Working on a customer's Holly Hobby house that she started and then decided to hire us to help her finish it. So far the biggest obstacle I've tackled on this house is the electrical. Using Creative Reproductions 2 Scale's wiring system, I have laid the tapewire all throughout the house. Knowing that the customer wants this house to last as an heirloom collection piece I wanted her to have no issues with the lighting. CR2S products operate on DC (Direct Current) and with soldering the connection points there should be no risk ever of lighting problems (other than loose or blown out bulbs)!
So, after coming up with the electrical plan for where the wires needed to go, the next step in creating a problem-free wiring plan was to solder the tapewire at each intersection:
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| Several solder points on this wall. |
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| Soldered junction. |
But soldering all the intersections results in tiny metal bumps that will prevent wallpapers from laying nicely. Plus, if the wallpaper is thin enough or has a white background, the tapewire and solder spots will show thru the paper quite easily, if not rip the paper completely when I'm trying to smooth the paper flat over these metal solder spots. So . . .
Step 2: cover all solder points with a layer of spackle.
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| Multiple solder spots covered. |
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| All spackled. |
Step 3 (and 4): Then I had to sand the spackle smooth and prime over the walls to create smooth, blemish-free, yet electrically solid, surfaces.
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| The two solder spots on the wall are covered, smooth, and blend right in. |
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| You can barely tell where the electrical tape is, never mind where the solder spot is! |
As you can see in the first photos posted above, the customer had previously painted the ceilings and walls. Some walls were yellow, some tan, some a deep olive green. But she was not happy with the paint colors and there were spots of color on the white ceiling where her paint brush had obviously accidentally strayed. And the interior window trims were either a combo of color paint over hastily primed wood or not even primed fully before they had been installed.
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| Yellow paint got on her window trim. |
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| This window trim was never painted before being installed. |
The windows were not removable anymore -- whatever glue the customer used to install them is holding tight so we had to prime them installed in place. We primed all the window trims and the walls so we are starting with a fresh palette:
While waiting for the customer to return to pick out wallpapers and/or paint colors, we have polyurethaned the wood floors (not shown) she had previously brought to us and we are installing the roof panels (third floor will not be decorated; we are installing roof panels on both the front and back of the house, enclosing the third floor, and it will have a hinge so she can access the space but she will be using it for storage).
And those were the steps we took to wire and prepare this house for decorating!
