Mr Mulpepper's Apothecary All Stacks Up!!

This is the main carcass of Mr Mulpepper's Apothecary all stacked up. It is the Regency shop kit by Sid Cooke and comes in two pieces which is very handy as it makes the kit much easier to move and lift.

I have painted all round the window edges in brown an gold so the wooden and window fixtures will blend in properly (fingers crossed!)

 The front door panel has now had the brick paviors laid and grouted. I remembered to make sure I glued the steps the right way round this time which made the job much easier. 

 The key to grouting I have found, is the sealing coat of a PVA/water wash. A thorough coat, allowed to dry overnight means that washing off the excess grout is so much easier.

 Just peeking out of the roof you can see the pewter sheets I have used to cover the roofing panels.

I have bashed the sheets a little but they still need to be roughed up a little more. I also want to add some batons and a couple of repair panels.

 I had bought these floor tiles for the Magical Menagerie but I have played with one adding a bit of brown and gold, I quite liked the effect so I have laid them on the top floor.

This will be the potion and ingredients room so tiles seemed appropriate because of all the spillages!

 They are much more golden than this photograph shows but they do lay and clean up beautifully. My next task will be to add the paint colours and dirty them up.

 The front panel has a ledge for the steps and to allow for the bay windows. This means you have to edge the bottom of the kit too which gives you two rows of brick work. You can also just see the edge of the interior floor boards but I can accept that in the whole scheme of things.

 This is the interior ledge with the floor board continuation. I have grouted the gap and it looks ok. I will darken it up a little to blend in.

Tomorrow I hope to move on to the exterior walls. Lots and lots of tiny bricks for the lower shop and art mache for the top floor.

I am definitely making the most of my sabbatical from housework and all the chores!!

It's Amazing How Much You Can Do.....

With one hand and all the usual chores out of the question!

A trip to the fracture clinic this morning resulted in a new ''full" cast in a rather chic red! I decided against hot pink, lime green or fluorescent orange.

I even got to see the X-Rays today and the extent of the break. I can understand now why it is still so painful but it is improving every day.

The good thing is I have a lot of free time for playing!!!

 I had already prepared the wood for the mantle/fireplace surround so it was a relatively easy job to put it into place. 

The top may be a little too deep but I wanted a shelf deep enough for cauldrons.

I will see how it all looks once dressed.

 I have also finished the grouting on the paviors for the pavement and steps. You can also see where I have made a boo-boo. The steps are upside down, take note for future kits!! This has left me with a very small lip, too narrow for a step. I am thinking about what to do with it.....

No rush, I will see what it looks like once I have sanded and grimed the pavement.

The quarry tiles have also been grouted and are ready to be dirtied up in line with the shop floor.

 As tiling seems to be something I can do at the moment I have installed the roof. I was going to leave this til last as I wanted to have an internal attic shelf lit and stocked with old stock and bits and pieces.

Putting on the roof will make this a bit more fiddly but it does mean I can move on with the roofing.

With so many fire places I obviously need more than one chimney. There will be three altogether and I am going to try and make them a little quirky.

 Along the edge of the roof I have glued a slim piece of wood (they are actually stirrers from my favourite coffee shop), these will lift the first row of roof tiles to the proper angle.

I have no idea why this works. or why it is necessary, I must have read it somewhere, all I know is it works.

I will also paint these in case they can be seen along the edges.

 So, what to do for the next couple of weeks?

A new project of course!

Here is my next shop, Slug & Jiggers Apothecary, the Sid Cooke Regency Shop Kit all sealed and ready to be transformed.

This accident of mine is proving to be the best way of making me focus on the construction it is too easy for me to become distracted when I discover just the right piece by a fabulous artisan!

Now I need to find the wallpaper I bought at least two Miniaturas ago!!!