We have walls!!!

Well then....I just realized that my post from earlier this week/last week never went live...oh well, I will have two posts today.

The lights...NIGHTMARE!  They sucked the joy out of dollhousing for two or three days!!!   I tried to follow the method in the book for hanging my ceiling fixtures and it just wasn't working for me!   So I delved deeper and the next night tried the light with the adapter.   I first tested the light in the plug that I installed. (It will be hidden from view in the house behind furniture and whatnot).  The light worked so I started following the instructions.  I cut the plug off the light.  Separated the wires and stripped them.  I checked the light and it worked.  I did the next steps....and heckled the light. It worked.  I reworded that light like a pro.  I finished and plugged my new plug in and voila, it worked!!!!   So I turned my attention to the flush outlet I had to create in the ceiling.  I followed the instructions.    I struggled more with this step....but I eventually got it to where it would work.  The moment of truth...I plugged in the lamp.  I had light!!!!! I was so excited.   For about 5 seconds until the light went out. And from that point on...no matter what I did...I saw no more light!   The kick of it is....when I desired it...you take those words right up to the base of the Light.  So I don't have 'wiggle room' to undo my wiring...strip the wires further down and redo it. So this light maybe unlit.   I was so frustrated the few nights that I worked on the electricity!  I finally decided to take the mini mansion off of the work bench and put it back up on the piano and focus on something else for a bit.

I did think a lot about the electricity though.   Here is the thing.  The dollhouse is wired and electrified!   I hate to give up!  But the hard wiring right now is just waaaaay beyond me and totally not giving me happiness!  So I am compromising.  I will be installing plugs into the house...in places where I can easily hide them behind furniture, plants and other accessories.  I will be creative in my light cord hiding efforts.   The two hanging lamps will hang without electricity for now.  So the house WILL be lit.   Eventually I can go back and pull down those lamps and wore them properly should I desire!!    This electrification will happen soon but I'm working on the 'hiding techniques first as some of them will have to be in place before I plug in!!

In the meantime, I will lay a line of tape wire and a junction box  on a piece of wood.  And I will play.   I will play with hanging ceiling fixtures.  I will try different methods and figure out which is best for me....which one is the most solid...and the best for my dollhouses and my skill level.  

So I'm not out for the count...just changing directions.  And as for the McKinley....I'm still planning on electrifying it.  At the worst it will just have plug in lamps...which is not a big deal, especially since they have the cutest ever little outlet covers at cir kit!!!

The debacle of electricity this week really sucked my dollhouse joy out of me!  I needed to do something to make me smile...to make me giggle...to bring back that joy!  What better than to make my quilt frame for the mini mansion's sewing room!!!   Simple yet adorable!

And of course that caused me to hurry right out and finish up a quilt project that was originally destined for the log cabin but then I changed my mind so it's been sitting unfinished for a while.   But a perfect fit (with a bit of cutting) for the quilt frame.

Ahhh yes, that did the trick and brought the dollhouse joy right back!!!

My workspace is limited and I chose to put together my dollhouse with wood glue versus hot glue gun. I read somewhere that hot glue guns have changed temps and flies over the years and that the lower temp flies are not as 'rugged' as the hot glue guns from years back.  Besides, my brother is a woodworker and my father always dabbled in woodworking as did my grandfather (I remember going into his workshop a few times) and woodworkers don't use hot glue...they use wood glue.  I'm a Clingan So wood glue it is!!!   The instructions to the McKinley do talk about the wood glue method and recommended masking tape if you don't have a plethera of clamps.  (I have access to some clamps from my fathers workshop but I  liked the idea of masking tape!). I've been working slowly on the McKinley...but the slower drying wood glue does slow down the process....plus I've had to wait for paint to dry...and my workspace IS limited (as it is in the middle of my living room area!).  Other than nights where I have been away from home, one night where I moved furniture..real life sized furniture (but the move allows me to see the tv from my workspace....crazy though because since then I haven't turned the tv on...I've listened to music..hahaha). and the few nights where I only worked on that pesky electricity I have done something on the McKinley.   And last. Igor was a BIG night for the McKinley!   The walls went up!!!!!   Why yes...it is starting to take shape!!!!

The third floor is not defined yet as the walls but that will come I'm sure!!!

A New Name

So I was calling the house that my boyfriend and his family passed along to me the 'little blue house'.   But one day shortly after I wrote the last post I decided to name it the (Insert his last name) Mini Mansion.  S.M.M  or simply  The Mini Mansion.   Is this really anywhere near a mansion?  NO!   But that is what makes it even more fun!   And besides, who wants to call it a little blue house?  What if I repaint it a different color other than blue? Theoretically in a few years I could be calling a white house the 'little blue house'.  That would be ridiculous!  So it has been dubbed a new name!

So much has happened, with the Mini Mansion in terms of planning, thoughts and ideas!  And yes, the work has just recently commenced.

When I wrote last I was contemplating a bathroom.  I really loved the idea of a closed off room with an open door looking into a 'hint' of a bathroom.  I thought of different ways to accomplish it, but then......

I threw a cook stove into the kitchen and a cabinet.   I loved it! 

 I knew it would need a little table under the window and when I found a more 'farm like' table I quickly swapped out the smaller table from the log cabin.  The original log cabin table works PERFECTLY (sorry no picture).  I am toying with doing a wainscoting in the kitchen.  The cabinet, stove and table really take up the whole room so I knew that this was going to be a primitive kitchen. (No running water sink as there just wasn't room!)  I was ok with this. 

I settled on 'turn of the century' for this house.  Right around 1900!

The primitive kitchen threw me for a loop though.  You see, I don't mind having a house that isn't exactly historically accurate but having a 20-40's bathroom with running water but no running water in the kitchen bothered me too much.  So I nixed the idea for the bathroom and started to contemplate the upstairs rooms?   A bedroom and a nursery?  Yes that is what I was leaning toward.  

And then I threw some furniture in the living room.  

The picture is old, I believe I am going to turn the steps around the other way...and the chair and sideboard closest to the back are going to be swapped with each other.  Minor changes.  But the room really can't hold much more than those three pieces of furniture (And yes, they will be 'reupholstered' because that pattern is so not working!)   So how would I have an extra bedroom and person living there when there wasn't room?  (the kitchen table really only has room for two of the chairs...so it's small all around)   Well shucks!  Back do the drawing board.

A few days later......Ahhhhhh a sewing room for the lady of the house!   Fabulous!   I have nothing for it!  In fact, I can make this the house of a spinster or widow!  WOO HOO

I looked at color schemes for the outside and settled upon this color scheme

I actually have picked up some really cool features (paper for the walls in two rooms, a tea set, etc) for the Mini Mansion.   I can't wait! 

The 1900's timeframe only presented one difficulty.  I wanted to dabble in electricity in the Mini Mansion.  Why  not?  What better time than now to experiment, and something small would be perfect!  But seriously, 1900's would be a bit early for electricity.   I started scanning lights and saw that I could buy 'powered' oil lamps and lanterns.  Great!  I was back on track.  The plans were made!   I just needed to get the wiring kit and get started.   I asked for it for my birthday!

My parents lived up to the birthday expectations and I got the wiring kit.  I chose the tape wire as the option that I wanted to attempt.  Last night I went to work on the electricity.

I ran my first few inches of tape and hooked in the junction box and transformer.  After a bit of figuring things out I got the test probe to light up!  I was in business!  I ran my whole line of uncut/un-spliced tape throughout the house.  There were no splices so I didn't test it until the end.   There was NO POWER!   ARRRGGGHHH  There was no power anywhere.  Not even where I had first tested it!  I fiddled.  I moved things.  I became frustrated.

I stepped back and with the help of some Ben and Jerry's Ice cream calmed down.  I went to bed.  And in the middle of the night I had an epiphany.   There was a screw on the junction box....if that screw had popped into one of those copper conductors in the tape, it could be messing me up.

I woke up in the morning and checked...the screw had definitely pierced the tape in a bad location.  I fixed that and pulled out the test probe.  Sadly, it still didn't work.  But I was undaunted.  I had one other idea. 

The Mini Mansion has very thin walls.  The prongs/probes go almost the whole way through the wall.  I checked the opposing side of the junction box.  Sure enough, the prongs were piercing that piece of tape.  In essence I was short circuiting my electricity!  I added a bend on the outside of the house so that the junction box would be somewhere else and ran my test probe.    

VICTORY!   I checked and I had electricity the whole way to the end of my laid tape!

 I will be  making a splice and running another line of tape off of the first line!  

 I have the lights picked out, I just need to buy them!  But that will come.  I have to completely run the electricity lines first...then attaché wall paper, wainscoting,  siding, paint and position those steps (and put up the new rails on the steps!).  I have some time and quite a bit of work to do before I need those lights!

Meanwhile, the log cabin still does not have a bed finished........

AND the big news?  For my birthday my boyfriend bought my the Greenleaf McKinley!!!!!