Getting the Roof on the Fairfield

 

As I put on the roof, the 1/2″ Fairfield is starting to look more like a real house.

 

 

Back of the house. I modified the attic/roof wall because I wanted the attic closed into rooms a little more (kit has it one big open space). You can see where I modified the attic floor to put in a second staircase as well as to have an open gallery to the second floor.

 

Staircases roughed in. Kit has no staircase to the attic, but I have vowed never to build a house again without stairs that access all floors. It’s a quirk.

 

More modifications to the attic floor. I wanted to have the tower accessible from the house instead of being closed off. This entailed cutting the roof to allow for an opening, and building in pieces to connect tower to the house. Also, because of warping and because I wanted more support, I put in roof beams at all corners.

 

The left attic room. Modifications mean I have to trim and hide much–I continued the elephant motif on the chunk of trim I had to use to hide the hole at the bottom of the wall.

The entire house needs trimming, trimming, trimming! That’s next.

 

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See: http://www.dorsettpublications.com/dpi.htm   for more info.

There Is Light

I finally got the lights hooked up and tested on the first two floors.

Living room, looking into foyer.

 

This will be the kitchen.

Entrance hall. I like how the wallpapered ceiling came out. It never occurred to me to wallpaper a ceiling, until I was flipping through the book, Painted Ladies Revisited, and saw some lovely examples of wallpapered ceilings, Victorian style.  Mine is nowhere near as elaborate, but I’m happy with it.

Upstairs front room. This will be the bedroom.

This will become the bathroom.

Upstairs main hall. Wanted to put a light in the tower section, but the ceiling is too low for a ceiling fixture.

Looking at these pics reminds me how much trimming I’ll have to do. Lots of little gaps (the warpage factor).

When I dry fitted the roof pieces, I saw that if I want stairs to go to the third floor and the tower to be accessible (kit has it totally enclosed, which could be cool too), I have to modify the roof pieces. So, I, my trusty power saw, ruler, and pencil went to work. Hopefully it will all come out right. We’ll see!

More Progress

Both my mom and my dollhouse are progressing. I think Mom is probably more excited about her progress!   We’re both pleased with how well she’s recovering.

On with the Fairfield. I have almost finished the first floor, except for all the trimming, gluing in the staircase and putting on the bottom newel post.

Sun room (from back of house)

Living Room

The right side w/ kitchen flooring in place. All flooring is done for first and second floors.

 

The upstairs hall with the doors to rooms and tower French doors in place. The window on the right I cut myself to add more light.

I ran into a problem with warpage when I fitted on the third floor. The walls are just not going to fit the floor unless I do some serious bending or forcing (and I fear breaking).

So… I cut off part of the third floor on the right side of the upstairs hall. This will be open to the roof, and I’ll rail it off on the next floor like a gallery. You can kind of see that in this pic (look at ceiling). I’ve also cut a hole in the next floor to continue the staircase.

The flooring here, btw, is Houseworks Southern Pine flooring stained with Early American Minwax stain pens.

I need more lighting supplies, then next I’ll do much trimming, put flooring on the third floor, and see what fun I can have up there!

Slowed down

My poor mom broke her hip, so I’ve been taking care of her, not working on minis. Here are some updated photos of progress on the 1/2 inch Fairfield (took them before the event). Click for larger versions:

The modified left half of the house. I chopped off wall beside the back door and eliminated the staircase wall. Here is the Houseworks staircase turned around. The open space in the rear will be the front door and tower. Almost done with the parquet floor. The wallpapered ceiling and chandeliers installed.

Another shot.

Right side of house with lights and flooring installed. I have since put a tile floor in the kitchen (lower right).

 

Fairfield Half Inch–Third taping

Progress. First I need to acknowledge my assistants:

First Supervisory Assistant

Second Supervisory Assistant

They make sure nothing goes wrong. Or at least that nothing wakes them up.

Here’s what I’m calling the “sun room,” which is the kitchen in the original plans. Ceiling is wallpapered, floor is a the Brodnax parquet (half done), which carries to the front door.

Testing the lights in the living room.

Looking from the back, the taped together house.

Sun room looking through arch toward living room.

Front bedroom.

I’m ready to build the bay windows to see how to finish those inside and outside.

Someday I’ll actually glue this house together. (What?!)

Fairfield, Second Taping

Click on photos for larger versions.

Another rough tape-together of the house.

As you can see by comparing to the picture in my previous post, I went ahead and sliced off the foyer wall to make the entire right side of the house open to the front door. The back door stuck in there is the Majestic Mansions door, which I think is going to work well.

Upstairs I enlarged one tower window opening to put in French doors that will lead to a balcony. Also, I cut another window in the wall above the door. Lots more light in here now, and fewer enclosed tiny spaces.

Living room, roughed in. A bay window will be on the left. I like how the ceiling turned out. I’ve had the hankering to use the leopard wallpaper for a long time!

Kitchen roughed in. Other walls will have the matching wallpaper strip at the top. I might do a more interesting ceiling as well; haven’t decided yet.

Front view of the new cut up foyer. I’m going to try the front door that came with the kit, but we’ll see. Stairs will go up from back.

The selection of Brodax prints wallpapers I’m using for this house. My lighting isn’t the best, so these colors are a brighter than what you see here. What I love about Brodnax is that you can mix and match papers / fabric / patterns within a general theme, and everything matches!

I used a lot of Brodnax in the Blue House B&B, and for the first time ever, I was able to use several different patterns in one room and have them all match. (See, especially the bedroom.) Brilliant! And only $1 a sheet.

You can order directly from Brodax: http://brodnaxprints.com/ The Quarter Source also has a fantastic selection of both the 1/2″ and 1/4″ Brodnax wallpapers:  http://thequartersource.com/miniatures/index.php?main_page=index

 

Fairfield rethinking, Progress, and The Sanding, The Sanding…

1. Progress:

I realized as I went through my supply boxes that I had no half-scale stuff. 1/4″ and 1″ yes; 1/2″ is sparse. I used everything I had on the Cotswold Cottage, and I have nothing left (which probably is a good thing, if I think about it).

I gathered my pennies and went shopping. Houseworks staircase kit to replace the stairs that come with the house (we’ll see how that goes); lamps, a door from Majestic Mansions (which I have now decided will be the back door, not front); and parquet flooring from Brodnax I couldn’t resist.

This will be the living room ceiling. Very easy to do with 1/2″ scale moldings, Minwax stain pens, and a knife (or an EZ cutter). The chandelier will hang down, of course, and I’m still figuring out how to hide the wiring (down the fireplaces sounds good–we’ll see).

Speaking of fireplaces, here they are mostly done (they don’t go in like this; I was just seeing how they looked). Brick paper for the backing.

2: The Sanding, The Sanding

The wood in these kits is splintery and rough. They kindly enclosed a piece of sandpaper, but I’m finding that using three different grades in succession is doing a nice job: 100 (rough) followed by 150 or 200 (fine), followed by 400 grit emery paper (“wet or dry”). I wipe away (lots of) dust between sandings. The 400 at the end gives the wood a nice polish.

Minwax stain seals this wood nicely. I find the wood amazingly smooth after the stain has dried, needing minimal sanding with the 400 paper. I’m using the stain to seal even if I plan to cover the walls with something else . . . which brings me to…

3: Fairfield Rethink

This is the first house I’ve had to decorate as I go (well, I suppose I do with 1/4 scale too, but this one seems much more complicated). As a person who loves to make things up as I go along (much more fun!) this is a challenge.

I’m rethinking the entire left side of the house (left as you look at the front, right side of rear opening). I was going to make the below a dining room, but that front wall pretty much seals off the entryway in front of it, making the entrance a tiny space.

Rethink: Since I’m using the purchased stairs, which are wider than the staircase wall in the kit, I’ll eliminate the staircase wall altogether and have a flying staircase.

I will cut off the left side of the front wall shown here (the doorway side leads out to the porch), and leave it open to the foyer. Upstairs, I’m toying with cutting away the tower floor on each level, except for a gallery around the walls (with a railing). If I do this right, that will open the tower from the top floor to the bottom. This will let in more light and more airy spaces. Right? Might even dangle a big chandelier from the top.

In that case, I don’t think the bottom room will be a formal dining room. I envision a plant room / conservatory instead, with the Majestic Mansions doorway with its big window, plus the bay window letting in much light.

My mini family will have to eat in the kitchen, or maybe I’ll put a bistro table or something out here for their dining pleasure.

First I need to wallpaper some rooms, finish ceilings, and decide how to finish the outside. I’m looking at books to figure out paint colors, plus I have to make the big–side or not to side?–decision. If siding doesn’t go on right, it looks terrible, but then can I get the painted lady effect I want with stucco? (Probably, again, if I do it right).

Onward.

Fairfield Roughed Out

I recommend to anyone who has not built a house from a kit, Greenleaf or otherwise, to take out the main house pieces and fit them together, holding in place with masking tape, before starting to finish and glue.

I’m very glad I did. I went from looking at pieces and schematics wondering what to do, to having “Ah ha!” moments when looking at the mocked-up house.

Plus, the piecing can be tricky, so it’s good to know problems before painting and gluing. Some of the slots were too narrow or tight, but were easily fixed with an X-acto knife. I gained a good idea of how the entire house would go together just by putting together the main walls.

Here we have the right side of the house, first and second floors. The plans call for it to be living/dining; bedrm/bedrm, with kitchen and bath in the wing behind. I’d rather have the kitchen in this wing (to the right of the the living room), with the dining room beyond.  Upstairs, I’ll be putting a bathroom where 2nd bedroom should be.

This is where the kitchen (downstairs), bath (upstairs with tiny partition that I didn’t bother to put in) are to be. I will make the bottom room the dining room (with the nice big bay window); leave out the partition upstairs and make the upstairs hall an open gallery / sitting room.

The front part of this will be the front porch. The area inside the slots will be the front entrance. Note that the stairs are supposed to go up right there, but I boldly cut the stair railing off to make the entrance to the living room larger. I will turn the stairs around and use Houseworks stairs leading up from the back.

On the second floor, instead of roofing over the front porch, I’ll turn it into a balcony, changing the windows of the tower to French doors.

The attic is supposed to be totally open (the hole is for the chimney), but I think there is plenty of space up there for more rooms. I’ll cut my own partitions and make and office and small bedroom, maybe a tiny second bath.

Also there are no stairs from second to third floor. This makes me flinch. So, I turned on my trusty jigsaw and cut out a hole for a second staircase, which will come up right above the first.

The hole (not pictured) is now near the back slot by the tower wall. I will keep this open as a gallery open to the tower beyond.

The Fairfield has some nice details, such as the fireplace / room dividers on first and second floors. The open side of the lower fireplace will contain a bookcase. This is the right side first and second floor (living room below, bed above), with the fireplaces taped together in place.

Backside of the fireplaces. This will be the kitchen below and bathroom above. Why not have fireplaces in kitchen and bathroom?

Taping together has really helped me visualize and decide what to do, even how to decorate each room. I have started ordering supplies!

And of course, the “assistants,” who pretty much stayed in that position the whole time I took all the photos, built the fireplaces, taped them in place, and took more pics. They like to help.

And now, the 1/2″ Fairfield

I vowed I’d go back to the Big House once the 1/4″ bungalow was mostly done, but then the 1/2″ Fairfield arrived. I couldn’t resist opening the box and starting in. I have been so busy (out of town plus ton o’ work) that I’ve only managed to build the founation.

I’ve never done a Greenleaf house before, so I have slowed down to seriously consider what I want to do. I purchased a Majestic Mansions front door (I know I’ll have to modify the front door opening, but that’s fine). I have not decided how I’ll do the windows (Houseworks, Grandt Line, kit windows, build my own?), but I know I want to modify the staircases.

My plan is to rough the house together (without gluing) to give me ideas about what the rooms will be (straightforward house w/ living/dining/kitchen/bedrms? Or another B&B? or…)

Outside–I’d love to do a painted lady. Am doing research on colors.

I’m also looking at blogs of other miniaturists who have done or are working on the Fairfield. Thanks everyone for sharing pics and tips! I love the generosity of miniaturists.

Will have pics as I go along. Above is the “official” picture of the house on the kit’s box. I’m excited!