Petit Maison: Part I

Day 1: House after a few hours of prep and a trip to the craft store

I like the idea of making things, this is one of the things architects do all day, the work involved in actually designing, sketching, cutting and assembling an object from scratch is fun for me so I decided to make a small play house for Arielle. Initially, she really wanted one large enough for her and her cousins to hide out in but there isn't anyway I can do that so we decided to make one large enough for her dolls. I am not really interested in making a dollhouse in the traditional sense of the word and I certainly don't have the time to do so either but I can handle a simple design so thats what I sketched up; A simple two story house with a pitched roof. It is very hard for me to keep it simple and not go into real design mode, start sizing beams and calculation stair risers! 

   

Anyway, we started by going to the craft store to buy supplies. I decided to base the house on the largest piece of birch plywood I could find in the store which turned out to be 12"x24"x1/8". Here's what we bought: (2) -12"x24"x1/8" birch plywood, (10) -4"x24"x1/8" basswood, (4) -4"x24"x3/32" basswood and a mix of miscellaneous wood dowels. I also got out my X-acto knife, blades, Sobo glue, architectural scale, pencils, chopper, cutting mat and metal ruler. 

After a quick sketch to figure out what rooms we wanted, we started building.

Because the birch plywood is so hard, I used 1/8" basswood strips for the exterior walls laminated to museum board. The was good for two reason; it gave the wall thickness ( stability) and made it so that I could have a wood finish on one side and white on the other. Arielle enjoyed covering the entire 22x30" board with glue. We then laid each sheet of basswood carefully onto the board and piled magazines atop to keep it flat while it dried. We did this twice, one sheet for the front and back walls and then another for the long side wall.

While that was drying, I measured and cut 4 dowels to use as the edges for the floor slabs. I cut (4) 24" pieces and (4) 12" peices-less the thickness of the dowels. I then glues these onto the bottome of the (2) 12"x24"x1/8" birch plywood sheets and set those aside to dry.

Once the laminated wood and museum boards were dry, I drew out the profiles for the front and back sides and the side and began to cut them out using the x-acto knife and a metal ruler.

As I finished cutting them out I decided to try to assmeble the house to see if things fit together properly. Its important to do this before you glue anything together so you can adjust and trim where needed. If I was using a laser cutter, I wouldn't worry but because I am manually cutting this out by hand, I need to make things line up properly. I did this by basically using anything I could find to hold the walls up with and masking tape.

Two picture frames are holding up the second floor and I taped the walls together at the corners.

It took me a few hours to do all this only because I had a 3 year old helper and a 6 week old strapped to me in a Moby wrap but really its a quick process from start to finish. The next step will be to design and cut out the fenestration and interior walls.

After doing this, we took another trip to the craft store to get more board and pick out wall paper to decorate the house with. Arielle picked out this Dalmatian figure and the lady at the checkout forgot to ring it up until after I had paid up. I promised we'd be back to get it another time but a young lady behind us actually asked her to ring it up with her stuff and gave it to Arie...I had no idea people like this still existed..but it really made Aries day! So now we have a pet for our house.

Next Post: Fenestration and interior walls....

Socks

A while back when I had 40 days to my due date, I decided to try to write something each day that I was appreciative of no matter how little it seemed. Well here's another one..SOCKS! I love socks, maybe because I dislike feet but there's something about socks that I really enjoy. I really appreciate a good pair of socks, that are  warm, fuzzy and quirky. I received quite a few boxes of the baby socks that look like shoes and gave them away mainly because something about the idea doesn't sit well with me - it plays a weird game with my mind especially when you see grown men wearing them..I digress! Anyway, since I saw these from Etiquette clothier, I fell in love- first off, they aren't pink, they're coral, they incorporate three things I like, gray, stripes and polka dots and they are made from the finest Italian combed cotton! I'm pretty sure if they turned up in my daughters room, the husband will have a fit as they are a whopping $30/box. oh and by the way..they have blue too..

6 Weeks Old

Evie at six weeks old is quite a joy. She's still sleeping well, only waking up for a mid-night feeding (at 4:00am) and taking long naps during the day. She stays up more now during the day so we get to actually see her big brown eyes wide open. She can definitely see a bit further now because she stares at the mobile hanging over her crib and the black and white baby art by her changing table which her sister made. Leaving the house takes a while but when we do it pretty smooth, she sleeps although she does not like the car seat once the car stops moving so my weekly Target run requires a little less lingering. 

She is a champion eater and she's got the signature rolls and chubby cheeks to prove it. We have been trying to introduce the bottle once a day which is slightly problematic because she seems to have a preference for that natural feeding methods..She's also showing a preference to cuddling instead of sleeping in her crib which is fine with me, I could sit and cuddle her all day thats only going to make it hard on the person who has to watch her when I return to work or just try to leave without her. She's making some expressive sounds which is fun because Arielle thinks she's talking to her and love its. So I guess I could go on forever about this little warm bundle but I'll just say she melts my heart.

Gone fishing..

It's ironic that we actually went fishing yesterday since I sometime feel like I literally live by that idiom, "gone fishing", this phrase refers to someone who has consciously removed him/herself from a situation. When the stress of modern life becomes a bit too much, an idyllic retreat can be just what is needed to regain a sense of calm... 

I dislike fishing because it involves stringing up some form of slimy bait which rattles my severe case of germophobia and then sitting and waiting patiently for something to happen..another thing I don't do well but I went along yesterday because it was something to occupy time and create a space that seemed different even though it was temporary. I say its ironic also because its my anniversary (7 years married but 16 years together!) today and on this day I find myself wondering how other people keep from feeling like they need a break from their lives. I know the spiel, life is tough, relationships need work, healing takes time...these are the things we are told over and over, generally in situations where people really don't have anything more specific or meaningful to say, and often times find themselves in a state of self reflection as a result of it. But really, I would think that rather than celebrate with nice dinners, jewelry, flowers and such, maybe the anniversary should be spent as a time to reflect on life and in a sense revise ones strategy for dealing with life's rigors. Maybe there are couples out there with perfect relationships that don't get strained in any way by the little (or big) things but I'll be the first to say that I'm not perfect so what happens when we stop trying? When we've gone fishing..