Undersized Urbanite House- Exterior!

For the last two weeks, I have been piddling around with the outside....cutting, gluing, drying, waiting and painting all the siding and trim for the house.  All the siding is cut from rustic siding strips from HBS.

For some sections, I made templates, and for others I just glued straight to the house. I chose to paint all the siding Softest Juniper by Glidden.

The vertical trim has been replaced by trim wood from HBS and the window frames were all built from scratch using trim wood from HBS.

The vertical trim was painted Snow White by Americana.

The window trim and doors were painted a custom mix of Coral and Apricot White, both by Glidden.

The shingles were repainted with a few washes of Bittersweet Chocolate by Americana.

There was an amazing change and feel of the house when I darkened the shingles.

The wider white horizontal strips got covered in a egg carton stone facade.

For the railing on the second story, I used pre-assembled railings that Brae had sent me, and the discarded newel posts from the staircase.  They are still unpainted, but will end up being snow white with some color details.

The bottom railings will use the same preassembled railings and Lilliput porch posts.

I have yet to put doorknobs on everything, but I promise, they will be there in the final shots.

James helped me lift up the house to tear off the rather wobbly foundation (don't know why I didn't do that first....) and then the house was set down into it's base of foam core.  Landscaping will be underway shortly!

This will most likely be the last post until the deadline.  I have the biggest little's birthday party this weekend and need to direct my efforts that way for a bit.  :D

Just as a reminder, here is where the house started out and here is where it is currently, and it still has quite a bit to go!

Undersized Urbanite Update-Interior push

I still need to make some decisions on hardware....doorknobs, mostly.  There are a few items, here and there, that I would like to add over time, but with the Undersized Urbanite coming to a close soon, I need to be choosy!

Only the attic is left to finish really, and I have high hopes for that today.  Then it's on to the exterior!
I started some of that last night.  I cut the siding the other day and I gave it a coat of paint last night.  I chose Softest Juniper by Glidden.  It is a very pale blue green.  I think the color will suit my plans....

I'm really excited to do the exterior.  I have a very specific look that I am going for, and I really  hope that I pull it off.  If time allows, I will even rehab the shingles, but I won't hold my breath!

I have my sons birthday party the last weekend of April and then we are going to be celebrating as a family the next weekend.  UU deadline is May 5th.  That doesn't leave me much time!!!!

As we sit right now, here is the overview of the house:

It certainly is loud, but in a way, I think it all goes together quite well.  :)  Very ME!

Okay, so, THE LIVING ROOM:

There was a lot of futzing in this room.  I added the wall art and shelf above the couch.

 The owl is actually a scrapbook paper remenant that I had in my stash.  When I had more time, I used to buy scraps in lots on ebay.  :)

 The shelf is actually part of the interior of the blanket chest that's in the attic.  I painted it Lemon Custard by Folkart and gave it a coat of satin varnish.  The bottle of peppermints was made for me by my mother-in-law.  And elephant clock gets a home!

 I made some art to go above the doorway.  It says, "Be awesome! Be a book nut!"  Dr. Seuss said that, and I have it in my boys' real life book nook. I installed the stained glass in the door.  The shelf to the right of the door is the other part of the blanket chest.  Be resourceful!   The TV still needs a show on it...

 ...but I think this room has come together quite nicely.  Accessories will get added over time, but there is no time for that now!

 THE BOOK NOOK ROOM:
The window got framed and I made a bean bag chair!  Really, it's just a loosely packed hacky sack.  :)

 I hung some art in the book nook.  I am so ready to curl up in there and read!

 I stocked the other shelves. I would like to hang a few pictures on this empty space here at the stairs... and the walls over by the window.  Maybe that is something I can eek out today.

And finished filling the ones in the nook.  

 THE BATHROOM:
The windows in here got framed, too.  I added bath mats (baby blue felt). I would still like to get the sconces for either side of the square mirror.  I had found some PERFECT ones on ebay, but then forgot to go back and lost them.  Don't you hate when that happens?!

 A fun sign went above the cabinet. "So fresh and so clean clean"

 THE BEDROOM:
Probably got the most work.  I added knick knacks to the top of the Murphy bed.

 The curtains finally went up and I switched out the light the other day.

 And I dressed the bed.  These aren't the pillows that I will be using... they may end up here as decorative pillows, but I need some actual bed pillows.

 I love this room, too!  A bunch going on, but not as loud as the rest of the house.  The power of chocolate brown!

 And for a final shot, here is the overview of the first floor:

 And one of the second floor:

I spy something wee and cool in the attic!!!  

Boo to spam!

I just wanted to pop in to let you know that I am going to turn on the captcha crap for a couple days.  I have sent 20 comments to "spam" today... and all were left today.

I know they are a pain in the rear, but hopefully, after a week or so, they will all bugger off and stop telling me to visit their website(s). It gets really irritating to sift through them all and find the ones that
are from actual followers and such.

My apologies!  And I should be back with an update on the Tennyson at the end of the week.  :)

Sometimes... I forget to finish

So.... apparently, I just forgot to talk about the attic wall in the last post.  OOPS!  I will chalk it up to blood loss.  :)  While cutting the new window frame, I sliced my finger pretty badly.  Gashed it right open.  Blood and wooziness.  I probably needed stitches, but being insuranceless, I tend to ignore all things medical.  Liquid bandaid to the rescue!

Okay, so here is what I did:  There are no before or during pictures.  We have already established that I suck at that.  :D  I used the same rustic siding strips for the wall that I used on the Lodge.  I used basswood to make the custom window frame... and Houseworks mullions for, well, the mullions.  

The wood got a random wash of maple stain, dirty water, Warm White by Americana, Snow White by Americana and Robin Egg Blue by Americana. The window was painted Snow White.  The rest of the trim was left natural.  The trim around the dormer will be painted Snow White, too.  

 This was my inspiration piece.  I found it on Pinterest, but can't find the original source.  The link goes to a blog that no longer exists.  Boo.  I love this room.  I had intended to do the ceiling and floor the same, but that amount of white with the rest of the house just didn't work for me.

I think I got the look I was going for.. mostly.  In the end, I am pretty happy with it.
                                   

I also installed the attic light, ran the wires and grouped all the house wires together.

 I had made some boxes, too, and filled in the attic a little more how I want it in the end.  I still need to do the back wall, but figured I should let my finger heal a bit more!

 Now, all of that was before I went on vacation.  The kid had Spring Break, so I ran away to the beach for 7 days.  :)  YAY!  Last night, I got some stuff done, but not a whole lot.  Hard to get back into the groove of things after sun and fun.  I started the siding on the outside after prepping this first wall:
                                 
 And I made a mattress for the guest are in the attic.  It is a piece of 3/8 thick styrofoam that I wrapped with some fabric I got from April.

 The blankets on the bed are also fabrics that I got from April.  :)  And all the pillows will be, too.

There are two pins holding them down for now.  Later, I will put a fat pillow there.

 Love the wall!!!

 Today, I worked on the blanket chest that I got from Brae when I visited her in October.

 It got several washes of Warm White, aged copper trim and a hand painted motif.

 The inside is still plain right now, but I was thinking of staining the interior or lining with very fine velvet.

 Then I made this for the living room.

 EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 The edges need to be cleaned up a little, but I don't care.

 And then I got a hankering to make knives  These are actual metal. And quite sharp.  And a gift for a friend  But she doesn't know that.... yet.  SHhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Perfect for a serial killer, yes?

 The final thing I did was make the stained glass insert for the front door.  It is hand drawn and painted. I love it!

The Charming Cottage kit came yesterday.  I already dry fitted it, but I need to finish up the Eclectic Tennyson in time for the Undersized Urbanite contest!  And I will try to find something on the side to work on once I start my _____________________ for the Creatin Contest!  Eep!