Whitebrush Manor - Weekend Progress
Happy Memorial Day!
I have made a LOT of progress over the long weekend. I pretty much spent all day Friday, Saturday, and today working on the Manor.
First, I finished priming and painting the walls. This has been the hardest task for me, mostly because it has taken so long. Many of the walls had broken (they were put together years ago) and needed major repairing. This involved re-gluing, patching holes, and painting, then sanding, painting more, etc. I really wanted to take my time though, because I know it will be worth it in the long run when looking at overall craftsmanship.
I also primed the base, so it's ready for the hardwood flooring that should arrive any day now.
The tower roof was next. Here is the balcony roof that has been put together for years now. I guess we did it at the same time as the walls.
You probably can't tell very well from the pic, but the shingles don't line up very well along the edges. This is because the instructions said to glue the roof pieces together, and then glue the shingles on. Pfft. I blew that off, because I figured it would be easiest/neatest to glue shingles on, cut to fit, and then glue the roof pieces together.
I was pretty meticulous in this step too. I figured placement of each shingle before gluing them down, and during the actual gluing I used my ruler to be sure I lined them up properly.
Until the last three rows, I only glued one row at a time. I didn't want to cause any shingles to split when I was trimming them with the x-acto knife. As it turns out, I didn't really need to worry as long as I started trimming from the bottom of the shingle up to the top like so (ignore the glue under my nails).
All glued, trimmed, and ready to fit together!
This is where I got frustrated. The instructions said to lay the pieces shingle-side down, tape the back, flip over and glue in the grooves, and fold them together.
Yeah, right. Didn't work out too well.
I wiped up all the glue and decided to try again. Instead of doing all six panels, I just did two at a time, carefully taped them, and propped them against my chair until they set.
After that step dried, I glued all of the pieces together and taped the crap out of them to hold them in place. Luckily, at this point I had gravity on my side.
There are some pretty big gaps between the panels, but I'm hoping they won't be too noticeable once I've attached the shake trim.
Next up was enlarging the openings for the bay windows. I used the handy-dandy template on the back of the Houseworks box to measure. As it turns out, I just had to trim about 1/4" off of the bottom of each opening.
I would've chopped it off the top instead, but the shingles on the gables would have been in the way.
The last thing I did this weekend was attach the corner posts to each of the walls. I did a dry-run (without glue) first so I could check the fit and be sure I had the pieces glued together properly. I had actually glued one of the tower posts together wrong, so I had to heat it up to loosen the glue, sand, re-paint (argh!), and glue it back. I was glad I had checked it before putting glue all over everything though.
Speaking of glue everywhere, when I did glue the posts on, it squeezed out and had to be wiped down.
Having a corner post on each wall really makes it sturdier now, which I'm very happy about. The walls were all so wobbly, especially for the tower pieces that are so long.
All the pieces are propped in the corner, rubber-banded together until the glue dries. The next step will be to start gluing all the walls together and putting the floors in! I've got a busy week coming up, so it may not get done in a week or so, but it is nice seeing the light at the end of the tunnel after so long.
I have made a LOT of progress over the long weekend. I pretty much spent all day Friday, Saturday, and today working on the Manor.
First, I finished priming and painting the walls. This has been the hardest task for me, mostly because it has taken so long. Many of the walls had broken (they were put together years ago) and needed major repairing. This involved re-gluing, patching holes, and painting, then sanding, painting more, etc. I really wanted to take my time though, because I know it will be worth it in the long run when looking at overall craftsmanship.
I also primed the base, so it's ready for the hardwood flooring that should arrive any day now.
The tower roof was next. Here is the balcony roof that has been put together for years now. I guess we did it at the same time as the walls.
I was pretty meticulous in this step too. I figured placement of each shingle before gluing them down, and during the actual gluing I used my ruler to be sure I lined them up properly.
Until the last three rows, I only glued one row at a time. I didn't want to cause any shingles to split when I was trimming them with the x-acto knife. As it turns out, I didn't really need to worry as long as I started trimming from the bottom of the shingle up to the top like so (ignore the glue under my nails).
All glued, trimmed, and ready to fit together!
This is where I got frustrated. The instructions said to lay the pieces shingle-side down, tape the back, flip over and glue in the grooves, and fold them together.
Yeah, right. Didn't work out too well.
I wiped up all the glue and decided to try again. Instead of doing all six panels, I just did two at a time, carefully taped them, and propped them against my chair until they set.
After that step dried, I glued all of the pieces together and taped the crap out of them to hold them in place. Luckily, at this point I had gravity on my side.
There are some pretty big gaps between the panels, but I'm hoping they won't be too noticeable once I've attached the shake trim.
Next up was enlarging the openings for the bay windows. I used the handy-dandy template on the back of the Houseworks box to measure. As it turns out, I just had to trim about 1/4" off of the bottom of each opening.
I would've chopped it off the top instead, but the shingles on the gables would have been in the way.
The last thing I did this weekend was attach the corner posts to each of the walls. I did a dry-run (without glue) first so I could check the fit and be sure I had the pieces glued together properly. I had actually glued one of the tower posts together wrong, so I had to heat it up to loosen the glue, sand, re-paint (argh!), and glue it back. I was glad I had checked it before putting glue all over everything though.
Speaking of glue everywhere, when I did glue the posts on, it squeezed out and had to be wiped down.
Having a corner post on each wall really makes it sturdier now, which I'm very happy about. The walls were all so wobbly, especially for the tower pieces that are so long.
All the pieces are propped in the corner, rubber-banded together until the glue dries. The next step will be to start gluing all the walls together and putting the floors in! I've got a busy week coming up, so it may not get done in a week or so, but it is nice seeing the light at the end of the tunnel after so long.
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