Many Steps At a Time! Literally.

As completely lovely as I found the Christmas decorations for the house, I promptly took them down so as to get back to business!

Aaron wisely told Santa that I needed some new organizers
for the home goods!

I knew I needed to approach the stair constructions, but I delayed that by one more day as I decided the family room and dining (conservatory) floors needed some sprucing up. Minwax to the rescue!

Can you see the new, subtle-yet-lovely
sheen?!?!

The more I read about different dollhouse projects, the more I was compelled to give a little shine to the floors I love so much! This is just a clear satin finish. It went on way easier than I anticipated (due to my own fears of never having used the product), and I definitely wished I'd just done this from the get-go before constructing the walls. Lesson learned!

STAIRS. Day 1:

So, yesterday, we moved on to the stairs. This process was trickier than I thought it would be, and it definitely made Aaron and I each want to poke out one of our eyes at different stages of the dry runs. Each piece ultimately depends on the other, but it's not possible, that I know of, to have everything in place without actually adhering it. So, pieces fall and move and make me want to say bad words when all I'm trying to do is learn how to do the project right! Grr! Breathe in ... breathe out ...

Once I had my fill of the practice (read: I was just done), I called that part of the process quits so I could actually get the pieces ready to put them in for real:

I have spent months debating what color to make both sets of stairs. I had a level of concern that I'd pick the wrong color and make everything look just tacky and weird. It finally occurred to me to stain them the same color as the floor in the family room because (a) there's some continuity instead of fear of clashing or competing, and (b) I already like the color, so, why fix what ain't broke? I plan on rugs and stair runners anyway, so this is just a support color that's there-but-not. Once decided, I spent hours at the kitchen table staining each little rung, rail and groove, but it was totally worth it. I'm definitely pleased with the outcome!

Then, it was on to more practice-placing:

One of the trouble-shoot situations was how to work with the second floor "hallway/landing" space. I have faux hardwood I'm putting in there, but the floor is weird around the stairwell opening. I have confidence that I can cut the pieces reasonably well, but, they need to be perfect to cover the light plywood flooring. Or, do they ...

Let's pass on aiming for perfection, and cover the problem before it exists!

At 11 p.m., I had a brilliant idea and broke out the stain! The first intention here was to stain just the spaces in the "hallway/landing" section that could possibly expose glimpses of light plywood below the flooring I will place.* I had literally swiped about three brushes of stain when I thought, "Why don't I just stain the entire hallway space?" The room dividers were still in, so I whipped out the masking tape, taped off the bottoms of the walls, and I took another two swipes. THEN I thought, "Um, why don't I just stain the entire level so I don't have to worry about the floor until I want to worry about the floor?" And, just like that, I pulled the dividers out, taped up all of the walls except for the piece right under the single window because I didn't even see that I didn't (true story; something about it being close to midnight ...), and slapped that stain on the floor as fast as I could to hopefully blend in what sat and dried while I kept changing directions! Keep in mind this wood is raw and soaks in stain like a sponge, so having to move fast was actually necessary!

* When researching how to stain and apply the roof shingles, which has yet to happen, one of the YouTube videos recommended swiping the shingle stain on the roof in case of imperfect placement that would allow tiny exposures. A tiny exposure of light-through-dark looks huge, so I found this suggestion to be brilliant. And, as it turns out, it was also transferable!

I went ahead and put stain on the inside of the stairwell opening as well as on the outside, raw edges of walls just to give those a little finish. (I think I have trim for those, but I'm just not there in the process yet.) Also, I made an active decision to leave the top floor light as it just needs to be different from the others. I have other plans developing in my mind's eye there ...

After a successful floor staining venture, I decided a little after midnight (perfect timing, right?!) that the stairs needed the Minwax treatment, too! I opted for the treads and the hand rails to just give it a little somethin'. And, the timing? Well, I was bound and determined to make sure everything was ready to go for morning!

Stairs. Day 2:

Side note: I was recently reading on a dollhouse blog where the blogger revamped her dollhouse so that a piece of furniture completely covered the stairwell hole because she "doesn't see the point" of stairs in a dollhouse. I spent a short minute pondering her wisdom during this process ...

The first thing we did today was another dry run before gluing anything. So, the main stair pieces were placed:

Before adhering the curved stairs, I put markers down so I knew exactly how it sat:

And, then, it got a smidge of glue on bottom and at the top. A few hours later:

The second-floor set had me a little nervous because the railings had to be constructed while the main piece was in place. This is the only way to determine exactly where the hand rail is placed as it both hits the ceiling and has to stop exactly where the post at the bottom needs to be. And, that post placement has to be exact so the rest of the rails connect to the circular staircase. And, there's no way to really dry-run it because the spindles just fall out (Fun! NOT fun.)

I was nervous about making everything straight and ultimately look good so much so that I sat in front of the house looking for just about anything else to do. That's how I found these tiny pieces of masking tape on the dollhouse table to throw away ...

Yeah. Those two, teeny, tiny pieces. Because that's what was
important at that time ...

Acknowledging to myself I was stalling, I asked my girl to put on an episode of "Gilmore Girls" to listen to in the background while I went to work. A full episode of said show plus two times telling myself to not bother crying out of frustration, and I got that sucker up!

The first two spindles butt up against the ceiling. They went
in first with about 50 times of checking to make sure they
were straight. Checking method? Sticking my phone in the
house, taking pictures, then studying the picture. Adjust. Picture.
Study. Adjust. Picture. Repeat.

I checked one side with my phone while sticking my head in
to see what I could see on the other side through the doorway.
The picture showed the crooked one which was not visible
without the picture!

I held my breath every time I had to adjust
one! They're as close to perfect as I
could get!

Oh, my, that was a bear! But, it just looks so darned cool! The next step was to assemble the railings ...

... and, then, put it in!

All of the railing pieces here did not fit together this way during any of the many dry runs. Period. We were convinced that there'd have to be a little creative cutting to make it fit. But, I actually am wise in some ways and said it needed to hold off until we were SURE-SURE about it, and not just SURE. (It's when there's no turning back from the decision that I wait until the very, last, possible minute!) There was, admittedly, some jimmying of this set-up to make it look right, but, here we are with it looking very right!!

I rewarded myself for accomplishing the tedious work by putting together the last of the railings. This was a cake walk comparatively speaking!

Easy to assemble, and no one falls down the stairwell hole.

Here are a few more views:

View from the front porch.

Through the doorway. I took the door down
to be able to reach in and adjust as needed.

Through the second-story hall window.

And, of course, the proud home owner needed to check it all out:

He seems pleased.

So, WOW. That's finished!! I have some molding and baseboard work to do for sure. I suppose that should be on the immediate docket because rumor has it that there are some furniture pieces and extended family headed this direction! I also need-need-need to tend to the windows! Good stuff is coming!

A Few Must-Have Additions

You knew the last installment of decorations would not be the last installment of decorations. 😁

Here's to all things Merry and Bright!

Putting that darned cricket roof to excellent use! Besides. The high point of
the rooftop makes for mighty precarious placement of Santa's heavy sled!

A boy and his dog. How perfect for Christmas!

The Color Explosion!

There's hardly a home improvement that makes me feel more accomplished in a very short amount of time than painting. And, in the dollhouse world, that is no exception! And, after the recent bathroom flooring fail, I decided to do something reasonably simple that produces a big bang! Here's the outcome of the rest of the painting!

The second floor kid room is now in color!

I just love the colors! One of our kiddos had almost exactly these colors in her room when she was a little one. They're much like the colors on her Glo Worm:

I always loved the color combo, so that's what inspired this room.

And, from the previously mentioned collection of paints at Target, the blue on the walls is called, "Sky."

Moving on, let's go upstairs! Here's what will be the girl's room:

I know, I know!! Again with the green! And, it worked! Go, me! I mixed "White" (naming that is just funny, but there are certainly different whites in paint!) and "Light Lime" to get just the right hue. Picture it with white flooring and fairy lights!

To the left, we cross into the top of the stairwell:

I used the "Driftwood" color that I rejected for the Master Bedroom. It's perfect between two, bright colors! Aaron also cut the divider wall for me to have just a little half wall. I knew I didn't want to close in that space with a full divider, and the half wall gives the space as a whole a little character.

Keep shuffling to the right to feast your eyes on the craft room!!

Holy yum, I LOVE THIS COLOR! It's called, "Heather," and it's perfectly perfect for this space! It's going to look so cool when there are "craft projects" and paintings in there!

Here's the overall view:

I have doors for the bedrooms to paint and a number of pieces to cut for baseboards and crown moldings. I've also asked Aaron to review and tell me (interpret as: I don't feel like reading and figuring out) the instructions for the stair railings and banisters. I need to build and install those before dealing with the flooring on both the second and third floors. I do have some carpet options for the bedrooms, though, so I can make good progress in those rooms.

It's just so cozy!! Stay tuned for the update on what trim I can take care of at this point ...!

Here Comes More Color!

Here's the interior update! I have a number of projects going on at the same time, so this is a bit convoluted. Like my brain.

The focus inside the house has been on choosing colors. I wasn't even quite settled on what colors for what spaces when I realized I needed to at least get the taping up! What good is picking colors if the house isn't ready for me to use them?!

So, I tape the dollhouse ceilings and floors, but I do not do so
in my house. Interesting.

And, in doing so, that's also when I realized there is ceiling to paint in what will be the craft room, and there's nothing about it that looked fun:

It's tucked in that little alcove. Oy.

It would have been ideal to have painted that before construction. I didn't really see that at the time, though! There was also a little gap between the ceiling and the wall in there that I didn't love. Apparently, I loved it so little that I didn't snap a pic. Regardless, I got some filler:

This stuff ended up looking great, but it was *tough* to use because it dried and crumbled quickly. I hear there are easier products on the market, but I really can't argue the outcome:

With that, I was ready to paint that darned ceiling! It took a little doing, and I went through two sponge brushes to make it happen to really get the vault situation covered (good thing my arm can fit through the door opening!), but, it's finished:

Taping *and* a drop cloth?! I think I have
real life and doll life backward!

The front wall is getting color, so that's just a bit of priming.

After prepping all of the remaining spaces, I moved back to the second level. One of the trickier spaces for which to choose color was the front wall of the second story. The divider wall that creates the kid bedroom and hallway is movable which allows me to change the size of those spaces, now or later. With that in mind, I wanted to choose a color that worked for both the hallway and bedroom. I finally, happily settled on ...

The double window is in the bedroom. The single window is
in the hall and is at the top of the staircase (the well is visible
at the bottom of the picture).

I know, I know, I know, I said I would never try any shade of green again. Yet, here we are. And, I really like it! Never say never. The color is more green than in this picture, and it looks pretty fabulous! I used a mixture of these colors:

"Pistachio" and "Morning Mist"

The wall to the left is going to be a different color which is why it looks that way. You know. Unfinished.

I also got the window trim up! I was super-proud of myself for remembering to check it's installment from the front of the house. This is necessary to ensure the bead of glue I put on the trim is actually on the house and not just floating in the opening:

The bottom bead of glue didn't even come close to touching the house wall, so I ran another along the edge and smushed it in there with my finger. It totally works. And, of course, the trim dries without the windows in place to allow for removing and decorating them. (That's still coming!)

In the meantime, I chose and love the colors for the master bedroom and bathroom! I actually had a debate for the master bedroom:

"Driftwood" on the left, or, "Camel" on the right?

Both of these colors looked good in the store, so I tried both. The winner is ...

"Camel"! I love it! I wanted the room to just be a little closed in
 and warm. The "Driftwood" was too dark. "Camel" looks
awesome with the white! And, picture it with a little sconce for
the lighting! I'm going to want to crawl into that space ...

And, peeking through the archway, there's the bathroom! HOLY SMOKES, I love this color which is called, "Cornflower."

I got the trim up in there, too. Woot! This
opening will eventually have French doors.

Here it is from the front of the house.

(These paints are a line at Target. They're fabulous! They're a little thicker than I'm used to using which makes sense because they're also $2/bottle. But, they cover really well, and I love the color choices! They smell a little weird when opened, be warned, but the end result is totally worth it!)

The next steps for these rooms are the baseboards and crown moldings. I wanted to figure out the flooring for each since that will certainly impact the baseboards. I'm pretty certain I've landed on the carpet color for the bedroom -- the off-white you see in the picture is ideal, but that's a piece of felt I used to see how it will look. Hobby Lobby sells carpet in the right color, but it's too small of a piece for the room. So, I'm still figuring that out.

In the meantime, I bought a sheet of tile for the bathroom and was all kinds of stoked to get that finished especially when I made a floor template before assembling the house. Smart, right?

Or ...

It came up short. Seriously?! Seriously.

My template did not allow for the extra space created by the interior wall placement. Rookie mistake. And, the non-tile strip? I thought I was going to cut that to fit within the doorway so tile would butt up against the wall. Not so much!! This is what my face looks like when realizing I not only cut this too short, but the piece I have left isn't big enough to cover the room:

Of. Course.

But, this is what my face looks like when I realize, "Hey! Remember the generosity of those birthday gift cards/money?!"

YAHOO! Off to buy another piece!

But, this is what I look like when I get to the store and find there are no more sheets of that flooring in stock. And, the other options they do have are icky:

It now makes more sense why I had to browse the Christmas sales in that store, right?!

I can still use the piece I cut to place the baseboards. I'll just remove it and slip a new, correctly cut piece in later so I can actually make some progress. OR ... I'll wait for it to be restocked while I work on the third floor! I already have the colors picked out! We'll see what I'm inspired to do next! Stay tuned!

(Am I ever going to get stairs in this house?!)

The Last Christmas Details

A couple of things happened in the last week that inspired one more Christmas installment!

First, I had a birthday, and, with that, I received money and gift cards from those cheering on my new house habit! Second, more Christmas things are on a bigger sale at the craft stores now, so, if I stumble upon such a sale, what am I to do but look?! And, third, one of the interior projects came to a screeching halt (see next post), so, already being at the craft store and striking out on what I needed, it seemed browsing what is on bigger sale today versus last week was just the right thing to do. LOGIC.

So, here are the latest and, likely, last additions for Christmas this year! The exterior can only hold so much stuff, so I'm serious that this is likely it! (Can you imagine what I'm going to do to the interior next year?!)

First, I found a nativity set that I REALLY like!

Could it have more animals?! This was a mini tree ornament
set that I pulled the hangers out of.

I had to move the presents under this window to the roof to make room:

But, then, there was just too much stuff on the very front of the house, so I moved the nativity upstairs:

The presents stayed on the roof, though. I dig 'em there.

I also found the kind of candy canes I want to use next year for the walkway(s):

All set for next year!

And, I scored these bows to add just one more punch of color!

My super-favorite additions are the trees my boy gave me for my birthday. He picked out a set of three, snowy evergreens and a strand of lights, and the strand of lights was the *perfect* length to put on all three trees!

Okay! For real! That's IT because I'm out of decorating space!! I've so enjoyed putting the build on hold to focus on these details! It's just fun! But, some things have progressed inside! Take a peek ...