Slow progress. . .

What would you like, the good news, or the bad news? I'll give you both: the good news is that I am slowly inching my way through the floor in George's room, and the bad news is: I still have to finish half of it! To start us off, I'm going to show you a photo of the back stairs that the servant's entrance leads to - I seem to talk a lot about it! (One thing that really bothers me here is that the wall isn't thick enough - there's no way you'd ever find a wall that thin anywhere!)

Ugh!!!!!!! Now, for the floor! (Drum roll, please)

That's not sunlight - it's my desktop lamp :-) If you are wondering about the floor pattern, I was too lazy to cut the squares in half - but it turns out that that was a good call on my part - I can't even keep the squares themselves square!

A bit worn, but still loved! Now - you may remember the fireplace from a few posts ago:

You can see the wall through the fireplace, but luckily - it's all finished now! (That is, I still have to finish the thingy-ma-bob that lets the smoke out, I know there's some name for it for gas fireplaces).

It's a bit dark, but you may be able to see some coals; they are made out of gravel. Now, I'll show it to you, all lit up! (By the way, for some annoying reason two of the lights in the Manor don't work: the battery for the servant's entrance went out, and the wires for the Egyptian Bedroom are disconnected, because I have quite mustered the courage to fix them.)

It's a lot more subtle in real-life, because I couldn't manage to take a good photo of it. If you can see any white liquid - it's glue, because I was to impatient to have it dry before I took the photo. I was too busy, unfortunately, to get photos of the back while I was constructing it - but I have a shot that will hopefully show you how I made it (ish).

It was constructed of a base made out of wood (elevated on cork board), and five pieces of wood covered in painted sandpaper. I have no idea what the material is supposed to look like - maybe some sort of metal. I'm just glad it lights up!

That's where the fireplace will sit - the firebox will slot into it. I had to glue the wall in at a certain angle, so it would free up more space, so the firebox won't sit flush to the wall, but luckily nobody will see this! The little pieces of wood are all parquet just waiting to be sanded and stained. Now, a couple of posts ago I mentioned the servant's entrance, and because I hadn't taken any photos of it, I had to use an old one. Luckily, I took some photos of it today.

There's a full on shot. A bit over grown and grubby - I suppose the inhabitants of the house are more worried about the war then manicuring the exterior.

Originally, I was going to use a pediment above the door - made out of fancy marble,but it looked too plain and not green enough (not a very good explanation, what I'm trying to say is that it wasn't wild enough for me), so I used an awning - that clearly has seen better days because the mold is creeping up on it!

One of my creamer trash cans in the top photo - I took the idea off of otterine.com (sorry I can't attach a link, you'll have to copy and paste that into your web browser, but my link system on Blogger just doesn't seem to be working). I love Brae's work - she makes everything look so real! I didn't use spray paint (I don't like the smell), so I just used a couple of coats of Metallic Silver paint. And, of course, some rust and dirt spots!

I've been working on some vines for the exterior by the servant's entrance - I want it to be thin and scraggly at the bottom, but lush at the top. So far I have finished the vines for the facade of the nursery, and the one in the picture above is for the exterior of George's Room. Also, I just realized it's almost fall! For some reason, this photo of the scullery in my dollhouse below seemed autumnal to me - so I will use it as my closing photo!

Signing off. . . for now!