Tiny Houses, Big Plans

 We're closing in on all the major modifications, but there is still a lot left to complete before this Spooky Halloween house is finished.   Late afternoon and early evening hours are pretty much the only times we have available to work on this old house.  Babette's job takes up most of her daytime hours, while mine are spent on odd jobs around the house, or any unfinished "Honey-Do's",  😄 The leaded window panes for the tower are done, and all the lighting wires for each room have been installed.   We ran 2 separate battery powered orange light strings; 1 power pack with the remote control will be placed underneath the removable tower roof, while the other is located in the cellar door entryway.  The lights still need to be fine tuned in each room to make sure they yield the best effect.  We also need to apply the frost on the 3 tower windows.  Once that is added, the lighting from those windows will appear more defused. Babette did a great job sculpting some

 In my last post, Babette started making and applying the bricks to be used on this spooky house.  Today, after all were attached, she started the process of distressing and applying the different colors of paint to these bricks in an effort to make them look old or more moldy looking; you know, like a real house, or at least like those in the Houston area.  Here you can see the transformation of the bricks underneath the front porch area right over the new basement windows.                                                                         From another angle, here is the foundation area underneath the new tower, and front porch area.  Wow she's good, they're really starting to look almost like actual brick.  Maybe Babette should join the brick layers union.  🤣 Her final magic on the brickwork for today's post was the chimney, and you know, this piece is starting to look like the real thing.  Babette's doing a great job in transforming this house into what she ori

 With the major modifications complete, it's now time to start the fine tuning of this soon to be spooky Halloween house.  As I mentioned earlier, Babette has a lot more patience than I when doing tedious work.  Thank goodness she decided to take on the making of all the bricks needed for this project.  She cut them out of styrofoam plates, and then glued the bricks to the chimney.  They will also be used to cover the area where the basement windows are cut just below the front porch area. This is definitely a time consuming job; glad she took it on and not me.  🤣  She's a doll!     While Babette worked on the bricks, I decided to remake the front porch.  I cut off the rounded ends of some Popsicle sticks and started gluing them to the porch, being careful not to lay them in any sort of pattern; Babette prefers the randon seam look.  I've built several decks during our marriage, but this one was the smallest.  After the glue dried, Babette came behind me with a Sharpie pen

 Well, like they say, there's no rest for the wicked!  I got a break from some of my other duties, so it's time to start construction of the Gothic tower and fireplace.  I don't know about where you live, but it's been hotter than hell here in Houston; upper 90's for the past 2 weeks with not even a hint of any kind of rain where we live.  That, however, does not matter because with the clock ticking towards Halloween, I still have to get these pieces completed.  So, it's back out to my sweat box (garage) to start the cutting process; convert the foam core prototypes into wood.  Luckily, I have 2 - 52" ceiling fans, a 36" fan mounted over by back garage door (gives a little extra flow through ventilation), and another 12" fan blowing right in my face on my work bench.  And guess what, I still sweat like crazy, not to mention looking like someone who had been sprayed with a water hose.  You get use to it; all part of living in a humid, and I really

The construction phase has begun but first, we needed to "Bash" the house.  Say what???  Babette said that is the term used by those who do this all the time to deconstruct, or temporarily remove pieces which may or may not be used later.  All will be set aside in case any are needed in the remodel. Once the bashing was complete; don't know about you, but that term makes me think of someone taking a hammer and literally destroying the house --- oh well, it was time to make a prototype of the Gothic tower and fireplace.  Since Luan wood is more expensive, we decided to make our prototype pieces out of foam core board we purchased from the dollar store.  It's easier to work with, and if you screw up, no big deal; just cut another until you get the shape and size you need.  Guess what, that is exactly what we wound up doing.  The 1st tower initially looked great but, and that's a heavy but, when it was placed up next to the house, it looked out of proportion; it was