10 year (and 1 month) Water Update

It has been over 10 years since my first experiment with various water effects for dollhouses (First Blog Post About Water Effects). Time to check in on them:

Back in 2016, about 36 hours after being poured, all new and fresh

10 years later

They have actually held up better than I thought they would. Here are individual comparison pictures:

Painted birdbath with Enviro Tex, 2016

Broke years ago and I reglued it, but otherwise basically still fine, 2026

Enviro Tex birdbath, 2016

Enviro Tex, very bubbly looking, 2026

Solid Water, 2016

The discoloration has continued to deepen in the Solid Water, 2026

Scenic Water, 2016

Scenic Water: pockmarked, dusty, and cracked, 2026

So a decade in and this is what we discovered: Scenic Water is definitely the most problematic. Its soft tacky nature does not dust well and seems to trap the years' worth of dust and debris. It has pulled away from the edges, causing some cracks around the gnome's feet. It is pockmarked and slightly yellowed. Now the Enviro Tex and Solid Water seem comparable with regards to a smooth, easily dust-able, surface and with the surface color staying clear. However both had minor issues which developed within the first two weeks of pouring (First Discovery of Issues in Water Products) and are still very present all these years later. Enviro Tex still looks vaguely cloudy up close due to the tiny bubbles and Solid Water had a tie-dye coloration reaction with the bottom of the birdbath that seems to have deepened over time. Product I would recommend would be Enviro Tex but maybe follow the directions and only pour 1/8" deep at a time, blow across the surface to burst the bubbles, let it dry completely for a few days, then pour the next 1/8", etc. Maybe that is the way to prevent the abundance of bubbles from turning the "water" a little hazy/cloudy.

Minor Mansion Blunder

I was so excited to be working on the mansion again I jumped right in. Installed the crown molding in the conservatory. Usually I like to install the wallpaper first and then glue the crown molding over the edge of the wallpaper for a smooth finish. But this wallpaper had a design right up to the top that I wanted to keep and couldn't judge where to install it to ensure the crown would just cover the 1/64" border edge. So the crown got installed first. And of course this room had numerous corners and outside corners so I had to use all my brain power to figure out the appropriate angle cuts.

3 inner corners and 1 outside corner

Plus this crown molding had a longer ceiling side and shorter wall side which was another complicating factor requiring my complete focus and intense thinking. And I must have used all my brain power doing that since I then jumped right into wallpapering!

Crisp, neat wallpapering job!

So happy all my lines are straight

And once I had the paper glued to the walls and admiring my work, thats when I realized: I never installed the coach lights on the exterior wall! It was supposed to be glued on the outer wall, wires passed thru a drilled hole to the inside, wires pressed into a routed channel to the floor, wired, and then all that covered under the wallpaper that I just installed! Oops.

There is supposed to be a hole and coach lights here. Oops.

So I panicked. Removing the wallpaper will be a whole ordeal now because glue was dried and I really didn't want to scrape the paper off to make a channel for the wires. Can't cover any wires or repairs inside with a painting, furniture, potted plant, or anything because the opening for the stairs is right there and I can't block the stairs. Was creating an elaborate fix involving widening the doorway, routing a channel across the exterior wall to the doorway, filling it with the wires and putty to cover the wires and then repainting the exterior to hide it all. At least two weeks' worth of work.

And then my mother said, why don't you just drill the hole now and wire it inside and re-wallpaper over the wires? Duh. Why do I always make things more complicated than they need to be? 

So that is what I planned to do. Except I couldn't find my coach lights. Took a few days going thru all my stuff in the basement to find them. (Turns out storing all your miniatures in various Tupperware buckets, baskets, boxes, and bags is not a very efficient organizational system when you need to find something.)

But I finally found them, drilled the hole, wired it in to the electrical system, and wallpapered over it. Took about seven minutes.

Wires under electrical tape

Used a piece of scrap wallpaper to cover the repair

It's not perfect. I still see the bump from the wires which should have been hidden into a groove I should have routed in before any wallpapering took place. But it wasn't as complicated as I was making it to fix. And most people won't notice it once all the plants and furniture are in the room. (And mom, in her infinite wisdom, has suggested a servant's bell pull be installed there which would be an appropriate accessory to the room and a good cover for the tiny bump.) Now I can continue moving forward on the project instead of getting caught up in an elaborate repair job.

It's working!

Measured and cut the flooring. Now to install the chandeliers....that I can't find. That is the problem with putting my miniatures in a "safe spot". Back to the basement to search thru boxes and buckets again (would find them hours later inside the mansion in a room on the opposite side of the dollhouse)...

Flooring is a simple wood floor since it will mostly be covered by a rug

Loving this room so far!

Finally found the chandeliers! I put them in place (but they are not wired in yet). Probably won't get a chance to install them in permanently before my friends visit because I'd like to fully focus on the foyer and butler's pantry that I should have finished last year (that was last year's goal). But for now, here is the conservatory:

Deep burgundy red chandeliers that coordinate nicely with the wallpaper

With rug in place, although still in it's plastic

Not sure if I will keep that rug or go with a smaller one. I will ask my friends for their opinions when they are here. I am so excited for my friends' visit motivating me to make such vast progress on my mansion these last few days! Can't wait for them to see what I have done so far!

Witch's House Update

Where we left off...

Working away on the witch's house

I really wanted to get my witch's house finished on the exterior before Halloween. First order of business was the front door. I was inspired by a door at our favorite restaurant in New Hampshire: The Copper Door.

Love this real size copper door on a restaurant in New Hampshire!

The new door (by Alessio Miniatures) arrived so I filled in the excess space in the entry so the smaller door would fit, painted the door, and am in love.

They made it exactly as I wanted!

Door all painted

 

Filled in excess space from prior double door and installed the "copper" single door

Next up was windows and trims. Got most of the windows in (not permanently since I will need to take them out when wallpapering the interior) and glued some trims on...

Fussed with this window because it didn't have trim and the gaps bothered me

Created trim out of black mat board and glued a finial on top to coordinate it with the railing on the roof

Started to play around with the yard - making a spooky tree, stone walkway up to the door, and a stone fence

Got the fences stoned with MagicSton and took several days to paint it appropriately aged and dirty. First I painted some pieces of scrap wood the color I wanted the "mortar" between the stones to be. I did a sloppy job because I knew I would be "dirty" it up with a wash after which would mute all the colors. So I painted it all cream, except where some old blackish stain still showed thru. But I went with it anyway cuz it could only add to the spooky nature of the fence, right?

Applying the MagicSton sticker template

I covered the scrap wood and template sticker with the plaster-like product that comes in the MagicSton kit and once it had set, I peeled the sticker template off, leaving pale tan "stones" on the wood for an instant stone fence.

Painted the individual "stones"

After painting some variations of color onto some of the stones, everything got a black paint wash.

Foreground fence was finished with a black wash, background fence is still freshly painted

"Mortar" still looks too bright/clean to me, but will add dirt/landscaping later

I know I should have continued working on the Witch's House right up until Halloween, but friends are coming to see my mansion and I haven't made any progress on that project in over a year and a half!  So the Witch's House has been regulated back down to the basement while the mansion is getting some attention.

Silently waiting for me to return to it

Hopefully this winter I can tackle the landscaping and start to work on the interior...if nothing else, I will get that done by NEXT Halloween!

Going off the rails...

The Artply Rutherford had railing for the tower roof which my teenage-self did not glue on centered.

Bit more to the right please...

So I removed it. Then I bought this Lemax Halloween fencing to use on the house. It was going to need some fine tuning to fit in with my house better but it was a good base to start with.

So I used a hammer to carefully remove the resin "ground" the fences were attached to. The resin chipped in places but overall it went okay. In addition to removing the "grass base" and skulls at the bottom, it needed to be repainted.

You can see some chipped bottoms on the post at the top of this picture.
I had started painting the bat pikes on the posts' tops when I took this picture.

Painted the rails copper, the balls on the posts black, and everything got a black paint wash to age/dirty them.

Spray painting the fence copper

Regluing the fences to the posts

Put them on the house to discover that some of the irregular chipping and cutting on the bases left gaps that would need trim to cover...

Post doesn't even reach the roof top.

Cut some black trim and edged all the post bases on the tower roof.

Looks like a solid post now

Now the exterior is mostly all painted. Front door has arrived and trims are expected in a few days. I put windows in place loosely (Nightfall Designs: Etsy Shop I Bought Windows From) to see how it is coming together and am very excited:

Front door has been painted and new front door wall has been cut since new door is a single whereas prior door had been a double. More progress on this crazy train coming soon!

Raising the Roof

I want the Witch's conservatory's roof to be removable to make arranging the plants inside easier. First I created trusses (at least, I think that's what they're called) to support the roof.

Because of its slight coffin shape (not a perfect rectangle but an irregular hexagonal polygon) the angles for the roof panels on the end were going to be tricky and need lots of support.

Pieces all cut to fit

Painted black and plexi (still has protective film on it) cut to fit

And (of course) once I saw the bare bones of the roof, I realized it was going to need a spiderweb design!

Freehand drew the slight curve needed for the "web" and carefully cut them out. I used 1" wide strip wood so the webbing would be roughly equal distance apart.

And then my brain went into overdrive: this spider web theme conservatory needs a crystal spider chandelier! So I will have to make that once I return from my trip to Texas (helping my daughter move cross country). Found some on Etsy I liked, but I need them to be about 2-1/2" (most are closer to 4") and I need them to have a light inside since it's supposed to be a chandelier.

There's no light in it and it's a little big for my purposes, but oh so lovely!
Crystal spider by treasuresbytiziana Etsy shop

There was one trim piece missing (paint was still drying on it) but I was so excited by how it is looking I took some photos to share (ignore the plastic wrap covering the trusses under the roof - I didn't want any excess glue seeping thru and accidentally glue the roof to the structure; it is supposed to be removeable):

Then my plumber canceled on me so my day opened up; flooring was installed and trim moldings cut, painted, and glued in place. Conservatory will look better with landscaping outside, plants for inside, and (of course) a spider chandelier. But for now, here are the "finished" pics:

Can't wait to create the spider chandelier and I am very excited to start the main house exterior painting, window replacement, and landscaping! Hope I'm up for mini'ing some more once I'm back home from Texas!