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.

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.