"RUB- A- DUB- DUB" - the TUB

Late last December I thought I'd better get serious about working on the 3rd floor of Villa Leone. I actually began by enlarging the attic window at the front of the kit, using a couple of left over kit window frames from the lower floors. 

I made the front window Wider and Taller to make it easier to see inside, since I had worked out a floor plan of angles and hidden corners for the bathroom.  So using my utility knife, I began hacking out the shape of the frame, and a right mess I made of it too, so there was no going back once I'd started. 

Below is the enlarged exterior ATTIC window in its VERY RAW condition. 

I also enlarged the arched opening on the opposite side of the front wall and "squared" it off.

The walls are lined with foam board and the sub floor is
cardboard.  

here's what the kit looks like when assembled as per the instructions.
You can see that the dormers are a lot smaller than mine
and also how the arched opening at the front of the house
was squared off and modified.
(thanks to Sam for the idea to include a reference photo) 

These are the renovated dormers in the attic; 
utilizing and modifying more of the kits lower floor window frames, to accommodate the enlarged alcoves.
I wanted to be able to use the alcoves for furniture as well as increase the natural light and views into the rooms. 

 exterior of the left window alcove.

Now regarding the bathroom and all my earlier talk about having a fireplace in it;  
 sadly
"no can do"😕

 I had 3 bathroom fixtures to install and I'd already reduced the available wall space. 
Therefore, when it came to choosing between 
 having a tub or having a fireplace, 
The Tub won- hand's down! 
(Rub a dub dub!) 

To make a space in the bathroom for the tub to sit,
I built an "L"-shaped wall and positioned a split-door
 at a right angle 
on the end of it. 

The placement of the door, decreased the view from the open end of the bathroom to about 4 1/2 inches 
which is why the bigger front and side window alcoves 
proved to be a good idea. 

This is the view looking into the bathroom
 from the opened end of the villa towards the front.

(above: an early Mock Up, of the 3rd floor 
with the walls pinned and taped into place)

 Along the way, 
I've replaced a lot of my original ideas with others. 
Even so, the basic layout is much the same.
On the left side of the 3rd floor,
 is the Gondolier's Study/Dressing room.
An enclosed hall is in the middle with a long window in the wall facing the viewer.  
The window looks into the narrow end  of the bathroom. 

Once I'd worked out the floor plan,
I installed the electrical runs, 
 TESTED EVERYTHING
then I glued in the cardboard sub-floor 
and proceeded with installing a hardwood floor. 

I had purchased 2 natural wood bamboo placemats from a dollar store and cut them apart and glued the strips to the cardboard base using FABRIC Hi-TAK glue from Wal-mart. 

The light wood shows you the size and shape of the bathroom which has lots of floor space but little wall space.
After the glue had firmly set, I went over the boards with a glue eraser which easily removed all the excess adhesive 
which had oozed onto the surface.  

I sanded the floor several times before I
 wiped it clean with a damp sponge. 

I stained the wood with a VERY DARK oil based stain, 
and when it was dry to the touch,
 I went over the entire floor with a Dry wall patch to fill in between the slightly beveled wood planks.
 

I scooped off the excess compound which in turn,
 lifted some of the dark stain with it,
  then I wiped them down again with a damp sponge
 and a dry paper towel.
After the putty had set, I went over the floors a second time with  the dark oil based stain.  

The results were that the floor looked less 
like a bamboo placemat, 
and more like a worn and weathered plank wood floor-

I painted and aged the bathroom doors, and
counter sunk the door thresh-hold into the floorboards to make it flush with the hardwood. For the photos I've pinned it upright to the foamboard wall with blue tac and sewing pins.

the photo below shows the tub on other side of the short wall

My mother bought this Bodo Hennig metal tub for me back in the 1990's during one of her visits to Europe and I loved it!  It used to reside in my Greenleaf Glencroft dollhouse, but after I gave up minis for 12 years, the tub sat ignored and neglected and subjected to the cold and damp inside my garage. 
As a result, the tub's legs are badly corroded.  Nevertheless, I decided that this was A PLUS for the Villa's bathroom.  So other than just a little touch-up of gold Pentel poster color, on the legs, I left the majority of the corrosion fully exposed. 
I painted the outside of the tub with a golden brown acrylic paint and aged it with a thin black wash of matt acrylic paint and  graphite pencil, as you can see in the photo below. 

Storage in the bathroom is minimal as is the opportunity for display, so when I remembered I had this shelf unit from my friend Bettie Smith, 
the ONLY place it would fit
 was in front of the tub, 
and so
the only way you can see it,
will be from looking through the enlarged window 
at the front of the Villa. 

an aerial view of the layout of the attic bathroom


The sink that you see below
 also came out of my Greenleaf Glencroft, and was cobbled together from a pink plastic doll sink found at the thrift store and a cake pillar support.
The toilet was part of an unglazed 3 piece ceramic set ( thrift store) which had previously been painted a melon colour.  
The toilet seat doesn't lift but it was easy enough to repaint 
to look as if it does.   

above and below are mock ups without the interior walls so you can see how the fixtures are positioned within the space.
The only things glued in are the floor and the wall tiles
 on the mirror wall 
 everything else is freestanding including the wall panels themselves. 

Re: the TILES

Initially I had planned for more yellow-gold wall tiles. 
But when they didn't work out, I had to change them to something entirely different.  
These replacement tiles look rather odd with this wallpaper 
but until I figure out what to do about it, 
I can't glue anything into place. 

The photo below was taken in mid-January
and not much has changed since.

I had the dollar store green cupboard for AGES and it fit into the alcove as if was custom made.
I'll probably fill it with towels and other bathroom necessities.   

Looking in from outside the alcoved window,  
towards the little chest in the far corner the bathroom.

The photo below is the long view
 looking straight ahead through the same alcove window,
through the bathroom door
 across the hall landing and into the Gondolier's Study
on the opposite side of the Villa.

fyi
to take the following photographs,
I have removed the interior BATHROOM WALLS 
and the TUB
 FROM the Dollhouse  
and onto my work table,
 rather than try and shoot through the windows  

Once I had the wall and the tub on my desk before me,
I began filling the shelves and accessorizing the tub.

To facilitate the view and open up the dark corners, 

 I made a pair of "iron-look" wall lamps. One for by the sink and the other for over the tub.

I made the orange tree a number of years ago, 
and Fatima made the floral hydrangea-print pitcher.  
The gold cherub is an earring, and the potted purple hydrangea 
is a recent gift, made by the talented Jodi Hippler.

I LOVE this grouping although to me,
 it looks more English than Italian despite the stone seat. 
Which brings me to 
my NEXT CHALLENGE. 

HOW TO MAKE THIS BATHROOM LOOK MORE MEDITERRANEAN? 

This is proving to be more difficult than I'd thought.

I've tried all types of changes and nothing is making me happy.
But then Last night
I decided to add a mural above the tiles around the tub from a photocopy which I had printed out a few weeks ago 
for a different project. 
I sliced the print into 3 sections.
The bottom section I glued to the long wall above the tub.
The middle section of the print
was cut to fit around the shelf unit where majority of the picture would be cut away thereby making the subject itself
 more obscure.
Yet because of the equal values of the colours and tones,
it reads like one continuous print even though the corners
don't line up at all.

The vertical wood trims are temporarily stuck on with blue tac and won't be glued in until ALL the interior walls and the bathroom ceiling are fitted into place. 
Meanwhile 
 the horizontal trims are still in the process of being amended. 

The lion rug bath mat
 is a paper cutout which I shall eventually
re-size and re-print onto a suede paper. 

The Fornasetti  wall-plaques are magazine cutouts glued onto punched chipboard rounds; 
 glazed with clear nail varnish.
I've blue-tacked them to the wall for the photos,
 but they'll probably get changed later on, too. 

All in all,
I'm much happier with the mural 
 than I was with the wallpaper,
but naturally when you change one thing
it affects everything else around it.
Sooooo...

as of last night,
I've made up my mind to change 
the rest of the wallpaper in the bathroom
which I can't show as yet because
 I am still tentatively feeling my way through 
each and every stage of this transition 
and 
this post is already long enough! 

And so in summary:

what began as full steam ahead in December
came to a full stop in January;
which is now a slow crawl into February
 leaving only 
8 months until the Show in September!

oh the pressure! the pressure! 
~ 😳 ~

Rub
 a 
dub dub

elizabeth

'LAND'S END" - Living Room #HBS Denise kit

   blue hydrangeas by Fatima
I have nearly finished the Living room at Land's End
and here it is so far.
To get here though, meant that I first needed to tackle and finish the 
 FLOORS

Having already installed the floors on the left half of the cottage, I needed to finish the second half.  I used the same IRON- ON oak veneer strips that I had used previously.  This time however, I had to treat the wood 2 distinct ways for both the hall and the bedroom; the bathroom would be entirely different.  The planks for the hall floor ran in the same direction as those in the kitchen and I was able to get a rather close match to the original stain.

the new hall floor

 the bedroom floor
For the bedroom floor boards, I used less black chalk paint and less white wash which allowed for more of the brown to show through to the final finish.  A light application of liquid floor polish gave it just enough shine.  Notice that I chose not to stagger the floor boards as they will later be mostly concealed with the bed and an area rug. 

For the bathroom floor, I opted for CORK!  I bought a sheet of a large pebble- pattern cork from Michael's craft store.  It looked more interesting to me than the solid cork sheet that I had originally purchased from the dollar store.  
BONUS: Both the cheap sheets and this pricey one from Michael's were the same thickness as the wood veneer strips and thus level with the surrounding floor.   I cut the cork sheet to size and glued it into place and sealed it with "PUZZLE SAVER"
I reasoned that if it preserved cardboard jigsaw puzzles it should also work for sealing the cork.

.
 I had never used this product before but wanted to try it
because I wanted a Very HIGH SHINE.

I poured it on and smoothed it out with the spatula

I let it dry overnight, sanded lightly then applied a second coat of the PUZZLE SAVER and let that cure too.

Lastly I lightly sanded the floor again with a fine grit sandpaper, wiped it down and that was it!  It is both practical and durable for this beach cottage bathroom and I am quite pleased with the end results.
Two Thumbs Up! 

Here's what all of the empty floors look like.
Time now for rebuilding the living room and rethinking the floor plan.
 This house is 2 rooms deep.  Placing the front door at the front opening, ( my original idea) would make it even DEEPER.  I would like to eventually add a deck or garden and that would later make it quite difficult to properly display in my compact Real Life Studio.  

 My solution was to remove the side window and change IT to the front door.   
I shall make a removable fourth wall which will entirely enclose the front of the cottage. I'll install two sash windows in the fourth wall so that you can still see staight through and into the kitchen.  

the old side window idea

and the new Front door position.
Once I committed to this plan, everything else about the room began to make more sense
AND  
I found that the house stopped fighting me and Actually began to cooperate! 
whoohoo!!!

I then turned my attention towards the fireplace and that over-sized mantle that had also been driving me crazy! 

Not only was the mantle too wide
(which left little usable space on either side of it)
 but it also protruded too far into the room. 

A tight, awkward and unusable corner due to the over-sized mantle.

The old mantle was easy to snap off.  I made a new
VERY Simple and decidedly PLAIN 
replacement, which I liked a lot better.
Right
That's done!  
Back to the other side of the room again and into the PORTHOLE
an idea that I had mentioned in my previous post.
Originally I was going to make Three but

cutting circles is not much fun.
And after doing ONE I had had enough!
I used wall patch to line the inside of the cutout; sanded, then painted the inside with an acrylic paint and let it dry.
I had some left over puck lights from my Real Life kitchen and the photo below is what they looked like with their original trim.

I used the frosted glass insert which fit nicely inside the opening.  I then glued the brass picture frame over the opening on both sides of the wall.

Here's the finished porthole on the living room side. 

and with only the light on in the bedroom, you can see how atmospheric this window appears; 
it looks like the moon - so Coool!
 
And since I am still on this side of the room, I should mention the rustic vertical wood beam that I also decided to install.  It divides the space and defines the porthole section of this wall.  This support beam also came in handy for hanging and displaying Nautical gear as you can see from the photos above.
Works for me.

Okay, Everybody back to the fireplace again....
and the Wall Sconces
I had a pair in my stash which had possibilities. 

I could have left them "AS IS" but  NOOOOOO!!!!!
I was determined to change them.
Janine had given me some novelty Baby Shower tokens that she had picked up at the dollar store.  She was going to transform hers into canning jars as they are already hollow on the bottom.
I decided to use mine for lamp shades. 

I sawed off the cap with a razor saw and filed the cut edge smooth.  I glued the inverted glass onto the brass sconces with Quick Grip glue and Voila!

And as I waited for the glue to set, I made a shelf for the dead space above the mirror and the wall lamps.
More room for storage and display.

pretty good
but now I wished to change the color of the sconces.

So first I applied a coat of Matte Varnish to dull the shine of the gold metal.
Then I brushed on a Second coat of Revlon's (Bronze-look)
#100 Enthrall to darken the gold metal

After the polish was dry, I gave it a third coat of the Matte Varnish to dull the shine of the dark enamel as well as age it.

From dark and shiny to

Dark and dull
Much Better!
The wires were threaded through the foam core over-mantle and then again, through to the outside wall.  They will eventually be hidden by the exterior chimney and the shingle siding.  However none of the electrical is hooked up yet.
That part comes along much later.
Meanwhile it's time to load up the new shelf

 with lots of patriotic red, white and blue
and it's
Mission Accomplished!

Back again to the sofa wall

I don't have a "before" photo of this sofa that Janine surprised me with when we were at the 2015 Seattle Show last March, but as you can see it has a very high back which looks 
very New England-ish.  The original skirt it wore had a wide, single navy blue velvet band with a very short, stiff, and formal organza ruffle which really didn't work for me.  I removed the sheer skirt and replaced it with a canvas string fringe and added narrow double ribbon borders; which visually is more relaxed and effectively anchors the sofa to the floor. 

and of course the cat likes it too! :D

Margaret Taylor's floral cushion is tucked comfortably in the corner. 

Fatima's over-stuffed beach tote sits patiently waiting next to the sofa

Nautical gear hangs at the ready on the beam.

A play is in the process of being typed with a cold glass of lemonade to sip between breaks.

Cute cork wedgies have been kicked off under the table, 
these shoes were another great gift from
Linda Park? 
Whoops!  a correction
Janine brought these back from Australia and I believe that they came from the Brisbane Miniature Show which she attended.  I thought they were from Linda but she says "no".
The label inside the shoe says "Tiny Finery" and they ARE!

 An active and busy wall in a very relaxed room which has been filled with all kinds of interesting items both practical and amusing.  

           And there you have it!
   

The end of this post
Till we meet again.... 
but next time - in the kitchen!

elizabeth