This Might Get Me Banned From the Internet In My House

You know how you have an idea in mind, and then you amend that idea and end up opening a whole can of worms?

That's how the start of the conservatory began!

This particular heap of stuff speaks volumes
to me even though it's hard to know where
to even begin explaining it. And, so is the
story of the pre-build of this piece!

Here's the deal. So, the conservatory is an add-on to this kit, and, when I saw it online, I knew it was a must-have because I really wanted to maximize decorating space. I have to be honest that I had a few issues with it that I chose to overlook, though. For your reference, here's a pic of it from the Manhattan Dollhouse store from where I purchased my kit:

Two things:

1. There is no access to the rooftop patio. There's not a doorway nor are there stairs on the outside. I remember "flying" my dolls to the upper stories as a kid, so I definitely noticed it, but it wasn't a deal breaker.

2. The floor of the conservatory's rooftop patio doesn't line up with the floor of the second story of the house. So, even if there were access from the house, it wouldn't work well either direction ("Oof!!" as someone nails their shins going outside, or, "SPLAT" as someone comes inside.) And, I'm one who doesn't do great with things out of alignment, but I overlooked this because I really wanted the extra room. I've seen someone build this with a fake door from the outside and no access to the inside. Design-wise, it looks great, but it's not what I wanted.

This continued to bug me until I was dinking around online looking at Google images of this particular house. That's when I happened to notice a picture I'd never before seen. And, I have not found it again. It is one where the out-of-alignment issues are fixed because the brilliant house builder eliminated the foundation of the conservatory. That lowers it just enough to be almost perfectly in line with the second story floor!

So, I had to tell Aaron immediately, and he was reasonably excited on my behalf. After all, not putting the piece on foundation is really no big deal. Little did he know that I also decided that real access to the rooftop patio was a must. Indeed, I decided a door needed to be cut into the wall.

Can open! Worms everywhere!!

I thought he was going to turn green. It is a suggestion that made him just a little sick to his stomach, but I went with the, "I believe in you" vibe and acted like it was totally possible and that I didn't notice the look of terror in his eyes. Because, I just knew it could be done!

With a few days to let him chew and/or stew depending on his mood (I walked away from that stupid cricket roof, and I had to hit the pause button to get in the right mood for the porch railings to be placed; I get it), the entire build began last night and into today.

Dry-fitting the pieces helped us figure out where some trimming needed to happen. And, of course, some unplanned refitting of pieces was necessary to accommodate the removal of the foundation! So, the big table saw got in on the action:

While Aaron took the lead on the big jobs, I had some details to get ready including creating the big, wall of windows and painting many more pieces:

A big pile of "Needs white paint" was
created.

This is a practice run of making sure the
windows line up before gluing them.

Lots of gluing and painting went on last
night getting ready for the big build!

This is when I was glad the roller was
already in its plastic bag before dropping it
on the floor.

I was even smart enough figure out what I wanted the floor to look like so I could work with it before assembly. I LOVE the outcome from mixing acrylic "Espresso Brown" colored paint and a glazing medium:

I applied it with a 1" foam brush which
worked great for just the right effect!

The next step before actually building the piece was to get the door cut in the second story. So, we ran to Hobby Lobby to get the door I'd already picked out, and we did a dry-fit to make the appropriate guide mark ...

Aaron put on his headphones to get into the zone, and he went to work:

He perforated the line with the drill.

There's a metal straight edge clamped to
the floor so the drill doesn't nick the floor.

Post-perforation!

A little Dremel action smooths the edges
enough ...

... and, in goes the door!

I wanted the door on-hand so Aaron could put it in and immediately see that a little wonkiness of the line would not be any big deal at all.

This was a huge success particularly for Aaron who was seriously nervous. He just sat and looked at it for a while after it was finished. Don't you love when you can gaze at your own success??

Once that was finished, the walls of the conservatory went up!

Aaron made supports to put under the roof to keep it level while
drying. They're in the front and back right corners. (See picture
below.) I'm going to keep them to put in as decorative pillars
now and then. Won't they be fabulous with Christmas greenery?!

(Bird's eye view of the pillars.)

THAT was a big win! I believe Aaron called it "the sauce on top"! And, this success allows me to still be on the internet so as to gaze and dream and mentally create more things to do to our fun house!

Next? The details of the conservatory come together! Windows, doors, rooftop railings and constructing a step down into the space -- now needed with no foundation to level the first floors! -- are all on the list! Reporting soon ...

Featuring: The Windows

The time has finally come for the windows to be a THING on the Harborside build! WootWoot!

The windows have been a fabulous mental project which was never anticipated. It all began almost at the beginning of the build when I saw someone online using alcohol markers to make a stained glass window. (Alcohol markers/inks are wonderful because you can use them on non-porous materials, and they will dry.) I stumbled upon the video when looking for some kind of decorating-what-not, and my creative juices started flowing. Instantly, I knew I had to make at least one of the windows of the house stained glass. Perhaps a lovely one for the eat-in kitchen and/or the little window squares above the front door would suit. Right?

Oh. It did not stop there.

First, I enlisted my friend Cindy who generally has almost every craft supply known to mankind. She has alcohol ink, not marker, and volunteered to experiment to see if the ink would work on a window-like piece when applied with a cotton swab.

The result was exactly what I wanted!

But, she took it to a whole new level and experimented with a product called Stickles:

She has a variety for which she has created a little reference card:

(The background is not a craft store, my
friends. It is her craft room! She is, like,
a crafting guru!)

For me, she tried both the Sprinkled Sugar and Star Dust varieties for ... wait ... for ... it ...

A window pane with frost!

It looks like this in the house:

She used the Sprinkled Sugar for this one.
It looks more natural than the Star Dust.

She used this ...

... for the window piece. And, it is AMAZING!!! It's even better in real life!

Her suggestion was to just tack it with a little piece of tape against the window from the inside because, "Won't that be fun to have some frost for Winter?"

And, that's when I knew I had to take it another step further than that. I said to Aaron, who had not yet been privy to any of the window discussions or thoughts, "Okay. New idea. We need to make the windows removable. They need to stay in place but not be glued in." When I say he looked at me like I was insane, I mean it. I received a very clear, "What in the ..." look from him. I promptly ignored it while I pulled out Cindy's creations, and I explained that I want to be able to make different window scenes that can be swapped out rather than tacked from the inside. When he saw the frosty one, he went from thinking "removable windows" are weird to being genius. He even started brainstorming about different window decorations for different holidays. I had him hooked!

With the house coming along nicely, it was finally time for the one, lonely window that you've likely spied in the pictures to have its friends. I realized, though, that the original efforts to square the pre-cut window holes weren't quite big enough to get all of the windows in. So, Aaron was back at it with his friend, Dremel:

It took no time at all for all holes to be ready for filling!

We plopped them all just long enough for me to take them right back out to paint. After a few days of the painting process ...

Yes. I paint over the carpet with little or
nothing under the stuff. It's not a success-
only journey, but it's worth the risk.

... Voila!

Let's zoom in on Hal for a sec, shall we?

Hal and his big, huge soda are taking a
breather from all of his supervisory work.

And, zip your attention all the way upstairs to spy with your little eye ...

"Nobody wants a ghost." -- Phoebe Buffay.
Friends fan? You get it. If not, just note how
cute she is.

Up next is a tale that makes Aaron's "Are you crazy" look regarding removable windows child's play as I had another great idea! Take a peek ...

Upward!

Construction has continued on the Harborside Mansion as our sites have been set movin' on up! It was a piecemeal kind of week, but here are the parts that came together. First, I had railing to put together for the gable rooftop. So, this ...

I have no idea why there are magnets or nails included. None.

... turned into this:

Do not look too close. This one needed adjusting as I made one
of the railings just a smidge unlevel. Whoops.

I was thankful I'd already completed the porch railings as they, for whatever reason, were easier than this little one. Much easier. But, it's finished now, and there are very few railings left to construct. WHEW!

A few days later, we got the trim up on the gable roof, the door on its roof and the dormer window above the porch:

Tip of the Day: DRY. RUN. ALL. PIECES. No matter how simple it looks, test everything you're about to glue. All of it. I'm saying that the trim pieces for the doorway and those for the dormer look exactly the same...

I'm also saying that I have no idea how I got the trim around the doorway off before the Tacky Glue took its forever hold. It was a bit of a struggle to the point Aaron said, "Is it going to come off?!" to which I responded, "Oh. It's coming off." My fingernail paid the price, but the trim did finally release and was placed around the correct window. Let's just ooo and ahhh over its loveliness.

A few days later, the porch roof project came to fruition. Aaron led the way on dry-running the gazebo roof a number of times before it was time to just slap the glue on and get it adhered:

Then came the other roof pieces and trim ...

You'll note the "cricket roof" pieces that are just sitting above the front door on the main roof. Those three, little pieces gave me so. much. grief. It's another simple-little-concept that just takes every ounce of patience to put together. And, that night, I did not possess such patience, and I walked away.

I got it up the next night, though:

It'll look lovely when shingled, and, as a friend of mine pointed out, it will also be fun to put a little somethin'-somethin' on it for Christmas. But, as of today, it just needs to blend in and be a little invisible because it was a complete pain, and I don't care to really bask in its potential glow.

In happier news, I got the gable roof railings painted and in place, and it looks fabulous:

And, in even happier news, we opened the conservatory box to see what is needed to get that construction going, and Aaron discovered that the railings I have been dreading to make because I'm pretty much over it are already assembled!!

WOOOOO HOOOOO!!! That was like feeling a huge breath of fresh air!! I admit I'm glad I made the porch ones as I feel wicked-accomplished, but, I'm over it. I'd like to feel accomplished in something else now, thank you!

So, I'm going to get the work area a little more organized, and we'll plan the next step! Stay tuned!

The Little Porch Touches

The whole, wrap-around porch thing was a huge selling point of this house. It's just fabulous! I really didn't even have a vision for it other than its mere existence when I ordered the house kit. But, a little internet surfing has filled in the blanks there! Hanging baskets, for starters, caught my eye, and I envision having some between posts at some point!

But, as I looked at the porch in real life and thought about hanging things from the ceiling, I was initially perplexed as to how to do that. One picture I've seen hangs plants from the gingerbread pieces between the posts. That's definitely a solid option, but my brain kept racing going from hanging plants in the Summer to sparkly lights in the Spring and Fall. And, let's not forget Christmas decorating possibilities!

So, I knew I needed ceiling hooks. And, they needed to be decently to scale. My solution?

Here's what I did:

I wanted hooks in the middle of each post. So, the first, most important thing I did was to measure that distance, between each, individually with its piece of gingerbread in place. That way, I could see if the true middle point of the ceiling piece hit the middle of the gingerbread. With things pieced together at angles, I thought there might be a few, tiny adjustments that, if not caught, would look like big, huge, misplaced, who was drunk when hanging those plants eye sores. So, I measured.

And, as I suspected, not that I really knew the outcome, the measurements around were not exact. An eight of an inch less here, in between 5 and 6 eighths there ... Yup. Almost all of them needed just a little tweak. And, since I thought about it ahead of time, this was no big deal. (And, yes, those are real numbers that actually mean something to me. Like, that's "four and a quarter inches minus 2 eighths" that you see up there. It's about getting down on paper what makes sense, not what's mathematically solved.)

Not only did I measure between, but I remembered to measure inward so the hooks would all be aligned. God bless the day my high school graphic design teacher required us to buy a pica ruler:

Clearly, one side is no longer useful for
drawing a straight line ...

Never mind any lesson I could give about what a pica is (are they even used to measure anymore?!). I love this thing. You can see your work through the ruler, so it's like having a piece of graph paper on top of your work to align things. It's one of my very favorite tools ever in the history of using tools!

Anyway, I figured out which guideline to use for the inward placement and followed my scribbled post-its to find the perfect spot. There, I stuck in a push pin. This wood is easy to penetrate to a point. Using a hammer to tap it in made the job easier. And, more satisfying.

I wiggled the push pin around just enough to make room for both the wire and the glue, and then I removed it.

For the hooks, I cut the fancy end off of the earring thingy and straightened out the other.

From there, I tested the hole with the hook to see how much of the straightened end I needed to cut. You can guess that not all of the holes were the same depth. But, I didn't get too crazy worrying about it being exact-exact. Just visually close. Once I was satisfied, I dipped the straight end of the hook into a bit of glue -- that you can see on my post-it above ... such a versatile product, the post-it ... -- and put it in the hole.

Hook at the top; push pin awaiting removal
at the bottom for the next hole!

The glue pooled just a little around the base of the hook, but they dried completely clear. Booyah ...

I put hooks in between every post, but I also put them behind the posts on either side of the front door and on the very back of the porch. That way, I can swag something fun in those places! I let this dry overnight facing up so the glue would settle down in the hole as much as possible.

So, here's how it looked this morning when we glued the base of the roof on to the posts and put up the gingerbread pieces:

And, wait ... for ... it ... Here's how it looks with some tiny LEDs strung on the hooks!

I just want to go curl up in the gazebo! CAN YOU IMAGINE THE OPTIONS FOR CHRISTMAS LIGHTING?!

Next step -- We go up a flight so I can build the railings for the gable rooftop access while Aaron strategizes how to assemble the porch and gazebo roofs. This is really coming together!!