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Tuesday, February 21, 2017

One down...

I have one side of the McKinley completed sided and painted!    Woohoo!!

Before I painted the siding (the poster board siding  that I referenced in my last posit) I also took an egg carton, ripped it into small pieces and glued those small pieces on to the bottom 2 inches as a foundation.

The yellow and green are bright....


Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Siding a house on a budget

I got off my duff and the other night I ran electric in the McKinley!   Ok ...I started the electric in the McKinley!   I took the line from the outside and into the bathroom.  The bathroom is totally wired!  I also took the electric down to the kitchen and got that mostly wired.   I could say I was done and be ok, but since I don't really have a lighting plan for this house I figure to run an extra line of tape around the room to give me lots more options for lighting!  The only reason I don't have the kitchen finished?  I ran out of the tape!   That's ok...I have the outside to finish and the bathroom to work on!!!

So next up....leant to finish the outside of the McKinley!   That means siding!!!!    I know that I want to do a stone foundation...so that is upcoming also.   But right now it's siding!!!

I've been thinking about this step.  Of course I would like to buy the real siding from a dollhouse supply company...but money is tight right now and well...I have some other more pressing matters in the dollhouse to spend money on (more electric tape....and that aborted flower making venture from the other week needs a purchase for me to try again!). I did my research and found some people that said they used cereal boxes cut into strips for their siding!  Hmmm. I briefly thought about saving my boxes...but then remembered the big stack of poster-board that I have in my supplies!   Nice!!!  I decided to give it a go when it was time for siding!

It was time last night!

I grabbed some poster board and my straight edge cutter and sat down to do a test!!!!

I cut some straight strips 

and glued them onto another piece of poster board in the fashion of siding.  (One piece slightly overlapping the piece below). I grabbed the paint I have for the siding and gave the poster board siding sample a quick coat.   I sat back and looked....


Ahhh yes, I like!!!!!

I immediately went to work on the McKinley.   Wow...these small areas and little spots between the bay windows...time consuming!!!  But I really do like how it looks!!!


It's going to take some time...so I imagine I will be doing siding for the unforeseen future!!!!!

Meanwhile I am starting to think....I need to finish up the mini mansion.   The kitchen, living and sewing room are furnished and simply need the fun little things to make it a home.  I need to get hopping on that!   I haven't been working on that much...other than the aborted flower mission!

So what does the mini mansion need???

The kitchen needs to have some food preparation on the counter...maybe the fancy little dishes out in the table (although I'm toying with having tea set up on the sideboard in the living room).  I want a shelf with some bottles and such in the kitchen....an apron hanging on the wall.   A kitty cat under the stove....maybe a pair of shoes.

The living room?   An ongoing knitting project beside a chair....a throw blanket...something on the sideboard.  (Either tea or some pretty little knock knacks) A flower pot to hide an electric wire and another one in a lonely corner.  Oh and I have to hang my birdcage!  (Although I'm toying with putting the birdcage in the bedroom.)

The sewing room?   The sewing machine has to be adapted.....fabrics on the shelves...supplies in some baskets.

The bedroom?  A bed and linens....a robe across the bed....and who knows what else right now it's mostly an empty room and this hasn't sparked much inspiration for the little things yet!

So that brings me to my question....should I continue on with various different projects at the same  or should I focus on one room at a time.   Should I set the McKinley aside and totally finish the mini mansion?  And when that is done work only on one room in the McKinley at a time???   Am I stretched too thin with the mini mansion only partly done and work full force ahead on the McKinley??

Thursday, February 9, 2017

Working steadily

Work is progressing on the McKinley...just slowly!  


I've had some issues and expenses (life responsibilities...car repairs and such) which have caused a general slow down on the project....


I've thus had to try to come up with some different cheaper options.


I wanted a copper roof for the tower, bay window and porch.   The actual copper thin metal sheets were way out of my current budget.  I decided to try metallic copper paint.   


Not to bad if I do say so myself (maybe someday I'll go back and put the more expensive option on...but for now I'm good!!!


I painted the outside trim....it's a bit more vibrant than I envisioned...but I think the yellow for the siding is going to be more vibrant also...so it 'should' work!!!



The porch is done in the green with white...somehow that picture has come up missing....oops!!


And lucky me I had shingles in my box of leftover goodies!!!!   Enough to shingle the roof!!!!  I painstakingly shingled the roof...so many angles!!!


And then I decided to paint it gray!  My original thought was brown but I wanted the copper roof to pop!!!


I had an idea for a houseplant...but that went belly up just the other night...so back to the drawing board.


Meanwhile I'm testing a plan for some tile flooring!!!!!  Maybe we will have something in line soon.


And in reality...I'm just putting off the inevitable of wiring the McKinley for electricity!!!  Guess I better do that next...at least start it!!!