Catching Up; House 1 (Virtually) Done; The Wonders of Hairspray

The end of year slowdown has been wonderful for making progress on the houses. House 1 is all but done-- It's mounted on its base, the electricity is hooked up, the dome has been cleaned and polished and it's all landscaped. It feels great and it looks pretty good, too.

There are only a few minor touch-ups and tidying remain to declare victory on the first house, and the others are getting close. House 1 needs one more sidewalk piece, some paint touchups here and there, and valiant eldest daughter is making hostas that will be added as they are completed, along the fence and along the side porch.

We're really fortunate here--not only is she creative and great with the really small stuff, she's making the hostas for all three houses so they will all have a touch of each of us. She's doing the hostas and younger daughter has done a variety of things as the houses have been in progress, in addition to the contribution of her wonderful architect friend, who made the roof possible.  Both girls have done a few things on her own house and contributed something to all three as well. It's truly been a family project.

Along the way, after watching a series of videos (thank you, model railroaders!), I started on making trees. Hairspray is a wonderful invention!!! My hair doesn't need it much, so I'd never understood some of its fantastic properties, especially its stickiness. The first tree was a marvel of discovery all along. This one was made from the inner wires of an old lamp cord that was put aside in the basement, so what you see here is the wire stripped out of the cord, with a bit remaining inside it to form a handle while it was under construction. The pushpin is just to hold it up for the photo and for considering placement in the final project. The big trees will probably be offset a bit from where they are in actual life, as to put them in the totally accurate locations would obscure house details we decided we'd like to be able to see more easily. 

The porches on both houses 2 and 3 needed to be adjusted once I got to attaching them, but that's now done and both houses have both front and back porches fully attached. Adjustments included straightening columns a bit, restoring railing that had gotten jostled out of place in handling, and some fit adjustments so they would sit tightly against the body of the houses. Some of that was fiddly work, and I think it's all done now. It's quite satisfying, especially when you stand back and look at the whole effect instead of focusing on specific defects and problems. (Isn't that always the case??)

Now, it's on to finishing other aspects of Houses 2 and 3. Both now have their upstairs lighting hooked up ,and landscaping is under way. House 2 has sidewalks and a driveway, both houses have fences, and to different degrees, each have some yard. 

The end is truly in sight for this project of many years now!!

Thanksgiving Weekend Progress--and the Next Weekend, Too

Finally! Thanksgiving weekend brought time and energy to resume work, which was a wonderful and rejuvenating time. The girls were here and each contributed to the forward progress; one worked on fittings for her kitchen (what happened that those weren't there already??!?), and the other pitched in with a whole range of helpful things, including brainstorming on how to address the problem with the back wall and roof attachment. That cleared a major logjam and permitted real progress. Now, all I have to do is see if I can execute the new plan and make it work. Stay tuned on that front.

All three houses are recognizable now and it was even time to make the final list of what remains to be done: and it all fits on one page!! Once the work got restarted and the work area uncovered from things that had piled up on it, it gained a momentum of its own. The next weekend saw progress, as well. The photos of some of the work seem to have gone AWOL, so some intermediate steps are missing here and this shows the combined progress.

Either I don't understand Blogger's editor at all--entirely possible--or it's really strange. There's something about photo placement and captions that I cannot seem to manage and haven't found the slightest clue in any documentation. It's maddening. I've done the best I can in the time available and called it good enough. It's not really, and at the same time, it's better than nothing, so here it is. Whew. 

House 1 landscaping in progress (sidewalks not attached)

House 1 landscaping in progress and preparing base for lighting

House 1 is close to complete: Tech Support helped with notching the bases for the lighting and battery, and came up with a plan and then executed it for all three houses (pictures at next opportunity).

House 1 side view: landscaping in progress

House 1 side landscaping in progress

House 1 driveway and landscaping in progress; no back fence yet

House 2 acquiring its roof and back porch

House 2 is coming right along: it's time to start its landscaping (almost). 

House 2 back porch gluing on (roof straightened after picture taken)

House 3 porch renovations: straightening crooked railings and columns

A review of the houses showed that House 3's front porch had major issues, so parts of it got taken apart and reassembled, trying to correct them. Progress there, too! The last side porch column still needs a cap, and as the column appears to be a bit shorter than others, a solution is still brewing for that one.