More friends have joined - thank you!

So lovely to see that more people are finding this new blog!  Welcome Vicki, Susan (http://minicrochetmad.blogspot.au); Otterine (http://www.otterine.com); Lisa Marie (no blog listed - please let me know if you have one!); Jennifer (www.lookingglassminiatures.com).  Vicki is a great friend from 'Snippets from my Studio' - we have so much in common in so many areas that I feel we could be twins in some ways.  The blogs are all amazing and I am ashamed that I am so behind in catching up on everyone's latest doings.  Susan does incredible crochet work, and I am the proud owner of some of her work.  Otterine builds the most amazing houses, with detail that has to be seen to be believed.  Jennifer does displays that are so intricate that every time you look at them you spend ages just looking and looking.  They are so authentic that it is impossible to believe that they are miniature and they are a 'must see' for any Harry Potter fan!  She also has a page listing half scale websites that is really helpful.

Quarter Scale Greenhouse from Petite Properties

Welcome, each of you!  Thank you so much for visiting and signing on as Followers.  I do hope that you enjoy what you see when you come and have a look.  It is soon going to get more interesting as the prep work is completed and actual construction begins.  Please feel free to leave lots of comments: feedback and constructive criticism are welcome!  It's great to know how you feel about what is happening or how you think things could be improved.

So pull up a chair, grab a cup of something tasty and enjoy.

Boring stuff but hopefully beneficial!

Tuesday, 22nd January 2013.

I am preparing nearly 50 swap items for my half scale group (making a few spares just in case) so there’s not much time to spend on the Fairfield at the moment.  But tonight I did some more preparation of some of the timber.  The plywood has a ‘good’ side and a ‘rough’ side, and unfortunately the ‘good’ side faces outside – the side that will be covered up with whatever finish people put on it, whether it be stucco or (as in my case) cladding.  Also, the floor surface is the ‘good’ side, which means that the ceilings are actually the rougher side.  Since I have ordered scribed flooring to go over the floors, it is a shame that it is this way but I didn’t want to reverse the pieces and thus make the house mirror reverse.  So I realized that I would need to do a lot of preparation of the ceilings, especially since I want to light the house and imperfections will show up a lot.

So I went over the interior of the walls and the underside of the floors (ie the ceilings) with wood filler mixed with water to make a kind of thick slurry.  I smoothed this on with a palette knife, then went over it with a wet finger to work it into the grain of the wood and smooth it out even more.  I don’t want too much to sand off later! 

I still had some wood filler mixed with water left over so I then went on to do the surface of the door frames.  And there was still some more so I sanded and prepared the front and kitchen doors and did them with the wood filler too.

There’s nothing really worth photographing, it’s all rather boring really but hopefully it will be beneficial and fill the grain a bit more, making the surface smoother and contributing toward a nice finish.  Perfectionist, I hear you say?  Who, me?  Whatever makes you think that? J  I am trying to keep it under control, I promise you!  Sometimes I even succeed, lol!

Sanding again and another dry run!

Thursday, 3^rd  January 2013

The Fairfield – Construction day 5

The wood filler was all dry of course so mainly today I sanded it all, which wasn’t a huge job.  Then I re-assembled the house in another dry run.  I am making swaps for my half scale group (we have to make 40-odd, and I am making 50 so that I have a few spares) so I am trying to get a prototype organized and I'm not spending a great deal of time on the Fairfield at the moment.  But I did want to get this dry run done to fix the layout of the house more clearly in my mind.

Here are the steps for this dry run.  It is just the basic shell, no trim, bay windows or roof at this stage:

Photo 1
Central and right front walls

Photo  2:
Sliding the chimney through hole in right floor

Photo 3.   
Wall beside chimney

Photo 4 

Chimney in place

Photo 5  

View of chimney and fireplaces both floors (note side wall against central wall)

Photo 6
 Rear wall is now added to right side.

Photo 7

Staircase in place on ground floor (at this stage staircase assembly was only taped together)

Photo 8 

Side view of staircase

Photo 9  

Sliding dividing wall into place in left side floor

Photo 10 

View of 1st floor left side from above

Photo 11 

First floor left side

Photo 12 

Ground floor view showing dividing wall against staircase, kitchen door on left, ground floor ceiling/first floor in place.

Photo 13 
Staircase again

Photo 14
 Rear of staircase (without the angled piece joining it to the 1^st floor)

Photo 15  

Tower in place

Photo 16 
Looking into the tower

Photo 17
 Looking into rear of tower, 1st floor

Photo 18 
Bathroom wall in place,; view of tower and hallway 1st floor.

Photo 19

 Bathroom - 1st floor, rear

Photo 20 

Second floor/1st floor ceiling added (note that I had forgotten to add the side pieces to the chimney assembly at this stage)

 

Photo 21 

Right side view

Photo 22  

Tower interior

 

Photo 23 
Rear view, showing bathroom on 1^st floor and kitchen on ground floor

Photo 24
 Rear view 2

Photo 25 
Rear view showing small partial walls on each side of rear opening

Photo 26 
Left side view showing kitchen bay window and porch on ground floor, bathroom and tower windows on 1^st floor and attic window plus upper tower window.

Photo 27
Right side 2 (note that the right side chimney piece is added in this photo).

Photo 28 
Right side showing fireplaces at front

Photo 29 
Right side showing fireplaces at rear

This has given me a much better idea of how it all goes together than the first one did.  Probably because I am now more familiar with the pieces and also because the chimney is mostly assembled (still had to add the upper left and right sides when I took these photos) and the stairs partly so (won't put the treads on until I've stained them and painted the rest of the assembly).  Though when I went looking for them, I found that when Peter moved all the timber sheets from the lounge onto the square folding table I am using as a work table in the lounge room, he placed them square on top of the stair construction and they are squashed flat!  Not happy at all! :( No matter how many times I ask/tell/plead with him not to put anything on my work areas, they are a flat surface and flat surfaces need to have things put on them.  Men!  

The wooden sheets still have lots of things in them so are still quite heavy.  I will put them away tomorrow in the caravan, because I won’t have time to do any more on the house for a while now.  When I do take the things like window and door trims, brackets etc out of the sheets, I need to put them straight into clip-lock bags according to where they go, so I don’t get them confused or lost.  I will keep them separate if they are different – for example, I noticed that there are two different types of brackets.  And being me, I know that if I don’t do this, things will go walkabout all by themselves and I will never see them again.

Happy Australia Day!

Today is the day when we celebrate being Australian.  All the different waves of immigration over the years who make up today's society have brought many changes to the Aussie culture, and we can all benefit from taking the best of what each has brought with them.  Today is a day to appreciate the blessings we enjoy in this wonderful - and sometimes challenging - country of ours.

More sanding, foundation, and wood filler

Wednesday, 2^nd  January 2013

The Fairfield – Construction day 4

Today I tried out the palm sander and was quite pleased with the result.  But bending over the saw horses soon became painful - not a good height at all!  Pater came to the rescue and decided to help out with his orbital sander, and the difference was quite impressive, so he went over all the pieces.  They are so much better now.  But I did go over them again with a very fine sandpaper by hand and that made even more difference.  A good wipe over with a damp cloth, then I left them to dry thoroughly.

Tonight Peter again worked, so it was another late night for me.  I have difficulty settling when he is not around to nag me to stop what I am doing and go to bed :-) .  Especially when I am doing something that really interests me.   So I kept working until my eyes were so blurry I couldn't focus on what I was trying to do.  Naughty I know.

I added the pieces of foundation to the underside of the base piece.  There are heaps of small pieces here, and I think I'll follow Sharon's lead .  She put strips of timber around all four sides, ignoring the ins and outs of the shape.  I think I'll put timber around inside the edge as well, to reinforce it but still use the foundation provided.  

Then I went around all the edges of the windows and doors and the main edges that will show when the house is constructed, and filled the edge of the timber with wood filler.  This is time consuming again, but without rather painstaking preparation it is impossible to get a really good quality on these Greenleaf kits - the timber is not good by any means.  The funny thing is that the wood has a 'good' side and a 'not very good' side.  And the good side goes to the outside, which will be covered, no matter what finish you put on it.

Chimney build - and another dry fit....

Tuesday, 1^st January 2013

The Fairfield – Construction day 3

Peter worked again last night, and I ended up staying up late to ring him and wish him ‘Happy New Year’ then staying up even later to finish what I was doing, which was more sanding then doing another dry fit - this time it was a bit more stable and I was able to get a better idea of what the layout is in more detail.  It is disappointing that the tower actually has a wall that shuts off the entrance behind the front door, so when mini people enter the door they have a small vestibule then have to go upstairs.  If they want to go into the ground floor rooms, they need to enter through the kitchen door.  This isn't very satisfactory, and is rather claustrophobic though it is a nice area in which to put a chest and a floral display, with a chair or something beside it.  However I prefer the open look.  The problem is that the rear of the staircase is behind part of that wall, so even if I cut a doorway or arch in the wall, or cut it off completely, it will be blocked by the staircase and my mini people might still have trouble getting through!

I did construct the chimney as well, though.  It went together really well, taking it step by step through the instructions.  I've taken step-by-step photos in case anyone wants them for reference:

Step 1:
Slide the left side onto the fireplace centre piece, with the long slot on the left side facing up.

Step 2:

Next, the fireplace right side, with the long slot facing down, slides onto the tab on the right side bottom of the centre wall and the short slot aligns with the top.  Allow the glue to dry a bit here.

Step 3:

Lay the the assembly on a flat surface. The two second floor hearth walls can now be slid into the slots in the first floor position (for US readers, the 2nd floor position). Adjust the hearth walls so that they extend the same distance on each side of the centre wall and glue into position.  I used a fine-tip glue bottle to put wood glue between the hearth walls and the centre wall, and it worked extremely well

Step 4:

Now do the same with the ground floor hearth wall.  After this photo was taken I noticed that mine was not quite up far enough and not level with the bottom of the centre wall so had to adjust it.

Step 5:
Take the fireplace front

Place it on top of the assembly, aligning the lower edge of the sides with the lower edges of the front.  Note that there is a tab that will secure the assembly into the floor later on.

Step 6

Repeat for the back wall of the fireplace, once the glue on the front has dried enough to move the assembly.  Keep the chimney pieces aligned.  Leave to dry

Step 7

Align chimney top left side between the fire place front and back walls; keep top edges and outside edges flush.

Side view with left top chimney added

Front view

View from opposite side 

  Step 8

Align chimney top right side between the fire place front and back walls; keep top edges and outside edges flush.  Note that this does not extend all the way to the bottom of the chimney.  This lower section is where the bookcase shelves will go later on.

Hope this has been of some help if you are doing a Fairfield!

Staircase started, and sanding, sanding, sanding......

Monday, 31^st December 2012

The Fairfield – Construction day 2

By the time I went to bed the house looked a bit like a drunken sailor :-)    – leaning at an odd angle and all skew-wiffy.  So I didn’t take a photo.  This morning I took it apart again and sanded the pieces carefully by hand, to get a reasonable finish on each side.  To my surprise it came up quite well.  And after all the practice I have had on The Arthur, Coventry Cottage and The Magnolia (which actually was the worst of them all), I have become quite adept at avoiding splinters in my hands.  A skill which apparently, like riding a bicycle, one never loses.  I never learned to ride a bicycle – my parents were convinced that I would fall off and break something so wouldn’t let me have one; but I sure learned to avoid splinters and apparently I haven’t forgotten! 

The sanding was actually a ‘fill in’ as I was gluing the risers onto one of the stringers for the staircase and waiting for them to dry before I added a few more.  I found it too awkward to do it the way the instructions said, so I lay one stringer on a flat surface and stood the riser upright against it, propped up while it dried.  

First few risers added, held in place with other risers while the glue  'grabs'

All risers are now added

This worked quite successfully.  Think of a comb standing on edge with all the teeth sitting up in the air and you get a bit of the picture.  I only did a couple of risers at a time, any more tended to be too many to prop up successfully.  As always, I used tacky glue for half the length then wood glue for the rest.  I then let them all dry.

When the glue had dried for about an hour I matched up the other stringer.  This was trickier and took a bit of fiddling but wasn’t as difficult as managing the two stringers at once to glue the risers onto.  I first did the top and bottom ones and a couple about 1/3 and 2/3 of the way down, let them grab a bit, then glued the rest on. 

Then I left the whole thing alone to dry thoroughly for the rest of the day, with a bit of masking tape to hold them in place.

The plan is that I will paint this part of the stairs and stain the treads, which is why I haven’t gone ahead and added the treads as well.