Hi everyone, I just wanted to share a new project that I am working on this past month.  When I went to Idaho for my camping vacation I stopped to see the Old Victorian House my twin sister had just bought, which I found 4 pictures on my phone this past month and Thought- I should build a little replica of her Victorian House to give to her for a Christmas Gift.  So This is my version of her house.   I still need to add the window glass, but I'm thinking about using white stain glass paint so you can see through the windows and putting a light inside to shine out the windows, then Maybe covering it with some snow to hide imperfections on my roof.  I hope my sister Penny and her Husband likes it when I'm done. 

 I finally found a wood with lines to put on the roof that looks alot like the tin roof on the house.  I am even trying to reproduce the electrical boxes and pipes on the back side of the house. 

 I even recreated the mail box by the front screen door.

 Making the Shingles about killed me to try to fit them into roughly the scale of the pictures.  It took 5,800 cuts to make all the shingles that lay on the side of the house.  I cut them out of thick paper and then glued them onto thick paper to give them the depth of the other wood I glued on the house.  10 Hours just to cut the shingles in the lines I spent at least 2 hours pre drawing. 

 I couldn't find wood siding that was exactly precise to the original house, so my siding has 7 more to 5 more lines of siding, but i could not find any closer wood siding to match. 

 This is how I started my project, sitting on my couch while i try to draw the dimensions of the house on to poster board, lots and lots of redoing each line to make look like the picture.  Once I was done with drawing the house, I cut out the poster board with an Razor blade and hot glued it together to give the house its basic shape.  The house is only about 1 foot x 11 inches for the main part of the house. 

 

Hi  Everyone, This is my newest Chalet House  I just finished and was inspired by Giac who has been following my blog.  We were talking back and forth with emails and got talking about my camping trips to Idaho and he mentioned a little Chalet House by a lake he used to go to as a kid.  Just from Giac talking about the Chalet House he went to as a kid, my Mind instantly pictured this little house.  So I had to build what my mind imagined from his story.  I'm sorry Giac but I didn't do wall to wall carpeting.  I hope you Like!!!

 

My hardest thing when I build these houses it that I don't want them to be to big and I have an image in my mind I want to create, so the interior rooms are an after thought so I can have the house looking the way I picture it.  Which means most furniture wont fit into the houses unless I customize it, or build it myself.

I had a lot of fun doing the landscaping around the front of the house and ended up crumbling lots of yellow and orange foam all over to make it look like leaves in the fall time.  I was so tempted to do a winter scene with lots of snow but changed my mind since the snow would cover a lot of the roof detail.

My Smallest Kitchen I've made yet.  It is only 5 inches deep by 6 inches wide.  I spent 2 hours alone just staring at the small unfinished room to see how to make it look like a kitchen.  I do remember my hands shaking so bad I could barely glue the towel bar on by the stove since it was so small.

5 inches x 6 inches kitchen, lots of time cutting wood to make cabinets fit in the kitchen.

I really like the living room.  My favorite piece I found was the little Monkey sitting on the couch.  I also enjoyed making the mini newspapers and wreaths on the door.  The Couch is another story.  It was all busted apart and originally had yellow material that was stained, so I added some new legs with scrap wood and painted the whole thing brown to make a half decent couch.

I also ended up making some more miniature post cards an mail laying around the living room.

My little office area which is only about 3 inches wide was touch to decide what to make out of the room, but I felt a small office would be perfect. 

One of my favorite things to make in this room was the miniature magazine form the chair.

I have ran out of furniture so i ended up building the bed out of left over wood and scraps.  See below some of the steps in making the bed.  I was thinking the bed might sort of look French inspired, not sure.  Just had fun building it for no cost. 

The office area as I stare at it trying to figure out what to do with the small space. 

This was the small 5 inch by 6 inch space that I spent many hours trying to figure out how to build a kitchen in it.

I am really enjoying making my Thatched Roofs out of Bath Towels.  In this picture I had finished hot gluing the cut up towel on the roof and then Elmer's Glued it, and then waiting 15 hours for it to dry.  I used a Fork again to brush the towel when it was covered in glue to give it a thatch look.

I completely forgot to take pictures of making the shutters and painting the doors and windows to age them. 

Just finished painting the paper bricks grey and wiping off with a towel. 

Just finished covering the house in paper clay and making bricks all over the house.  Now just had to wait 12 hours to dry since we have lots of humidity in the house from the swamp cooler. 

Sitting watching movies while adding the paper clay to the in small sections while carving the bricks into the clay.

I decided that the thing balsa wood would be ok to use since I would cover it with the paper clay when I made the bricks which would then make the walls really strong and tough. 

I started this house just gluing balsa wood in shapes and adding pieces here and there to create the house I envisioned in my mind. 

The completed bed out of left over scraps of wood and junk.

 I found a lions head and some metal scrapbooking pieces and some metal rods that I glued onto the wood frame I made to make the bed have some character.

I painted it a dark maroon, then added crackle paint then let dry then I painted it white so the maroon would highlight the cracks even more. 

Just a few pictures from our camping trip to Idaho at Dismal Swamp searching for  Smokey Quartz Crystals. 

Loading up the Truck and Trailer to head back home for the 700 mile drive back to Colorado.  I was very Hot and dusty and over 50% of the forest that I love had burned to the ground last year.  So I had to come home and steam clean the new travel trailer from all the black soot that covered the floors. 

Just a dorky picture of me four wheeling for a 20 mile ride around the mountain with 14 family members.  I was one of the last people on the four wheeling caravan which meant I ate a lot of dust on the road, I think I am still blowing dirt out of my lungs.  But I do love see the family and camping, Thank God I have a nice shower in the Travel Trailer.  I'm the City Boy out of all my family members who they don't mind roughing it. 

Me standing by the Snake River bridge in my home town TwinFalls Idaho, this is where Evel Kinevel made his attempt to jump the huge canyon.