Moving the basement

Due to circumstances beyound my control I have moved the basement from its legitimate place on the dining table. I had expected it to be more difficult than it turned out to be. I was of course obliged to remove all objects that weren't fixed, but after that I lifted the whole basement easily onto a tea trolley and rolled it through the house to my study. I am glad we live in a bungalow, and I didn't have to carry it up the stairs. But once I came to the door I had to tip the basement a bit because it didn't go through. Which made me think that once I have assembled the whole house there is no way I can move it from the study to the place where I eventually want it to be. But I cannot move it now, because... and so on. So I won't worry about it now.

The next step was to put the main house on top of the basement. I cannot leave the basement in the middle of the room because the room will be used by guests next week. I removed all objects from the main house and stared at it for a while. It stared back with its empty windows, uncooperatively. I taped it all over with masking tape (it isn't glued together yet). I didn't want to ask my husband because it would be more risk than help. He has a bad back, and I wouldn't like him to drop the house. I thought I might arrange a tea party for some students and ask them for help. But then I had to wait for the occasion, and I had all the hundreds upon hundreds of miniature objects all over the room. I had nowhere to store them. It's amazing how things always take up more space when they are out of their natural order. It's true about 1:1 things as well.

I stared at the house for a while and then I lifted one side of it and put it on top of the basement. Then I lifted the other side. Just like that. I sat on the floor contemplating my deed.

Then I put the fronts in place, and even the roof which I hadn't even touched yet. But suddenly you could the house slightly more finished.

 

Then I removed the fronts and the roof and put back all the million objects. You may have noticed that I keep doing this, removing and putting back, and you may wonder why I don't just put them away for a while. But I need to know how the various objects fit into the space. I have already made many alterations to my original plans because the objects changed my perspective.

What has happened now is that the main house is 20 cm higher up so it is much easier to see the ground floor. But the basement is almost impossible to see or to work on. I had to lie down on my belly to put in the stuff. Eventually the house will be on a display stand, which I have tried to buy, but since it is produced by the same manufacturer as the house, it is - surprise! - currently unavailable. I guess I can buy some inexpensive coffee table at Oxfam as another temporary solution.

As it is, I won't be able to work on the basement in the near future. There is not much left to be done, but it needs to be done while the basement roof is off, and it should preferably be a reasonable working height. So not until mid-January. Which is fine. There is a lot I can do in the meantime.