What a difference a roof makes!

Getting close to finishing the house itself now!  On Saturday night I finished off the verandah and attached it to the house.

I didn't complete the exterior windows at this stage because I needed some clear plastic to put between the two frames and that wasn't supplied.  It was only later on that I remembered that I had some overhead projector sheets in a folder with wallpaper, here with me.  Bother!  That meant that when I did do the windows later on it was much more fiddly to fit the ones facing onto the verandah.

A bit of a dirty wash on the floors of the attics then a brush-over again with grey paint aged them nicely.  And a thin wash of 'dirty water' (water with just a drop of black paint) dirtied up the rafters well too.

I departed from the instructions a bit here and glued the old newspaper print over the rafters next instead of putting it on the ceiling.

 I was really happy with progress by bedtime.

It was such an enjoyable day on Sunday.  I ended up spending a large part of the day working on the house.  In the morning I papered the roof pieces for the bedroom and glued them on.  I found it a bit tricky working out where the paper was supposed to go for the roof, which is why I had papered the rafters in the attic rather than trying to judge where the attic paper ended and the bedroom paper started.  I'm not very happy with the wallpapering in the bedroom though.  I wish I'd left a bit on one of the sides of the roof to overlap underneath the second side and make a neater join.  Also the edges where the roof joins the pointed wall are not to my liking.  The edges between the straight walls and the roof will be covered by quilling paper strips.

I  drilled a tiny hole right in the apex of the roof once the join was dry and inserted a light in the bedroom (right at the top of the photo) The wire was then taken down over the roof, through a hole

Then across the floor of the roof cavity and through that hole in the external wall along with the other wires. You can see the bedroom wire under the painter's tape.

One set of wires was short (the set from the dining area) so I had to join another length of wire on.  The chip LED wires are joined the same way as the standard LEDs.  The wires are twisted together: red to red and green to black.  A shrink tube is supplied for each wire and this tube is slipped over the join and then heated with a heat gun.  The heat shrinks the tube securely around the join to keep it in place.

wires twisted together

shrink tubes heated over join

I tested the lights (again!!) and made sure that they all worked (they did) and that the wires for the verandah lights were twisted together and labelled, and the inside lights were twisted in another bundle because I want to work them from separate switches.

I was then able to put all the rest of the roofing on.  And what a difference a roof makes!  All those pieces at the front join together to make a continuous roof-line. I know this photo shows everything taped together with painter's tape, but it is holding it secure.

 Once it was set I was able to do the exterior windows, and it looks so much better with those in place.

Finally I filled the joins in the roof pieces with wood filler to make them less obvious and also to strengthen the joins a bit more - just for some added peace of mind.  Then I left it to set firmly overnight.


I couldn't wait to try out those long-awaited stain pens, and to start on the sdk miniatures furniture kits I have for this house. I started with the Arts and Crafts fireplace kit

then did the sideboard (haven't put the handles on the doors yet)

and the dining table

The dining chairs are stained but not yet assembled.  Tonight maybe.  And I want to start the shingling tonight as well.  

Hope this helps those of you who were asking about wiring with LEDs, at least showing you how I did this one.  It is more complicated than most houses I have done - often the wires can just be run across the floor and out the rear wall.  But this house presented challenges that I was pleased to be able to meet and I am happy with the result.

Nearly to the end now, ready to attach the house to the base after shingling.  Then I can show in detail how I complete the wiring, attach the chimney to hide them and put the switches on the edge of the base.  And then I can landscape - and of course finish the furnishing and decorating. Yaaay!