I just completed doing a simple remodel on my Master Bathroom.

I had to share what I completed over the past two weekends. 

I'm sorry I didn't make any progress on finishing the Mushroom House.  But I disliked my Master bathroom very much and decided to redo the cabinets and repaint and redecorate.  So I spent the past couple weekends hitting every thrift store to find pottery and items to decorate the finished bathroom.   I hope you like what I just completed.  I absolutely love the new Alure flooring which is so simple to install, and Love shopping at Home Depot for all the needed supplies.  This time i also didn't want to have curtains in the windows, but the windows looked out of place without something.  I hung up valances above the window but i didn't like the look, so I found some extra floor molding and i cut them into picture frame shapes and nailed them above each window and painted dark brown paint in each, which i think sort of makes it look like a valance, but more clean look and it also makes the windows look taller.  

 I promise Ill make more progress on the new Mushroom House next weekend.

I love having cabinets at arms reach to store everything, instead of just drawers.  I thought the cupboards on the counter would be nice, sort of what I did when I remodeled our kitchen.

Plus the wall behind the mirror was a little damaged removing the large mirror which the builder glued to the wall.  So I got a bright idea and put the flooring I used for the floors on the wall behind the mirror, that what the bathroom seems to flow nicely.  Plus I love using kitchen cabinets in the bathroom, instead of the shorter bathroom cabinets which are typically used.  For someone tall like me i LOVE the counter being higher. 

I love my two ducks.  I found them at the thrift store years ago and decided to make them into my towel holders.

The original bathroom that was standard in all the homes build here 10 years ago.  I hated the bathroom and it had no storage.

Old bathroom and hard to clean tile.

My first drawing of what i wanted my Master bathroom to look like.

Just another drawing that I sort of wanted my bathroom to look like.

Gnome Mushroom House, lots more comleted.

Hi everyone, I actually made alot of progress during the week on the new Gnome Mushroom House.  Everynight when I would get home from work I would add a little more piece by piece.  I ended up not liking the original spots I had put on the top of the Mushroom.  So I tore apart these little round green decorative balls that you can still see part of them in the front Gardens around the house.   Once I tore apart the decorative balls I added them to the top, since it sort of made it look like grass, or Mushroom like spots.  I also was able to finish the electrical this week also.  The two front porch lights I made out of two old Christmas Street Lamps from a Christmas Village, I just tore them apart and then added new lights to the inside and then just cut of the top of the street lamp and the turned them upside down to make the porch lights.

I think my little cheap porch lights I made turned out adorable,  Since the original street lamps were bright green, and I hate painting, I used a black permenant marker to paint them black.

Last Saturday Night I made this little brick fire place for the new Mushroom House.  It turned out to be a little of an ordeal.  Once I was done adding the bricks to the balsa wood form I made.  I added really runny plaster to fill in the cracks, but then the plaster immediatly dryed to the Darn Bricks.  So I ended up spending over an hour scraping off the plaster, and carving it out of all areas.  It was completely white with plaster at one point and I almost gave up after this mistake.  But I think it sort of turned out OK.  I think it looks like a 400 Year Old fire place.  So I go with that, since Gnomes and Smurfs are supposed to live for Hundreds of years,  the fireplace can go along with that theory. 

Today Denver Colorado has gotten about 1 foot of snow and we are expecting about 1-2 more feet of snow.  So i finally get to stay at home and work on my Mushroom House.

 I'm still working on the Mushroom House.  Its been a learning experience, in which i ended up having to cut a corner out of the top of the Mushroom to be able to put the house on hinges so it would open. See Pictures Below: Plus lots and lots of drying time.  The window idea with the bolt nuts did not work out so well.  By the time the windows dried the thin pieces for the window panes cracked and split open.This cost me about 3 more hours of work cutting out the window panes.  So I'm doing an open window concept.  The paper dries as hard as cement and makes cutting very difficult.  I ended up antiquing my roof, I didn't like the bright red color seen below, and it took forever to cut open the door, and to make a hidden hinge in the door and to open the house with.  The hinges are hidden under more applied paper which took a couple more days to dry.  I cant wait to start putting in electrical and designing the interior.  I hate waiting for things to dry. 

Ive learned that i could not make a very easy mold of this house, and that i will still need to rethink making a mold in a different way.  I thinks i have learned that i will still to need to be very creative on designing a mold to be able to create a Mushroom Houses with a design that would allow me to split the house and be able to open it on hinges. 

I can still make each House different even with a mold, i just need to be able to save time with a basic shape that can be added to.  Hopefully in the next year i will figure something out.  Between working two full time jobs, my House Projects usually only get worked on once or twice a week.  

I hope you all have a great week. 

Then this morning i still didn't like the bright red roof even with the spots i added, so then in the above picture i antiqued the red so it didn't stand out to much.

I think my OCD is slowing me down creating this House.  I added the red ground up ground cover to the roof, but i didn't like it to well.  Then i added some white spots with paint and then some green ground cover with glue to clump it to make it a spotted mushroom.  Plus i ended up not liking the white part of the main mushroom so i washed it with a brown paint to make it look aged.

The side I cut out of the roof, to be able to open it on the hinges.

This is the picture of once i finished covering the area I cut out with paper.  Then 5 more days to dry, with a fan blowing on the house the whole time.

It took me about 2 days to think about what to do to be able to open the house on hinges.  So this is how I ended up cutting it, then i glue all the areas and re-added more paper to re-shape the area I needed to cut out.  This wore me out trying to be creative and not to make the house look to ugly.

New Gnome House / Mabey Smurf House

Hi everyone, 

This is my most recent project I have completed this weekend.  My Gnome House or possible Smurf Type House, not sure yet!  I'm excited, I have been working towards having a model that I can make a mold from so I can mass produce at least 50.  So I can start a side business selling them at Miniature Shows or on my Blog and see if people would like to buy them as they would a Doll House.  But mine would be made out of 100% Paper, and be able to fit virtually anywhere, since they are not to small and not to large. 

I wish I could create each house different, but it takes me about 5 hours to make a cardboard frame for the shape of the house, and about 2 hours to add all the paper and carvings.  Not to mention the long drying time of a couple of days.  I'm hoping if i make a plaster mold of one house that it would only be an hour to press in the paper for the house, which should dry quicker within the plaster, which I could place directly into the oven to dry for a couple of hours or all day to dry.  Then pull the house out of the mold and make another.  My goal is to make a line of different houses with a limited number of each house.  Now the scary part next weekend is trying to figure out how to make a very large plaster mold of this house, and build a would box large than this house to pour the plaster into.  I have no idea what to do, but ill experiment until i figure it out.  Once the mold is made, then I will complete this house if I don't destroy it when I make a mold from it.  I hope you like! 

I'll post more pictures soon with progress as I go. 

Let me know what you think, I can handle any critizism, I think. :)

Have a Wonderful Week Everyone!

Stan

While the paper was wet I cut a line through the house.  This will be where the house is hinged to open, for easy access.

Ya its starting to dry!   I let it dry for over 1 day before I could pull out the bolt nuts that made the window openings.  It was still very wet.

Just finished pulling out more bolt nuts.

At this point I felt really proud of what I had accomplished, and really liked the look of the house so far.  I remember thinking how much it looked like a Smurf house, but in my own creative style.  I grew up watching the Smurfs, and remember how fascinated I was with the thought of miniature things living in the woods.

This is right after I added all the paper to the outside of the cardboard frame. 

I had to end up cutting open the house after a day so it could start drying, since the cardboard frame keeps all the moisture and doesn't let it dry properly.

A closer look at the inside of the cardboard frame.

This is after I used a knife to cut open the house to dry.  As you can see, the plastic grocery bags i used to make the shape of the house.

Up close look at the bolts nuts that I hot glued on to make the shapes for the windows and door.

It took me a couple of hours to figure out what to do to make window openings, so I don't have to cut into the harden paper later on.  So I hot glued on bolt nuts from the garage to give a basic shape I was looking for, for the windows and door.

The main cardboard base I made out of cardboard and duct tape and painting tape and plastic grocery bags.  This way I can get a basic shape I was looking for.

Im almost completed.  I still need to make or buy some door knobs, and build some steps for the front door.  I am sort of glad this house is almost completed.  I have a new idea of keeping with my Gnome Cottages when building houses.  After watching the new movie The Smurfs which was a cartoon i loved as a kid.  I want to start making little Mushroom Gnome Cottages, sort of like the Mushroom Houses in the Smurf Movie.  But my own take on them,  i want to be able to build a home quicker and have a line of different Mushroom Gnome Houses that i can produce to sell.  I hope you all enjoy the picures of the English Cottage.  Have a Happy New Year Everyone!

I think this is one of my favorite corners of the house, i really like the moss i added throughout the stones.

I tried to go very inexpensive for the interior, and i used paper sheets for scrapbooking from Hobby Lobby for the wall paper throughout the house.  Plus the ceiling is decorative raised paper.

I didnt have the money to buy a kitchen.  So i used some old cabinets i had, and one old stove, that i turned into the end cabinet with the tiled front.  I wanted a very old distressed look in the kitchen, so it might look like its been around for 100 years. 

The old stove i turned into the end cubboard.

I needed a light fixture for the new house, so i took a Christmas ornament off the tree and turned it into a chandalier for the dinning room area.  I just took off the crystals and wired three lights to it and painted it white, and some brown aging.

The first question that a friend asked me is were does the stairs lead to, because you would fall out of the house.  I said this is my interpertation of the house being cut open, and you are not seeing the whole house.  The interior of the home was small with no walls or anything, so i did the best i could and building walls to make room throughout the house.

I tried to get an old looking fire place, but the paint crakled a little to much.  But i decided to leave it the way it is.  I just noticed in this picture that i forgot to add the logs in the fire.  That will have to be a later project.

I actually had alot of fun aging the grandfather clock.  It was a light beige, and i added some white paint to crackle and then aged it with brown paint and scraped some edges.