line into six inch or so segments, cut six inches, rested, cut six inches, rested, cut six inches, rested, until I had it done; that way I didn't wear my arms out.  It's something I learned lifting weights.

I'm feeling much better about the deadline now....30 days to go!

I hadn't given a lot of thought to the installation of the roof. In my head it went something like "put the ceiling on, put the extra beams on top, slap the roof on, whallah."   Wallah, HA!  (That's fun to say...whallah ha...whallaha....WHALLAHAHAHA...he he he.)

I was sitting in my chair, staring at the roof, deep in thought, when my husband walked by, looked at me oddly, and asked "what are you so mad at?".  At that point, since trying to formulate a plan wasn't getting me anywhere but angry, I decided to just start already, and figure it out as I go.  I'm almost done now, I need to find a piece of wood to cut down for the fourth side, I'm hoping husband has something in his stash in the garage, because I don't have anything large enough in my stash.

During the moments I was waiting for glue to dry I made and installed a couple of lamps.  They're nothing fancy or complicated, I threw them together quickly from parts on hand.  The wiring isn't finished, I have to solder them to the battery connection wires and figure out where in the back of the closet I can squeeze in the 9V battery and switch.  Retrofitting is a pain. 

The advantage of having a modern room is that the lamps didn't have to look conventional.  The first is nothing more than a rectangular plastic cap glued to a piece of walnut with a hole drilled in it.  The second was made from a pen cap, black drinking straw, and a couple of rubber o-rings.

I'm still thinking about adding an arc lamp over the dining room table, I'm going to put all the stuff in the house to see how it looks first.  The light from the range hood shining through the glass bottles I'm going to put on the counter may be a lovely effect that an overhead light would ruin.

The light strips have been superglued in place....flawlessly, because I waited until I was calm and relaxed.   I weighted them down to dry, then treated all the woodwork with a coat of tung oil, while I could still get my hands in the house easily.  After that was done I glued the ceiling in place, which was a gigantic pain in the ass.  I ended up screwing it into the beams in five places per beam for the three center beams, and in the four corners.  Thank goodness I had the foresight to draw a line on the top of the ceiling to mark the beam placement...I suspected it might need a little help.

They don't illuminate as brightly as I anticipated....I'm going to need lamps...

Ugh, I don't like the yellow light of the manufactured battery powered floor lamp that was in my stash.  I'm going to have to buy some coin-cell battery powered white LEDs and quickly fashion some homemade lamps.  I need two at least, next to the shelves, on both levels. 

I'm also beginning to second guess my decision not to have a chandelier of some sort over the dining room table.  I didn't want to impede the line of sight, but I may need the added light.  I'll have to reach a decision before I put the roof on.