The Inspiration photo

I just realized that I never posted the Inspiration photo that made me want to create this house. I love this photo. My cousin, Tracy took this photo of his kids and the house. I was immediately taken by this house and the stunning detail in the architectural details. He is a very talented photographer.

 I originally was going to have the refrigerator here. But, decided that the kitchen needed a pantry. That will also hide the wire from the front porch light. :)

But, by making a pantry I needed to cut out some of the bead board that was already glued in. Oops!

 Here is my pantry. Again, using the supplies that I have on hand, I put together a small wall that will go all the way to the ceiling in the kitchen. I have a ceiling in the pantry and will be installing a LED light in here and run the wire down through the floor and into the basement entrance and attach a switch there.

I needed to make a door. I was looking at some online and seen some pantries that have screen doors. I fell in love with them. So, I made my door. I love the way it turned out. This was the first time I have really used the teeny tiny nails (brads) for what they are suppose to be for, attaching the hinges. :) LOL

I love it! Yes, the door opens and shuts. I was thinking that I can hear the boards creaking on the floor, the old door squeaking and the old house noises. :)

I love the floor. I am very happy that I went with this floor and not the other tile one. I just I will have to find some other place for that. Maybe a hallway, ripped and torn up and patched with other tile. hmmm...

Kitchen Floor problems

Well, this is what I was going to use for the kitchen floor. I found a print on Google and saved it, adjusted it on my photo software and then printed it out. Sprayed with some matte sealer and then cut it up. But, now that I have it here, I don't like it! I think it is too busy with the wallpaper and just not sure about the greens.......


I asked my oldest daughter what her opinion was and she agreed with me that there was too much going on. :)

So, we are doing the wooden floor. That was my original idea, but then found the tile and fell in love with it. So, I have sticks laid, and my "bug juice" on it. The bug juice is a combination of rubbing alcohol and Indian ink. "Holly" from Greenleaf forums suggested this for anything you want to age. I LOVE it!!!!!!

Front entrance

Well the front is coming along. I love how this is turning out. I wish I had more time to work on it, but of course there is family, dishes, laundry, food to make, school, and many other things on the farm. :) But, it's nice to have this as an outlet to work on. The screen door is only leaning on the other door at the moment, but will be attached by one hinge. I want to door to be part way off, as if it isn't used much. Gramma doesn't get out much and no body comes to visit. :)

Lights!

 
We have light!!!! There is a huge glare, I will have to touch up the bulb and make it dirty and dim. :) But, the lights are working. All through the lower half. YES!!!! I can't wait to put some
 more lights in. I love a dollhouse lit up.

Electricity!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GRRRR!!!!!

Ok, so this is a little new to me. I have done some basic wiring in one dollhouse. That doesn't mean that I can figure this out. I am wanting to run tape wire throughout the house because I don't know exactly where I will be putting all of the lighting fixtures. But, I also want to use hard wire to run some of the lights that I know where are going to be. I read a post at Greenleaf about running wires through the house and onto a piece of tape wire. I am using my basement entrance way to hide my wiring and make it easy to access. I did all the soldering but once I plugged in the transmitter it started to smoke!!!!! So...... started over again. I am still not sure what I did wrong, but I got it fixed. I also found out about a product that I didn't know they had... Liquid Electric Tape!!! YES!!! What a great product. As you can tell, I was a bit messy with it. But, this was before I tore it all up, it removed easily.  So now I have lights throughout the lower half of my house. Including on/off switches. :)


My tape wire in the lower half.














Now to figure out how to make the LED's to work
with the tape wire and hard wire...... hmmmm.
Anyone have any ideas?

Painted Front Entrance

 Here is a couple pictures of the painted wood work of the front entrance. I used black paint for the undercoat, after drying I added crackle medium and let that dry fully. Then added wicker white very quickly. You are not suppose to go over top of the paint, but I wanted more of a lifted look so I went over it in places. I also learned from Brae that you can use a paper towel to lift some of the paint off. Love this look.

A close up of the Front door area. I love the way it looks. This is coming along great!

Finished Island

I just realized that I never put any pictures here of my finished island. It was so fun working on it. I had never worked in half inch scale before so it was a new experience and fun doing something like a beach. :) Greenleaf announced the winners last week. I didn't win, but wasn't expecting too. I could not believe all of the outstanding entries. There were so many that were simply beautiful. Here is the link to go and see for yourself.  http://www.greenleafdollhouses.com/forum/index.php?app=gallery&album=5999

Here are a few pictures of my island. :)

 The inside lobby.

 This is where the owner of the Island lives. His old VW wagon.

 Left side view of the Island.

 Lobby behind the Front desk.

The motor house, this Island goes out to sea by the this powerful motor. And a small row boat in case there is an emergency. :)

The right side of the Island.

Looking straight onto the Island. You will notice a nice pool for those visitors that do not want to swim in the Ocean.

Our beautiful waterfalls greet you as you enter the Hotel lobby.

Solar panels that help to run the electricity on this Island.

A Tiki Bar. We have fresh snow cones, slushies, and many items for fill you up.

Another view of the Tiki Bar.

 The old VW wagon, that the owner sleeps in. It needs lots of TLC.

Front porch wood work

I began work on the front porch. As you can tell by the original picture there is many angles going on here. I love the architectural detail here. It's stunning! I tried to create the same detail here. I went over some of the gaps with filler and then sanded very lightly after it was dry. I can't wait to see this painted and dirtied up. :)

 

Thought I would also try out the doors that I had and see it they work. Seems good. Will need to change the main front door. Add some detail on the top to match the house.

Stone work started

Going to be updating this blog and hopefully keeping it updated on a regular basis. :)



Been working on the stone for the base of my house. In the original picture it is hard to tell what the basement is made of. After getting more pictures, I can see that it is made of old stone. Colors of brown, tans and beige. Here is the bay stone work done. All from egg carton. I am really trying to use what I have on hand or what I can make for this house. I don't want to spend much to create this house. So, I will be putting my creative hat on for this.