Day Four.....just fiddling !

Day four was spent mostly fiddling, doing a bit more preparation and trying tofigure out the best working order for me.

According to my trusty instruction manual I should now have my front and side opening panels hinged on and be attaching my finishing trims to the building.

Instead I fiddled..........................

Here you can see my living quarters above the shop. These two walls both slide out easily for decoration. I had to try them out for size and they do indeed come in and out with ease which will make the eventual decoration of the house a whole lot easier.

The back wall of the shop also slips in and out for decoration and is only permanently attached once the back wall and stairs are decorated. This wall was a bit tricky so I rigged up a makeshift "jig" of some books to ensure my walls were square while the glue dried.

This worked very well and resulted in a lovely back wall which fits like a dream.

Here you can see the attic space which I love so much complete with the dividing wall underneath.

This is a removeable wall too and can be placed pretty much anywhere giving choice as to the size of the upper rooms.

I have four rooms above the shop to play with and havent decided yet what they are going to be. The only room that is really essential will be a work shop where the toys are made so I am giving this a lot of thought.

I have stories to tell in this house and I need to think things out carefully before making my final decision and decorating the inside of the house accordingly.

I did some more work to the shop front, fitting the supports and then the shelves for the shop windows. I know I definitely want curtains
on the inside of the shop windows to act as a back drop to the wondrous toys displayed there !
The window surrounds and shelves will be simply painted cream.

I then began the prep for the windows and trims.

First I sorted out which trim went where, which
took ages. There are no pictures of the actual trim in the instructions, just sketches of the finished house indicating where each piece goes .

It took a little time to identify each piece and of course I had one piece missing !

I also found the long side pieces of trim to the upper part of the house were more damaged than they seemed at first glance.

I have contacted the suppliers to ask if they can replace these parts . I should be able to improvise if there are any problems but hopefully I wont have to ......... I haveto figure out a door step for the short door too !

I then gave the windows and window trim their first coat of enamel paint. I'm using antique white which looks lovely. Then I put the chimney together which you can see was a simple case of glueing together the parts provided and leaving to dry over night.

More coats of paint were added to the windows as the day went on and I am now ready to attach them to the house and put the whole thing together !

The instructions say not to attach the chimney until the roof is decorated but as I am using real slates on the roof and brick slips on the chimney I think it will be better to attach the chimney first.

As you can see from the last picture with the opening panels simply standing in place, its looking pretty good so far !

julie xxx