I'm Back

I just worked out that it has been 8 weeks since I last posted here. I've had plenty of ups and downs in the last 2 months and it just hasn't been possible.

The main thing being that I simply haven't had the means to be online. The computer I had been using died, it had been coughing and gasping for ages but it gave it's final breath shortly after my last post. I saved and bought a brand new one online that didn't work! It took a week to be delivered and another week for them to figure out that it didn't work once they had it back. When I got my money back I decided to go into an actual physical shop. 2 buses there, bought a computer, 2 buses home again, a whole day gone but better than waiting another week. Home at last and ready to start playing, open the box and the black laptop I'd bought was white! I called the shop and they said I could bring it back, they were really nice about it. It's only the wrong colour, it's the make and model that I asked for so I decided to keep it. I figured it could serve to remind me that little things really don't matter and there's no point in getting upset about them, all I need is a working pc so that I can get online and I have that now :)

I haven't done a lot on my latest build as the real world has been keeping me busy but hopefully I'll settle back into a routine again now and make time to get things done. Here's a few pictures to bring things up to date.

I wasn't sure how to go about fitting the window frames, should I glue them in place before I start the brick work or after? I thought at first I would be better off to mark out where they would go and start laying bricks but changed my mind a little while into it.

I added a strip of 3mm square dowel around the bottom and painted it hooker green.

I started laying the bricks  and then realised that some of the timber around the window makes up part of the window frame. So I stopped the brickwork and painted around the edges of the windows, pushed out all of the frames from their sheets, sanded and painted them. Trying to figure out how all the bits go together and in which order things should be done was very confusing and more than a little frustrating. I found my self walking away and leaving it for days at a time. Not having a computer meant I couldn't ask for advice and I would have to work this out by myself.

I found myself thinking "This just isn't fun any more!". I had fun building the last one, the way I did the windows there was simple. As the whole point of building a doll house is to have fun I decided to just do the windows the same as before. I'll attempt the more complicated type on another one. Get back to it and have some fun.

I'm happy with the result. Of course I realised as I went that the door frame had to be in place before the bricks which meant the windows would need to go in first too but didn't get that through my thick skull until after I'd cut the bar out of the middle of each window, doh! Never mind, as I said I'm happy with the result.

I managed to get the Aussie flag in. I used modelling paste painted grey under the dowel to give the look of concrete foundations, needs more work but it's getting there.

 I used the modelling paste again to create a stucco type of finish on this wall. A few "exposed" bricks to make it all look old and a bit neglected. I'll be adding an extension to this wall and most of this will be covered but I wanted to do the whole wall in case bits are visible.

Then I painted the whole thing cream. Which dried to a lovely shiny, pearl finish! Not what I wanted at all! I have started to go over it with a flat finish paint and plan on aging it quite a bit so none of that luster will show in the end (I hope).

So that's where I am at the moment. Not a lot done in the last 2 months but I'm sure that will change now that I have a brand new computer and will be able to get inspiration daily again.

 Now I'm off to see what everyone else has been up to while I've been gone. A LOT of blogs to catch up on.

Thanks for stopping by.