Stonewalled by Villa Leone

Stonewalling is a refusal to communicate or cooperate. 
 Wikipedia

 Villa Leone, has been deliberately refusing to cooperate with me
which means that 
 I've had nothing of interest to communicate
on my blog.

 There's been nothing new
to show you since 
 January 14th
because
I've been busy pouting.

I've been mad at Leone for stonewalling me

I'd suggest an idea but Leone would refuse it. 
So I'd try something else, 
however it didn't matter what I came up with because, 
 the Villa rejected all of my ideas for it. 

This went on
 week after week

and since 
Leone 
stubbornly refused to communicate or cooperate-
 I stubbornly continued to pout

Secretly I knew that the Villa 
was pushing hard for me to make the staircase for the second floor 
yet I continued to resist 
because frankly-
I hate making stairs.

Eventually, I opted for a reconciliation. 

  Reluctantly, 
I resigned myself 
to working on the Villa's second floor staircase 
leading up to a 3rd floor Master Bedroom. 

But I wanted as much floor space on the 3rd level as possible 
so I figured the best approach 
was to install the second flight of stairs 
right next to the first. 

I papered the ceiling, cut the hole for the stairs, made the tile floor for the hallway using 
a STAND IN flight of steps 
as a temporary substitute for those
which I will eventually have to build.

At the same time
I also had to plan out the bathroom which will be 
the room closest to the viewer,
 as well as 
plan the layout for the adjacent library/music room 
on the second floor.  

 Many fine details for the entire second floor
 had to be planned 
simultaneously. 

Once I had a workable floor-plan, 
and had cut out the opening in the ceiling for the stairs,
I began constructing the interior walls 
for the 2nd floor hall and its future staircase. 

For the dividing stair/bathroom wall,
I cut out a window to provide additional light and interest in this tall, dark stairwell, 
and would look good 
on the bathroom side of the wall, too.  

The "iron" grill was added to the window 
to help dress it up.

I fashioned the "L"shaped STONE WALL to not only enclose the first floor stairwell, 
but to also support the run of the staircase 
on its opposite side.

Since the stair enclosure looked plain to me, 
and since I have lots of cherubs in my stash, 
I decided to add a couple of angelic"carvings" to further embellish the walls.

The musical cherubs were glued in place
 and painted to match the stone. 

The cartouche carvings were a gift from Fatima 
which I cut to fit, 
later I added the extra bit of plastic curlicue 
cut from a doily
 to fill up the space underneath it. 

I found a hanging light fixture in my stash and tried it out in the hall.
(but HOW will they 
(or I) ever be able to change the bulb?)
hmmmm? 
I don't know
😐
moving on

I also made the tile floor for the hall
 from sheets of 
Scrap Book paper 
from THE HOBBY LOBBY



At this stage I was feeling pretty confident about my progress.
that is
UNTIL IT WAS TIME TO BEGIN WORK ON THE ACTUAL STAIRCASE

and this is when I ran headlong into
another STONE WALL! ➽l

Megan from the blog
"CREATIVE ME"
 http://www.blog.creativeme.co.za/
ran into exactly the same problem.
She discovered that she no room at the top of her staircase for a landing
and 
Whoops!
 neither did I!
☠
Try as I might
(And I did try)
there was no room to step off the top stair.
EVEN WORSE
there was NO ROOM for A BEDROOM 
or 
A BED
 on the 3rd floor!

I did EVERYTHING I could to try to have a bed up there
 but there just wasn't enough room! 
☠☠☠ 
by now, I was 
ANGRY AND FRUSTRATED! 
 I realized that I would have to forfeit either 
the entire bedroom 
 or
 a staircase leading up to it
because 
Leone 
wouldn't let me have both!

 STONEWALLED! 

PERIOD!

In theory there's
 SCADS of space in the attic 
however there's also inset interior walls
which support the roof
as well as the 3 recessed windows on all three walls, 
AND
 a long hole in the floor to accommodate the staircase,
so in reality,
there's very little usable wall or floorspace despite it's great size. 
 I realized that I was snookered. 

sooooo,
after some more required pouting,

 I chose to move the stairs 
to the opposite side of the hall 
so I could at least have a landing.
 in fact:
the new position of the staircase is
very
 close to their

Designated Location 

as per the original instructions in the kit.
duh! 
(I guess I should have read them😏)

Thus, the attic bedroom was moved down to the

SECOND FLOOR, 
leaving enough room on the 3rd floor for it to become 
the library/music room.

I think that this arrangement will work.

and 
Sooooo 
now 
everything 
I had already done
had to be 
UNDONE
Which meant that I had to patch up the hole I'd cut in the ceiling, 
then recut a new one. 
I also had to entirely cover over the old ceiling paper in the hall 
with a new ceiling paper
 to hide my ugly patch job.

I also decided to remove and dismantled the existing stone walls and make a half wall instead.  

When that was done, 
this is what it looked like

I found smaller seated cherub in my stash and glued it next to the ball on the banister,
then tried out the arrangement with
"Isabella"
requesting that she perform the balcony scene from 
"Romeo and Juliet"

but alas! 
she was up-staged!
Visually there was
TOO MUCH STUFF GOING ON
the cherub with the harp 
was 
Stealing the show 
and the view from afar
looked 
really odd

like- what IS all that stuff over there?

soooooo
I pried off both of the angels, ditched the small one and moved the bigger cherub further down the pony wall,
 gluing it in between both of the cartouches.

I left the ball on the banister alone. 

Now it looks like this

and as it happens,
this new half wall will make it easier in the future
 for Isabella
(probably me)
to change the
light bulb in the hanging fixture

Meanwhile 
 a little Shakespeare, 
if you please...

"O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?
 
Deny thy father and refuse thy name.

Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,

 And I'll no longer be a Capulet."

Truthfully
I like the look of the half wall much better! 
and now that the angels are out of sight- 
it looks cleaner

The floor tiles haven't been glued down
since there are
electrical wires for the first floor ceiling lights
 directly underneath it.
They will need to be connected 
to the power strips
before the tile are permanently affixed, 
and once the floor is installed I will build the dividing wall between the hall
and 
the bedroom.

FYI
One of the most difficult tasks I had to perform, was getting my hand and arm through a window to apply the drywall filler along the join between the bathroom wall and the exterior wall, 
while working carefully around 
the hanging lamp and the pictures. 
Then I had to clean up the resulting mess.
I also had to paint it with a 
VERY LONG HANDLED BRUSH! 
Whew!

When I told Janine that I had learned to become 
a contortionist 
 I wasn't kidding
 oh
the hoops we'll jump through for the sake of this hobby!

ugggh
After I viewed the above photo 
I knew I needed to install some ceiling trim. 

><
BLAST! 
out comes the tub of wall putty 
and all those paints
 again!

Arrrggh!
not again! 😠
 an unsightly
 tiny blob of putty
is clinging to the framed painting

how annoying!

Gold gilded frames in the gallery
 came courtesy of
Jean-Claude at
Maison française 1/12
♥
thank you again Jean-Claude! 

Artwork on the narrow wall 
leading towards 
the bathroom,
 are a round brass button cover,
a cherub earring, 
and a coat of arms with a lion in the center of the shield
Viva Leone!   
and yes,
 me and the Villa are on speaking terms again

And so there you have it!
weeks of pouting 
and of doing nothing,
and then 
of doing something
and all for what?-

a pony wall.


 hey,
 that's how I roll
even 
when I'm stonewalled

by the way,
 I still have to make the stairs! >< 
☠
but...

 I think that's h-all 
for now
Leone


elizabeth