Naughty blogger!

Sorry - I know that it's been quite a while since I posted about Pickett Hill and yet I've done a lot. Not so much on the house itself, more on the furniture. But today I will bring you up to date on the house. The first floor is done - yaaaay! I am ready to install the second floor once I put in the two opening doors on the first floor.

So here it is: first the stairwell was constructed and the ground floor ceiling/first floor flooring went in. This floor is a t-shape and this first photo shows it from the kitchen side right across to the living room wall, the cross part of the T facing you and the stem going towards the mural on the far wall.

Here is a view of the studio on the first floor and the living area on the ground floor.

The side wall was then installed, actually as a unit making up the hallway, across the bottom of that cross part of the T. This divides the children's rooms from the studio with the hallway between. Then the dividing wall between the children's rooms.

Some considerable time and effort making a pattern for the wallpaper on the left (stairwell) wall really paid off. It had to go from the top of the wall on the first floor to the bottom of the ground floor, with a cut-out to allow for the studio mezzanine. It had to wrap around the stairwell and into it. It is also supposed to wrap around into the kitchen but I want that wall to have the same paper as the rest of the kitchen since the buffet unit that goes there has the wallpaper on it's back.

The photo below shows the mural on the living room wall. It's a shame that all the care taken to line the boat up in the centre of the windows will be wasted once the fireplace goes in. It has to go in there because the chimney goes on the outside of this area and it cannot be changed because the roof is cut out to go around it.

Here you can see the mural on the left wall, with the tree 'growing' up the wall. It now looks like one continuous wall through the two stories and the effect of the wallpaper is really nice.

Next step was to put the skirting boards around most of the ground floor, then put the stairs into place. Looking through the dining room window you can see the stairs installed.

Then it was time to put the windows in place so that the interior trim could be glued on. I just loved doing this part and spent lots of time 'playing' at this stage! In this first photo you see the internal trims for windows and can also see that I couldn't resist putting in the French doors and front door just to see how they looked.

And in this one you get a better view of the front door - isn't it pretty? I haven't put the door knobs on yet but apart from that it is finished.

A view of the kitchen area, looking over to the French doors. Since I took these photos I have added the border around the top of all the kitchen walls. There is some paper 'moulding' provided as well for cornices around all the ceilings but I'm pretty sure I won't use them. Cornices are curved, and it would be tricky to curve the paper and join it properly and gluing it flat just wouldn't look right to me. Plus - where do I glue it, on the ceiling I suppose? If I do cornices I might just order some wooden trim and use that with properly mitred corners. Or I might just leave it.
Here on the first floor you can see the opening for the working doors, and also see the oval window in place for a trial fit although it is not time to put the internal trim on there yet of course - the wall isn't wallpapered

I also 'played' a bit more, putting the porch in place with the benches and the floorcloth in place, putting the portico in place etc. And yes I do have photos. But I'll leave them for now.

All these photos were taken around 30th January, and I had arrived at this stage a bit before that. So why the delay in moving on? Well I'm actually being held up by 4 little gold pins! To move on the the next stage I need to install the working doors. To install the working doors (in Emma's bedroom and the studio) I need to put the doorknobs on them. To install them I need to be able to see properly and at the moment my vision is blurry. It varies from just a little to quite a bit. It is partly my headaches because after I take pain tablets my eyes improve for a while if the pain subsides. But I think I also need new glasses. So I am going to be tested for new glasses tomorrow. It's probably time I went back to the neurologist too, but in the meantime I am getting lots done on the furniture kits for the house. Unfortunately none of the kits is getting any knobs put on either!

Maybe tomorrow I'll have photos of the furniture - some of them at least :)

Till then -