An update!

I know it has been a long time since I updated this blog and there has been a few changes to my Empire Stores since then. I've also been working on some other projects inbetween times....
After a visiting a lovely couple of fairs I was able to buy a few needed supplies including some beautiful Maggie Sue Dolls and the fittings for the shop! But first I want to show you my beautiful sewing cuboard…

This sewing cupboard began life as a basic, barewood piece. It was very rough so needed lots of sanding down

It already had shelves and I went on to add lots of little compartments so it would be able to store lots of sewing essentials

I used pieces of dowel, and many oddments of wood from my stash of leftovers!

Making lots of nooks, crannies and drawers!

Then I sanded and gave it a light coat of satin varnish

As you can see there is lots of space to add all things needed for my sewing room!

All filled!

And labels to find things easily....

And here it is in my sewing room...

Patience, patience.

Sometimes patience is tested to the limit doing certain jobs.....dolls houses and miniatures do require quite a supply of it and I am lucky in that I do have a good deal, however whilst adding stair rods of the tiny variety even I was in danger of losing it. In fitting the stair carpet I managed to dislodge my carefully glued spindles and newels (they're another trying job) so they will have to be replaced - another lesson learned there!

But as you can see it's all worthwhile when you see the end result....they do finish off the stairs beautifully. They were quite tricky as my embroidered carpet is abit thicker than most.

All the spindles stuck in place again. I stitched a small runner for along the landing too.

I just need to find some suitable pictures for the wall I think...

This is a view of both sets of stairs

The Parlour

The parlour is alongside the kitchen and has one door leading into the landing. It is a nice square room, not particularly large but I think I've enough space for some nice pieces of furniture.

Before I could begin decorating in here I had to connect up the shop light from below as the wire needed to go under the parlour/landing wall.

Here you can see I've also put in the wiring ready for the fire and the range in the kitchen which is behind this wall.

The fire all connected now and a little chair I've made from a kit by McQueenies Miniatures.

All decorated

And ceiling light fitted

Belated New Year Greetings!

We're into the third week of January already and I've been too busy to blog! Quite a bit more progress to show you. After Christmas I got to work on the kitchen. I thought it was high time I got some wallpaper on the walls and the flooring laid.

The flooring is a lovely patterned paper

Skirting and cornice added

I chose a nice Ray Storey light for in here

A glimpse through the window

As this room is quite small and narrow I knew that ready made fittings would swamp the space so I decided to have a go at making my own. Now I'm not the best woodworker and have a love/hate relationship with saws and glues which are both important in any furniture making attempts! I bought the sink and taps and after playing around with some bits of wood, I have come up with a sink unit! 

It's maybe a little wonky in parts but I'm happy enough with it.

Spurred on with my little sink unit success, I decided to carry on and make something else! The obechi wood I have used was quite easily cut and scored with a scalpel so I didn't need to saw anything. I've made the doors non opening ones for simplicity. Next up is a little cupboard unit.

Here they are 'in situ'.....

Then I made a little open shelf and another base unit.

Finally I made a larger shelving unit.

I feel I've come to a full stop with the kitchen for now, other than adding all the little accessories....

I don't really think I can fit a table in but I'm leaving it for awhile and I will take a fresh look at it after I've got some of the other rooms decorated. 

Christmas 2016

Hello all. I hope you have all had a lovely Christmastime......I'm afraid I've not touched my minis over the holidays but I did get a little time just beforehand to finish off the downstairs hallway and first floor landing. These are the first two areas to be completed and I'm happy with how they've turned out.

After getting the lighting sorted out and the wallpaper done I got the flooring laid and the cornice and skirting boards fitted. Then it was just a matter of making some curtains for the window on the landing....I needed to do that before the staircase is fitted leading up to the second floor as it won't be accessible after that.

You can just see a glimpse of this window in the photo here.

The doors aren't glued in yet until the rooms on the other side are decorated. I found a good way of making 'porcelain' door knobs by using nail polish! I'm pleased with how they look and they make a change from having brass ones.....

I need to fit the stair rods and put back all the spindles I knocked off whilst fitting the carpet....but I just wanted to see how it is going to look! 

The downstairs entrance hall is now complete apart from the door which needs gluing once I have decorated the shop area. I'm really happy with it and especially pleased that my working grandfather clock fits just right in there and is the first thing I see when I open the door.

At the other side of this landing wall is the kitchen and parlour. I think these are the next two rooms I'm going to be working on. 

The chimney breasts are fitted in both the kitchen and the parlour and both the fires are wired up.....

And here we are looking all festive! 

Some inside progress!

At last I've moved indoors but not until after I had done lots of staring and thinking before doing so! I really had to do this to be sure of my work plans so that I get everything done in the right order as I go along. Building, decorating and lighting a 3d building is abit of a mind boggling affair! To work it all out I sat down and wrote a plan of action - where to route the wires for the lighting and which piece of wall can I stuck in and when?  Can I lay this flooring now, at which point will I need to glaze that window and add curtains....? etc etc.

Well the first thing I decided to do was to make the channels for the lighting wires to go through to the back of the building....I knew I had to do this before any walls could be stuck in place or flooring laid. The chimney breasts were glued into position at this stage too so that I could get the wires lined up for the fires....

So far so good - the channels for the wires from the shop lights downstairs and for both fires on the first floor

My channels are a little wonky as I used the Dremel but they will still do the job.

The shop light coming up into the sitting room and the wire coming into the back of the fireplace ready to connect to the kitchen range and the sitting room fire.

Here you can see the wires laid in and covered with masking tape

And both the fire lights working! Hooray!

Next I needed to get the hallway and landing wallpapered so that I could glue in the two back walls. I also fixed the wall lights into place before sliding and gluing the wall between the landing and the other two rooms on the first floor. It maybe a challenge putting in the cornice and skirting as this area is quite deep. Wish me luck! I will be able to remove the window to glaze it and add curtains.

            

This is the first floor landing. I'm so pleased with how it's looking so far....

The stairs leading to the attic floor and the doors to the kitchen and sitting room not glued in place yet.

This next picture shows the downstairs entrance hall with the stairs and wall now glued into position and the doorway leading into the shop area.

It took me ages to fix the brass stair rods and I have another set to do yet!

Skirting boards, cornice, door knobs and light switches to add....

Door leading to living quarters

So you are up to date with where I am up to for now...thankyou for looking in! 

Thinking about the lighting

I have begun to think about where all the wires need to be routed so that I can plan the sequence of decorating. With the house being viewable on all three sides and with having landings behind the rooms it's important that I get this right. If I don't give it alot of thought at this stage it would be so easy to stick something in place and then not be able to 'get at' another area later on.... The shop rear wall and the landing wall are both removable and will need to be decorated on the hall /landing sides then stuck in place before I can begin to decorate the shop area, kitchen and living room therefore wires will need to be in place.

I have drawn a plan to help me work that out. 

In the meantime I have done the outside lights and just placed a few table lamps in each room connected to a socket strip to give me an idea of how it's going to look....

So I have brought you up to date with my progress so far...

I'm so excited to be at this stage and I'm really looking forward to starting the interior decorating now but I was determined to finish the outside first so that the house looks nice sitting in the corner of our living room. I have lots of fun times ahead and lots more planning and thinking to do but the wallpapers, cornices and skirting boards and quite a few of the lights have been bought just waiting for me to start!