Danish house, part 4

 Read part 1, part 2 and part 3 of this story. 

As I have mentioned before, the original Hanse houses had a small front gable that the previous owner had removed in favour of the middle partition. The gable has two purposes. It supports the roof when there is no partition. And it will conceal display lights when I come that far. First, I made a template from cardboard. 

For the real thing, I used foam board. 

When it dried, it looked like this: 

I think this is a lovely feature of this old house that makes it so distinct from later models and from Lundby houses. 

My next step was making windows. The original Hanse houses didn't have window frames, and maybe it was fine for children to play with, but it doesn't look natural. I wanted windows in appropriate functionalist style ("funkis"), and they are relatively easy to make from coffee stirrers and recycled folder covers. 

This is what they look like on the outside and inside: 

The ground floor window is ready, but not inserted yet because I haven't decided what I want to do with wallpaper. 

After this hard work I rewarded myself by arranging furniture including the old Brio kitchen which still needs to be designed properly. I don't know what the middle room will be so at the moment there are two "bat" chairs there. Under the stairs I have temporarily arranged a bathroom; the equipment is Renwall rather than Brio, but for the time being it will do. 

 

Next steps include floors and roof. Come back soon. 

Danish house, part 3

 Read the first and second part of this story. 

I was of course eager to go on with the interior, but I knew I would be irritated by the glue blobs so I took a deep breath and started working on them. As already mentioned, a hair dryer didn't help - who knows what kind of glue it was. The only way was to scrape off the glue carefully with a scalpel, moistering and rubbing slightly - my fingertips proved the most useful tool. You can still see that something happened there, but then it can happen in full-size houses too, and I didn't want to damage the surface. 

Then I painted the back wall. It wasn't absolutely necessary, but I don't want to have someone else's graffitti on my house. I painted with white. At some point I may paint in a matching colour. For now, it simply looks fresh. 

Next, I painted ceilings on the ground floor. In the existing pictures of Hanse houses, it is not clear what original ceilings look like, but I would paint them white anyway, in keeping with Jacobsen style. Anyone who has painted inside small rooms knows what a job it is. You need a whole set of brushes to get into all corners. I also painted the upper halves of walls in the middle and right-hand rooms. I am not sure yet whether I will keep the blue tiles, but unpainted walls don't look good. 

Now came the part that I had been looking forward to: putting up the wallpaper. I had this Jacobsen wallpaper, printed from the web, as a backdrop in the shelf with Jacobsen furniture. I think it's stunning. Jacobsen designed many papers, floors and curtains, but this is my favourite (although I am not sure I would have it in my full-size home). 

The job was both easy and hard. Easy because it is a geometrical pattern, matching neatly. Difficult because of the sloping roof and because I had to cut out openings for windows. I made templates from plain paper before I cut the fancy ones. I am very pleased with the result. I have temporarily put in a carpet from an earlier project. I have studied pictures of Jacobsen-style rooms, and they have either wall-to-wall carpets, plank or parquet. I hate wall-to-wall carpets and would never have one in my home (revomed immediately when we bought a house in England), but I feel it will be period-appropriate. I will go to an upholstery shop and beg or buy a sample for the upper floor. I haven't yet decided about the ground floor. 

As usual, I want to test the project with furniture even if it isn't finished. Suddenly the red staircase rail that looked conspicuous in the empty room goes nicely with the red sofa and chairs. I might still paint it later. 

I feel I have come a long way. But there is a lot to be done yet. Come back soon. 

Tudor restoration

After a long break in house restoration I felt I should turn my attention to my other houses since Womble Hall is more or less presentable. The Tudor house hasn't suffered as much as Womble Hall, and the worst damage was totally my own fault. After I had unpacked the house, I left it unattended overnight, and it was attacked by wild beasts who managed to pull it down from the table onto the floor, during which the roof went off.

I feel strong affection for the Tudor house, because it was found in a dump, and I restored it and added a lot of details both inside and outside. I did extensive research on various period-correct features, and although I would never say that a project is finished, the Tudor house was as complete as it can be. It was even featured in a dollhouse magazine.

Just as with Womble Hall, this is an excellent occasion to revise and improve some things. It has been eight years since I did the main work on the Tudor, and I haven't done much on it once it was sort of done. There are many things I would do differently and probably better today, and there are things that simply need repair.

The first thing was to mend the roof, and fortunately all shingles were somewhere inside the house, and I had spares from when I first made the roof. So it was first a matter of gluing loose shingles back and then fixing the roof on the house.

Before going on with interior details I decided to do something I had been planning all along but never got round to. The house clearly used to have a front that could be closed and opened. Right now it is more important than ever because it needs to be protected from wild beasts, but hopefully also keep off at least some dust. 

I cut the front from a large piece of board which I otherwise use for bookbinding, another hobby I have. It has an irregular shape because the three stories of the house go over each other, as they did in Tudor times to diminish land tax. The board is very thick, and cutting it is always a pain. 

I could not mix an exact match of the yellow paint, but I don't think it matters. Then I made timber frames both on the outside and the inside. 

I used cardboard boxes for "timber" - I am a recycler. 

There were hinges left from when the house had a front, but because my front was made of board rather than wood I could not use the metal hinges. Instead, I made hinges from pieces of leather. The hook that kept the front in place was still there, and I had an eyelet. 

I must admit that I had not noticed the hook before. 

Now I can close and open the house which is both convenient and neat. 

Next, I had to mend the interior. 

At some point, I installed display lights in this house. They weren't working, and I decided to remove them altogether. I wasn't quite happy with them even when they did work, and nowadays there are better technologies in case I want display lights again. 

I started with solar - the upper floor with the great bed.

It was in a better shape than I had feared, but the bed itself was broken. It was, however, easy to mend, and I also added side curtains. 

The solar was thus finished. I didn't add or change anything for the time being.

 

With the great hall and the kitchen I wanted a few more radical changes.

In the past weeks I have been making food from polymer clay. I have already shown my bakery and my greengrocer stall. I borrowed some bread and some veggies to go into the Tudor house. Tudors ate lots of bread, in all social groups. They were not too keen on vegetables, and at that time what was available was mostly cabbage and onions. 

But they were all the more fond of meats. I had meats in my old Tudor kitchen, but as I develop better skills in clay sculpting, I started replacing old meats, mostly made in air-drying clay, with more elaborate ones in fimo. I have used several books for instructions.

I started with ham, steak and leg of mutton, then made a variety of sausages.

 

These hang in front of the inglenook in the kitchen. I have removed objects from the middle and front for better view. 

Yes, there is a pig roasting in the fire!

I made pies and cheeses. 

 

I know the Tudors made cheddar. Not sure about stilton, but it's visually gratifying so it will have to be inauthentic.

Then I had a great test of confidence. The mandatory piece on a Tudor fest table is a boar head. If you told me even a month ago that I would be bold enough to make a boar head from polymer clay I'd say, no way. But I considered it for a while and thought: What do I have to lose? If I fail, I will just knead the clay into a ball and make something else. Again, I followed instructions from a book, telling myself that the artist is after all a human being, working with the same materials and tools as I, so why wouldn't I be able to make it? Judge for yourself. 

 

With these new additions, the great hall has become much more impressive. 

The chicken is the only thing I haven't made myself, but after boar head I am sure I can make anything. 

The full view of great hall: 

 

What I suddenly became aware of, which I believe is the result of my recent evolution as a miniature-maker, is that the furniture looks improbably new. Which of course it is. When I made it, eight years ago, I had no idea how to distress furniture and also would never dare to. So this is something I will need to do next: age and distress the table and benches. Now I have the necessary tools and skills. This is the exciting thing about going back to an old project: you see how much better you have become.

In the kitchen I knew I had to make some sacrifices. I have lots of lovely antique pewter stuff and lots of things I made to look like pewter, some even before I had the Tudor house. For many years I just kept squeezing everything into the house, and in the end you cannot see anything properly. So I deselected almost half of the objects that used to be in the kitchen, on various criteria: size, authenticity and also how they fit in with everything else.

I re-assembled the trestle table and arranged the remaining items on and around it. 

I will stop here for a while. A project is never finished, but at least I won't be ashamed to show this house to a visitor. 

House restoration: front stairs

I was reluctant to deal with front stairs because I remembered the pain of assembling it the first time. I had completely forgotten that I had repaired it once before, after an attack by wild beasts. It gave me courage, and I took out the broken parts for inspection.

I also remembered that the stairs had been broken once again before the removal so I cannot blame the movers for this particular damage. The pieces had been packed in a moving box.

A couple of steps were missing.

I found one, and I believe I saw another one somewhere so I will probably find it among my supplies three years from now, but it is easy to make a new one.

Doing it a third time made me more confident.

What I did this time was enforce the seams with filler, just to make the whole structure more stable. As I have mentioned before, there is a major flaw in this design because the front stairs must be removed every time the fronts are opened. I have considered getting rid of the stairs altogether, but they do add a nice feature. So it's a matter of making them solid.

If you wonder why I haven't removed the LED light and battery - it is the only light still working. Probably because it traveled packed in a box.

I had to cheat slightly with the upper rail, but I did it the first and the second time as well. Filler is useful.

But at this point I once again decided that the back arch was unnecessary. The structure seems stable.

So all I did was add the horse heads. One was lost, but fortunately I had a spare.

I think the horse heads add an interesting feature to the facade.

Now I need to figure out a smart cat-proof way of attaching the stairs for easy removing. Maybe velcro?

House restoration: roof

Mending the roof is a huge project, and I have realised that it was a piece of good luck that it had come off because it is much easier to do the necessary repairs on a table rather than reach over balancing on a ladder.

The roof is covered with slates that I made from card. I am full of admiration for people who make individual slates or tiles from clay, but I think my method works fine.

Some of the slates appeared to be missing.

But on closer inspection they have just shifted.

Not a single one was missing, all because they are strips rather than individual slates. So it was just a matter of gluing them back.

By the way, I have found a perfect tool for the kind of repairs I am dealing with.

I think it came with my cellphone, to attach protective film to the screen. It has proved handy for spreading glue under unstuck paper or card.

As I was looking at the roof contemplating possible improvements it suddenly struck me that I should have made scores between slates. Isn't it the most obvious thing? How come I had never noticed it before? So I went all over the roof with my bone folder and metal ruler. Yes, it took me an hour, but look at the before and after and see whether you think it was worth the effort.

I have already spent 2000 hours on this house (yes, I do keep a log) so another hour is not a big deal.

At some point I may rust a few slates here and there. And maybe let some moss grow in between. But it is another project.

Now that I was finished and happy with the outside it was time to turn the roof over and inspect the inside, that is, the attic ceiling.

All three attic rooms have Adam paper ceilings, which were badly damaged. I considered removing the paper altogether and leave the ceilings bare, but it would be a shame. As you see, two window sills are missing in the dormers. The sills were not part of the original design, but I added them to be able to put flowers and ornaments and even lights in the dormers. I never got that far so now is a good moment. Of course, these will need to be permanently attached so that the roof can be opened without the objects falling out.

Actually, one dormer had come off, so this was the first thing I had to mend.

I now see that apparently I used double-sided tape when I attached the ceiling paper, which was probably the wisest thing to do then, as I was working inside the rooms. Now I can do it easier.

Remembering the pain of gluing on the roof, I scratched and sanded the grooves. Then I glued back the paper.

As I mentioned, two window sills were missing, and I found one, while the other was definitely lost, so I made a new one. I wanted the sills to put some objects on them that would be visible from the outside. They need to be firmly attached, upside down.

So when the roof is on and closed, you can see objects through the windows.

Unfortunately, I cannot glue on the roof yet because I need to do some work on the back, and I cannot move the house on my own. Since I am self-isolating*, like all responsible citizens, it may be weeks before I can get help. But it doesn't matter. The house looks really nice now. Nobody would guess it had been broken.

I will now move inside again. Come back soon.


* In case you wonder why, we are right now, March 2020, in the middle of a pandemic.

House restoration: grand halls

After successfully restoring the facade, I now return to where I left off on the inside, the upper corridor.

As I mentioned, I could not save the ceiling, but fortunately I had more of the fabulous Adam paper so it was just the matter of measuring and cutting carefully. There is a stairwell, and an opening needs to be cut out neatly. Last time I cut it on the wrong side.

There was no way I could replace the torn wallpaper. I didn't have any more of this paper. I could of course use a different wallpaper, but it would mean working in awkward spaces under the stairs. Last time I did the wallpaper before I inserted the stairs. So I just re-attached the torn paper the best I could. It will be hidden behind the breakfront.

This corridor didn't have any ceiling light before because I couldn't find any I was happy with. But some weeks ago I made a lamp at my miniature club, and I think it goes well into this interior. To attach it, I had to drill a hole in the ceiling, pull the cord through the hole and fix under the floor of the room upstairs. Once again, this is a situation when you are glad your floors are assembled on card that can be removed. Remember: never glue your floor directly on the room base!

In the rear corridor, I have a chest of drawers with all kinds of bric-a-brac on it, as Victorian chests would be. I will add all small items when I am done with repairs. The rear corridor used to have lights, which will be another major thing to deal with. But for the time being, the whole second floor is restored, and some people have moved in.




The mistress of the house keeps the distance of six feet from her daughter, the granny is teaching her granddaughter to wash her hands, the maid is dusting the corridor, and the gentlemen are drinking whisky, which doesn't protect against virus, but is a pleasant pastime. (The tiny bottle contains real whisky from Scotland).

(In case you, my dear reader, are reading this ten years from now and wonder what it is about: right now we are in the middle of a bad coronavirus pandemic and told to take all kinds of precautions).

I now move my attention to the two grand halls. They are hugely important because they are the first thing you see. The upper hall was in relatively good shape.

 

The window had come off, but fortunately wasn't broken so I simply pushed it in. Some of the tiles had also come off, but I just glued them back on.

One newel post at the back was broken.

It is a pleasant surprise there was only one, because the whole staircase is delicate and would be very hard to mend.

Finally, the large ceiling rose (a brooch) had come off.

I used the strongest glue I had because it is quite heavy.

I have now overcome the urge to squeeze every piece of furniture I have into Womble Hall. I used to have several chests and tables along the walls, which realistically made it impossible to pass. Now I think I will just have one on each side.

A lot of objects and ornaments can be added in this room, and as with other rooms, the floor needs sanding and polishing.

Meanwhile, I came to what I had been avoiding all the time: grand entrance hall with broken stairs.

This was the first thing I saw when I unpacked the house three months ago, and it made me quite frustrated. Now, after all restoration work I have done, I am much more sanguine. Not a disaster, just something that needs doing. After all, I did it once, and nothing was really broken.

Some floor boards had come off, but I found them and glued them back.

I also thought that, unlike the other rooms, it made sense to sand the floor at this stage, before I put in the stairs. So I did, a bit.

Then I took a deep breath and glued the stairs.

And that was it.

Nothing to feel anxious about.

There are many details to be added, including mirrors and pictures. The back door on the right opens into a corridor where I have a cabinet with stuff on it. There used to be light there that needs to be mended.

I probably need to explain the lopsided chandelier. It's very delicate antique pewter that I am reluctant to bend back into shape before everything else is in place. But I will one day, and I will either find the missing candles or make new ones.

So, against my fears, the two halls didn't demand too much effort.

Next: the roof. It will probably be more problematic.


To be continued.