Blame Charlie!

I've been a vey slack blogger lately, late one week, missed the next entirely!  In my defense, I haven't done too much for Bellerose house to show you, although my "cabin" for the DHE creative competition which I can't show you or tell you about until after the competition closes is starting to come together nicely.  When I haven't been sidetracked on this secret house, I've been making furniture for Bellerose house.  Before I get into that though, let me introduce you to Charlie.

Although I've made mention of this little troublemaker before, I don't think I've ever shown you a photo.  He's about eight months old now and has been destroying things in the house since January when my sister's friend saved him from being put down simply because his owner couldn't find a buyer for him.  A few days ago I was rumaging through the bottom shelf of my dollshousing cupboard when it started to snow on me.  When I looked up, this is what I saw:

Now I can't open that cupboard door without the foam being attacked.  This is actually preferrable to opeing the door on the other side of the cupboard which usually results in something hitting the ground from a long way up.  So far this hasn't included the cat.  And as for cardboard boxes . . . . they don't stand a chance.

 Getting back to miniatures, I've been rearranging the furniture in the main bedroom (again).  I don't really like the bed up against the wall, but I think this is the best layout for the room so far.

 In the bathroom, I plucked up the courage to take a razor saw to the bathtub legs.  They came off cleanly and easily.  The bath looks better now it's lower and the legs were reused for the partly made stove hidden behind the sink in this photo.  At the back of the room is an unfinished shelf unit to hold such necessities as fresh towels.

The second bedroom now has a bed made from balsa wood, spindles and cardboard.  I still need to make some sort of dresser/wardrobe for the room.

The Rec room's centrepiece is the pool table.  Although still not quite finished, I'm rather proud of my first pool table.

 It's a tad undersized in order to be able to fit everything else into the room and i could definately do with finding some better, slightly higher legs.

 The table is made of balsa wood with some wooden cornice/coving around the sides topped with more balsa wood.  The table surface is covered in green velveteen with white net 'pockets' to catch the balls.  The chairs in the photo below show where I'll position some hand made chairs with a rack for the pool cues behind the purple chair.

 And last (but certainly not least) is this monsterous sideboard for the Sitting room.  You need to imagine it with the cupboard doors in place and a big sheet of mirror in the centre.

 I'll try not to get so distracted working on the "mystery" competition entry this week that I'll be able to show you something for Bellerose house that's actually finished next week!

Late is Better Than Never

Sorry this week's post is so late.  That's the problem with long weekends, you need a long week to get back into kilter.  Aside from a few little touches here and there, the 'building' phase of Bellerose house in now finished.

 The cornice/coving has been added in the second bedroom.  It is white, but for some reason in the photo the tone of the wood underneath comes through.  I guess anouther coat of paint on this is one of those 'few little touches' I'll have to address.  A new fretwork panel fills in the blank above the pony wall in the bathroom.  My favourite arrangement of the fittings in here is with the bath accross the front.  The problem is that the tub is so very high and it blocks your view further into the bathroom.  The tub in my 1:1 house is maybe a foot lower than the sink, but in this house the tub and the sink are the same level and anyone trying to climb into the tub will need a ladder.  In short, the feet of the bath tub need to come off!  I'm still trying to pluck up the courage to try sawing through the porcelain though.

 Not a lot has changed in the main bedroom this week.  The cornice/coving has been added an the furniture rearranged (again).  Putting the bed on the left wall creates more space for other furniture, but does it look right to have the bed exposed to the doorway like that?

Down one level to the Rec Room and the windows have been installed and Dan is trying out one of the window seats that flank the fire place.  The fire surround is a simple piece of 1/2" thick balsa with a rectangle cut out of the bottom and some jewellery findings added for decoration.

The Sitting room next door also has a new fireplace, although I'm not too sure about it.  All those green 'arms' look a little heavy on the white backing.  Maybe I'll redo it, or maybe I'll just stand somebody in front of the fire so you can't see it.

 The dining room still needs some (okay, most) of the spindles in the railing popping out and straightening up.

 Finally, the walls have been added around the back of the oven in the kitchen.  Now it's time to start work on the furniture!

Fretting

I've finally started to add some of the fretwork and railing detailing to Bellerose house this week, although most of what has been added still needs a lot of work.

 The small second bedroom has a frework panel accross the top of the dogleg in the back wall.  Looking at this photo I realise that I'll have to rip this out and lower it when I add the cornice/coving around the top of the walls.  (Opps!)  The upper part of the panel is balsa wood while the lower, curly brackets are scrapbooking corners found in the local craft store.

The Bathroom is no longer in the pink.   Audra left the comment on my last post "If something bothers me when I start, it tends to get worse the more I look at it" and Daydreamer said on her blog "I have come to realize that if I have to ask the Question "is this right..." then the answer is No! Because if it were right... it would Not occur to me to even ask the Question!".  I have to agree with both these sentiments and I really couldn't stand that pink any longer so I pulled out some paint and slapped it over the top.  The colour I've used is a pale aqua which may not quite work with the tiles, but is a huge improvement over the pink.  The only problem is that the paint made the pink paper buckle.  Has anyone tried ironing their walls?  I may have to.  The back of the bathroom has been further separated from the front by the addition of some fretwork.  The empty section over the pony wall had vertical strips like the top section, but it looked a little too much like prison bars so they had to go.  I'm thinking this blank could use a fancy piece of fretwork or maybe a little stained glass, I just need to find something the right size.

The main bedroom also has a fretwork touch over the door reccess.  This was made the same was as the panel in the other bedroom and will be painted a slightly creamier white to tone in with the yellow wallpaper.

The Rec room is finally looking more finished now the wall panelling has been added.  The window recesses have the beginings of windowseats installed and some fretwork accross the top.  These fretwork pieces came from Fairy Meadow Miniatures.  

More fretwork has been prepared for the archway that joins the Rec room to the Sitting room.  The bird brackets are more Fariy Meadow goodies while the rest is balsa wood.  The piece is a fraction too wide for the opening at the moment and only fits if you shove really hard.  Once it's been trimmed down a little it'll be painted a creamy white.

Downstairs in the Dining room, the railing that divides the entry hall from the dining area has been added. These were made from turned staircase spindles and a pair of posts.

There are more railings in the kitchen dividing the scullery from the main kitchen.  The dark slate floor has had a lighter grey dry brushed over the top which has given it a lot more life.

Another week and hopefully all the boring bits (cornice/coving, skirting boards, etc) will be finished and the house will be ready for some new furniture!