beaconhill

Beacon Hill

	This is my daughter Kari at the wonderful age of two. She wanted to help with the dollhouse and so she's begun staining the stairs from the first floor to the second. This was in about 1987. Shortly after this time as soon as the basic shell was finished, parenting and work took over and the house was "stored away" for quite a few years. Kari is entering college this fall (2003) on a scholarship.
	Finally, back out of storage. Tape wiring system is installed but the only lights working (installed) are the two coach lamps on the front porch. Color scheme we're using is a light blue with mostly white trim. The other trim ACCENTS will be a very dark blue. The tower roof will be kept as "removable" as it is now. Four slots and tabs hold it into place on top of the tower.
	Most of the trim is installed and we've added copper to the roofs of the bay windows and all of the dormer windows. Beginning the gray paint on the foundation for a "magic stone" covering which will be added. Also painting the roof sections that will be shingled a flat black to look like roofing paper if there happen to be any cracks that can be seen through the shingles. We used poster board glued in strips and cut to fit in the shutters. They were painted the darker blue. We also used turned decorative toothpicks to create an interesting effect above the front door. Doors aren't yet attached because we plan to hinge them. The four dormer windows on the top floor are hinged already.
	The roof is finally on and the gray is painted on the foundation. We made the shutter inserts with cardstock in strips and painted them the darker trim color. Most exterior trim is now installed, including the copper over the dormers and bay windows. Still need to do the porch floors, flat portions of the roof and "aging". The next step will be installing the ceiling lights and wall plugs. The curved dormer windows were a bit difficult to assemble but add such an unusual elegance it was worth every bad word uttered. We may change the circular tower window to a "stained glass" one at some future date.
	Detail of the front doorway arch. We put a dark blue cardstock behind and cut the "fancy" ended toothpicks for the individual spokes of the arch. Thes were glued in place and painted along with the rest of the trim. Doors are just SITTING there, and not hinged or attached yet and the inside door edges aren't cleaned up yet either.
	We have lights! The reason this picture looks strange is because the house was upside down when it was taken. So the hanging lights are up against the ceiling and the lamps are hovering as if a poltergiest was around. Kitchen and bath on the left have textured and painted ceilings but no flooring or wall coverings yet.
	Halloween 2003, I stretched a spider web across the house, adding a big spider. There's also a battery operated "flaming" caudron on top of the tower roof waiting to be poured onto unsuspecting trick or treaters a la what the Adamms Family did to the Christmas Carolers in their first movie.
	These are the planks on the front porch. At this point they've only been "aged" one coat and I'm still deciding whether or not to give them another coat of the wash. Before putting the boards on, we painted the porch surface a flat black to give it more "depth". Now if you look closely you can see "darkness" between the boards.
	Melissa parked the Harley on the now finished porch. I told her Harley's leak and she shouldn't park it there. I came back about an hour later to find the growing puddle just like I predicted. LOL! She made the oil spill with white glue and a little paint on wax paper. After it hardened, she peeled it off and put it under the bike.
	On the second floor balcony we used an eighty grit emery cloth. It costs a bit more than sandpaper but is a lot easier to work (the grit stays on with folding and handling) with and it's available in the coarser grits in black. This pic also shows the boards on the first floor before any aging.
	No matter what color we used the patina didn't look right painted on, due mostly to my painting abilities not the color. We found out that sponging on regular household bleach onto the copper was a quick way to "age" it to a REAL patina. This is about 6 applications.
	The outside of the house is finished except for the aging of the roof shingles which we'll do later. The stones are on the foundation and all the lights are on, though you can only tell it by looking at the two porch lamps. We still have quite a bit of stuff to do on the inside, but luckily most of that is decorating. The bath isn't quite there yet and we don't have curtains everywhere or we don't like some of the ones we have. And we do want to add crown molding at some time. I'd also like to do something inside the tower room at some point though we're not sure exactly what yet.
	We used the "Magic Stone" system to add the masonry around the foundation with a "medium gray" background for the grout. Later we sponged on a bit of some more shades of gray and brownish washes to give the stones a more natural look. You can see the Christmas tree and wreath are still up.
	Here's Mel practically standing on her head trying to figure out how to get the curtains hung in one of the bay windows. We has purposely waited to install the bay window trim until after the curtains were in. We found that bending a curtain "rod" (aluminum tube) in two places and using one rod for all three windows was easiest to work with.
	This is a view of the house from the back. This isn't our final decorating scheme, just tossing in whatever pieces we had handy to get an idea how things will work out. At this point, Mel is working on more curtains and Darrell is designing a cabinet that will be built in for the bath room. We eventually want to put crown molding in the rooms but don't have any. And of course the walls need pictures, mirrors and all the other little touches that make a house a home.
	Bathroom cabinet has been made. It was constructed from scrap pieces from the house kit (mostly window punchouts). It will eventually be an enclosed tub with sliding glass doors. Later we added two pieces to the top that match the overall "trim" around the houses windows, and such. (see below for those) At this stage you can see some portions of the tape wiring system though you can see also that under the "stucco" textured ceiling it doesn't show at all going to the light fixture.
	The tub and surounding area (and floor) have been tiled, These plastic tile sheets were really hard to figure out how to make them attach and stay put. What finally worked was plastic "model" cement to glue the tile to a sheet of construction paper or thin card stock and then regular glue to the back of the card stock to attach to the walls or floors. Curtain is real "plastic" from a "dollar store table cloth". Baseboards and tub trim (to hide gaps) were added. Melissa did the bath mat on 40 count silk. And will make a matching rug for the toilet. Here you can also see the two sections I added on top of the built-in cabinet to match trim scheme of the rest of the house.
	This is pretty much the kitchen. The crooked bay trim piece isn't glued in because we plan to install some "recessed" lighting up there. This is one of the rooms we used regular dollhouse flooring. This is the "white marble" style. Melissa made the cafe curtains including sewing on all those individual jump rings and the lacing on the edge. Again on the three window side we have only a single rod crossing all three windows. She also made the mop (pictured on another page here) and the pot holders and dish towels.
	The little room over on the edge on the third floor was turned into a sewing room. I need to put a socket over on the side of the room with the lamp so we don't have to run the cord around to the other side but I'm out of those. And it just doesn't look right up there on the antique candle stand. We plan to make a better sewing machine but for now we've got this little cheap one. And Mel is thinking she needs a serger too. The waste paper basket is a trimmed up "coffee creamer" container courtesy of Denny's Restaurant.
	Third floor bedroom. You can tell the lil people are just moving in. (no curtains or pics on walls) but my computer is up with the coffee cup (personalized with my name) next to it. We didn't add the trim around the fireplace. We put paper printed bricks inside, and on bottom of it and covered a piece of cardboard to glue on front to bring it out some from the wall. Notice brick edges.
	Bricks were put inside this fireplace too. Mel made the tree, it's decorations, (with angel) and the skirting. I made the sofa, chair, and books. We still haven't "shaped" the curtains yet, and there's no crown molding in any room yet. Installing base board in the bays was challenging until I figured out I only needed 45 degree angles.

	We aren't sure what this room will eventually become. For now it's a nursery. Mel's using a light green sheer back curtain and a heavier forest green drapery over it. She made the lamp, stuffed animals, rattle, teething ring, and blankets, mattress, diapers. The boxed items are folded together printies. The rug is a real baby washcloth.