The Beginning of the Farmhouse

Since this house is going to take me some time to complete I will be posting other projects I have done along the way.  For the next few posts I will be focusing on the farmhouse.  Even though I am just beginning I have already realized just how little I know about stick building.  Obviously along the way I will be adopting "the Marilyn way" (flying by the seat of my pants) to accomplish these tasks.  However, whenever possible I will be drawing, designing and making mock ups because that's how I do things.

This is the interior ground floor of the living room and den.  Yes, I know it looks weird but as a child I liked the fact that I could look through the railing of the stairs into the den because we had our Christmas tree there.  You just never knew if you would catch Santa at his work.

It probably seems like an odd way to start building but it makes sense to me.  Kinda scary I know.  At this point I was waiting for some wood to arrive from the Northeastern Scale Lumber Company.  With my spare time I decided to start making some of the interior furniture and appliances.  This, of course, was before I decided to do a blog.  I do not have before, during and after pictures for some of these.  For the living room chair I followed Kris from 1 Inch Minis blog.  She is so talented.  I then just expanded the dimensions of the chair to make the couch.

I made the stove next from a picture of a vintage 1950's stove.  This was one of those "fly by the seat of my pants" projects.  Thanks to my older brother who was able to give my some direction.

The next project was to make the fridge.  Again I circulated pictures of 1950's fridges to my siblings who helped me pick out the closest one.  Again my older brother not only new the look of the fridge but also the make.  That really helped.  

I am going to try and post every Monday from here on.  So until next week "happy mini-ing" everyone.

First Post

Thanks to my friend, Marilyn, I have finally agreed to start my own blog.  She has been after me for some time now to do this.  I have been hesitant because I felt I didn't need another commitment, but I will admit I have really enjoyed her blog along with many others.  Thanks to my good friend Marilyn who has so happily said things like "you should add a bus stop to your train station" my minis sometimes grow.  I have taken her advise mostly because she is usually right.  She is definitely the idea go-to person.  However, unlike Marilyn, I cannot mini by the seat of my pants because I do not have a golden horseshoe.  I plan, design, and then build.  So....here goes.

I have started a major project.  I am making a replica of the family homestead farmhouse.  It is a major undertaking.  I'll post as I go along but there will be weeks when I post some other project I have made.  Variety...that's always good.   Someday I would love to do the family homestead in Ireland.  But that's another project.

Just a little bit about the farmhouse.  I grew up on a large farm in southern Quebec.  I have six siblings and consequently the farmhouse is large.  It is a two and a half story house measuring (in miniature, of course) 24 X 38 inches.  This is a picture of the farmhouse I am building.

I started by building the inside ground floor walls.  I did this mostly because I wasn't sure how I want to do the exterior walls.  I want to be able to see in every room in the house.  I will have to decide soon but in the meantime I am waiting for wood so I can work on the inside walls and making furniture..