Day 138-148 Three Windows & A Door

 

A long, long time ago, on Day 28, a Jr Victorian Cottage, was slowly being eaten up by termites . A heroine who loves to convert junk into better junk, saved it from eternal damnation . Unfortunately , she also christened it "Termite House" and since Day 31 when she was gifted with this house and 3 others, she has been going on and on about rebuilding this Termite House . 

At first, it was to be a tea house. She even thought of a name : "Bombay Tea Leaves- Where the Party Never Ends" because when 45 of her dolls were squashed inside the house, they looked like they were having a party (see Sumaiya's comment on Day 36). Fate, however, soon intervened, sparing the house of yet another embarrassing name.

The genesis of the idea to convert the Termite House into a Tribal House aka bhunga for the Rollas started on Day 84 although the colour board was posted as early as Day 81. Since then, this  house was also often referred to as "The Next Project" although it never was. Until April Fool's Day 2010 that is, when it  finally fulfilled its destiny. The  picture above was the last one taken of the house as it was. SO, Goodbye Jr Victoria Cottage and 

HELLO, TRIBAL HOUSE

I did this over 2 long weekends and 4 weekdays. I finished the thatched roof using the towel method in a couple of hours but it took me a few coats of paint before I was vaguely satisfied with the shade of biege. It was not easy trying to determine exactly what colour it is that I wanted and the process was made worse because the colour shifts depending on where you place the house, as you can see from the 2 pictures above. Before I did the roof,  I  plastered the walls with plaster of Paris, put in some embellishments on the walls and painted  the preliminary colours but they are not finalised.

Most of the time I worked on the windows but the truth is , as at last night, I still wasn't completely happy with them. Enough is enough, I thought, after spending almost 8 out of the 10 days still trying to perfect the look. So I started on the door and completed it within 2-3 hours on Tuesday.

This was made from the original door. As you can see, it was a perfectly good door, exactly the type we don't want. Have you heard of the term "dollhouse kit bashing"? I learnt it from Ilisha.  It also explains why it took me so long before I started on this house. Kit bashing phobia is very real. And for me, it started with this door.

But what the heck! I took out my saw and bye bye, good door . Then I filed away all the smooth edges and removed the knobs for later use.  

A miracle ! I sawed it unevenly in exactly how an old two leaf door should be! I like the door so much better now.

I then spray-painted the doors brown, mixed a shade of turquoise that is suitably Indian tribal and dry brushed the door. Only a few strokes and I got the desired effect. Now why were the windows so much harder?

By the way, don't throw away the newspaper with all that beautiful spray paint. We are going to make an old door latch with that.

I have fashioned a pair of *ahem knockers out of the original doorknobs (because I don't own no frills beads!), jewellery parts and wire. It is unfortunate that the *ahem knockers remind me of rings for  our knockers (no pun intended). This is a closer look

 of the old door latch.

Fixing the doors back was a real pain but I am pleased that the doors can be opened and closed, just like the real thing.

I am afraid the windows are not as successful. SuZ said it was because the window shutters are stuck to the walls. That made them unrealistic. Should I bash those too?

In the meantime, I guess I will  have to resort to tricks and decoy (again!) when showing the pictures.

Sans:  Say Cheeeeeeese, Cami...

Camo: Hey wait for me, I want to be in the pic too....

Camo: Wooooowww, the inside look so comfy, Cami,
lets go and roll in those hay...