Cutting cornice trim - and other trim issues

 I seem to be spending hours on this house with not much to show for it so far.  The window trim is finally ready, after handling each individual piece six times: filler, sanding, primer, sanding, and two coats of emulsion.  However when I went to try it out on the windows, I discovered a few things:

- I hadn't realised when apportioning window trim that the middle kitchen bay window is actually wider than the two flanking windows.  This means I was short one wider hood trim and a wider windowsill.  I had a wider hood in the unpainted spares pile, but I've had to cut out a new wider windowsill (because I thought I had one extra, and had already cut it down to make up the missing narrow windowsill, sigh).  So I've had to start again with the filler etc. on those two pieces.

- the pre-cut oval trim that I have prepared for the oval tower window openings, as it turns out, is not the same size as the openings punched in the house.  Luckily it was actually bigger, not smaller.  So I've had to break out the Dremel multitool and carve all three tower window openings to individually fit the trim pieces (which are not all exactly the same size either).

- dryfitting the trim to the windows, I confirmed that the exposed  exterior around the windows is going to be very slim - too slim to apply siding in the gap.  So I think it will just have to be a painted finish around the windows.  To that end, I've glued in some square strip wood to finish the grooves between the tower and bay side pieces and have started applying exterior colour.  I love the blue colour I've chosen, which is a Johnstone's tester pot, but the paint is incredibly thin.  I've done about five coats so far and it still looks terrible.  Also the grooves weren't all at the same angle or depth, so the strip wood trim is not uniform. Hopefully once it's all finished, it won't be very noticeable.

Cornice Trim

In between dealing with window trim, I've been preparing other trims such as the cornice and skirting boards.  I cut and installed skirting in all the first floor rooms, so it was time to deal with the cornice.  I had bought two different types: a fairly wide, flat trim for the ground floor 'best' rooms, and a more conventional triangular moulding for the first floor rooms.

I tackled the dining room first, with the flatter trim, to get warmed up.  That was fairly straightforward to miter the corners. 

I can't do the living room yet because it will have a built-in fireplace/staircase wall, so next was the study on the first floor.  The triangular moulding is not symetrical so it has a definite 'up' that always has to face upwards. I haven't cut moulding for a long time so it took me three or four bad cuts before I worked out the complexities of cutting the correct 45-degree angle when I'm right-handed so can only hold it into the miterbox with my left hand.  I tried my chop saw, which can be set to a 45 degree cut, but it wasn't wide enough or deep enough.  My razor saw only cuts on the pull, so it's a bit laborious to make the cuts.

The method was to mark the 'ceiling' side of the moulding with a long wiggly pencil line, and always cut with that side downwards in the mitre box.  Then whether it is an inward corner, or outward corner, has to be roughly marked in pencil so the correct slot can be chosen where I can still hold the moulding with my left hand.  Got there in the end, though the bedroom with its more complex cuts, did end up with some minor gaps which I've had to fill with a little decorators caulk.

Study, which is pretty much finished now

Hallway (finished)

Bedroom - there will be carpet on the floor but I'll 

leave that out until the end so it doesn't get damaged.

I decided life and skill was too short to attempt cornicing up inside the bay window, so I've just applied some narrow trim from my stash to cover the gap at the top of the walls.

Yet more trim, and the mysteries of Sheet 19

 Not much to report as I am bogged down in finishing trim.  I prepared the cornicing for the house and also stained the newly arrived skirting board and dado rail.  And I painted some wood 'beams' in preparation for applying them to the attic ceiling.

I had been putting off the horrors of the window trim from the kit, but I need to get it onto the house before I can tackle the exterior finishes.  In addition to the 18 sheets of crappy diecut plywood in the kit, there are two extra sheets in better plywood numbered 19, and a paper note explaining that all the trim for the windows has been moved from the older sheets onto the new sheet 19s, apart from the exterior window trim.  There is a layout diagram for sheet 19, but it is unlabeled.  

Also, despite the new sheet 19s, there are still a lot of older window trim pieces  on the old sheets, and these are labelled on the schematics.  So I punched out all of the pieces from the two sheet 19s and used the schematic labels to try to work out what went where.  I ended up having to trace off the various window outlines from the house, so I could compare trim pieces to the contours to match up the various location pieces.  Somehow I was still short by one external tower  bay window hood and one external tower bay sill.  I had an extra sill for the bedroom window for some reason so I cut that down to be the right size for the tower.  For the hood, I traced off another one onto some scrap plywood and cut it out on my fretsaw.  I was also short of a couple of side trim pieces and internal sills so had to use some of the rotten pieces from the older sheets - literally delaminating as I punched them out so I had to glue them back together.

Finally I had dozens of trim pieces sorted out and could apply filler to all the edges.  Then that all needed to be sanded down and now I am applying the first coat of paint.  All very laborious, plus one of the side trim pieces had a hidden rotten spot and snapped in half as I was painting it. It would have looked better to stain the interior trim for some of the rooms, but I don't think this wood would look that great particularly the end grain, so I'm just going to paint it all.

Attic - flooring, skirting, wallpaper borders, applying centre roof and tower ceiling

Attic floor

 I'd bought some Victorian floor boards from Dolls House Mouldings and decided to use these in the attic.  I wanted a shabby chic effect as if the existing attic floor boards had been sanded and then whitewashed.  So I sprayed the boards grey, and then whitewashed them with white acrylic paint: wiping a dilute coat on, and then dry brushing for more streaks - finishing with matt spray varnish.  That turned out rather well, so I went ahead and fitted them to the attic.  Right away the room looked so much better, turning it from cheap plywood to a finished surface.

Attic skirting

With the floor in place, I could cut and apply the skirting.  The bay window was a bit tricky: by math, I think the angle should be 22.5 degrees but then this kit isn't that precise.  I found a big plastic protractor in my stash that I don't remember buying, but by clamping that to my sander, I could grind an approximate 20 degree angle which worked well enough.  I need to touch up the joints with some paint to make them look better.

Wallpaper border

Because of all the angles in the attic, I had to think where to apply border.  I knew I wanted to conceal the tops of my false walls.  I consulted with DH who thought that keeping the border horizontal was better than trying to run it at an angle.  So I ran it across the back of the room, level with the wall between the main room and the bathroom, along the tops of the false walls, around the top of the tower, and along the skirting in the bathroom. (the raw edges of the tower will be hidden by trim, and also the ceiling joins.

Applying centre roof and tower ceiling

With the bulk of the interior work done that needed access, I could glue on the tower ceiling (also visible in the picture above) and the centre roof insert (weighted down to keep the glue joints tighter).

Tower assembly, more decorating, defeated by a window kit

 The additional wallpaper showed up for the attic.  This is being custom printed on A4 paper by an etsy seller and you can choose landscape or portrait format.  Last time I went for portrait because I had the tall peak of the big attic room to cover.  This time I had asked for landscape, thinking that I would get more wallpaper for matching.  So I was perplexed when I was attempting to match the paper I cut for one of the false walls, with the existing paper on the tower, and it just would not match.  Comparison of the new sheets with the old sheets revealed that the scale on the new sheets is slightly different, and larger, than on the old sheets.  I will not be ordering custom print A4 wallpaper again in future, I don't think.  

Anyway, with the new wallpaper, I could go ahead and paper, then glue in, the false walls in the attic. I've boxed in the corner of the big room, and applied a narrow false wall to the side of the bathroom to hide the eaves.

Tower assembly

I cut a false ceiling for the tower roof from matboard, and decorated the right side of that with a print out of handpainted starry night sky.

For the tower assembly, I decided to keep the tower ceiling unglued and just use it to help hold the sides in place while their glue dried.  This involved lots of masking tape and clamps.  I glued in the back piece first that rests on the new false wall, so I could wrap the paper around the corner.

Then I added the other pieces in one by one.

    Once it was all dry, I could remove all the apparatus, and then take off the top of the tower which gave me a lot more access for working on the interior.  First I cut a very odd template for the remaining wallpaper, then glued the remaining paper into place.

The Tower roof back in place, but I won't glue it until I've applied the border and the inside window trim pieces.

The remaining attic roof pieces I am going to leave off for now, for better access until I've  applied a floor in the main room and the border and trim.  But it looks from pictures online like the smaller room is going to be quite closed in and dark. I've chosen not to electrify this house, because that's a time consuming and expensive job and I find with my other houses that have lighting, that I almost never put the lights on.  Partly because I'm terrified a bulb will go and will be impossible to replace, but mainly because it's a faff to plug the power supply in etc.  So to get a bit more light into the small room, I've cut out a skylight in the rear roof piece which I will cover with some of my new perspex set into a wooden frame. I considered putting a bigger skylight in the side roof, but this way the roofline and shingling won't be visually interrupted.

Decorating

I had stained the cases of  two pre-made doors, and then painted the doors themselves with white paint, trying not to get white paint onto the stained portions.  It wasn't until I was actually applying the door handles that I realised something wasn't quite right:  one door (probably the one I got on a de-stash table) was upside down compared to the other.  I'd managed at this point to apply stain, varnish, three coats of paint, and another of varnish without ever noticing that the two doors didn't match.  So then I had to break off the bottom of one door, and pull the door off of its pin hinges to flip it over.  I also glued on pre-stained wood strip inside the door frame so that the door sits away from the wall - splitting the thickness of the pre-made door evenly  across the skinny walls of the kit.  Then finally I could glue the doors into the wider holes I cut some weeks ago, and add the interior frames.

With doors in place, I could cut the skirting boards for the hall and study.  I quickly discovered that the Deep Victorian Skirting I had ordered from Dolls House Mouldings was too high for my miter box, making it impossible to cut a clean miter with my razor saw.  After screwing up a few cuts, I instead turned to my little belt sander and improvised a 45 degree guide from a quilting ruler.  This is working fairly well: it gives a clean miter with minimal effort and it's easy to fine tune the length if I don't get it quite right.  I am chopping the lengths using a cheap chop saw from Amazon.

I'm pleased with the finished effect.

I fought the window, and the window won

I had cut a wider opening in the study wall to accept an old House of Miniatures sash window kit that I got for £2.50 in a de-stash sale at some time in the dim past.  So I had stained the surround  of the pre-made frame, and carefully painted the interior grooves white. I had also painted all the sash window frame pieces white, being careful to apply very little paint so that I didn't get build up.  The plastic 'glass'that came with the kit had darkened to amber, so I ordered some replacement 1.5mm perspex from Hobbies which turned up yesterday. With some difficulty I cut replacement panes using a Stanley knife to match the original size of the kit panes.

I'd already had trouble attempting to glue the side sash frame pieces to their end pieces, because there is so little gluing surface, but after two attempts had managed it.  But when I tried to slide the replacement perspex into the grooves cut into the sash frames, they wouldn't go in at all.  Neither would the original panes. Partly due to paint buildup and raised wood grain, and partly due to the tiniest misalignment of the grooves when I glued the pieces together.  Not until I had sanded away most of the thin coat of paint, could I get the original pane to slide in and by then I had already broken one of the sashes again.  Doing a belated dry fit, I discovered that not only were the original 'glass' panes too short and left a gap, but also that the completed framed sash would not slide into the main frame.  Much sanding ensued before I could get the sash window to slide into the main frame, plus I had to cut two more replacement perspex 'glass' panes that were a bit taller (I found it much easier to cut these using my electric fret saw). By this point, all the glue joints had broken and it had become obvious that the tolerances of the kit were so small, that I was never going to be able to assemble a sash frame independently that had any hope of sliding into the main frame.

So I gave up on the idea of a working sash window and have glued the sash pieces directly into the main frame, adding the perspex and the top pieces and tweaking it all until it looks square and correct.  I will need to touch up the paint carefully.  And the windows are supposed to have tiny wooden mullions applied in a grid across the glass but I don't know if I can face those.

Decorating

 I'm waiting for some more stuff to arrive in the post: more attic wallpaper because I've run out, some replacement perspex for my window kit because the kit panes had turned amber with age, and some flooring paper.

Meanwhile I've been painting, or staining and varnishing, various trim pieces.

I decorated my new attic dividing wall with wallpaper and trim, and installed it.  Once that was in place, I could also install the bathroom floor (trimmed to fit from an A3 sheet).  I've installed some wallpaper on half the tower, in the hopes that it will make life easier than trying to wallpaper the tower space once it is enclosed.  I don't like working with these 8.5"x11" sheets, the seams are too obvious. But the paper is really pretty.

I've laid floors of individual veneer planks in the study and hallway, and given them a couple of coats of satin artist's varnish (not as shiny as hardware store varnish). Since taking this photo, I've also installed the architrave around the rear door opening.

The two doors and the window kit I'm building are all too deep for the thin walls of the kit house, so I'm going to hopefully pack them out with trim pieces so that they sit equally straddling the opening.  They will protrude a bit but I don't think that is too unrealistic for a Victorian house.

Step G - Kitchen Bay, wallpapering, Step F - more work on roof space

 My husband asked why I hadn't updated this blog in a while, it's because a lot of time has been spent on either prep & painting, or procrastination :)  One of the things that does my head in about these kits is trying to work out what needs to be done before another thing, which can be circular: eg. In order to wallpaper the attic, I will need to have the false walls in place; in order to put the false walls into place, I need to install the roof; but if I install the roof then it will be really difficult to wallpaper.... etc.

Step G - Kitchen Bay

Fairly straightforward, just had to trim a few tabs and slots as usual.  I felt clever to realise that I needed to paint the external side of the house that will be covered up by the bay - until I realised that I should have also wallpapered the opposite side that is now covered up by the tower pieces.  I haven't added the trim or support brackets yet because they will go on after the external finish.  I haven't added the roof yet until I decide how to finish the exterior, because the roof overhangs a little over the sides of the bay.  I didn't add the window seat because it is naff and I will probably position furniture in the bay instead.

Wallpapering

Let's just put this out there: I hate wallpapering.  I like how it looks, I just hate doing it.  The stakes are high, the potential for error huge, trimming is heart-in-the-mouth stressful, and the glue adhesion unreliable. However, I went ahead and wallpapered the first floor.  I made careful templates first but as usual the wet wallpaper seems to get a bit bigger so I did have to do some trimming afterwards.  

The study was fairly straightforward apart from I realised too late that I hadn't thought about matching the pattern at the corners on any of the pieces I had cut.  But that would have probably been a complication too far.  If it's too obvious, I can always put a trim strip in the corner.

The hallway was slightly trickier due to the narrowness and the three doorways.  Also I used paper from my stash and now I'm not sure I like it, it seems very 'white' compared to the other two papers.

The bedroom was a PITA, trying to get around the false wall with the inserted bookcase in particular.  But also trying to wallpaper inside the tower alcove.  I found some of the window trim (confusingly the window trim is on Sheet 19 which is an extra sheet to the original kit, so there are also duplicate trim pieces on the other poorer quality sheets).  The window trims are not identified as to which windows they belong to, but I think I worked it out.  Anyway, the trim looks like it will hide the joins around the windows on the inside, so I just papered top and bottom.  And then with great difficulty, the upper inside bit that I should have papered before gluing the tower in.  I didn't try to paper around the edge of the tower alcove - I've painted it in a toning paint colour for now but I may add some trim.

I have received some wallpaper for the dining room and possibly the attic from Poppets Dolly Bits but it is all printed on A4 sheets which will be challenging.

Step F - more work on roof space

At least part of the underside of the roof pieces are going to be 'ceiling' so I prepped them all and gave them three coats of white emulsion.

I don't know if this is part of the design or just the way mine has gone together, but when I tape the roof into position temporarily, there are huge gaps above the side walls of the house under the eaves.  In order to tidy that up, and also make the rooms look more realistic, I decided to add some false walls.  With the roof taped and clamped into position, I made card templates with a great deal of trial and error.  The shorter false walls are made from balsa wood and foam board.  The bathroom wall is some plywood I had in my stash.  The doorway is big enough that my scale doll could duck through it, but any door will have to be custom made.