Revelation- the basement store as a stationers and post office

I knew the Gammage women had to have occupations other than being ladies of leisure. The fancywork and domestic articles around the house are the work of women long gone. but even their mother, Cecile , preferred writing and illustrating botanical journals to prettying the house, which is why the decor speaks of their grandfather's lifetime more than the year of 1885.

The basement was used for years as an apartment for workers or temporary quarters for other shipmasters who weren't in Providence long enough to go home. For those who wanted to escape the drunken brawls of the boarding houses serving mostly sailers, the basement was a warm restful alternative. A somewhat primitive kitchen served both the upstairs and the basement living quarters. The current occupants of the house have done a bit of updating in the kitchen, with a new stove and inside sink.

Since the unpleasantness, the exterior room of the basement was converted into a post office and stationers store, with Julia as the proprietor. The shipmaster's quarters were somewhat preserved, but the larger part was converted as a wood shop for Althea, who makes beautiful clocks, sewing boxes and commissioned work.

So finally , I know how to proceed on the basement!

As you see, I am between color schemes on the house too, but I've added the beginnings of steps as well.

Mid day update

I just watched the movie - I think it is called Julie and Julia- about a woman who cooks her way through Julia Child's cookbook, and blogs daily. What would be the miniature equivalent? 

The rooming house is only quarter scale in name  I think, but we'll see the finished dimensions later. I've been challenged on both projects by my messy work- and it is even more challenging when smaller, because every gunk of paint is , in scale, at least as big as my paper model's hand. Yes, I made a little cut out the size of a tall adult, to give myself a sense of how tall things should be. I did make the ceilings extremely high on purpose, for the rooming house is a victorian mansion transformed to meet heating costs! 

I've built the house in separate pieces to, give me access to decorate. There are three levels , plus a loft level and a tower room . At first the tower was separate, but I've joined it already -a little challenging, but the end result is okay. 

This is the first floor. I'm hoping to get it ready to glue to the 2nd floor today. My plan is to decorate the exterior after it is all joined, unless someone tells me a different strategy! 

This app keeps crashing when I load pics, I'm going to switch to add pictures

Making wallpaper

I got a great idea to make wallpaper from the web. I took a picture of a small swatch of fabric, and a picture of a wallpaper border . An IPad makes this really easy- you take a picture of your screen by pushing the home button and the on/off button at the same time. I know there is an App to use , but I prefer to do it using PowerPoint.

in PowerPoint, you click on design, and background. in background, you select picture fill, then select the photo you want to use. Click "tile", then adjust the percentage as you like. I'm really pleased with the results!

The addition is coming along- I hope to get a porch rail on and a door  on the end despite the virus that is plaguing my holiday . Five days off and two in bed is not good!

The Addition

When I started running out of imaginary room. I built an addition to be the kitchen and bedroom. One is still a bedroom, but the lower room is to have a different purpose. It may end up being an office
depending on how the upstairs remoldeling goes.

The dormers bite the dust

I got brave, and the dormers are history. Then the rest of the shingles. I 'm still trying to decide if I want to replace the dormers or close up the front of the roof.

The way we were - Houseworks Colonial

When I first bought this house, it was with the thought of doing exactly what I have done- to let the kids use the basic shell, which was unbelievably strong for play until I was ready to finish it. The rationalization of spending money begins!The house has been a garage , a fort, a haunted house, a firestation and any other structure needed for imaginative play. This was of course before the first piece of clapboard or shingles had been placed on the house.

By the time my third, a girl , came along, the house wasn't big enough for Barbie, so went to live in my classroom for students with Autism.