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Gull Bay shingles

A few weeks ago, when Geoff helped me cut holes for the dormers I’m adding to the Gull Bay, I had him cut rectangles. The Houseworks front-opening Victorian, which I have in my stash, uses the same kind of dormer and it comes with a rectangular hole, so I figured that was the way to go. But after the holes were cut I changed my mind and decided a peaked hole would be better to add in more light.

I taped the dormers in place and stuck a pencil through the window holes to draw around the inside of the dormer roof.

Then Geoff helped again with the jigsaw. He said I should learn how to use it, but he does *such* a good job…

With that taken care of, I got started on shingles. On my puzzle house I stained the shingles with Minwax Ebony and really liked how they turned out, so I planned to do the same with the Gull Bay. Fortuitously, my Ebony stain can was almost empty. When I went to the hardware store to buy more, I saw two new Minwax colors on the shelf – “Classic Gray” and “Weathered Oak”. Something about the “new color!” burst on the cans compelled me to buy them. (Marketing!!)

Here are swatches of all three – Ebony at the bottom, Classic Gray at the upper left, and Weathered Oak on the right. Once I saw them there, I really liked how the gray looked with the yellow paint.

I started by staining the roof. This is kind of unnecessary since the roof gets covered up with shingles, but I always do it on the change that a tiny bit of roof will show through somewhere.

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Gull Bay walls, floors, and an impromptu fireplace

Since the Gull Bay is enclosed and the inside will mostly be viewed through the windows, I wanted to keep the interior light and simple so it’s easy to see the furniture. I decided to use bright white scrapbook paper for the best possible illumination inside.

I’ve never been very good at papering dormers. Initially I thought I’d do the peaked ceiling with part wallpaper, part ceiling paper.

But looking at the two pieces, I decided to use them as a template to cut one piece of wallpaper to accommodate the dormer. The outer line is for the cutout in the ceiling, and the inner line is the inside wall of the dormer.

I seemed to be on the right track.

Using two separate pieces for the inside edge of the dormer ceiling, here’s how it looks. Not quite perfect around the dormer, but the best I could do.

As usual, I sprayed my wallpaper with matte sealer before gluing it in.

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Gull Bay plug-in lights

In a continuation of the easiest electricity ever, I added the ceiling lights to the downstairs rooms of the Gull Bay cottage. Normally with a ceiling light I would snip off the plug, drill a small hole in the ceiling, and run the wire to the floor above. But with the Gull Bay I wanted to keep the plugs, so I had to get creative.

Starting with the dining room (the smallest room!), I made a false ceiling by gluing a piece of ceiling paper over a piece of cardboard. I slit the ceiling paper to run the cord through to the other side of the paper.

I cut a big enough hole in the cardboard for the plug to fit through. This is covered up by ceiling paper on the good side of the ceiling. I wrapped ceiling paper around the two edges that show, so the cardboard wouldn’t be visible.

With the paper glued onto the cardboard you can’t even see the slit. This might not work as well with other types of paper. I used a textured, real-life wallpaper I bought a roll of years ago at Lowe’s. Between the texture and the bulk of the paper, the slit pretty much disappears.

I drilled a hole in the floor of the house that the plug could fit through, and pulled the cord through to the bottom of the house. This way the light can plug into the outlets under the house, as shown in my previous blog.

Ta da!

With the dining room light done, I repeated the process in the kitchen and living room. The cords running down the walls and over the floor will be covered up with wallpaper and hardwood flooring, which I’ll post about next time.

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