More Countryside Cottage photos

Ok, here are the rest of the cottage photos.  I cannot decide which room is my favorite; probably either the living room or bathroom.  And I apologize for the sideways orientation of some of these pictures.  If I do not hold my iPhone the right way, this is what happens and I am unable to fix the problem during editing.  :O(

The Country Cottage is Finished

I have been horrible at updating my blog and I apologize for that.  Life has been crazy since going back to school full time.  But here is the Country Cottage!  I love how it turned out and I will be entering it at the fair this year.  I will try to get some more close-ups as I get time.

Cottage Exterior

I know.  It has been ages since I have posted anything about this project, and I apologize.  The good news is that I have a great start on the exterior with only a few minor enhancements left on my list.  I have reached the point now where I go back to the interior and start filling it with the treasures I have collected, just for this project, for the past two years.  Hence, my room-by-room journey commences.

I am so pleased with how the front yard area of the cottage is turning out, though.  I love to use the same materials that railroad modelers/hobbyists use; such as trees and various types of ground turf.  Another favorite landscaping item of mine is Reindeer Moss; which I have used around the trees.  To be added later will be flower boxes, a few boulders, more moss and flowers.  And have I mentioned that I love the red door?!

Backside View

The backside of the cottage is finished off now  I have put the cottage on its base and once the glue is dry will begin the much anticipated (by me, anyway ;-) exterior finishing.  I am going to be doing something I've done before, but with a material I have never used before so I look forward to seeing the end result.  I'll elaborate more later.

Third Floor

I first want to say that I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday yesterday!  Mine was nice and quiet and relaxing; just the way I like it.

I've been busy plugging away on the cottage, and the third floor is complete and ready for decoration.  The room on the left will be the spare bedroom and the room on the right will be the art studio.

 

Also finished is the roof shingling and for those of you that know me well, you know how happy I was to get that aspect of the project done and over with.

First kitchen photo

I still have a ton of work left to do in this room, but I just had to show a picture of the Elf Miniatures kitchen stove kit that I just finished.  While 90% of the house will be filled with country antiques, the owner of this cottage, Anne, is a chef at heart and she has insisted on a more modern kitchen; at least as far as her appliances go.  It took me an entire week to make the stove and I love how it turned out.  I have a little spice shelf that will go above it on the wall.

Upstairs Hallway

I finally made some time to finish the hallway on the second floor.  I had an extra HOM corner shelf kit, so customized it with a light while building it and then plugged it into the house.  This shelf will be a great place to put special trinkets and books. 

Upon further review of the photos, it appears I have forgotten a piece of crown moulding behind the top of the staircase, so I am off to put that in.

Two more rooms...

The bedroom and bathroom are now complete.  I wasn't so sure at first about the wallpapered accent wall in the bedroom, but I am finding that I really like it.  And the paint color on the wall looks a lot brighter yellow when the lights are turned on than when they are off.  It actually is almost a direct match for the background color of the wallpaper.  I am also thrilled with how the bathroom has turned out.  I flipped the wall sconces upside down for a more unique look.

The first finished room

The livingroom is the first finished room of this house; despite a couple of tiny touch-ups I need to do.  I do so wish I could shrink down and live in it!  I've been toying with the idea of adding a timber support beam near the staircase, but we will see what happens with that.

Shedding light on the subject...

Just thought I would show some pics of the lights I have installed so far, as well as the house with the side walls finally glued on.  Next, the task of flooring.  Now that it looks like an actual house, I am starting to get more and more excited about it.  I have been stashing away the decorating pieces for over a year now and look forward to using them.  I even bought an old-fashioned antique white iron bed for the guestroom.

Slowly progressing...

Between both working and going to school full time, my progress on this house is slow at best, but it is making progress.  It is my goal to be finished by next summer, so we will see how that goes.  The photos below are of nothing truly spectacular, but are merely reflective of where I am at.  I am trying to get all the hard to reach aspects of the walls done, before putting them all together permanently, because the house is pretty deep.  The first staircase is in and I have completed my range hood in the kitchen.  So far, I am very pleased with how it is coming along.

Fireplace Wall

I am working on the two end walls and finishing the interior side of them as much as I can before I actually glue them to the rest of the house.  This shot is of the living room fireplace wall and I am totally loving it!  The only thing left to do is the inside bottom and the hearth (which will be done once the wall is glued on) and the pot crane that I need to glue in.  I think what I love so much about this is the look of the wood.  It looks as if it is reclaimed from an old barn or something and gives the perfect country 'feel' I was after.

The door and first window

The first room shown here is going to be the livingroom.  I've been really excited to see the door and first window go in because the final look of the all the windows is why I went to all the trouble I did to make the exterior walls as thick as I did; I wanted window sills.  Increasing the depth of the walls has given me 3/4" sills and I am LOVING how the window looks from the inside of the structure!!  My idea paid off exactly how I wanted it to.  I see I have a tiny gap in the upper corner of my interior window trim, but this will be hidden by the window treatment.  I have a couple of large sheets of micro glass, so will be putting real glass in each window.

I've also started laying down the flooring and I put a wall outlet in under the window.  The tile entry will blend with the kitchen floor tile that goes in later.

I wasn't sure how I'd like the extra depth of the walls when it came to the front door, but I love it!

I am so loving this look!  Can you imagine a vase of flowers sitting here, soaking up the morning sun?  When you compare this to what it would have looked like if I had strictly adhered to the assembly directions from the kit, there is just no question as to what looks more realistic. 

 

This is the front side of the house; just plain plywood for now.  I have a thing for red doors.  Just wait until you see what I'm going to do with the exterior...hehe!

The Countryside Cottage is on its way...

...to becoming something real.  Before I get going, however, I do need to beg your forgiveness in advance if you are a regular follower of my blog.  I took a bit of a hiatus after the completion of 120 Copper Court and a little over a month ago, I went back to school full time for my degree in Information Systems Specialist.  Combine school with a full time job, well...it doesn't leave as much time for me to mini as I used to have.  But I do manage to eek in a few hours here and there, so here I go.  The Countryside Cottage is on its way now.  This project is what I previously named the Country Roombox.  Since I wanted to go bigger than the roombox would let me go, I decided to get a regular dollhouse kit in order to let my ideas soar!  This simple, 1/8" plywood kit gave me the skeleton I wanted to build upon and I added to the thickness of the exterior walls; making them 7/8".   I did this so that I could have deep set windows with real window sills for display pieces.  I'm after as much realism as I can possibly get with this project and I'll let you know why later on.

I am in the midst of preplanning all of my rooms.  This end of the house will have the eat-in kitchen on the first floor and the master bedroom on the second floor.  For the bedroom, I wanted only one wall wallpapered and the rest of the walls painted to coordinate.  According to the paint bottle, the color is ivory; but it looks light yellow.  I'm going to have to lighten it up a bit, as I want to match the background color of the wallpaper a bit closer. 

I won't glue the side wall on until I have the windows in; just to make life a bit easier.  The kitchen walls are painted Parchment, but I may decide later on to add a bit more color, so we'll see.  I have a huge order of mini's coming in, and once I have it I'll be able to really rock and roll on this project.

Still here!

I know, I know...it's been forever since I've shown any activity.  What you may not know about me is that sometimes after a huge project like 120 Copper Court, I like to just step away from miniatures for a bit and take a hiatus, so that I can come back to my work room refreshed and inspired.

Well, I definitely got refreshed!  Shortly after Copper Court was completed, my fiance Jeff and I went to Hawaii and got married on the Kukio Beach in Kona.  We had a great time in the warm sun, but we both were excited to get back home to Alaska.

Now that I've returned to the work room, I am embarking on a new project called the Countryside Cottage.  I am so excited about this new project for many reasons, but mostly because I will be trying out more new methods that I've always wanted to experiment with, but never had the opportunity.  I am starting with an inexpensive kit with this project, but out of the hundreds of pieces, am only using 12 pieces total.  Only 12.  This means that I'm going to be bashing the heck out of this one!

So I cordially invite you to follow me along on this one.  And as with the last project, there will surely be a contest of some sort once it's complete!  ;-)