Tiny Houses, Big Plans

 It's time to start the finishing touches to our Spooky Old Halloween House, and like the title states, we need to landscape this baby so she can be proudly displayed in the bay window of our living room.  First on the list was to cut the base board down in size to fit the targeted area Babette has set for its display.  Next, I cut and attached some small trim to go around the outside edges to define the yard area where she can do her magic.  Once the house was positioned correctly on the base board, and more importantly Babette gave her blessings to its position 😄, I traced an outline of the house and marked the spots where holes were drilled from underneath for its attachment.    After the holes were drilled, the board painted black and lightly sanded, it was screwed to the bottom of the house.  Next she was on to building a big tree for the front yard and a stump around on the back side of the house.  It was also time to start adding all the other assorted goodies to be strewn

Time to add a little more character to our spooky old Halloween House.  Babette decided it needed some mold & mildew sporadically growing in and around certain areas to further enhance that neglected look.  And yep, as usual her attention to detail was right on target; this old gal is definitely looking older and more neglected by the day (the house that is), not my beautiful wife. 😍  To give it the look she wanted, Babette bought a small bag of some finely ground blended green turf from Hobby Lobby.  Next she applied a little Elmer's glue to the areas where moss would normally grow, and then sprinkled the green turf over the glue.  Let me tell you something, that finely ground turf was everywhere around the house; looked like a real mess!  Those who know me also know I am not a lover of any kind of mess; but, I was a very good boy and kept my mouth shut.  😕  After it was dry, I then took a brush and swept "The Mess" into a small pile before putting it back into the

Time to start the fine tuning of this Spooky Old Halloween House with some add-on's, and making this baby look more aged as if the house had been neglected for years.  It's also the fun part in bringing this house to life by giving her more character. Babette decided she wanted to make a weather vane suitable for the theme of this house.  She drew a bat, an arrow, and a crescent moon on base wood, then gave it to me so the pieces could be cut and sanded.  Let me tell you, over the years I've done a lot of wood cutting on a scroll saw, but cutting these tiny pieces on such soft type wood was very tricky.  If you're not careful, and don't go slow, the piece could easily break or spilt.  Luckily we were successful on the first attempt.   After the cutting, Babette glued all the pieces to the center spire and painted them black. When dried, she next used a little brown, rust, turquoise, and white to give it that old rusty look. Next it was on to the steps and walkway le

 Oh my, what is that crazy beautiful wife of mine doing now!  Why she's painting the entire house black, but no fear ya'll, that was her plans all along.  The black will act as a base coat, followed by some brown and a white dry brush over certain areas to give it that old and worn look .... well, at least that is her plans anyway. 😄  I am confident Babette knows exactly what she is doing.  Many a time in the past I had to learn the hard way, not to question her artistic talent or thought process; the woman definitely knows what she is doing, and her projects always turn out looking great. Also on today's to do list was to start the building process for the stairway leading up to the front porch.  Babette drew out the plans for the type stairway she wanted, and then I was off to my little workshop ... the garage, to cut out the pieces needed to make her design fall into place.  It was a relatively easy, and simple plan.  What did I tell you, don't question her design i

 It's finally time for all of this blue to disappear ... YEA!!!  Babette looked online to get some tips on what would work best in re-siding our Spooky Halloween House.  She decided to take some of the standard chipboard she keeps on hand for use with her other websites and cover them with Jesso; a product used to prime a canvas before painting.  In our case, it helped seal the paper so the paint would not be absorbed too much into the substrate and causing it to warp.  Once dried, we cut the chipboard into 1 cm width strips.   Let me tell you, cutting all those small strips and keeping the cuts straight was a lot of fun .... NOT!   Once the strips were cut, the application process began.  It was tedious cutting all those strips to size and then hot gluing them to the house.  Babette, your gluing technique is superb; you done good!  😁  After the siding and corner wood trim strips were attached, it was time to reconstruct the roof over the front porch.  The addition further helped