House restoration: facade, part 2

Join me in my triumph: my plan worked! After 24 hours in clamps, the wall was - well, I won't say like new, but it was pressed together. You could still see the rip, but now it was easier to deal with. The inside almost seemed straightforward.

I sanded the rip as smooth as possible, but the problem was that I didn't have the right paint. This paint was something I mixed back then, and there was no way I could mix the same again. I had two options. I could hang wallpaper that would cover the rip neatly. The issue with wallpaper on a surface with windows is that it is quite difficult to cut the paper neatly around them. Back then I did it on flat surfaces, and it was hard enough. So I decided against it. I can always do it later if I change my mind. The second option was to repaint the whole surface, and that's what I did. I have a vague memory of being dissatisfied with the colour anyway (or maybe I am making it up, to justify my decision). In any case, I genuinely believe that the new colour is much nicer as well as more authentic. It is called Duck Egg Blue and would probably be used in a Victorian house, rather than the earlier bright baby blue.

You cannot see the rip unless you look very closely, and who will ever do that?

On the front, I had a similar problem.

It was easy to sand the rip, then cover it up over with filler. But how can I find the right paint? I bought it at a hardware store in Cambridge seven years ago, and I have no idea what it was called.

Just to test, I painted over with the closest paint I had at home.

It probably looks tolerable in the picture, but I knew I would get irritated every time I looked at it. Therefore I went to my local paint store. It is a small store, very friendly, and they got quite interested when I explained what I was doing. I took the pediment with me to show them what I needed. It was the only loose bit.

They used some clever device that was supposed to recognise the colour and provide a code. However, the lovely salesperson said it wasn't 100% percent reliable, and indeed when we looked at a strip it was totally wrong. We looked through everything close, and another person was summoned, and finally we decided on the best match. Now, I was expecting a 50 ml tester, like I used to buy in the UK, but it turned out that their smallest testers were half a liter. By then they had mixed my paint so I couldn't say I didn't want it. Moreover, they had run out of half-liter white jars, so they gave me 0,75 l for the same price.

I now have this paint, with the pretty name "Nostalgia", that will last whatever remains of my life, while all I needed was a few drops. Ah well, all my future projects will be nostalgic.

I was actually prepared to paint over the whole front, since I had all this paint, but believe it or not, the match was perfect. Human eye is still better than electronic devices. And half of the rip would be hidden by a pillar.

Now that the wall was repaired, I could deal with the pillars. Several pillar caps were broken.

If I had a laser cutter I would cut them, and if I had a 3D printer I'd print them, but having neither (yet), I had to use my imagination.

Cardboard, filler, paint - and you wouldn't see a difference, unless you were looking very, very closely and also knew what you were looking for. I am quite proud of myself. 

I did the same with all pillar caps that were badly damaged, otherwise I used filler. And really, there are faults on real houses as well, particularly on old houses. 

The final steps were the pediment and the railing. A bit of the railing is missing, and I don't think I will find it among my stuff as I have already sorted all supplies. 

Not much I can do right now, but I see a couple of solutions I could try.

And I was right: I feel SO MUCH BETTER now that the facade is restored.

Next: front doors.

Step by step: upper hall

Like the grand entrance hall I described yesterday, upper hall has no predecessors in any earlier projects, and, also like the grand hall, I had no other options than to build it as designed. (I guess I could have closed the stairwell and make a different room, but then the grand staircase would not lead anywhere, and that wouldn't make sense).

This is the most recent view:



Similarly to the grand hall, it took me a long time to plan, and, for instance, I knew that I needed to finish the floors before I could attach the railings.

I knew from the beginning that the hall would be yellow, so when I tentatively painted the back of the house, the back wall of the hall was yellow and has remained so.

 

This is the first picture of the hall - the shell not glued yet, and it stayed the same for a very long time. I put some objects in so that  it didn't feel totally empty - as I did with all other rooms, but at this point I didn't know at all what else might be here. I made a chandelier to hang over the stairwell, but it was too heavy to attach with tack, and it would be some time before I could attach it permanently.

During the Christmas party in 2014, that I have referred to several times, the hall looks just as three months earlier, but my guests didn't notice that there were no floors nor railings. Just tells you how much people pay attention.




I thought I would have long vertical panels on the back wall that I cut from old postcards, but then I found a set of magnets in a museum shop. This was still before I glued the shell.

When I finally did glue the shell, I was busy making floors and hanging wallpaper, and anyway, I didn't quite know yet what I wanted to do with the hall. I would put in some objects and then move them away as they found their place elsewhere. It wasn't until April 2015 that I finally decorated the ceiling as I had planned for a while and attached the chandelier, but only because I was sealing off the rear corridor from the floor of which the chandelier was to hang.

At some point I must have inserted the window, but not registered it. It is a slightly stupid window because as my house stands by the wall, there is no view and not even any light coming in,although I have ideas about what to do with it.

In the pictures from late November 2015, when my son-in-law made lights, you can still see that the upper hall is a mess.





No floors, no railings, and even the doors are not inserted yet. But all other rooms were sort of finished, so it was high time to deal with the hall.

I finished the floor, which was a laborious task, but truly rewarding.

 

I say it in the linked blog post, but I will say it again: I estimate that it took me 50 hours to make this floor. Talk patience!

Then I finally tackled the small back stairs and the railings, and if you have ever made railings you know that they just won't stay. Again, I could have discarded the railings that came with the kit and built my own with individual spindles, but this will be in my next life.

 

Looking back at the process, like this, makes me realise again how much time and effort lies behind every part of this project. I am glad I have documented it in detail, for instance, finally inserting doors,  adding mouldings and making the Adam ceiling.

And that's it, really. All that has changed - or has been constantly changing - is new Chippendale chests and side tables moving in and out.



There is only so much you can have even in a Victorian room, so I am not sure what else may happen here. It is doubtless a very grand room and probably the first you see because it is exactly at eye level. I am pleased that it has turned out so well.

Balcony rail and more

This weekend I returned to the exterior of the house. Last time I worked on the exterior was half a year ago, in July. This speaks volumes about the meanderings of dollhouse building.

The roof balcony rail had been lying on my window sill, and every time I saw it I just took a deep breath and said to myself: Not now. All the railings I had sanded and painted and sanded again made me reluctant to start on a piece with 48 spindles. Yet one day it had to be done, and the day had arrived. After all my training I now have some shortcuts. I have also finally figured out how to use a tool that I had never used for its initial purpose: a lady shaver with a nail polishing tool.

I know some people use electric toothbrushes, but I have never managed to attach sandpaper to a brush. But here it was simply to use tape. It made the job easier and faster, but I had to wear a mask for the dust. 

Then there was painting and more sanding and trimming, and it turned out that what I thought was a deliberate cut-off for adjustment was actually a broken piece. Well, too late.

While I was at it, I also glued on the large pediment. I am not sure why I had not done before.

Result:

Lessons learned: unlike many other steps where I immediately saw the improvement I am not sure. Does it look more finished? I can see from the picture that the upper front edge, right below the railing, must be repainted white. I can state again that the fronts do not close properly so I need to work on that.

The next step on the exterior is the front staircase, and I have already spent hours of frustration over it. The instructions I received, upon repeated requests, from the manufacturer were not helpful, and there are things that don't match. The only thing I could get the manufacturer to admit was that the stairs cannot be attached to the house because the main fronts won't open then. I think this is a big miscalculation in this new model.

The easiest way would of course be to ignore the stairs altogether, but they do add an interesting feature. So this will keep me busy in the coming weeks. Come back soon.

Upper hall

I am meticulously showing the slow progress of decorating because it needs to be emphasised that behind each detail there may be hours of work. After the previous stage in the upper hall, when I glued the railing, I had to do the following.  First, I put in the two side doors, which in the previous pictures I tried to avoid showing. These are the absolutely last doors in this house, and they took just as much effort as all other doors. I don't know whether it is just me or whether doors are evil by nature, but they don't fit the openings. The simple explanation is that the openings have swollen from paint, and no, I didn't paint the inside edges because some merciful person warned me not to. Still, the doors don't fit, and a lot of scratching and sanding is required. There may be an easier way of doing this if you have the right tools, but I am just saying that the uninitiated who think that putting in doors is child's play - like Lego or Playmobil - don't know anything about dollhouses. Anyway, after some hours of huffing and puffing and swearing the doors were in and the surrounds glued. Did it make a difference! It's amazing how you forget what a difference it makes. It has been a very long time since the previous painful door-inserting, but now it feels really finished... almost.

For next, I had to do the skirting which I probably should have done before the railing - but whatever you do, there will always be something you should have done before. The skirting was straightforward, but still laborious, and after gluing, the skirting boards had to be held in place with masking tape. Oh masking tape, dollhouse builder's best friend!

Now, to an uninitiated eye, this picture may seem perfect:

True, it is a huge improvement. Especially compared to what it looked like fifteen months ago. But it isn't quite finished yet. The ceiling will be decorated with Adam paper, which I will have to cut and assemble to match the existing panel. There will be another chandelier in the front of the room.  To hang it, I will have to drill a hole in the ceiling, for which I will have to remove the floor upstairs. I could perhaps attach the chandelier without drilling a hole, but I will need to figure out how to do it neatly. I will add the cornices, for which I probably will need to remove the Victorian tiles because they sit too high. When I attached them I had forgotten about the cornices. I will also add door pediments, and I think I know how I will make them, but I am not sure whether it will work.

Not least, I will need to trim all small faults here and there, round thresholds, in corners. It will most probably take me 10-15 hours to complete this room - but then, a room is never completed, is it?

Stairs and railing

I could not postpone it any longer and felt I really needed to finish this decisive stage. It is eight months since I started working on the great stairs. I am glad that I wasn't satisfied with half-measures and actually made the steps one by one. The way the house is developing in its grandeur, it would have looked horrible without this improvement. Possibly, I regret that I haven't also made the railing with individual spindles as some people do. This is something I can do some time in the future when everything else is perfect.

I have been reluctant to glue the stairs and railings because - as my miniature friends have warned me - it is next to impossible to decorate around them. But sooner or later it has to be done, and now it is already later than late. I found the booklet of assembly instructions that I last used almost a year ago and looked up how to fix the stairs. I have had them temporarily fixed with tack on several occasions, but it is only when you start the actual gluing that all the issues emerge. As always, the instructions say cheerfully: "Glue and..." They do not say: "Let the glue set before your glue the next newel post". And they do not mention miles of masking tape to hold the pieces together. The thing is, it would be pointless to ask anyone to help because there is hardly space for my two hands inside the room. Thus: let the glue set and wait and do something else meanwhile ( which is exactly what I did).

Here I am not even halfway:

You can say that you have seen this picture before, and you have, but at that time it was just held together by tape and white tack. Now the main stairs are glued on, the side stairs are glued on, one straight railing is glued on, and everything is setting, held together by tape. The large chandelier is taped to the ceiling to give me space to work. I am just praying that under the tape it all sits correct. But it is beginning to look good. 

Here I have added the other side railing and glued newel posts to the front railing.

Three hours later, it looks like this, still with tack and tape:

I think it is important to remind everybody that when the instructions simply say "Glue" it can take many, many hours. And when people admire finished dollhouses they have no idea how much work there is behind the beautiful stairs and railings.

Come back soon to see how it turns out.