One room down, 5 to go!

And the Dining room is complete! Yeah! Finished the banister, installed the stairs and corner moulding this weekend.

Then I decided that I would much rather have a stone type floor in the kitchen and used a tutorial online to simulate flagstones. They are in the rough first stage right now. Once they are completely dry I will sand them done some so they aren't so lumpy-bumpy the start the wash stains to get the coloring I want. I think this will match the wallpaper much better now.

As my house progesses I feel that I have completely lost anytype of era. I have given up on having a "Victorian" or "Georgian" style and have gone with "My dream home" as a theme, an eclectic mix of the two. There will still (hoepfully) be no items in the house that would date later then 1900. However a specific year before this is wiped clean. Maybe after it is all finished someone out there will be able to tell me what it closest resembles. : )

Here is a photo showing the roof on, it is just sitting on top and I am dreading installing it. The front fits beautifully but there is a nice gap in the back that you can see if you bend down and look inside. Crossing my fingers that I can sand edges or stick skewers in the cracks before papering to make them unnoticable. The ceiling is vaulted to 8 1/2 inches but it's very hard to tell in photos.

This last photo shows the top of the stairs leading to the living room and the door between the two rooms.

LIGHT!

And we have light! Woohoo! I had a heck of a time getting this light to work. I was trying to use the adapter so I could plug straight into my tapewire. Mistake number one, I tried it out on the chandelier that I really liked and wanted for the dining room. Not a good idea as I've never worked with electrical, either real life or miniature. I couldn't get the wires stripped properly, everytime I tried the wires just fell apart. I have a sinking feeling I've ruined that fixture. If you click the photo to the left you can see it sitting in the shadowss SOOOO. .. I moved on to the other light fixture I had set aside for the living room. Originally my plan was to use this fixture in all the rooms, so I guess it's not too bad. I will order another chandelier later and replace this one with that but untill then I have light. : ) It's a great feeling of accomplishment. I wasn't sure I'd be able to do it at all and now that I've got it up I'm thrilled.

One room down 5 more to go! I'm looking forward to it. The round piece on the floor will actually be my table top. I was just seeing how the size looked.

Better pictures. . .

No new progress to report really, just wanted to show some better pictures. . . I'm still trying to decide on wallpaper for the kitchen. Not really liking the choices I've come across. I don't know what color to put with the flooring I chose. I'm almost thinking of laying a different floor just to make it easier. These pictures really show what I mean about my phone muting the colors. The picture of the blue and white wallpaper is a last resort diffinitly think it is too checky especially against the floor. Any suggestions or color advice would be great.

OOOHHH pretty!

First of all I apologize for the quality of the photos if you poke them. I took these with my camera phone and the walpaper came out muted. I didn't have my camera available and was too excited to wait. My husband came home last night around 11pm and first thing he said when he saw it was "WOW it looks like a room!" Guess that's as good a compliment as any. made me excited, at least someone could tell it was room rather than a box with scrap paper inside LOL!

This is a picture of my dining room. I still have the moulding for around the arch to complete and install and a little bit of white molding to install in the corners of the room. There is the slightest of gaps that really bothers me but with a little trim it will be fixed. I'm loving this room! The staircase is only being held in place with the clamp, it's not installed. I have all the spindles to finish painting and the room above to wallpaper and do moulding for before I can install these stairs. The chandelier I ordered came in, however I have to order an adapter so I can plug straight into the tapewire. I had to wait till the light came in as I didn't know what size I needed. It's a very beautiful 5 arm palace chandelier. Sounds too fancy but it looks really nice, I can just see it above the table and chairs with a cabinet in the back to hold the china. OOOHHH the excitement!

Here is the flooring I finally decided on for the kitchen. I really like the looks but haven't found the wallpaper to set it off. I have a black colonial swag light for this room and will be getting a black wood burning stove. I love the blue just not sure what I want on the walls. Originally I thought this would be the easiest room to finish but the dining room proved me wrong.

The wallpaper to the bottom left is for the parlour. I jumped for joy when it came in and the color matched the fabric I'd chosen for the sofa perfectly. It's not installed just cut to size. I was too impatient to wait for the installation before showing it off. This picture shows the top of the stairs to the bottom right side. That might help explain why I have to wait to install the stairs. It is also the reason I changed the other side of the staircase. There was supposed to be one of those boars for the other side but it looked very trange. Not like a nice staircase should lol. That is all the eye candy I have to show for now. Will continue working on the wallpapering of the rest of the rooms. Still undecided if I will have a bathroom or a small library in this house. . . decisions, decisions. . .

And we have a shell!

Well it's been long enough since I've posted last. Real life has definitly gotten in the way of dollhouse building, in the greastest way possible that is. I am now 18 weeks pregnant with my second child. I am so excited, but with the nesting already taking control I haven't spent much time on the Gloucester . . . until recently that is. I now have a rough shell put together. This was extremely hard as I have added legs to the bottom of the house. I stained them to match the furniture in my RL living room. Because of the legs I used about half a roll of masking tape to hold it together while the glue dried. The proudest moment was when the tape was removed and it didn't collapse! I have a nice celtic knot wood trim that will go around the base of the house to give the appearance of it resting on a real table. Unfortunatley that won't be added untill later as I am restricted from using stain till after the baby is born. I abandoned the skinny stick flooring and splurgered on wood veneer flooring. I am so much happier with it now. Just wish I had done it sooner as I think that would have made me work on the house earlier than I have.

The bottom right room's floor, soon to be the kitchen, still shows the skinny sticks that I laid. I want to add either slate tiles, marble tiles or linoleum to that room but just haven't found the right one. Electrification is already in progress, I've found it soooo much easier to do this as I go. And guess what?! It actually works! This takes some of the monoteny out of the shell building. Wallpaper is still eluding me. I have so many choices put aside just waiting till after the Christmas bustle to order it.

The stair case is not installed yet, just wanted to see how it's going to look. Out of all the house this is the only thing that dissapoints me. The stair case when put together like the instructions show is very ugly to me. i like a nice dainty banister and spindles so have taken off the left side of the stairs to incorporate this and make it seem more traditional. Also the treads do not overlap the risers which gives a very boxy look and the steps are very steep to fit in the area designated. I am trying ways to make this less apparant with the white risers and stained treads. It seems to help, plus I plan to add staircase runners. As the staircases face front this should make it easy to accomplish after I've wallpapered and chosen the color schemes for each room.

Painting all of the little spindles, banisters, and need to construct the second floor staircase still. Then I will finish working on the roof and the front trim that will hold the door.

Originally this house was supposed to reflect a very authentic mid-victorian interior but as I started building and choosing furniture it has morphed into my dream home, with pieces from early to late victorian taking hold. I figured this way I get to have all the pieces that I have been drooling over and if I accidentally put something in that wouldn't have been available in 1845 my excuse is the lady of the house is from later in the century with a love of the old. We'll see how well this slides. : ) Hopefully I will have more to report soon. . . .

WELCOME!

I wanted to give a warm welcome to all of my new followers! I haven't had a chance to check out everyone elses blogs but I am slowly working my way through them and wow are you guys talented. See you soon!

A mini update. . .

Wow! It's been awhile since I've gotten a chance to post anything. Progress is slow on the Gloucester. I am happy to say that the front door is almost flat again. It's still a little warped but I am hoping the moisture that the brick compound I bought will straighten it the rest of the way.

Most of my time has been spent waiting for my supplies to arrive so that I can continue. I re-ordered another pack of wallpaper and I was so happy to see that the patterns were the same. But now I am looking at some of those patterns and I am still not completely happy with them. So back to the drawing board LOL. However, I did get some Bromely Craft Brick Compound and am very excited to see how it works. I want the whole exterior bricked with beige looking quions on the sides. I still have one more floor to lay which is another reason I've been taking a break, I'm tired of looking at skinny sticks. I think next time I will splurge and order wood veneer strips to do a floor. It seems expensive but much easier.

I haven't completely neglected minis. I bought a book on miniature wicker making and had to try it out. I am very pleased with the results. I decided to try a plant holder first as that seemed the easiest. Here is a picture of the finished plant. I had it sitting on a notepad holder at work and took the picture with my phone so it isn't the best but I will get a better one posted later. For a first attempt I don't think it came out too bad. I'm not sure it will fit in the decor of the Gloucester as I want it a more middle class Victorian style home but who knows. Well, that's all for now. Not much but hopefully I will have more soon. See you soon. . . .

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