More Painting and Shingling

Ok, I gave up on WordPress entirely; I like the template there more, and there's clearly power to be had, but learning to use it (at least for this purpose) is more trouble than it's worth. Plus, the template I liked (free) couldn't be set (by me) to show entire posts; it defaulted to excerpts, which isn't ideal for this purpose. There may be a way to do it in the free version, but what it mostly wanted me to

I’m making steady progress on the foundational stuff: priming, staining, shingling.

On the pilot house, I used rectangular shingles, but I’ve switched to diamonds for the “real” thing, as that’s what the house actually has. Happily, the diamonds are easier to apply than the rectangles, as the pattern helps with the alignment. Still, as you can see, in the first piece, I still got a little off by the end. I think that will be covered by the flashing (is that the right word?) that goes across the top of the peak. I hope. I should get better at this, because each roof has (give or take) 13 planes to shingle (gulp). I’ll get a lot of practice!

The system we devised for steps is going to work, I think, though I haven’t succeed in sanding the seam out. Yet. Our steps get into pretty ratty shape after an exposed winter, but they don’t have a seam. So  I need to devise a way to cover up the seam, decide to live with it, or else maybe make the steps look ratty to distract from the seam?  Still mulling… Each house has four sets of steps, three of which will be assembled this way. (I’m forgetting for the moment how the fourth set is constructed. Need to go back and figure that out. Did I overlook them, I wonder?? Hmmm…) Anyway, there’s steady progress, if not speedy.

I’m going to have to be more careful, as something I did yesterday is causing problems with my troublesome shoulder/neck/arm assembly, so today I’m being extra careful about the way I sit. I have a whole set of rules about the alignment to maintain (and postures to avoid), so will proceed cautiously.

On to more shingling and painting. I may attempt some of the beveling today, too. Getting the bevels right for where the pieces of the bays connect is crucial for the final look of the house, so I’ve been thinking about how to go about improving on what I did in the pilot house. I still have one spare set of bay pieces I can practice on, so that may be as far as I get today with the beveling. We’ll see. More soon.