Tiny Houses, Big Plans

 Time to start on that 3rd Doll House makeover mentioned in one of my earlier blog posts.  This time Babette wants to make a Patriotic New England Saltbox type home.  At first we thought about making the house ourselves from scratch, the kits are rather pricy, and we're all about trying to be as economical as possible.  Well, leave it to my savvy wife; she found this house online.  A lady in our neighborhood was selling it for only $30.  My time and the material costs alone made this little jewel the ideal candidate for our next project.   We hope to get started on the remake soon; however, right now, we're in the middle of having our roof replaced due to a recent bad hail storm that hit the Spring, TX area.  Plus, the 2 - A/C units in our home are probably going to need replacing; they're 11 and 15 years old, and are starting to have some issues.  I'm getting estimates now on our best options.  Hope it doesn't hurt too much, but we'll see how that goes! One thi

Completed doll house makeover that is; the Christmas House is done and now on display in our home.  For those who may not have seen how it looked in the beginning, here it is before we started … "The Bash" process.  Yeah, it's rather plain and sad looking as it sits; no character whatsoever; you know, BLAH!  Therefore, it qualified as a good project for Babette and me to transform, and apply her vision of what a country Christmas House might look like during the holiday season.  HO-HO-HO!!! Right from the get-go, Babette knew exactly what she was going to do to give this house more charm, not to mention, that desperately needed holiday feel.  So began the transformation process to remake it into what it is today.  And the best part, it is being displayed on top of the same box and in the same window as our Halloween House.  This Christmas farm house project turned out better than we had originally hoped, and will be a great addition to our home decorations, which by the w

  Babette just made 2 neat looking fabric pieces to go on the front porch of our Christmas House.  First, she painted a classic Christmas design, and hand quilted around each of the blocks before draping this miniature quilt across the back of our porch swing.  Then she placed a miniaturized reproduction of the 1962 Sears Christmas Toy Catalog she made earlier and set in next to the quilt.  Next, she hand painted this miniature Santa pillow before it was stuffed and stitched around all the edges.  It was then propped up in the chair.  The best part for us was being able to place a miniaturized reproduction of this year's holiday issue for Better Homes & Garden Craft magazine. This particular issue is special because it recently featured 1 of Babette's original wooden Christmas door designs.  I am very proud of Babette's hard work and accomplishments.   We're nearing the end of remodeling this tiny house.  All that's basically left is to attach the black shingles

In my last post, I showed where we started some of the masonry work on the chimney and foundation areas for our new Christmas House.  Below are some of the pieces Babette tore from an old egg carton and then glued them into position to give the pattern she wanted for this house.  After they were dry, I came back to apply the spackling compound and fill in the gaps to smooth out all of the rough edges.  Next, she sanded the faux stone so it would look as realistic as possible.  The final step in this process was to apply a 50/50 mixture of water and Aleene's Tacky glue.  This acts as a sealer to prevent any further absorption into the paper. Now that the masonry work is done, it was time to move on to the completion of laying all the brick work around the front step and porch foundation.  Babette (Local BR549) was called in to cut, paint, and glue all the pieces into place. 😆  First she glued the Styrofoam pieces around the perimeter of the front porch, and on the step edges.  Next

Babette said it's that time, and she was ready to make some nick-knacks or goodies for this evolving Christmas House.  So, she sat down and started crafting all of the neat little items shown below; and, I think she did pretty darn good job too!  They really do look authentic.  Check out these reproductions of an Amazon box, FedEx box, and a standard shipping box which she tied on a bow with red baker's twine.  These will be set outside the front door.   She also figured a mug of hot cocoa plus a gingerbread cookie would be a nice addition; must be a chilly morning around the old house.  I'll bet they're gonna taste good too.  Babette is 1 talented woman.  She sculped each piece before putting them in the oven so the clay could harden.  When dry, she applied the paint and yummy toppings. Here are miniaturized versions of several magazines, including an old Sears Christmas catalogue.  The one in the upper left hand corner (Holiday Crafts) is Better Homes and Garden's

 More progress was made on our Christmas House makeover.  The board and batten was cut and glued to the 3 sides that will be displayed.  Next, Babette painted the entire house white, the windows frames black, and stained all 5 support columns for the front porch.  She asked me to wrap painter's tape at the bottom of each column so none of the plaster would get on them when she applied it to the floor and foundation areas.   Babette was excited to see the new multi-colored Christmas lights she previously ordered arrive in the mail.  Of course, we were also anxious to see how they were going to look strung around the house.  Babette said let's get started, so we attached part of them just across the roof line on the 2nd floor.  The light string she ordered is rather long because Babette only wanted to run 1 string for the entire outside of the house.  That meant we needed to do some thinking on how this could best be achieved.   Since the battery box needed to be located inside t