And we continue onward

We begin this weeks adventure a little farther than where we left off.  This is the house after a couple hours scrubbing up the old glue.  It finally feels like it is all up, practically a blank slate.  

First thing I did after taking this image was to paint the bare spots with white acrylic paint.  I had help with this from an adventurous young man, of seven years, who learned to pull the paintbrush rather than try pushing it. Together we painted the floor and walls of the attic, then he helped me by sanding rough spots on the underside of the dormer while I was sanding another section of the house. We also confirmed that sandpaper is rough like a brick. :)

I decided that since some of the paper in the bedroom had gotten wet and a little torn, that I should put up a high wainscoting.  I chose a dark teal coloration that I blended myself.  This was applied to corrugated paper, which stands in pretty well for bead board.

After a first coat of paint I wanted to make sure I liked it against the  wallpaper.  I really do. Also evident in this image (barely), is the area where I widened the opening for the stairs.  I ordered a new set as I didn't recall seeing any in the box, though J remembers putting them at least partially together.

First, let me start by saying it was dark outside by this point...   

I picked up what I thought was a dark brown paint, to base-coat under the areas where I might be laying down individual floorboards, so gaps in the wood would be less appartent.  Having watched other bloggers do so, I decided I should too...

That doesn't look very brown to me, let me try the flash...

!!!  Yep, I have deep purple underlayment. And I splotched it onto the wall. Attempts to wipe that up failed utterly and spread the paint more. Good thing I had already planned on covering the walls 2/3 of the way up.  

Below, the wainscoting is installed and the windows very roughly cut out to get a feel for it. I do plan on painting over the purple in a dark brown.

Below is my second or third dry fit of the stairs.  I have not yet decided on stain and/or paint for the staircase.  I do think I want a runner down the center of the stairs, but need to pick living room colors and find something I like that complements both the living room and bedroom.

And the view from downstairs.  Looking at this, I just realized I did not paint that wall the stairs are against.  It will get a base coat of white when I next pull the house out and work on it.

Do not be alarmed! The gold is intentional, and really has a purpose, I promise. 

It is going to be an arched alcove area for the tub. It might even end up with a Moroccan shape to the arch.  I have seen these in architectural drawings from the 1920's and 1930's.  Granted, They aren't usually gilded, but I wanted something that would really throw around the light and be eye catching.  

The lady of the house deserves a touch of glamour after spending all day cleaning and cooking.  I am still not sure if my idea is genius or insane.  Stay tuned to find out!

I also have picked up the french doors for downstairs.  Since I am wrapping the porch around this side, I figured it might be nice to have them here at the back of the living room.

I have to show off the very thoughtful and lovely gift that J gave me.  (Platonic Life-mates totally rule!)  This sewing machine will likely end up in the attic space, after I rejigger the roof-line and decide on the deco up there.

So, there you have it for now.  I spent part of last weekend working on a bed.  I found an adorable idea on Pinterest that involved taking clothes pins apart and using them for the bedposts.  Unfortunately I did not snap a shot of it before putting everything away for the evening.

Stay tuned for more adventures!

In which demolition happens...

Though all of these are posted today, this project has been ongoing for a few weeks.  I am working on it as I can. One of the first things I did was remove the roof, so I could plot out how I might make it look more like this, but not as deep on top. Sort of half way between the original and the roof line below.

Last week I began on removing the floors, starting with the living room.  It was both easier and more difficult than I anticipated.  Under the wood flooring sheet was the original attempt at a paper parquet.  Decades ago, when J installed the first floor, she and her mother agreed that it just wasn't quite right, and didn't really look like wood.  Luckily J's mom found the wood floors and things progressed from there.

I removed the floor as carefully as I could, using a metal putty knife to slide below and gently lift. Here are some images of that process.

It did not come up as prettily as it did in some of the blogs I have been reading for research/reference/fun.

Luckily it came up in sheets for the most part.  It had been glued down to a paper backing when it was manufactured. J then glued this down to the floor.  It came up with very little damage to the backing paper, so I should be able to reuse them in the way I hope to. I think I have decided to leave the kitchen floor as it is.  A big part of me wants to leave some of the original influence.

This was a sticky process. Once I got the floor up we gently sprayed down the area with water and began to scrub off the glue. The second floor was made more difficult by the fact that firstly, there was not parquet flooring underneath. Secondarily, J learned as she went. There was way more glue on the second floor.

This process took a few hours. I'd peel up a floor, spray it down, scrub and scrape, and let it sit while I began on the next one. The bathroom was the worst of the lot for me. Not only was the glue job more through, we jokingly said that she must have used a bottle and a half on the floor of the bathroom alone.

By the time I finished for the evening, I was so very sticky, my tools were sticky, a scrubber was ruined, and sticky.  I had only gotten up about 2/3 of the glue from the upper floors, but it was time to be done.  You might also notice that some of the wallpaper has been removed, J worked on the downstairs while I was removing the bathroom floor. Next time I will update with pictures of the hopefully glue-free and clean floors.

After Much deliberation...

The process begins.  I am choosing to take the approach of a couple of my favorite home remodeling shows (Good Bones and Fixer Upper).  I want to make it new, while honoring it as it was.  And of course there will likely be ship-lap somewhere just because.  Here are images of the house condition when I was gifted it.

I cannot put into words the shock and love I felt when presented with it.   It is a Greenleaf Peaches & Cream from the early 1990's.  For various reasons, J never finished it, and she told me it had "languished, unloved on a dusty shelf in the garage".  She has most of the original pieces, plus some furniture that is mostly in "needs to be assembled" state.  Here is where she would tell me that I have furniture...

The bottom two floors are wood planking with varied width of planks, installed when J was in the 7th or 8th grade.  Upstairs is a printed paper parquet floor on half of the attic.  All rooms except the kitchen (downstairs, left) are wallpapered.  Most of the paper has seen much better days. The attic and bathroom (upstairs, left)  have seen the worst of the ware and discoloration.

The only walls I plan on not redoing are the bedroom, which are cream with a light blue-green floral print.  I am debating changing the pitch of the attic roof and adding a widow's walk.


J floored over the opening for the stair in the bedroom.  Since I am planning on removing all the floors and starting that from scratch, I will likely order a set of stairs for that spot.  This would let me have more head-room up there and make decorating the inside easier, but sounds like major surgery to me but could also mean that I could take the floorboards and use them as ship-lap in the attic!

The door being off center by just-that-much really annoys me, even though I know it is that way to allow for the stairs.  I am debating switching the door and window placement in the living room so that I can put in a smaller window, more centered on the one above it. I am also contemplating a set of French doors on the side wall of the living room. That would also allow me to wrap the porch around that side and visually balance out the new placement of the door a little,

While I am wrapping the porch around, I may make it a double porch by hanging it flat instead of angled. then the bedroom also has an access to the outdoors.

Decisions, decisions....

And so it begins...

One of my best friends saw an opportunity to give me something I had always wished for. It had lost the meaning for her that it once had, and in an act of compassion this dollhouse became mine. she encouraged me to make the changes I need to make to make it feel my own, and to explore creatively.

I do have ideas about where I'm going with this. And I intend to drag her along laughing all the way to help me see this to fruition.