Priming

As long as I've been obsessed with this project (which is really the only word for my fixation on it), starting the painting was really satisfying.  Not only does everything need to be primed and painted, but the windows and doors must also be stained. Gratitude to whoever invented the stain pen!   With his characteristic family creativity, Michael made me a custom-drying rack. (Sorry it's a little out of focus; it's an upside-down flower pot with some metal rods through it.)

And another for use on site.  

The thin wood warps so easily, at least for the primer coat, we decided to try spray paint for the primer coat. So far, so good, though the pieces are so light that getting a technique to get good coverage without blowing the pieces around took some trial and error.

Everything is primed, finally, and the next stages are to bevel the bays before painting with the finish coat and to start the shingling process. (Oh, rats. Just realized there's one more roof to prime, and the spray paint is gone. Sigh.) The shingles are self-stick, which is an advance over the ones we made out of cardstock for the house replica we built some years ago. Still, applying them row by row on as much roof as three houses have is going to take some time, so I'm thinking I'll intersperse those two tasks. 

I'm also refining the assembly instructions as I go, just in case. The hardest part of this project was the measuring and developing the specs, and now that is done, SDK could cut additional sets without tremendous difficulty, we think. Writing instructions helps me think everything through one last time, which is always a good thing, and should there ever be any interest in making a kit out of this, the information will have been preserved from this pass through.