Tuesday, July 20, 2010

The lakehouse progress

At last I've finished (almost) painting the lakehouse, just some paint dribbles to remove, lol, and one more coat of paint on the windows :)

The floorboards are marked out, and need plank ends and nailmarks added.

The next step is to fix the battens in place on the exterior walls.

Above are the white incised boards which are going to be the ceiling in the bedroom on the top floor.

The house piles which will raise the lakehouse up, and the incised decking have been aged/weathered with a couple of washes of very dilute black acrylic paint. This is the first time I have done any of this sort of thing, and I did lots of colour tests until my brain melted.
One of my problems is that I am usually so afraid of making mistakes that I end up not doing anything at all!! In the end I remembered a line from a Star Trek movie - 'just take your best guess, Mr Spock', lol!! Life's too short to worry so much!

BTW this house is a kit from The Dolls House Emporium 'The Retreat' (here) - if you take a look here you can see more of their fun kits for smaller projects. Their Tollhouse is going to be my medieval enchanter's tower, my next main project.

27 comments:

  1. OMG! I love that so much. I want to live in it by a lake.

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  2. Catherine - that's what our little houses are good for - to live out some unattainable dreams!!
    :)))

    Glenda

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  3. Love the colour you chose, it's all looking wonderful. Can't wait to see inside when you begin to add stuff.

    Thanks for the close up of your weathered decking and telling how you did it. I have to weather a whole roombox scene and have been dithering since the first roombox had to be ditched when I used vinegar 'bug juice'. It gave a good colour but raised the grain so the board markings all but disappeared and I found out it's not archival, the acid remains and will affect the contents of the scene. Mark it up to experience, one of the disadvantages of having no real life miniatures group to learn from! Blogland is a treasure trove of helpful people :)

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  4. It looks great already Glenda, will see how you do your floors! Love those windows, will have great 'views'.

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  5. It's looking great, I love how your raising it!!

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  6. Oh wow Glenda!!! It looks so GOOD! Great job on the painting and color choice.
    I'm going to check out that site because I'm really itching to try out this dollhouse making thing - looks like so much fun!

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  7. Careful, Fiver - it is fun but it's like an avalanche - starts small and then just grows!!

    Glenda

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  8. But Glenda, you are living your dream! :) . This little lakehouse is so cosy already even without being fitted yet , I can imagine how much more it will be after you have given it your magic touches. Did you have it shipped from UK?

    There's something special about a yellow house. People are always crying out "O look at that yellow house" sometimes, just because it is yellow :). I just love French windows

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  9. You've got dribbling going on over there, and there's drooling here! I want one too!! It's going to look sooooo fantastic.

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  10. Susan - if you are doing washes, it's better to do extremely diluted ones and dry it in between, to assess it, as the colour changes when dry.

    Sans - the Dolls House Emporium deals internationally - customers outside the UK are charged in US dollars, and I think that mine was shipped from Singapore!! :)

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  11. Thanks for the extra info Glenda, you'll see the results sometime soon.

    I am soooo tempted to order one of the retreats after peeking at the website! Darn, I have so many ufo's already...

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  12. I love the colour of the lakehouse! Can't wait to see more of this project! And that Tollhause too!:D

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  13. Thankyou, ladies, I'm enjoying making my first house!

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  14. The color is beautiful, so sunny,.... perfect :-))
    groetjes Ingrid

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  15. I love your colours and your weathered decking is fab. This is a great little kit, we made a Bear Makers Cabin with one. Looking forward to seeing how it comes along :0)
    Julia xxxx

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  16. I have this house too, still working on it, but lately I've spend all my time on an other project (a conservatory). This is my retreat: http://blackcatcottage.blogspot.com/2009/11/introduction-to-my-dollshouse.html
    Curious to see your progress on it, looks lovely so far.

    Marit

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  17. I am sure that will transform the kit into a masterpiece! The color is beautiful in spite of initial trouble. The other day I asked DHE in the new catalog and they sent me for the second time the old one :-)
    Mini hugs, flora

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  18. It's beautiful! I think I would like to live there ♥

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  19. Glenda es preciosa, me encanta el color que has elegido, se ve muy acogedora, enhorabuena!!!
    besitos ascension

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  20. I love acrylic washes! They work so well while allowing the wood's beauty to shine through. I did the same thing on my ghost town ranch. :D I love the white ceiling idea - I think the look of individual boards has such a crisp look to it. Perfect for the house by the lake!

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  21. Loving this house! I really like the Dollhouse Emporium kits. They don't ship the dollhouses to California which makes me sad.

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  22. Marit - I visited your beach house - it's lovely, I'd like a weekend there!! :))

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  23. Love the little house, especially all the windows across the front. Can't wait to see more of the progress.

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  24. I love it! So pretty! Can't wait to see your progress.

    Jody

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  25. This is wonderful Glenda....you are doing an excellent job.

    I drool over the tollhouse as well but expected the shipping from the UK to USA to be too expensive. If you had it shipped to you then maybe it isn't as bad as I thought.

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  26. Dear Glenda,

    thank you for joining my blog - that gave me the chance to find you and this wonderful blog of yours. I'm a regular follower of your blog from now on and I can't wait to see your further progress with this wonderful lakehouse and your other projects. I only hope you can stand my lousy English - I'm out of practice.

    Greetings from Germany
    Birgit

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  27. Tallulah Belle - it was almost three years ago that I had this shipped to me, and I think I did it when there was a special at DHE on shipping. I have no idea what shipping would cost now, sorry.

    Birgit - you are very welcome to my blog!! You are also welcome to comment auf Deutsch!! I learned it at university, but have forgotten at lot through lack of use - but there's always Google Translate! :)))

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