This blog to document the progress of constructing my Fairfield, a halfscale kit from Greenleaf. I will be showing my progress as I construct, decorate and furnish this charming cottage, which has enchanted me ever since I first saw it way back when I first started miniatures. I hope you enjoy sharing my adventure with me. Pull up a chair, grab a cup of your favourite beverage, and enjoy. Please share your reactions, thoughts and suggestions - I love receiving feedback from my online friends!
Showing posts with label CONSTRUCTION - Tower; Exterior cladding and trim. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CONSTRUCTION - Tower; Exterior cladding and trim. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

'It's not easy being green'


I've nicknamed the house 'Kermit' because it is oh so green at the moment!  To soothe my concerns I painted a pile of the corner trim pieces in the Delta Light Ivory that I'm using for the trim and tried them against the house and it relieves it a lot.  And of course there'll be the window and door trims in the same colour, as well as the porch trim.

In the photo below you might be able to see that I've installed the interior frame for the front door.
Front view
Side view showing the kitchen bay window and the tower
The big difference you will notice now is that the tower is in place.   This was an interesting procedure, but then I don't seem to ever do things the easy way lol!.  I wanted to have skirting board and cornice in there because you can see it from the living room.  I know, I know - too fussy by half!  But that's me.  Probably no-one will ever see it but I'll know it's there.

First I cut the cornice and skirting board pieces, using the slots through which the tower would go as a guide.  Then I slid the tower into place and glued it, then adjusted the skirting board until it fitted well and glued it  in place.  You can just see it through the doorway in the photo below.

I also installed a light in the foyer but removed it because there was a bit of a disaster with the wallpaper when I was putting it through the slot even though it was really careful.  Now I'm going to have to fix it up or re-paper the wall.  I left the exterior wall of the tower without cladding so I could take the wire of the light down behind it yesterday but guess what? Tonight I forgot and went ahead and put the cladding over it anyway :)

I've only put cladding on the tower as far as the first floor, because  I've run out of cladding.  I've ordered more but before I clad the second floor of the tower I want to think about some changes I might be making to the second floor and I can't decide definitely about those until I fit the floor and the roof.

Peter has also been working on and off to reinforce underneath the ground floor/foundation of the house for me.  Here's a view of the underneath now.
He was unable to get the correct depth of stripwood in pine so bought some lovely Tasmanian Oak!  It's ironic that the best quality timber in the whole building is where it won't even be seen by most people.  The house feels heaps more stable now that he's done this, and I'm happier about it taking pressure.

Now when the glue has dried thoroughly on the latest bits of cladding I will give it a couple more coats of paint.  I painted a sample piece of cladding with 3 coats and Peter took it today to Bunnings, a chain of huge hardware stores here in Australia.  One of the people in the paint department colour-matched the sample by computer to make up a small quarter litre tin of paint for me.  He said he had trouble matching it exactly because of the ridges in the cladding but when I painted  a bit on the cladding piece it was an exact match.  I'm really pleased with it.  Being a house paint with a satin finish it has more depth than a craft paint and it does look really nice on the wall I tried it out on as well.  Of course it all needs painting properly yet.

I'm looking forward now to getting the window trims on and seeing the effect of those in place but first I need to finish the wallpapering.  I can do the main bedroom but I'm waiting for wallpaper for the other bedroom on the first floor and for the dining room.  And I'm having trouble finding the carpet I want to put through the house.  I might have to settle for cream, which isn't very practical for a family with four children!

There aren't very many comments coming in so I'm guessing that you all hate the green.  I hope you like it better as the other elements are added.

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