Incremental Progress

There's no good reason for this, except I love this new shower curtain. The colors and pattern really make me happy. 

 

Plan A isn't going to work for making the roof detachable with magnets, not because the magnets won't work, but because the roof won't be able to go on and off with the back glued in place. Back to the drawing board on that aspect. 

 Meanwhile, furnishing the parts of the kitchen that will show on House 1 moved forward, including the counters and some greenery inside the sunroom.

More to come later, as soon as some of the kinks in Plan B for the roof/back of house get worked out.

Finally Back At Work: Making Adjustments and Re-Planning

Since we've been home, there hasn't been much progress on the houses because there hasn't been a place that where it could all be left set up--every single time, all the houses had to come out, the tools retrieved, the parts, etc. It took so much time to get things out and then clean up afterwards, it was a real deterrent. So, today, we set up an area where I could leave everything out all the time. Once we got it set up, it was back to figuring out how to solve the problems that remain: the bad fit where the back of the house attaches (width/depth of materials miscalculations, we think), what to do about fixing the lighting and being able to take the roof off, how to set up the driveway, etc. 

 The last time any work moved forward (more than a week ago now!!), all three of the back porches finally got completely dressed: plants, plant/window boxes, etc. They look great, if I do say so myself. This picture doesn't fully show it off well because of the splotches on the ground underneath. They do look nice, though.

Today was all about figuring out what to do about attaching the roofs to the attic plane and how to attach the lighting and let the roof be removable so the furnishings/inside could be seen. The first plan of attack involved gluing some magnetic strips in place. In hopes that will work, I  glued the roof to the attic plane for House 1 after altering the way the back wall will attach to the roof. None of the pictures turned out to illustrate the problem and first proposed solution, so I'll try taking pictures again later. In brief, the problem is that the original design envisioned sliding the back wall down through notches in the attic plane, but it doesn't fit once the sunrooms are on, and the sunrooms really have to go on before the back wall is affixed to the houses. Plan A for this problem involves cutting off one of the notches and planning to re-glue it in a later step, after the back wall and roof are on. The back porch roof on House 1 also got applied today, but that picture didn't turn out, either. Sigh. Will try again next time.

This picture (tries) to show the magnetic strips, Plan A for a totally different issue--trying to make the roofs detachable. By paring down the height of two of the walls that shouldn't show much, and gluing the bottom magnetic strip in place, I'm hoping that aligning and gluing the strip to the roof plane will help with letting the roof be lifted on and off. If the lights are glued to the tops of the walls instead of the ceiling of the second floor/attic roof plane, I'm hoping this approach will work. This pilot effort is on House 1, so it will be adapted as things move forward on the other two houses. With any luck, by the end, there will be a system that really works!

Picking Up Again... Home Stretch

So here's where we left off, with the three new houses, plus the original pilot house (incomplete, as it was a conceptual sketch only) packed for travel. They traveled quite safely, nestled in their compartments, with a snugly-fitting lid and just a little packing to keep them from sloshing about side to side. No damage at all in the travel, though I carried the box rather than trusting it to the luggage. Good thing I did, since the luggage didn't show up for three days and I would have been a nervous wreck. The one piece that didn't get here on time is the one in which I would have packed the box of houses, so for once, Murphy and his vexing law were defeated. 

Carrying the box in a handled bag wasn't a problem at all--it was light and not at all unwieldy. There was no problem with it getting bashed around in overhead bins, so that all worked out nicely.

When I picked up again, the first thing was setting up a workspace, which should have been an easier thing to do since we have so much more space here, but somehow was much harder to figure out. Here's my new rolling workspace so I can follow the light and be around other people in a sociable way without being completely underfoot. I'm really happy with it and how it's working out. And organizing it was most satisfying.

Assessments in process. Checklists being developed.

The next step was assessing what's left to be done other than the landscaping, which is the major task not even started yet. Sadly, the assessment revealed a number of little things in uneven states of completion: the small gable had railings on one and not other the other two houses, and some of the interior walls that weren't glued in yet went walkabout on the journey. They haven't reappeared yet, though I expect that will happen soon, since I measured, cut and painted replacements yesterday for installation today. 

Railings completed on small gables.
Trash cans (in foreground) under construction.

Some of that was easily fixed; the small gable dressing has been completed, a few pieces that were complete but not installed taken care of, etc. 

For example, all the rocking chairs were placed on the front porches, as it seemed wise to get this done before they got damaged, as they're quite fragile.  They were home before us, awaiting our arrival.  

Sadly, the assessment revealed that there's a construction/design flaw in the roof/back of house that will need to be addressed, as in the process of assessing the roofs, it became clear that my plan for attaching the back of the houses isn't going to work now that the sunrooms are all constructed and attached: the sunrooms are close enough to the edge of the wall that the back wall will not slide through the notches provided. (Pictures tomorrow.) It's looking like the wonderful notches that seemed like such a clever solution will have to be retrofitted, probably with a knife and then glue to reattach after the back of the house is on. Since there's been some talk of not gluing on the roof plane, but using some other way to attach it, given the mushroom factor that caused the second floor to end up so much more furnished than originally expected, this may turn out to be a blessing in disguise. Still, in the moment, what it most felt like was a total failure of anticipation and planning. Sigh. 

The progress of the back porches, though, has been totally satisfying, with plants, trash cans, etc. The conceptual plan is complete and tested out on House 1. There's one small fit problem with how the back porch connects to the sunroom to be puzzled out for two of the houses, but not the other. Not sure why that would be, so must measure and mull a bit more on that one. Still, there's visible progress and the back porches for the other houses can be dressed next,. 

There are still sidewalks and  fencing to design and the landscaping to be placed, once the houses are secured, the lighting attached and the final plan formulated and executed. for how the roof and back of the house will be attached. 

And thus endeth the first weekend at home.