Tavern/Inn doors are on...

Two windows and a door are on order but the DOORS are on at last!  There will be a sort of porch for the second floor...eventually.  

Progress! The town of Facetious

             I have just finished, cutting out and gluing together where needed, ALL the fronts for my shops AND houses!!!!!!!  

     I will not speak of windows ahead to be built because it is daunting.  The coverings of these doors does not phase me, most of them already in plastic bags ready to be applied both insides and outsides.

            I think my arms and hands are tired from the long bout of x-acto cutting and maneuvering of large pieces of heavy duty foam core board.

            But the dollhouse/shop building, the things themselves (contents are a joy) is coming to an end and I can tell you I am glad.  Outsides and shells are a necessity but it’s the stuff inside that is the joy although a pretty interior makes it all worth while.

The white fronts are just taped on lightly to see how the fully-fronted effect would be.  

            These are the houses/residences.   L to R; the Tavern/Inn, Merebrick, Port Brown and Slothaven.  

            The white bit next to the tavern is the Inn’s entry and dining room above.  The tall white front to the left of Merebrick is the new big extension of Merebrick.  The white below Port Brown is the cellar.  

          And the yellow Slothaven is on the far right.  I can hardly believe now that I cut all those windows out of matboard (insides & outsides)!   And the board and batten outside was also matboard cut in strips and strip wood for the battens. 

 

These are the stores and and the far right, the yellow brick school building.  And on top of the Gateman building (in grey with white windows, is the bandstand on which is faded brick paper and will need finishing and refurbishing someday.   There is the pergola to it’s right but that has my oriental bits in it just now.

            The Tall building is just that, the tall white one.   Below the pinky (ugh!) bakery is the Pharmacy/Grocery and below the green trim/beige building is the Pawn Shop/Telegraph office/Barber/Hardware.   The green front under the grey Gateman building is the Dry Goods store, the one front I got done though windows are lacking.

            It’s a good thing the floor is not visible as it is one heck of mess.

            These are days and a vision I want to remember when, hopefully and God-willing, I will have all these fronts DONE and the faded ones refurbished!  

Slothaven's Parlor taking shape!

 I don't know if I've posted a pic of the parlor since I re-papered it from dark blue to this nice light stuff.  Now one can see the doors back there.   I've got 3 LED wall lights for it and I now like this room much more.  The fireplace is still under construction and the sofas will be recovered someday.



And below you can see the front hall (still working on stuff there) and the kitchen. 

Slothaven's Dining Room, New Fireplace!

This has been a loooonggg time coming!  The overmantel I made a while back but I just recently added a heavy top (plaster or resin or whatever that stuff is) and the bottom is very old.  It was a dull grey and I added wood to it on the back & sides and some trim bits and painted that puppy all white to go with the overmantel.  I JUST LOVE IT!  It makes Slothaven's dinging room come alive for me.
I also refinished 9 really cheap chairs, you can see them scattered about.  There is a Chrynsbon china cabinet the doors of which I am giving new "glass" (plastic) so it's not in there.  

And this room is all about the blue and white china.       There is still more to come, crown moulding, a picture rail and door knobs....

The second picture shows the fireplace better.
 

 

Many items being made...

I have been going full-tilt lately, lots of cheap furniture bought ages ago (25 years) being refashioned and refurbished and other bits being made and other items started (also about 25 years ago) being finally finished off.   Here is how my workplace looks just now.

And here I took a print I copied somewhere off the net of mini-dominoes, pasted it it to a piece of card and cut them carefully out, black and white.   Then I made this small wooden box just for them using scraps from my 2 "Wood Bits boxes.    I finished it with acrylics and made the clasp out of a bit cut out of a filigree.    Putting the dominoes in the box when done happened nearly 2 weeks later, no small job, had to use tweezers.   But I like the result.  First pic is half-full and then full up to the top.

And here is a "trunk" I made and didn't finish way back in 1997.  Well, it got finished up and I am relieved.  I couldn't bring myself to toss it as it was my first attempt at this kind of thing, and it's not very exciting but I am sentimental about it and glad to have it done.  It is going to go in to the nanny's room in Merebrick, it's her trunk.   

The Shops get built, Part 2

I also built a Grocery with a Pharmacy upstairs.   I love having advertisements on the buildings!   The interiors have a loooonnnngg way to go but I got a unit built for the Pharmacy late last year though I still haven't filled it up.   The exterior is a white brick (paper).

 Here is the shop building underneath the Fish and Deli shops.  The space to the left of the Deli shop will have a stair up to the second floor which is an art studio. 
The building beneath will have a barber and a hardware shop downstairs and a pawn shop and switchboard & telegraph office upstairs.    I haven't yet glued the floors together as work still progresses - EXTREMELY slowly.

And lastly, the Tall Building (I call it).  I added some to the right hand side which doubled it's width and allowed me to have - 1st floor a Photographer, a Hall with a door to The Daily Irony which is the newspaper of the town of Facetious) and a shoe-shine stand and magazine, newspaper & cigar stand as well as a fake door which will indicate an elevator to the other floors.   The second floor will be a Ladies Emporium and the third floor has a lawyer's office an a doctor's office.   The fourth floor is a sort of civic hall for any activity I want to show happening there.   I am thinking of adding a winter garden/conservatory on top but I may not as it too high up.  Whatever will happen to that lovely staircase if so...I don't know.    And sitting inside this building for no earthly reason, is my farmer's stand and on the first floor the door(s) that will be in the front when front's there be.

The Shop shells get built, part 1

I've got a fair amount of arthritis now and so I decided when the weather warmed up (finally) in 2018, to at last build the shops I've wanted since the 90's.   Since this involved using the table saw I spent a LOT of time planning things down to the last 1/8" so as not to have to do any more cutting than absolutely necessary.   

I have to confess that when I began building my houses back in the 90's I was unbelievably careless with the power tools.  I worked barefoot, without eye protection (other than my glasses) and hand protection.   But I never had a mishap though I burnt out a jig saw I recall.   Anyhow, this summer I began to build the shops that sit under the older shops (you'll see what I mean by that later)   I got the shells built and fronts will come, hopefully in 2019.

The first was my Housewares store.  It is 24" wide and 14 1/2" deep and about 12" tall.    The Big unit on the back was is an old printer's tray I found 10 years or more ago in an antique mall and this is what I planned for it.   The shelf units are all glued in and filling them is going to be, I truly hope, years of enjoyment. 

The weird painting in the 3rd picture is the bottom of the old Shop building I call the Gateman building.  It was something I painted way back in the 90's.  I have since made a nice wooden ceiling which means you can no longer see it.  The Gateman building (with the grey brick and red door) sits on top of this one.   The beautiful green exterior doesn't really show to advantage in these photos.