My Mini Hobby

O, I know, it has been a LONG time since I've updated this blog!!!! But quite honestly I don't know how some people manage to be productive AND update blogs of what they have done. I not only need a few more hours in every day, I also need more energy.

So, where have I been for the last 7 months? Imagining, designing, and creating this little gem I call Audrey's House. It is a submission into the Miniatures.com Annual Creatin' Contest.

The original kit I started with is the Craftsman Cottage:

When I originally saw the kit I had to use, I almost decided not to participate this year, quite frankly, I'm not a fan of modern style houses like this. With that being said, I immediately knew that if I was to work with this kit, I had to change the front of it to, well, the front.

After many searches I came up with a plan to modify the kit to look more like this:

One nice thing they have started to do with kits in the past few years is make them 360' kits, meaning fully enclosed. This is really nice as less dust accumulates in them, and from any angle, you can view the project. I realize now I don't have pictures of the other 2 sides, but the left side of the house is a mirror of the right, it has 3 exact same windows in the same spots. The back wall in the original kit was a full wall, I added a large picture window to it, I wanted to be able to look all the way thru the house from any view. Also, lots of large windows gives it that light sunny feeling I was going for.

Now for the interior...hold on tight, I suck at eliminating pictures (trust me, to narrow it down to 4 to submit, I made all my Facebook friends vote on 30 different pictures!)

In no particular order:

Wiring credit for this project is given to Casey Anderson, my husband, partner in crime, and electronics extraordinaire!

With the exception of the kitchen counter, stove, and stairs, all furniture was created by me using House of Miniatures kits.

The kitchen counter was modified from a wood shop counter.

The stove was made using a kit from Elf Miniatures.

The one draw back to a fully enclosed house it getting pictures of the entire place.

As a finisher of projects, I hate to share projects before they are 100% complete. Don’t get me wrong, I sometimes will share teaser pics, or pics of projects from within a project, because really when you think of it, 1 entire house project is made up from many many small inside projects ….was there a pun in there someplace? The draw back to not sharing much until a project is done is that sometimes all that’s left is something small (again with the puns) and yet I for some reason procrastinate on that 1 last item. Well this project was completed with everything done except the upstairs hall table and chandelier, about a year ago! In fact, it went into storage for the move with only those 2 items needed. It happened kinda on purpose, I felt the house would pack better and be safer if I didn’t put the chandelier in until after the move. But somehow hanging the damn chandelier took 7 months! Well I finally took a little time, by little time I mean like an hour, because nothing ever seems to just take “a little time”.

To give proper credit, this house was built from a kit made by Petite Properties, as was quite a bit of the furniture in it. If you aren’t familiar with them, check out their website www.petite-properties.com and their blog, they make absolutely wonderful kits in 1/24, 1/48, and 1/144 scale. They also have a line of paints that are crazy awesome! No, I’m not affiliated, I just happen to be a great customer (read addict of all their products, if they’ve made it, I’ve got it, used it or will be ordering it with the next order)!

I think I may have shared when I finished the outside at one point, because it was the 1st thing I finished. I struggled with the roof, wanna know why? Cause I suck at following directions! So Petite Properties put out a book a few years ago, it’s a wonderful source for learning techniques for finishing houses (buy it, read it (better then me) and you will be happy). Anyway, there is a section in there that talks about how to do the roof, there are also instructions that come with the house on how to do it, but when I decide to tackle part of a project (like this roof) sometimes I get too excited, and then I look at the instructions and I think ‘Well that’s too many words to read, I just wanna do!’ So I skim it, then figure I can do this my own way, and sometimes it works and sometimes I think it would have taken me less time to read the damn instructions and just done it right! Or instead of doing dumb stuff like surfing Facebook to see who’s complaining about what, I could have used that time better and read some more of that book so I know for next project. Back to topic…what was the topic? O’ ya. Did I share the outside front at some point? Here it is again if I did.

One of my favorite features I did on this house was to add the iron balconies.
After much research online I came across WildHareModels.com
They have balconies and other items, I believe they make them for the train world, but they worked great here, all I had to do was solder some pieces together, which got me doing something I want to learn and do more…solder….then I spray painted them. I love the detail! FYI, the brick is painted on, I used a 1:48 Bromley brick stencil.

I like to do the entire inside walls, ceiling and floor before I put a house together. I find it’s easier then working in tiny spaces. Here is how I tackle that (I should take pics along the way..if your interested in that, let me know and next project I could show step by step pics…actually I have an upcoming project that I was considering blogging from inspiration to completion how I work…maybe you might enjoy that) for now, I get the kit, and I dry fit it together. I place the walls where I think I want them and then I take a sharp pencil and mark where the walls and ceiling hit, then when I take it back apart there is a gap, between where say the 1st and 2nd floor goes, and I wallpaper to the middle of the gap, that way it’s 100% covered and perfect. The floors are easy, just go to the edge on the sides, but just past the pencil line a snitch if your using a flooring that has any depth to it, as will effect your wall. Once all the walls, floors and ceilings (don’t forget the ceilings, I just paint mine) are done, you can put it all together permanently. I then like to add trim, it gives depth and realism.

I’m a multi-tasker, so usually I’m working on multiple things for a project. I usually start with whatever i’m most excited about, and for this project I knew from the minute I laid eyes on the bare wood kit pictures how I wanted the main floor to flow and what I wanted for a kitchen. So while I’m waiting on some steps to say dry…or come in the mail because I’ve all of a suddendecided something is needed but I don’t have the perfect thing one hand, I am always working on furniture, etc for the project. So the kitchen came first! I was going for a mix of updated yet french inspired. Like my own home, I’m not a fan of clutter, so I tend to make my projects more “clean”. If you were to walk in my home and I’m not currently cooking or cleaning, you would find it like this. While some say it’s missing “details”, I say it’s real for me.

The table and chairs in the center of the room helps give the open concept I was going for.

I believe the writers desk is a kit from a Robin Betterley kit.

You may notice my little Yorkie in the corner, I try to incorporate a Yorkie in most my homes because I absolutely love them, but until we grow old and decide to stop traveling so much and stay home, a pet doesn’t work for us in real life, so I get them in my mini homes.

The living room is again french inspired. Again I used kits from Petite Properties for most of my furnishings. I create and print my own fabrics, rugs and art for the walls, so I can make sure the scale and color is exactly what I want.

I’m kinda in love with this nursery! I always find it odd how I get inspiration for a project and if it’s got kids or babies room in it, I just get a sense that it should be boy or girl, and this house just needed to be a boys. Maybe it’s all the pinks in the other parts of the house, I don’t know, but I had found this wallpaper and since my husband and I are both in the aviation industry, I just knew an airplane themed room was coming at some point.