Sunday Naps

Because I finished wallpapering the CC earlier than anticipated on Sunday, Dasha and his sweetheart Lena got to enjoy a Sunday afternoon nap together. Guess I’d do that too with BK, given we ate a huge Mother’s Day brunch with my family, followed by a long walk with our dog…

Dasha and Lena asleep. Lena’s using one of the pillows Brae made for me!

 

Sophie meanwhile is standing guard….or maybe waiting for them to take her out for walk?

 

Mooom….Daaad…..I know that couch looks comfy and all. But you know what would be more comfy and fun? Throwing the ball for me, Sophie, the dog!

I dunno what it is with dogs, and their ability to be buzzkills during a nap session….(laughs).

The CC: Movin’ On Up…

Well, the wallpaper that is. Sorry for the bad pun attempt (was using the opening line for the Jefferson’s theme)…

With the flooring done, and the furniture selected, it was time to put up the wallpaper. I will have to say, papering the walls is not my most favorite part in building the houses. Mostly because I always, ALWAYS, screw up something. Either I didn’t get enough paper, or cut the wrong size. Or worse, I smear paste on the right (visible) side and ruin it.

But one always has to hold on hope. At least in the case of the CC, hope that I don’t screw up cutting stuff for 3 walls for crying out loud.

Again, decided to deviate from the usual sources and try something different. In this case: I used decorative and Lokta paper.

For those who are unfamiliar with Lokta paper, it’s basically paper made from the fibers of the Lokta plant, which is abundant in Nepal (and part of the laurel tree family). The plant is harvested usually around October (and is cut in a way that the following year, it’s back to its full height) and are broken down to create the paper. The result is that you get a paper than can either be thick or thin, and has an interesting texture to it. Which really becomes more pronounced when dyed or stamp designs on it.

I had been curious about trying Lokta paper mostly because lately, alot of vendors like Paper Source and Paper Mojo are carrying Lokta papers with really pretty patterns. I had to shop around a bit, mostly because while you can get a 20″x30″ sheet (which is plenty generous to use for dollhouse wallpaper if you measure things correctly) rather cheaply, it’s the shipping charges that tends to kick my rear to the moon and back. 😦

Luckily, a couple of craft projects (ie, weddings and showers) popped up, and because I was helping with some of those logistics….I was able to justify paying the shipping charges. Seriously, I wouldn’t be surprised if the online vendors thought I was doing a stockpile on papers or something. By the time the package arrived in the mail, the tube mailer that had the papers was crammed to the max.

For the CC, I ended up choosing the following.

The papers I used for the CC

The ones on the left and middle of the photo I purchased at a Paper Source store when BK and I were visiting Alexandria, VA for an errand.  The one on the right was one of the papers I ordered via PaperMojo.com. They seemed a little bold at first glance…and I’m not gonna lie folks, I was nervous as all ^$@*# if I made the right call. The last thing I wanted to do was put up some tacky-ass wallpaper on what’s to be Dasha’s and Lena’s future home.

One way to find out I guess…

So with my ruler and pencil, I took notes of the measurements of each room, and started cutting out the needed shapes. I used my trusty canister of YES! paste and coated a thin layer on the CC’s walls, before applying the paper in place. Because I was using Lokta paper for each of the rooms, and Lokta paper didn’t have a smooth surface, I used a clean sponge brush to gently press the paper against the wall, and push out any air between the paper and the paste. The last thing I wanted to happen was have the wallpaper develop any air bubbles….and ruin the whole look entirely.

After an hour….it was done.

The finished walls.

The bedroom

For the living room, because the couch is such an intense orange….though something with blue would help complement it. Maybe tamp down the intensity a bit….

I was most nervous about the kitchen because the yellow looked really intense. But when it was installed…it wasn’t too bad. Now I just need to figure out the backsplash for the kitchen to help break things up.

The sunny kitchen

In case you’re wondering about the interior front panel of the CC – yes, I’m planning to paper it, but I might just a single neutral color that can work on all three rooms. Granted, I could have papered that side to match each of the rooms. But honestly, that’s just too much…and given I was using some really strong colors and patterns, I was afraid that might have been too much. Besides, I have these fabrics that I need to incorporate to complete the look of each of the rooms.

For the living room: was thinking for the curtains, maybe pillows…?

And of course, I need to make linens and curtains for the bedroom as well….

Again, stayed tuned. And let’s see if I can sew something without pricking my fingers and causing a mess on all the fabric…. 😦

The CC: Furniture Trial Run…and a Little Backstory I Guess

Now that floors have been installed, usually I proceed with the walls. But because the rooms of the CC are rather on the shallow end…figured I should at least start trying to see what furniture will fit.

For this project, I decided to deviate once more and actually use something different. It’ll still be a residential urban townhouse…but again, because space is limited, I had to carefully pick up what pieces I want to use.

Doing a furniture trial fit of sorts…

For example, the first floor I wanted this to be a combination of a compact kitchen and dining area. So I used some old IKEA dollhouse furniture (their Lillabo line from the early 2000s….man I wish IKEA hadn’t discontinued this line), and a Rement cafe set. The kitchen wall cabinet is a discontinued Rement piece (think from their Storage Beauty line).

Cafe table & chairs are Rement’s Wood Cafe collection; purchased at http://www.superbuzzy.com. White toy sink, stove, fridge, and white hutch were part of IKEA’s discontinued Lillabo doll furniture line (purchased via EBay). Wall cabinet was part of Rement’s Storage Beauty series (purchased via EBay).

The second floor would be the living room. Again, the space really limited my selection, so I had to be really careful with what I wanted to use.

Couch, heart shaped pillow, and large white bookcase: part of the IKEA huset doll furniture set. Smaller white bookcase purchased from Manor House Miniatures. Other pillows were from IKEA’s Lillabo collection. Slipcover purchased from PaperDollProductions (Etsy).

The bookcase on the left, the heart shaped pillow, and the couch were actually part of IKEA’s new Huset doll furniture set. Granted, the set is a bit big on 1:12 scale, but I love the pieces so much…I actually bought a couple of boxes of this set during a trip to our local IKEA store. The couch originally had a pink slipcover, but I found a vendor on Etsy called PaperDollProductions who creats custom slipcovers and accessories to go with this doll furniture set. Suffice to say, I put an order for the orange slipcover and padded the plastic couch with batting to make it a little more comfy looking. The smaller white bookcase was a modern storage unit I found on Manor House Miniatures.

For the third floor…I decided this would be a bedroom of sorts.

The bed was a custom piece I had built by Gigi N Studio (Etsy) based on one of her modern 1:12 scale bed. Miss Gigi was so nice to take my request to change the dimensions of the bed to accommodate my project, and she quickly produced this lovely piece. I used a piece of craft chair cushion (about 1/2″ thick) to create the boxspring and mattress.

Across from the bed, I used a shadowbox kit that I purchased from Porkchop Art Part (Etsy) as the base for a closet/wardrobe unit. I assembled the shell, but am waiting on a few wood trim and parts to assemble the shelves and racks.

Now if you notice on the photo, the furniture isn’t exactly 1:12 scale. In fact, they seem kinda big and bulky. The truth is folks…I’m designing the CC for a rather particular set of occupants. Guess you can say, they’re my muses for this project.

So with further ado….meet Dasha.

Dasha with his pet doberman, Sophie.

You can tell from this photo that he looks mighty tall to be a 1:12 scale doll. And you’re right — he’s actually close to being about 7.75″ in height. Because of that, I had to really look around for furniture that would accommodate him. Heck, even his dog Sophie seems tiny against him (and she’d be a good size dog in 1:12 scale).

Dasha in modern garb. I decided to keep the chip on his nose while repairing everything else.

Now in terms of where I got him…I actually found him in April 2013 in an antique shop up in Cape Cod, right in the hometown where BK grew up. We were in the area as BK’s younger brother MK was getting married. And one afternoon, we decided to check out this shop because we heard the shopkeeper had a big collection of antique nautical items (which was something BK wanted to check out).

When we got to the shop, I noticed that as BK and I were entering the place, a family with a bunch of young children were hurriedly leaving the premises. We didn’t think much about it until we got inside and were greeted by the shopkeeper. Judging from the flustered look on his face, BK and I risked asking him if he was okay.

The shopkeeper said he was fine, but he was a little upset with the family that left because one of the children had apparently broken one of his merchandise. When I asked what it was, he pointed at something beside the cash register. And lying sprawled beside the register, was Dasha.

He was indeed a sorry sight. He had a mop of black hair that was half on, half off his head. His nose looked chipped, and his hands looked like they were covered with something sticky. Even worse were his clothes — he was wearing what looked like a very worn out silk robe and trousers, and the sleeves looked like they were yanked hard at the seams. Suffice to say, he looked like someone that got seriously man-handled.

The shopkeeper explained that one of the children managed to get the doll off the shelf and started banging him against every piece of furniture, tugging at his clothes, and pulling at his limbs. When the shopkeeper finally asked the parents to tell their child to stop or they’ll have to pay for the doll, the child flung the doll to the floor — where Dasha’s nose and hand chipped. I guess the parents were so mortified that they just gathered their children and hustled out to the door as we were coming in.

I’m not sure why, but when I held the doll, I got the feeling that I should take him home, and that I should call him Dasha. Without skipping a beat, I asked the shopkeeper if I could purchase him. Guess he was surprised, but seemed relieved when I told him I collect doll furniture, and might be able to do something to repair the doll.

Once BK and I returned to our house, I spent the next couple of weeks repairing him. I ended up just removing his beat up wig and gently washing the wooden parts with wood soap and sanding off any glue residue. I took him to a furniture restorer, and the owner was nice enough to repair his hand. His clothing I ended up removing since it was beyond repair, and clumsily restitched his cloth body while I replaced his metal limbs with new gauze (the original wrappings were cotton strips. I ended up using gauze since it was easier to work with). Ended up dressing him in modern garb (used some Ken doll clothes and rehemmed the pants to fit him better), and for shoes, I covered his metal feet with paper clay and painted them to resembled wearing a pair of kicks.

By the time I finished repairing Dasha, it was already July 2013. At that point, work was starting to eat more of my time, so I had to put things off with my hobby. I would have put Dasha in the same storage bin as my other doll cast, but I kept having this nagging feeling that he needed to be around. So I put him to sit on a shelf above my desk. Eventually, I decided to give him company and picked up his faithful Doberman Sophie from an eBay auction.

But on August, I came across this find on Ebay.

Everyone, this is Lena.

Because I tend to use vintage Dawn and Pippa fashion doll clothes to dress my 1:12 scale dolls, an online buddy told me about these vintage dolls from the late 1950s-1960s called Miss Dollikin. Apparently they were created by Uneeda and the dolls were unique in how they were constructed. In order to make them more poseable than their competitors, Uneeda constructed the Lil Miss Dollkin as a strung doll — meaning inside the doll’s body, its limbs are connected inside by a type of strung elastic. This allows the doll to be posed in slightly more natural, human-like positions.

I was definitely curious, and decided that if I see one on eBay that I liked, then I’ll get it. Again, not sure if the mini gods were at work or something…but I did find one that I liked, and a few days later, she (who I named Lena) arrived at my house. I ended up replacing her outfit with the one you see in the photo….though I need to find red shoes to go with her getup.

Guess sparks flew between the two of them…because they’re always together. Either that, or I was just too lazy to put them elsewhere. 🙂

Slogging Along

Special credit goes to Miss Brae O of otterine for the word “slogging”. According to the dictionary, it means “work hard over a period of time”. Or it could mean to “…hit forcefully and typically wildly, especially in boxing.”

After learning the meaning of that word (English is not my native language, believe it or not), realized that this word could really be applied to my real life and hobby. In regards to my minis, am definitely slogging over the CC and up until recently, the ARC. In terms of real life…well, let’s just say I wish I had the ability to slog at certain things to illustrate my frustrations/stress over my new job.

In honor of this lovely word, I am happy to announce that I’m slogging away on the CC. At least while I await for the arrival of ARC II (or as BK likes to call it “Archie”).

For starters, I spent late Saturday prepping and installing the floor. Yes, I specifically said “late Saturday” because I had to do this at 11 pm at night. Because BK and I had our niece/nephew over for the weekend, and I had to wait for the entire household to be fast asleep in order to work on the CC.

Again, the things one does with their obsessions.

Had these collecting dust in storage. Figured it was time for them to earn their keep….

For the CC, I decided to go away from my usual choice of dark flooring and go for something lighter. Since my last shopping run involved buying flooring of the former kind, I had to (quietly) rummage through my bins and find what I had. Was relieved to find these 3 sheets at the bottom of one of my bins. I must have done some work on them in the past and packed them away because a) the packages were tampered (i.e., someone removed the paper top and stapled it back after slipping the flooring back in the bag)  and  b)….the floors were already sanded and varnished. Most folks who’ve used this kind of flooring in the past know that these require work to finish them. So my only guess was that I prepped them awhile back, then returned them back to the bags for some future use.

So past me….your future/current (and apparently scatter-brained) me would like to give you a hug for making my life even easier tonight. For reals!

After doing a mental happy dance at this find, I quickly went back to work. I used my measuring tape and wrote down the dimensions for the floors in the CC….

Cutting the flooring down to size. Please ignore the pajama pants you see at the bottom.

…and cut them down to size. Guess this is the nice thing about working on the CC — the rooms are pretty shallow to begin with (about 6.25″ deep), so the cutting was straightforward.  Of course, the downside was that the floor dimensions were enough that I could only make one cut out per sheet. But the good news though is that there were enough leftover flooring for me to justify and saving them for later. Perhaps for the ARC II (am seriously considering doing new plans for it).

Once I got my pieces cut, I sanded the cut edges to smooth them down. Then I started applying the floors to the CC using Quick Grip. Once I put the flooring down, I ended up stacking atop the installed flooring some hardback books BK and I had just so I can weight the flooring down as the glue dried. Last thing I really wanted was for the floors to buckle and look uneven. Because that would just plain suck you know?

After the books were set up to clamp down the floors, I quickly washed up and tiptoed back to bed. Figured in the morning, I’ll check the floors and hope everything went according to plan.

A few hours later (I got into bed around 1 am…and got up around 7:40 am to the sounds of my niece yakking away on her cell phone), I shuffled my way downstairs and checked. No buckling on the floors – capital!

Inspecting the new floor. Tis’ smooth like butter!

Because the floors were already sanded and varnished, was pretty happy that I can now move to the next phase. And no, it ain’t the bricks. Still slogging on THAT component though (Brae, you are lucky if you are indeed approaching the end of the tunnel with what you’re currently working on….)

 

Thanks Everyone!

Given that my last post was an off-tangent rant (really sorry about that folks), I wanted to at least provide a follow up on what I ended up choosing as my door/window combo for the CC. Based on the comments on my post, random emails, and to my surprise, getting sidelined by coworkers who found my blog….I chose….

The Victorian set. I don’t what they’re called, but we’re calling it this because I’m too lazy.

Yes, BK initially chose this combo. And no, it wasn’t because I caved in to my husband. Most of the comments pointed that this set worked better with the bigger windows. And the more I looked at them, it did make sense.

When I did tell BK that his choice got some pretty solid backup from you folks…all I can say is that his reaction was the spitting image of this.

This…pretty much is an accurate representation of my husband’s reaction. From http://thedarkemerald.deviantart.com

After leaving my husband to bask in the glow of marital victory (I let it slide….because again, he knows his limits if he wants to be fed), I did want to do something about the door. Granted, I like the “glass” part of the door and all…but the design wasn’t flying with me (ebmagpie, if you’re reading this entry, I totally agree with you on the window leading!).

So what I did I do about it, you ask? Well…I replaced that bad boy with this.

New window leading

Work the last 2 weeks really took a beating on me. If I wasn’t swamped at the office, I was equally swamped during the evenings. So ironically, the only times I could really devote time to the hobby were either early in the morning….or during my lunch hour on the weekdays. So for the door, I bought this “stained glass” window pane on eBay….and actually brought it to work with me to cut down to size during my lunch break.

After installing the new window, I set up the door and windows into the CC…and it looks better right?

But what made me happy though, was when I turned on the lights…

Man, those lights are bright.

…folks, you have NO idea how eager I am for the weekend to start. I want to jump back into working on this and the ARC. Even continuing my 4th Circle of Hell (aka, making more egg carton bricks and stones)….

So again, everyone who gave me feedback….thanks so much! I’ll need to come up with something as a form of gratitude…..

Throwing This Out to the Peanut Gallery…

Despite what WordPress has reported on my dashboard on the number of views my posts have had, and the number of followers to my blog….it’s probably safe to say that I’ll forever be mystified as to who reads my stream of consciousness rantings postings.

Okay, time to get off the soap box and proceed with the post.

On the weekends, I have this awful habit of getting up early at 6:00 am.  It doesn’t matter what time I went to bed – at 6:00 am, my eyelids fly open, I give out a HUGE yawn, and I need to roll out of bed. Staying in bed doesn’t make me fall asleep — if anything I probably drive poor BK crazy with my constant shifting around.

Anyways, once I’m up, I typically make my way downstairs to the dining room-turned-craft station and continue to work on making more stones and bricks. Also quickly becoming known as my 4th Circle in Hell (what can I say, I LOVE Dante’s Inferno). This morning, however, BK decided to come downstairs shortly after to make our morning coffee — and have the following conversation with me.

BK: Are you using those doors and windows on the house? (points at the CC)

Me: (measuring and cutting strips) I think so. Why?

BK: It doesn’t look right….I mean, wouldn’t they look weird once you put the stonework?

BK is referring to these windows and doors. I had originally bought these from the Real Good Toys website when I bought the CC.

Queen Anne style windows and doors. Purchased from Real Good Toys.

When applied to the CC, they look like this. It doesn’t look bad right?

This is how the Queen Anne style looks like…

Conversation went back and forth for awhile. While BK didn’t exactly say that I’m being ridiculous (he knows if he pisses me off, he won’t be eating for a week. Because he knows who is the cook of our household), he thinks if the upper windows are more rectangular in shape, then so should the bottom windows and doors. It was kinda funny, now that I think about it — I mean, I have to give him credit for wanting to argue with someone who’s wielding a sharp X-Acto knife. And she ain’t afraid to cause some damage with it. 😛

So to appease him (and I really didn’t want to commit homicide before my morning coffee. Again, because I can be such a lazy-ass), we trooped back upstairs to my “storage of shame” and after fishing around my bins, I pulled out this combination.

The Victorian set. I don’t know what they’re really called, but we’re calling it this because I’m too lazy.

I don’t remember who manufactured this (Alessio? Any ideas miniature fans?) — all I remembered is that I bought it from one of two miniature shops that’s within driving distance of my home. So we trooped back downstairs and I set it up against the CC.

There BK. Happy now? Now gimme my %$@& cup of coffee…

The odd part? This is nice too. It’s more traditional looking, and it would be more classic against the masonry. As soon I get through the hell that is cutting and prepping the pieces and actually installing them.

What do you guys think? Which do you prefer? Be curious to hear what you think. I figured I’ll need to sit on it for awhile before I make decision. Also known as flipping a quarter and praying for the best.

 

She’s (Sorta Not) A Brick House

Sorry, I couldn’t come up with a snazzy title for this post. Given that this is going to cover a rather tedious challenge I’m having while building the CC. But I had a nagging suspicion that I should write about this because

a) I’ve been asked by friends why I haven’t made “progress” on the CC
b) During my morning errands, I heard these two tracks play in my car tracklist: “Dazz” by Brick and my favorite Commodore’s track  “Brick House”

Okay, the last part was more of an excuse to share my growing fondness for classics. But the first part is definitely the main reason for this post.

As I’ve said in previous posts, the CC’s exterior will consist of two types of masonry. The bottom part will be more of a stone finish while the upper part will be encased in brick. I chose egg cartons as my medium of choice to replicate both finishes — the rough texture is perfect for replicating the brick or stone surface. The downside? It’s ALOT of work just prepping them. I decided to follow the steps Brae did on her Haunted Heritage (which she in turn based on tutorials provided by The China Doll and Victoria Miniland). Brae provided me some pointers as well, so I sorta knew this was going to be a big endeavor. Little did I know how much until I got started.

Don’t believe me? Hopefully these shots will provide a good visual (all you miniaturists who use this medium, I’m open to suggestions if there’s a better/efficient way to go about this).

Taking an egg carton (I saved the bottom part for a future project), I sliced it up into two parts: the flat bottom and the sides.

Putting the side part away for a bit, I cut the flat bottom part into 1/4 inch wide strips using a quilting ruler and pencil. I decided for each egg carton lid, I’ll use the flat bottom part to create my bricks.

 

Then proceed to cut the panel into strips with a sharp X-Acto knife. Definitely keep a steady supply of blades. You want the blade to be sharp so when you cut through the layers of paper that make up the carton, the edges has fewer chance of being fuzzy.

Once the strips are done, this is where I sorta deviate from the tutorials. I knew for the upper part of the CC, I would need two types of bricks: ones that would be the “standard” size (at least in 1:12 scale), and the other would be slightly longer (so I can use them in the corners). To ensure that I produce enough of each, I alternated each strip to one of those types.

So for the first strip, I marked it at 3/4″ intervals. Then with a sharp pair of scissors, cut the strips to form 1/4″ x 3/4″ rectangles…

..which I then snipped at the corners to make them slightly rounded.

Once that strip was completed, I go to the next strip and repeat the process. Except this time, I measure and cut them into 1/4″ x 1″ rounded rectangles.  Once I got started, I stored the bricks into some extra freezer bags I had — and added a label on them with the dimensions. More to help me identify what the bag contained, but also to help me figure out what sizes I’d need to make in case I ran out.

Then I just kept repeating the above process until I’ve used up the strips.

As for the side part of the carton I saved…well, I used that to make my stones. I guess Yorkshire Stones to be more exact.

Yorkshire Building Stone. From the Calder Masonry website (http://www.caldermasonry.co.uk/products/building/)

M&M Yorkshire Stone. My inspiration for the CC. Photo from http://www.mmstone.co.uk/products/walling_yorkshire.htm

From the second image, you can see that the stones seem to consist of three sizes: a longer one, one that’s almost square in shape, and an even longer length to use to wrap at the corners. So with my X-Acto knife, I cut the side portion of the egg carton lid into flat panels, and cut them into 3/8 inch high strips.

After cutting out the strips, I again alternated. The first strip was measured and cut into 3/8″ x 3/4″ blocks….

Then the second strip into 3/8″ x 1/2″ blocks…

And the third into 3/8″ x 1″ blocks.

I kept repeating this until I’ve used up all the 3/8″ strips. Which were also stored into their designated baggies.

And that’s what I do on one egg carton egg. Average time it takes me to do all the above? About 1.5 to 2 hrs. So long as I’m not distracted by an apparently needy senior dog. Or a husband who’s hungry and wondering what’s for dinner.

Crazy right? You know what’s even crazier? I ordered more egg cartons — another whopping 50 cartons on top of the 18 17 cartons I’m working on.

(starts to swear profusely)

Ah the things we do for our obsessions. 😀

This is Going to Hurt…

Remember this?

Amazing how quickly the weekend flew by. Saturday was spent dealing with errands and other personal matters (and posting entries pretty late that evening). Sunday was a bit chilly, so BK and I opted to stay inside and work on our respective projects — writing a novel for him, me hunkering in the dining room/craft zone to work on the CC.

At this point, I was able to remove the painter’s tape that helped secure the foam walls in place. The inner part of the panel still remained flush much to my relief — was worried I’m have to sand the cellfoam a bit. Once the tapes were removed, I screwed the front panel back on the CC so I can start figuring out the exterior.

If you remember from the last CC entry, the photo I found online gave me some ideas on how the decorate the kit. Now that the large windows were now applied — it was time to figure out the masonry. I liked how the photo showed the row house as having two types of stone to create an interesting contrast. Figured I should do the same for the CC – besides, if you take a closer look, you will notice that I’m using two different style of windows. I need to somehow make them look like they belong together.

Figured the easiest would be to put some kind of molding — a dentil trim of sorts — under the second floor window. Almost like a boundary of sorts.

Dry-fitting the trim

I actually found this trim in the lumber section at my local Home Depot. Close up, it looks like the fancy trim you see outside of townhomes and row houses. And being about 11/16″ in height, it’s big enough to make a statement on its own. Plus, for $1.69 for a 4′ length of trim, that’s a steal. Though I think I might need a second one to use around the roof part of the CC.

A closer look of the dentil trim. Think I’ll need to explore the trim section at Home Depot a bit more next time I’m there.

Another close up of the trim on the CC.

Satisfied with how this looks, I marked where the trim would be installed on the front panel — and again on the sides. To make sure that these areas won’t get covered in paint or something, I cut up strips of painters tape and applied them. Again, I want to make sure that when I get to the part where I’m to glue the trim…it’s getting attached directly to the panels.

Taped off the areas where the trim will later be installed. The areas marked in painter’s tape indicate where the dentil trim will be attached.

So the easy part is done. Now comes the second part. And for me, this is going to be an absolute doozy.

Because I want to apply some kind of stone/brick effect on the CC, that means either I buy some versi-brick ands tone slips and install them. Or opt to make the bricks and stone using egg cartons. The first option would be easier, but because we all know I can be such a cheap-ass bastard at the most inopportune times….I’m going to make it even more complicated by going for the egg carton route. And yes, for starters, I do have some egg cartons.

My implements of war on this stage of the project.

For the bricks and stones, I really only need the lid part of these cartons. So with a pair of scissors (and an ear bud plugged to my playlist), I separated the lids from the cartons (which I stored away for future use). That probably took 5-10 minutes. So far so good I guess.

Yeah, this part isn’t difficult. But the painful part is coming ’round the corner…

Now that I have about 18 lids, I utilized an entry on otterine.com where Brae explained how she created her brick slips using egg cartons. According to her instructions, she broke down each carton lid into several rectangular segments. And each segment in turn, she cut into 1/4″ high strips. And then each of those strips, she measured and cut rectangular strips that were 3/4″ in length.  She then repeated the above steps to create 1/4″ x 1″ long strips to use for corners.

That doesn’t sound bad right? It honestly doesn’t if you’re planning to only do this on…maybe up to 4 lids. But the fact I’m going to be making not just bricks, but stones (which I”ll need to figure out what size that should be compared to brick) is a bit daunting. And add on top of that….my 18 lids might not be enough at all. Especially if I’m planning to cover all three sides of the CC.

*sigh* Guess I’m going to have a couple of long nights for the next couple of days. And probably start looking online to see where I can get more egg cartons fast. D’oh!

An Inspiration from an Unlikely Source

After getting the lights set up, it was time to move to figuring out the exterior. I mentioned in an earlier post that I was going to turn this into a townhouse of sorts. The original gameplan was to just install some single windows  and double windows in the openings, and a matching door. I did a dry fit of the components…it looked fine and all, but part of my brain was saying “meh”. Something didn’t look right — like I should be doing something else.

So it was back to my (numerous) bins of mini supplies and find something else. I thought maybe I needed to use a different window, but then came across a pair of these.

French sliding doors. Image from dheminis.com

I bought two of these a long time ago — probably for a mini project that I’ve long since forgotten (surprise, surprise *facepalm*). I know these are meant to be patio doors….but then again, they’d look neat as one of those floor-to-ceiling windows right?

But just to make sure…I did a random search on Google Images for examples of urban townhomes with huge windows (as reference) and actually came across this image.

Keizersgracht 474. From Wikipedia.com

I thought this photo looked pretty cool — and close to the current structure of the CC. But when I actually read the Wikipedia entry that was using this photo…imagine my surprise when I read that the above loft stands of what used to be the residence of Sara Rothé and her husband Jacob Ploos van Amstel.

In terms of who these folks are….Sara Rothé was a well known art collector during the early 18th century…and is also known to have owned dollhouses that are currently on display in museums in the Netherlands. She actually owned two dollhouses — which were actually finely carved cabinets with rooms that she decorated with exquisite miniatures. It was considered fashionable at the time to have such pieces for display as a sign of wealth. But Sara Rothé continued to add and improve on her collection until her untimely death.

((In)Decorous actually wrote an excellent entry on Lady Rothé’s dollhouses — they’re definitely a sight to behold!)

So I’m kinda finding this ironic on so many levels. That I’m using for my cabinet dollhouse kit an image of a modern loft where over 2 centuries ago, a fellow miniature collector once lived. And owned cabinets that were essentially dollhouses. Weirded out perhaps, but hopefully what I did next would have met Lady Rothé’s approval.

After unscrewing the front panel of the CC, I took a ruler and pencil and marked where the second and third floors are located. Once that was marked, I used one of the French sliding doors to trace the opening I’ll need to cut out. A quilting ruler was used to make sure everything was square and even against the edges of the panel.

Tracing out the openings using the french sliding doors.

Once the tracing was completed, it was time to start cutting. I didn’t have any fancy power tools to make it easy for me. Had to make do with my trusty box cutter and a box of replacement blades (yay for Home Depot! No, that wasn’t an attempt to get their attention so they can give me free stuff. Though gift cards would be nice).

Making the openings the old-fashioned way.

After 2 hours of constant cutting, it was done. I had the TV running on the background to help pass the time — though I should have changed the channel instead of leaving it on the Cooking Channel. Was craving a bunch of random dishes by the time I made the new openings.

Woot! It’s done!

The openings were then sanded down before I put the windows to test them out….and capital! They fit!

Woot again!

But as you can see in the above photo, there’s those pesky openings that are flanking the new windows. Luckily this was a (somewhat) relatively easy fix.

I tend to keep a supply of cellfoam 88 sheets (notably the 10mm or 3/8″ thick kind) whenever I need to do some kind of fabrication on the kits.  So I took an 11.5″ square sheet and (using the lower windows on the front panel), traced out 4 rectangles. Since the openings I needed to seal off used to be the regular windows, at least these would be the same shape/size.

Making the tracings.

Once the pieces were cut out, I measured the excess openings flanking the big windows. And applied those measurements to the cutouts and cut them to size. I had to use a thick layer of tacky glue (and some painter’s tape) to make sure the new cutouts were flush when I applied them to the openings. I had to adjust the cutouts a bit to make sure they were even with the front panel’s inner wall — the last thing I wanted was to wallpaper over an uneven wall. 😦

The openings are now sealed.

Looking good so far. Had to wait for the glue to dry a bit before applying the painter’s tape to secure everything.

I let the glue set for about an hour, then I tentatively did another dry fit — this time with the new windows, door, and lower windows. And instead of “meh”, my brain actually went “oh, hells yeah. now we’re cooking with gas baby!”

Ta-dah!

Now it’s time for me to leave this alone. And hopefully tomorrow, I can resume working.

So Lady Rothé…if it was you who put the inspiration in my head, then I salute you. Hope I do you proud! Now please don’t haunt me or something.

Family Sara Rothé and Jacob Ploos van Amstel with Sara’s mother, by Juriaan Buttner, 1735. (Image from Wikipedia)

RGT Build Along, Part 2(ish): Let There Be (Amateurish) Light

My inspiration for the lights. From the Lowes website.

Okay, as promised, I’ll do my best to explain what I did to install light into the CC. Since the CC is a front opening kit, I could risk having the electrical hot mess wires and the battery residing in the back. So it now it boiled to figuring how to use the LED bulbs to light up the rooms.  Then I thought: why not use the LED bulbs and make recessed lights?

Using a ruler and pencil, I took each floor of the CC and marked where I wanted the recessed lights to be placed. Then I took the pieces outside and used BK’s power drill to drill holes in the areas I marked.  Because the floor/ceiling of the CC were made of MDF, I initially used a 1/4″ drill bit just so I can create the holes. I was a little worried that if I went for a bigger bit, I might rip the floor apart — or worse, break it completely.

Once the holes were drilled, I used a box cutter and cut some grooves to direct the wires to the back wall of the CC kit. From there I marked the back wall and drilled holes so that wires can go through the back. Wish I could say the whole carving the grooves was easy…but man, cutting MDF is such a pain!

Example of the grooves. You can see the red/black wires in the grooves before they are fed through the hole leading to the back of the CC.

After the grooves were completed, I had to figure out how to replicate the trim that you see in most recessed lights. Had initially thought I’d have to make a trip to Lowes and maybe use flat metal washers. But a quick rummage in my craft drawer provided me with a better alternative.

White Grommets = Recessed Lighting Trim. Please ignore the meat claw that is my hand.

I must have bought these grommets awhile back for a long-forgotten scrapbooking project. Good thing I didn’t put these in the recycling bin — the center is big enough to house the LED bulb (which is about 5 mm wide), and the white flat ring looks exactly like the trim you see in recessed lighting.

The installed grommets.

So I took the drill, switched the bit to a 5/8″ size, and redrilled the holes so that they’d be big enough for me to slide the grommets into place. The bit turned out to be slightly bigger than the shaft in the grommet, but a thick smear of Tacky Glue seemed to do the trick and secure them in place.

The finished product in one of the ceilings.

Once the grommets were secured (and the LED bulbs slipped into place), it was time to start attaching the wires to their respective battery clips. (see video on how it’s done). Each floor had between 7-8 lights, so I divided them between two battery clips. Hence, the whole CC called for six 9V batteries to power them. According to the kit, the each battery should provide up to 50 hrs of power to the lights. But since I’m not planning to leave the lights on….we should be okay. Besides, I got the batteries at my local Dollar Tree so if I need to replace them…well, I can easily get more.

I had thought of taking photos of how the wires look behind the CC…but then thought otherwise. It’s pretty messy and cluttered. And given it’s my first time using LED lights, I’ll need to practice some more before I start snapping photos. The most important thing though — is that wiring worked, and my house now has lights.

Behold! The CC when lit.

The interior. I put electrical tape over the grooves so the light is directed downward.

Close up of the lights.

Yet another closeup.

Am pretty pleased with myself. Though again, I need alot of practice to get this right.