not so thoroughly modern mini

long time no post!

wow! it's been a little while, eh? the holidays kept me busy working on full scale knitting projects and now i'm back to minis! today i'm completing the trim around the windows. i don't particularly enjoy working with such tiny, fragile pieces, but i'm getting it done. Unfortunately, i won't have enough trim to finish the last 2 windows, must order more. after this, all of the work is done and i can focus entirely on decorating. i need to get back in the swing of things and see what's new on ebay.

interior almost completed!

i thought i had posted recently, but apparently not! i'm almost finished with the interiors. all of the moulding has been installed and most of the baseboards. interiors doors are in, too! my great idea of the past week was painting two of my interior doors black. my big mistake was not painting the door trim white so that it woud match the baseboards. bah! so, i have 1 black bedroom door with black trim, 1 black livingroom door with black trim. 1 black bedroom door with white trim, and 1 black kitchen door with white trim. the black and white together looks fantastic! oh, well. i'll know better next time. the french door didn't come with it's own trim, so i ordered some. i discovered today that the trim i purchased, which was also to be used on the interior windows, is too thin. drag. it's the only thing standing between me and total interior decoration domination. i bought an  antique german sideboard today. it's made from bird's eye maple and it's a beauty. posting a photo of it on it's own feels like posting a single item of clothing without showing the whole outfit. perhaps i can wait until i've furnished a room? that could take a while...

 

 

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baseboards, oh my!

i've been installing baseboards. i wasn't able to get the elusive 45 degree angle to work on these, so i'm installing without them. it worked pretty well on the moulding, but i just can't for the life of me figure it out here. and besides, one would have to be up in the corners with a flashlight to notice it. so, i'm going to let this one go. and, wonder of wonders, my lighting still works! my junction splice is a little wonky, but i can always replace that. a reader, kathy, requested that i post pics of the entire house. request granted! i'm waiting for my interior doors to arrive. after i have those, i can finish the baseboards. in the meantime, there's more stuff that i want to do with the bathroom. funny that i should start with my least favorite room in this or any house! bathroom pics coming shortly!

furniture: Eames chairs purchased from Elf.

 

 

 

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and we're staining... again.

i decided to overcome my natural inertia and put on a second coat of stain. i sanded, then stained a second time, and then sanded again. i'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. the hardest part of installing the flooring was cutting tiny pieces to go along the edges. total pain in the @ss, but worth it! i also stained the stairs today. i wasn't sure that i was going to do that, but i wasn't crazy about the contrast between the dark floors and the light stairs. next up, baseboards and interior window trim. however, i won't be able to completely finish the baseboards until i install interior doors and i haven't bought any yet! there's plenty to do in the meantime. i received my Elf order today and i am so excited! i kind of want to wait until i'm well on my way to finishing a room before i post pics of new furniture, but i don't know if i'll be able to wait that long! i'll probaby finish the bathroom first. i need to start thinking about accesories that i can make myself. if you have a minis blog, please leave it in the comments! i'd love to see what you're working on!

 

 

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adventures in flooring

my wood flooring arrived all the way from China. you would think it was something super rare and special to have to order it from all the way around the world, but alas, and sadly, like many things it was much cheaper to purchase it there. now that i'm typing this i do feel a slight bit of guilt about my purchase. however, in this case saving about 70% off the cost wins out. it was pretty easy to cut with scissors. much easier than i thought it would be (though i may be needing new scissors soon). it may be a bit challenging where i have to add small pieces to fill in. i'm not quite looking forward to that. staining the floors  was an awful mess. i decided to use minwax express color, a water based stain, so as to avoid handling heavy chemicals. i was torn between using a super light and a very dark stain and i went with the latter. i'm not sure how i feel about the color i chose, but what's done is done. i think this color is probably more appropriate for a colonial style house anyway. as i've mentioned before, i'm looking at this as sort of a practice house. mistakes will be made. at any rate, i'll make it work! i have a feeling that i might regret not using a varnish, but a) i didn't buy any and b) i really don't want to do it! so messy and smelly and ugh.  i'm toying with the idea of putting on a second coat of stain, i'm curious to see what it might look like. maybe i'll test it out on a spare piece of flooring. i keep hearing from people that they're following my progress here, but no one ever comments! please feel free to leave a sentence or two! it's way too quiet around here!

 

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bathroom done!

i hadn't intended to finish the bathroom first, but it's a small room with easy components, so i was able to breeze through. i used a cardboard template of the room to cut the tile flooring and then i glued the floooring in. initially, i hadn't planned on using baseboards on  he top floor because i thought the angles would be too difficult to cut. after suffering through learning how to properly cut the moulding, this was easy! i cut it, primed it, painted it, and glued it in. voila! the bathroom is ready for furnishings. i am a little bummed that the wallpaper is puckering, but in a real house wallpaper would pucker if it was placed above a steamy bathtub, so... speaking of bathtubs, i ordered a couple of things from Elf Miniatures. they have the best and most modern bathroom fixtures that i've seen! now it's going to get interesting, as there are a couple of pieces that i want to make for this room. i bought a tiny ceiling globe that i'd like to make some sort of frame around and place above the bathroom sink. i also bought a pretty boring white, wooden cabinet that the that sink will sit on. i want to try sanding it, repainting, and making it a bit shabby. we'll see how that goes. my wooden flooring arrived today. i bought it for super cheap from an ebay seller in china and it looks fantastic! now if i can only decide what color stain to buy. that could take a while.

 

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more moulding

this room will be the kitchen/dining area with a room divider separating the two. i'm a bit concerned with how small the rooms will become with the divider in between. mistake #1, after putting in wallpaper and ceiling paper and i'm having a hard time even getting the room divider into the room. mistake #2, when i installed the moulding in the back of the room, i didn't account for the angles in my measurements, thus making the back room slightly larger than the front room. sigh. perhaps i'll put the kitchen in the front rather than the back? i'll have to give this some thought.

 

 

 

moulding done!

it took me forever to get up the nerve to work on the moulding. initially, i bought a tiny saw and miter box, but i thought the potential to screw that up was too great, so i took it back and exchanged it for an ez-cutter. i have a very difficult time wrapping my brain around how pieces are supposed to fit together. i think i have some sort of spatial dyslexia. seriously. it takes me 10x as long as the normal person to figure out these sorts of tasks and it only happens after i've created some crazy system to make it work. i'm mostly pleased with the results. the tiny pieces, which you can't see because they're hidden behind the stairs, were the hardest to work with. i've ordered flooring from an ebay seller in china. who knows how long that will take to arrive, but floors are up next!

 

 

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boy! was that not fun!

i finally finished the wiring and, boy, was that not fun! i know, i complained about putting the shingles on. that was merely tedious, but this was difficult. the wiretape kept twirling around as i was putting it on. and then i very quickly realized that it would be impossible to set the brads without this amazing little tool! it should be included in the wiring kit because it's impossible to do the job without it! i ended up having to take the junction splice off and put it back on again. luckily it wasn't broken. i did purchase a ceiling lamp, but just as it took me a month to fully comprehend the wiring instructions, it will probably take me just as long to figure out how to install the lamp. i think it's just my nature to bitch and moan. despite the difficulties, i am really enjoying this project! i've ordered some scrapbook paper to use as wallpaper. while i'm waiting for that to arrive, i've knit a rug. i still need to weave in the ends and knit on a border (in black). i'm not sure if it will really fit into the decor i have in mind, but it's something to do while i'm waiting.

 

 

 

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and now for something completely different

i'm priming the interior while i wait for the wiring kit to arrive. i'm quite eager to get on with the decorating! i have purchased a few pieces on ebay, including the bed pictured here. on it is my very first handknit mini afghan! it still needs to be blocked and the top edge properly sewn, but i'm pretty pleased with the results. i'm considering making a matching bolster and pillow. once i've perfected the design, i may put something up for sale on Etsy.

vintage Reminiscence bed purchased on ebay

afghan, handknit with Koigu PPPM

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