Where It All Started

Tags

Aslan's Tent, Attic, Cair Paravel Library, Spare Oom, The Lodge, Wardrobe

This blog started with us creating Narnia in our attic.  It’s been a couple years since then, and Narnia is well-loved and well-lived-in by our three grandchildren.  Now that it’s not brand new, it seemed like a good time to revisit it and see how it’s worn, so to speak.

Heading up the stairs–Aslan’s Tent is on the right, the rest of Narnia on the left.

The door to Aslan’s Tent.

I like to say that Aslan’s Tent is done in Rococco-Morocco style.

I had the builder add a small window at the top of the stairs to give a sneak-peek at Narnia, and I think the Gothic touch fits Cair Paravel.

Unlike the books, our Wardrobe is located in Cair Paravel because, after all, this is a floor plan in a house–not an actual world!

Although the books never mention it, I’m sure there was a Library in Cair Paravel, because every castle must have a library.

Around the corner of the left-hand edge of the above photo is the door to The Lodge.

Inside, The Lodge should meet the approval of any dam-building rodent!

Across Cair Paravel is Spare Oom, which is more in its craft mode now (meaning a mess) than its guest room mode.  But it does clean up nice.

Word Press seems to have choked on all these photos, so I’ll wait for the next post to go on through the Wardrobe into Narnia proper.

 

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A Window On: The Solution for Siding Around Windows

Tags

Dollhouse, Spare Oom

Following up on my last post, here’s what worked for siding around the windows and doors when my template didn’t.

This is what I started out with.  I followed several steps for applying the siding.

1) Measure.    In most places I could hold a siding strip in place and mark it from behind, as in the photo above.  Where that was not possible, I held the strip in place and marked it from the front.

2)  Sand.  I chose the smoothest edge of the strip and sanded lightly with 220 grit sandpaper for a cleaner look to the siding.

3)  Cut.  I used a scissors to cut along my marked edge.  Whenever it was difficult to get an exact mark because of awkward placement, I cut a slightly longer piece that I thought I needed.

4)  Try out for size.  This was the time to shorten too-long strips or even up crooked edges.

 

 

5)  Apply glue.  I applied a wiggly line of hot glue and got ready to quickly apply the strip.

6)  Glue down.  As soon as the glue was on I carefully positioned the strip and pressed it down quickly before the hot glue cooled.  Careful positioning is important as it’s extremely difficult to remove these thin siding strips.  They tend to shred as you pull them off, and you need to end up scraping them off with an exacto knife.  (I know this because when I got a bit tired I got careless with a couple of strips!)

I tried to be as exact as possible in my work, although I knew that when the windows go in they will hide minor imperfections like the one at the top of this window.

One final tip is that when you apply siding you will find that one whole strip us too short to cover certain runs.  In the case where you need two strips on one length of siding, be sure to stagger the joins so they do not all occur in the same place.  If you observe real houses, they never have a “seam” up one side where all the lengths of siding join.  To avoid an awkward seam, start succeeding runs from opposite sides of the house.  If your house should be exactly double the length of your siding strips, just cut them randomly to avoid creating a seam.

In this photo you can see a seam at the lower corner of the right hand window.  The others are hidden under the porch roof because that’s where the longest runs are.

It was a long, tedious process to get all the siding measured and applied around the windows and doors, but it was worth it in the end when I tried on my windows and door and got a glimpse of the finished house.

My final judgment on templates is this:  They work fine to cut angled shapes like gables where one or two straight cuts are all that are needed.  But when you’re working around windows and doors, there’s no method better than what a real carpenter would do–measure twice and cut once–for every single strip of siding!

When a Template is NOT a Template for Success

Tags

DIY, Dollhouse, Spare Oom

My last post was a tutorial on how a template helped me apply siding to the gable of my dollhouse.

The other day I ruled the lines for the front of the dollhouse, glued a few strips of siding on up to the bottom of the window–and then decided that a template would probably help me fit the siding more easily around the multiple windows and doors.

So I cut templates for both sides of the house.  I took lots of photos of me using the 12″ scrapbook paper cutter and other steps in making the template, but I’m not going to post them.  You’ll see why . . .

This bag of siding had an irritating defect–a strip of paper glued tightly about half an inch from the end of each strip.  I prefer to take each strip and fine-sand the edge that is already smoothest, then glue it on the dollhouse.  When gluing the siding strips to the template, this sometimes meant that I had to lay the strips in different directions in order to keep the useless papered end far enough out that it would be cut off.  That’s why the template looks every-which-way.

I checked the front side of the template, and everything looked good.  (There are no siding strips on the bottom because I had already glued some to the house before I got the idea of a template.)

I began cutting off the excess part of the strips, using the template as a guide.  Then it was time to cut out the windows.  That’s when things fell apart–literally!  The spray adhesive I used to adhere the siding strips to the template was not strong enough to stand up to that kind of cutting, and pieces began to fall loose.

The pieces laying on the table to the left of the template show some of the cuts I started to make before the strips fell off the template.

This is when common sense took over.  I may have spent several hours making these templates “just so,” but if they were making things harder, it was time to give up.  The French say, “Il n’y a pas trente-six solutions.”  No, there aren’t 36 ways to do something–but there is more than one!

Stay tuned for the next post to see my solution!

 

Construction in Narnia–Again!

Tags

Design, DIY, Dollhouse, Grandkids, Inspiration, Spare Oom

Back in April when this view of tender foliage was outside the window of Spare Oom, I started on a new construction project in Narnia.  Then life got in the way, and construction ground to a halt.  Now that working inside to avoid the suffocating heat of summer seems like a brilliant idea, I thought it was time to take my construction project public.  Maybe that will keep me at it!

“WHAAAAT?” you might well ask.  “Didn’t you just finish creating Narnia in your attic?  What could you possibly be building now?”  Well, here’s the answer to that very good question . . .

I’m building a house!  A dollhouse, yes, but a house!  This time I’m the general contractor, builder and decorator!

I bought this house before we moved to France in 1990, and it sat in storage with our furniture until we came back to the States in 2001.  At the time I thought I would decorate it in French style.  But it sat . . . and sat . . . and sat . . . in a closet.  Then in 2008, two things happened.

1)  We left my beloved Victorian house in Tennessee and moved out here to the country.  It was my idea to move, but oh, was it hard to leave my dream house!

2)  Our first grandchild, a girl, was born.  Now at last I had a really good reason to pull out the dollhouse and get to work.

But of course the work of turning this place into a farm took precedence, and somehow the dollhouse languished again.  Then earlier this year during the process of furnishing Narnia, Charis (now 4 1/2) saw the dollhouse and was enchanted.

That was all it took!  I realized that the idea of making a French house no longer seemed so appealing.  Instead, I would rather recreate my beloved old Victorian.  So I ordered lap siding and set everything up to begin construction–again!

So this is an invitation to join me up in Narnia while I build a house-within-a-fantasy-land-within-a-house.  And when I’m done with this, there’s an old Lionel train waiting for its own world to come to life in the basement.  So there’s plenty of magic still left in Narnia, just waiting to be breathed into life!

The Wardrobe Gets Around

Tags

Aslan's Tent, Cair Paravel Library, Dawn Treader, Decor, Design, Narnia, Spare Oom, The Lodge, Wardrobe

My niece, who works in the computer field, just had a post on our Narnia project published on the Homeketeers blog.  Be sure to check it out!  (It’s published under her nom de plume.)  For anyone who’s new to the story of how we turned our attic into Narnia, my niece’s account is clear and concise–and a good way to find out about it without reading through about 75 posts!

Enjoying Spare Oom

Tags

Decor, Design, Mimi's Cave, Spare Oom

Before my daughter Jenny told me that this room would make the best craft room, Spare Oom was going to be the parents’ bedroom.  And even though its most frequent use is for other things, it makes a great bedroom.

So while I was buying curtains at WalMart, I bought some room-darkening curtains for Spare Oom along with two sets of spring tension café rods so I could hang a pair of lace curtains I’ve been saving ever since we moved back from France in 2001!  There’s a reason I’m a pack rat!

The thing I’ve really been enjoying about Spare Oom is that with all the storage space, I have room for my scrapbooking and craft supplies along with room for a work table and a 6′ folding table that’s perfect when I need to spread out and scrapbook.

That’s just what I’ve been doing for the past two weeks, and it’s wonderful to be able to go off and leave a mess that doesn’t bother anyone.  And it’s wonderful to come back and be able to pick up just where I left off!

Yes, I’m loving Spare Oom!

 

Narnia: Ready for a Royal Visit

Tags

Aslan, Aslan's Tent, Cair Paravel Library, Dawn Treader, Decor, Design, Grandkids, Jesus, Kara, Narnia, Spare Oom, The Lodge, Wardrobe

Here’s a glimpse upstairs after I finished getting Narnia ready for the first Royal Visit by the Grandkids.

(A word of explanation is in order about “Narnia.”  We call the whole upstairs “Narnia” because all the different rooms were actually in the real Narnia, and they are part of our whole Narnia theme.  We also call the Grandkids’ Dorm itself “Narnia” because you go through the Wardrobe to get there.  Hopefully the meaning of my use of “Narnia” will be clear from the context.)

Aslan’s Tent is the parents’ bedroom.  As you climb the red-carpeted stairs, Aslan’s Tent is on the right, across the hall from Cair Paravel.  It’s the only room that already existed upstairs.

There’s room for a sitting area in the corner of Aslan’s Tent near the French doors to the balcony.  (The large mirror is only here temporarily.)  I have plans to make Aslan’s Tent more Rococo-Morocco, but all in good time.

Step across the hall into Cair Paravel, soon to become the Library.  The doorway at left leads to The Lodge; the one on the right, to the landing between Cair Paravel and Aslan’s Tent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The other side of Cair Paravel will soon hold bookcases, and the reading area will move over next to the Wardrobe.

The stained glass door that leads into Spare Oom contributes to the castle ambience of Cair Paravel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let’s peek into The Lodge as we call the bathroom (in honor of the furry friends who led the Pevensies to Aslan).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was delighted to find this Amish-made towel tree in a local furniture shop.  I was also excited to find the Bed, Bath & Beyond shower curtain that ties in the colors of the river rock floor, the Brazilian cherry vanity, and the log walls.  Who knew furnishing a bathroom could be so much fun?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Every bathroom in our house has to be set up for reading, so an antique hook and a Victorian-era hanger were pressed into service as a magazine rack.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kara found this reproduction sampler (made in China) at a local antique store, and we laughed so hard I had to buy it.  That’s one of the best $10 I’ve ever spent!  Kara thought hanging it across from the shower would be the perfect touch.  In case you can’t figure out why, here’s what the motto says:  “When this you see remember me, and bare me in your mind.  Let all the world say what they will, speak of me as you find.”  (The answer appears at the end of this post.)

I had fun making this toilet paper holder from:  a lion’s head pull I spray-painted bronze; a key chain ring; a piece of leather rein; a curtain rod hook; and a piece of an old broomstick that Herb cut down for me.  The rein is permanently screwed to the dowel on the right while the curtain rod hook fits through an existing hole in the rein for changing rolls of TP.

 

 

 

 

 

Let’s take a quick peek into Spare Oom as we call my craft room.  It’s a great place to read by a window with a view or to stick an extra guest, as long as they don’t mind a crafty mess!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And finally–on to Narnia proper!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aslan waits beside the miniature Christmas tree Kara decorated as a gift for her niece and nephew.

If you look behind you after you enter Narnia, this is what you see.  Some of the decorative features are (from left) a cross-stitch of Jesus and the children rescued from a junk shop along with the lion mirror (Aslan, of course!); an antique hunt cabinet with a dragon that we purchased from Kara; and next to the lion corbel, the quote that sums up our whole project, taken from C. S. Lewis’ The Voyage of the Dawn Treader:

“I am [in your world],” said Aslan. “But there I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name. That was the very reason you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there.”

(A future post will cover this vinyl wall words project.)

The berths on the boys’ side have fur throws for blankets and red velour spreads which can double as dress-up capes.

The dress-up capes on the girls’ side are purple.

At the foot of each bed is a crown hook for hanging pajamas or robes.  (A future DIY post will feature the hooks.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we turn out the lights, all is ready for the arrival of Charis and Kol, Daughter of Eve and Son of Adam, Queen and King of Narnia.

Ben’s Busy Day

Tags

Cair Paravel Library, Construction, Decor, Narnia, Spare Oom, The Lodge, Wardrobe

Ben’s busy day happened on Dec. 20, but I’m just now catching up after Christmas.  It was a long, busy day, and I’m grateful for everything he did because he got Narnia ready for company.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He installed the brackets I had painted, turning the ordinary window in the wall into a Gothic-style arch.  It’s a suitably elegant peek into the curious world at the top of the stairs.

He mounted the lion drawer pulls on the closet door of Spare Oom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He mounted the antique French door knocker on the door of The Lodge so people can check to see if the bathroom is occupied.

He mounted my oil-rubbed bronze-painted lion head knocker inside The Lodge to serve as a place to hang a towel or a change of clothes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He drilled holes into the second lion knocker and mounted it on the wall by the sink to hold hand towels.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He hung the driftwood mirror over the stone sink.

His final task in The Lodge was to enhance the river rock floor.  This seals and protects the stone as well as bringing out its natural color.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The day before, Ben had assembled the Wardrobe in Cair Paravel across the door of Narnia.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On this long, busy day, he finished installing the Wardrobe.  He attached it to the wall with straight metal braces; bent angle brackets to reinforce the side panels to the frame; carefully removed the drawer fronts from their dovetailing and braced the now “faux” drawer fronts in place; and finally, removed the batten trim from the Wardrobe so he could hinge the door in place.  (I have to darken the stain where the batten was removed.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the top photo of the Wardrobe, you can see the center braces that the drawers slid along.  Since this interfered with us stepping through the Wardrobe, Ben removed and preserved the center brace, replacing it with a brace behind each side panel (see above).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s a closer look showing how we can now step through the wardrobe while standing upright, something we could not have done had we kept the drawers and floor in place.  All that remains is to find step stools to help the kids climb over until they grow some more!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I wanted to honor Ben with a photo at the end of the day because he did such a craftsmanlike job with the Wardrobe, respecting and preserving its status as an antique while making sure it would be sturdy and safe as The Wardrobe into Narnia.  Thank you, Ben, for a job so well done!

 

A Tiny Bit of Progress

Tags

Aslan's Tent, Decor, Design, Flooring, Kara, Lighting, Narnia, Spare Oom

Although I was still sick in bed last week, I could use the telephone!  I went surfing through the Yellow Pages and discovered that my favorite local cleaner for Oriental rugs, Interior Care, Inc., also does carpets.  A few days later a young man was here to clean the ferret-stained, dust-choked Aslan’s Tent along with a well-lived-in chair in the living room.

Herb and I had gotten the furniture out so every square inch of the carpet is now as clean and good as new.

Yesterday, poor Herb had a busy Sunday doing all the things I had (graciously) consented could wait till the weekend so he could study for his finals and write his papers.  The thing about “Honey-Do” lists is they just don’t go away quietly!

First he got the plywood cut at Lowe’s for the Dawn Treader berths and carried all four very heavy pieces upstairs.  Halfway through, his foot slipped on the stairs, the plywood shot backwards down the stairs, and Herb went bounding stiff-legged after it, still hanging on.  He jammed his ankle, poor guy, and was limping badly by bedtime, but it’s “pretty good” this morning.

After the plywood was ensconced in a berth (because once the Wardrobe is in place, we’d never get it in there!), Herb started moving furniture.  I helped him move the dresser in, and he brought the antique twin beds from storage at Kara’s house and set them up.

Next, he brought the daybed over from storage in Kara’s house, and we set it up together.  The rest of Spare Oom is a wreck, but now I can figure out where to move the rest of the furniture and then start putting the room together.  Bit by bit it’ll get done.

This morning I began to feel a tiny bit human again, so I started on decorating Aslan’s Tent.  Obviously, we need a king-sized mattress so this is just temporary.  One thing I did do from bed with my wonderful iPad was research king bed sizes to learn that the base provided by our two twin box springs will perfectly fit a regular king.  I’m not buying a mattress online; I’ll let my “fingers do the walking” to find out where I want to try out and buy a mattress.

The quilt is one Kara doesn’t use any more; we brought the bedside table back from Morocco along with the mint tea pot; and we bought the pink tea glasses in the Arab Quarter of Marseilles before we left France in 2001.

For now I’m leaving the silk screen prints made by two of our once-little girls and the beautiful garland handmade by a friend, although I’ll switch to Moroccan fabrics on the door.  This larger bedside table is Moroccan, too, although I bought it for a song in an antique shop.  Both the tables were beautifully polished by High Point Antiques in Chattanooga.  Next, I’ll take them this little leather Moroccan lamp (a gift from our kids) to repair the curlicue that got knocked off.

This really IS the fun part!  I love decorating!

A Screeching Halt

Tags

Aslan's Tent, Cair Paravel Library, Colors & Paint, Construction, Dawn Treader, Decor, Kara, Mimi's Cave, Narnia, Permits, Spare Oom, The Lodge

During the week of Nov. 5-9,  I ran myself ragged trying to stain and poly the wood for the beam in Cair Paravel and the baseboards and berth trim in Narnia before Ben was ready to install it all.  In addition I was trying to stain the bathroom walls and door before he put the river rock tile down.

When I learned at the end of that week that the river rock tile (paid for and supposedly ordered more than two weeks earlier) had not arrived, it seemed at first like a blessing.  It meant I was able to finish the bathroom walls without trying to keep the stain off the river rock tile.  In fact, those pretty little pebbles caused a glitch that gummed up the whole works.

On Monday, November 12, I got a call that the tile had arrived.  Jon was here to finish painting, and I thought Ben would arrive soon to finish the trim (so Jon could finish caulking and painting) and install the tile.  Unfortunately, Stuart called to say he had picked up the river rock, but they was busy elsewhere and couldn’t make it back.  No trim, no tile, no plumbing, no final inspection, no Jon finishing painting.  Everything came to a screeching halt.

Jon’s daughter Becky put a coat of yellow over most of the primer in Mimi’s Cave while Jon glazed the ceiling in Cair Paravel, but he wasn’t at all happy with it.  Even mixed half-and-half with clear glaze to slow the drying time, the Valspar Metal & Patina Glaze rolled onto the ceiling very patchily.  I should have taken a photo, but I had gotten sick on Sunday and was so miserable I couldn’t be bothered.  THAT is pretty sick, when I can’t summon the energy to care about Narnia!

Finally Jon suggested he try wiping the glaze off.  Although some of it had dried a bit more than others, I liked the look better.  I know Jon still wasn’t satisfied, but Kara and I think that touching up a few areas will make it look perfect, especially with the way the leafy pattern of the light hits it.

In going back to read the directions for the glaze, I realize it is never suggested to simply roll it on.  This seems to be one place where my “sample board system” failed.  It rolled on fine on a 2′ x 2′ sample board, but it was a different matter trying to roll repeated sections on a large surface–especially overhead on (I hate to say it) not the best sheetrock job I’ve ever seen on a ceiling.   All Valspar’s suggested techniques are either additive or subtractive; in other words, wipe on or wipe off.  I’m sure that will be the clue to making the walls look great.

Our Toemi Island Rock in Taipei Green

Unable to finish Cair Paravel because of the unfinished trim, Jon and Becky left sometime on Monday; I was flat in bed feeling ghastly.  Antibiotics rallied me enough to go to Stone Source on Wednesday and pick a grout color–which, of course, had to be ordered!  It seems I can’t do anything the easy way!  Then I collapsed into bed and was miserable for the rest of the week.  (Here is a link for our Taipei Green river rock showing what it will look like enhanced.)

I had expressed to Stuart my concern that by not getting tile and plumbing, we weren’t able to use our space at all due to restrictions in the Building Permit that forbid putting any furniture in or using the space at all until after the Final Inspection.  On Friday Stuart called with some good news:  He had talked to the building inspector and received a “temporary, provisional, verbal approval” for us to use the space, assuming we trust Stuart to come back and finish it.  Yes, of course we do!  So that was the good news . . .

The bad news was that the future guest bedroom (Aslan’s Tent) looked like this PLUS, covering any green carpet that showed, a box spring, numerous cans of paint and bags of supplies from Lowe’s and Ace.  In short, it looked like a hoarder’s house with absolutely no passage through!

Kara has been sick, too, but with company arriving Sunday night, we rallied our befuddled heads and wobbly limbs and set to work.  Herb furnished the manpower to move furniture, but Kara and I made every single object disappear into an appropriate and somewhat less visible space.  A heroic effort, if I do say so, myself!

We stacked craft supplies and Narnia decor in the closet of Mimi’s Cave which Kara has nicknamed “Spare Oom” as being a more Narnian name!  Several plastic bins of fabric and two air mattresses got tucked into what’s left of the attic.

Everything paint and stain-related went into the shower because it can stay there till after the floor is done–accessible, but out of the way.

You can tell we got tired at the end and stuffed a few hard-to-place items in the bathroom corner!  No wonder we were tired, such busy sick little rodents!

By late afternoon, Spare Oom was actually functional.

All it lacks is the daybed and some more storage pieces (that’s on my Christmas list, Herb!)

By Saturday evening, Aslan’s Tent was functional.

Just ignore the stained glass door leaning there for safe-keeping and think of it as a large decoration!

It’s not quite up to our usual guest room standards, but at least it’s clean!

Guests still have to go downstairs for the bathroom, but The Lodge hints at what it will offer once our works get un-gummed-up and everything gets finished.

Thanks to Herb’s cleaning and more organizing on my part, by Sunday afternoon we had the kitchen devoid of every sign it had ever been an atelier.

The living room was free of construction dust for the first time in a couple of weeks, inviting us to sit and enjoy a rerun of “Breaking Dawn, Part I” on Netflix before we go see Part II tonight.

The bad news (wait, didn’t we already have that?) is that Stuart is highly doubtful they will be back here to work at all this week, either.  I guess the silver lining to that is, I have another whole week to make up for being sick.  Once all the Thanksgiving cooking is done, there’s plenty of poly-ing to do on the Dawn Treader berths and a throne waiting in Spare Oom for it’s upholstery to be finished.

So I guess the Red Carpet for our guests will have to be Drop Cloth Carpet for a little while longer.  At any rate, something’s looking up:  When Kara told me today that she thinks I need a curtain for each of the Dawn Treader berths, I said, “Hmm, we could cut up drop cloths.  They’re kind of like sail canvas!”  My Narnia-Sense is working again–I must be getting better!