Denise's City Cottage Part 4 - Interior Stucco Application

It took me a while to figure out what I was going to do next but I decided I would go ahead and try my hand at doing some interior stucco. I bought the Handley House Stucco & Adobe Mix that covers 2 1/2 ft.²

Since the house is dry fit together it is the perfect time to mark around the edges of where window frames go and where the floor meets the walls and walls meet each other.  This step will help me to know where not to put stucco. 

 

Next I carefully disassembled the roof and the windows so that I could get the sidewalls and the front panels ready for stucco. I put the pieces on wax paper so that any mess that I WILL make is easily cleaned up.

 

Make sure that the pieces are faced in the correct direction you should see the pencil lines on each of your pieces where you should not be putting stucco

The Handley House Stucco comes with a bag of mix and instructions:

 

I took an empty milk carton and cut it in half so that I had a container to mix the stucco in.  In addition, I had a paintbrush, foam brush and wet washcloth standing by to help with the stucco effect.

Carefully pour the amount of mix you need into the milk carton. I used the entire bag which left me with some extra mix I didn't need.

Pour in the water and mix until you have a putty like consistency. I put in 1 1/2 cups of water which was probably just a tad to much as my mix was a little more runny than putty.

I took an old hotel key and cut it in half length wise to use as my putty knife.  You could always use an actual small putty knife but I didn't have one handy.

 

Next apply the stucco mixture using small swipes with our putty knife.

 

Here is what the wall looks like after you have applied the stucco mix with the putty knife.

Next I took the wet washcloth and dabbed the stucco all over. I had to wash out the washcloth multiple times but I really liked how the stucco looked afterwards.

Before the washcloth:

 

The bottom right corner has had the washcloth effect done but not the top left:

Here is a picture of all of the pieces after they have had the washcloth dabbing done:

Now we wait for the pieces to dry....48 hours or so.

Weathered Adirondack Mini Chairs

Recently I received a custom order to make a couple of weathered chairs for a seaside cottage.  I ordered a couple of unfinished Adirondack chairs by Town Square Miniatures as the base:

I started with a grey undercoat, this will provide a good foundation for the crackle medium:

I applied the grey paint haphazardly as I am trying to accomplish a weathered wood effect at this step and so some of the unfinished wood will show:

After the paint has dried I covered the chairs with a crackle medium.  This is a clear glaze and you won't see a difference except for a light shine.  It is very important that this medium dries completely.

Once dry I applied the white top coat and let it dry completely, the crackling will start to happen. Once dry I applied a matte varnish. Here is the finished product:

Denise's City Cottage Kit Part 3 - Roof Supports and Rafters

On wards and upwards, literally, as we are working on the roof supports and rafters.  Here is a pic prior to this next step (see part 2). 

 

I have to admit I was a bit stumped when I read the instructions, especially step 2 (I'll explain in a bit).

 

Step 1 was straight forward. install the rafters on the both the right and left sides.  Make sure the T shaped side is placed into the groves in the back of the roof beams:

 

Here is a picture of Step 1 completed.  NO GLUE AT THIS POINT!

 

 

Now Step 2, for the life of me I couldn't figure out what they meant by the roof supports.  I kept picking up the outside trim pieces and would stare at them and scratch my head and set them back down again.  I finally realized that I didn't have the correct pieces....and finally found them hiding inside of the white box inside the kit that holds the front sliding door piece.  Here are the pieces you are looking for and the infamous white box:

 

For the step you will need the longer supports, set the short ones aside.  From the longer pieces grab one square piece and one curved piece:

The curved piece will fit on the back of the beam between the wall and the supports with the curved edge lining up with the rafter and wall:

 

Ok, finally we get to use glue!  Place the glue on the back of the beam or you could put it on the support.  DO NOT PUT GLUE ON THE SIDE OF THE HOUSE OR THE RAFTER.

 

Make sure to squeeze the support and the beam together to get a tight fit.  Then use your fingers to make them line up on the top flush.  I used painters tape to hold them in place, the instructions call for clamps but I had to improvise as my clamps are much to small to hold these large pieces together.

 

 

Repeat this step for the other back side.  Use the square longer pieces to repeat the process at the front of the house.  Here is a completed picture after all the long roof supports are put in place.

 

 

Now grab your final rafter and slide it into place (see where I am pointing below).  Remember that these are not glued down.

 

 

Ok, we are going to repeat the process with the short roof supports.  The square pieces go in the front and the slanted ones in back.

 

Here is a picture of the front short square supports installed:

 

Here is the back short support beam being glued in place, again only put glue on the one side that will be glued to the beam.

 

Now we wait for the glue to dry.  All support beams and rafters are in place. The rafters should have no glue on them.  The roof supports should be glued to the front and back beams.

Without the tape:

Stay tuned for Part 4.

EXTRA NOTE:  Where is step 3???  Ok, I passed on this step for now.  I didn't want to screw the side wall into the beams at this step because I want to apply the outside and inside finishes.  I will address this step later once I have the inside walls and wiring done.

Denise's City Cottage Kit Part 2 - Floor, Sidewalls and Beams

Now that we have a foundation it is time to move on to the next step....the floor, sidewalls and roof beams. 

 

IMPORTANT NOTE:  DURING THIS ENTIRE TUTORIAL YOU WILL NOT USE GLUE!!! AT ANY STEP!!

 

The instructions call for you to mark on opposite sides of the foundation a 1/4" line.  I had a piece of 1/4" balsa wood that I used to make the mark...it would probably be more accurate with a ruler but I didn't see a difference.

 

Here is one side of the finished mark:

 

This shows that the lines should be across from each other....my figure is pointing to one side and the other mark is on the right.

 

Next lay the floor piece on to the foundation.  Make the back of the board flush with the back of the foundation and line the floor on the right and left sides with the two pencil marks you made in the steps above.

 

You can see the pencil line on the right, the floor will not reach the front of the foundation. This is normal as there is a front wall and porch floor to install later.

 

Next we are going to install the side walls.  They have a small window in each.  In order to find the outside wall you will need to find the countersink hole.  Here is an example of the countersink (my finger is pointing at it) and the other hole is the non-countersink side:

 

The countersink side will face towards the outside, in the picture below you can see the non-countersink side facing in towards the floor:

 

Make sure to line the front of the wall up to the front of the floor, they will fit flush. 

 

The wall will slightly overhang at the back of the foundation:

In order to temporarily hold my walls up I used painters tape and a box taped to the inside of each wall....this worked amazingly well.  These temporary supports are going to be used over night so make sure you use a box with something in it. I had purchased two boxes of stucco mix.....to be applied later on the outside.

Once you have stood up both of the walls it is time to place the two ceiling beams in place.  The front beam is square and the back beam has a slant to it.

 

Make sure that the indented channels in the front square beam face towards the back of the house:

The back beam has indents that will need to face towards the front of the house (see my pinky below).  Make sure that the slant lines up with the sides of the house (see my pointer finger below).

At this stage you will want to use blue painters tape or masking tape to secure the beams to the sides of the house on all four corners.

REMEMBER.....NO GLUE!!!!!

On to part 3!