House No. 2



1. Making Windows and Doors

 Windows
The old "glazing bars"

Click these pictures for a full view of the house's backside before the makeover		 I bought acrylic glass (thickness 2mm). Then I cut wood strips of wall thickness minus 2mm to fit into the openings as an inner window frame. Suprise, suprise: They fit neatly; and my acrylic glass sheets too.
 New Frames

Click here for a full view of the same backside when the new structure of this house was almost finished


Next step: Cutting moldings for the architraves.

Woodstrips
Stripwood I used
For the remaining upper windows I made inner frames from 4 mm birch stripwood (wall thickness 6 mm minus 2 mm for the acrylic glass). The moldings for the architraves were made by gluing two strips of mahogany together (5 x 1 mm and 3 x 0,5 mm). 		New cutting technique
My cutter
So far, I had used a handsaw for the mitre cuts. Now a friend gave me his mitre cutter - and I love this! It is much cleaner, quicker and easier.

Stripwood I used
 Inner Frame 		Stripwood I used
First half of the architrave - slightly overlapping to cover the inner frame and to hold the acrylic glass in place. 		Stripwood I used
First window finished. I have to make 5, and the architraves for the doors.

Gluing them on has to wait until the outside of the house is finished.


Doors
The first of two doors was made from plywood, in which I scratched lines to resemble boards. Rounded the edges and hit them with a screwdriver for some irregularity. Window made like those described above. With wood strips glued as a Z and cross bars for the window (not yet glued on when these pictures were taken) the door got the look I wanted.


Click the pictures for a closer view

 This is the second door, which will divide the balcony and living room. On this pictures it has already been stained, the stripwood and acrylic glass is already in place, too.

Click here, if you want to learn how to cut an rectangular opening into a piece of wood - the basic technique for making such a door.



Kitchen door tried in place.
Terrace door.

Now we need butterfly hinges...


Hinges attached.
Works.
I'll take it off again, though,
and do the final attaching
at a later stage.

back to top



2. Making Roof Beams

 This is going to be a rustic house, and I wanted beams for my roof, for reasons of stablility and decoration; and because this was the only solution I could find for my wood-strip problem, as explained on page 1.

Stripwood was cut to the right length and ankle to fit under my roof. The straight "beams" were then rounded and modelled to look more irregular. The idea was to resemble the dents a mini axe would have left.

Now the rafters, as well as the massive woodstrip that is nailed along the inner side of my roof's top and carries the whole construction, got a coat of very dark stain. When I tried the rafters in place, however, I found out that they were too thick to fit exactly onto the mentioned woodstrip/roof beam. It just did not look neat. So I had to sand them all down to the right thickness and stain again.


Finally:
The roof "construction". Just another ankle...

back to top

3. The Color Scheme

The final look of the house should be something like this...




back to top

4. The Entrance Steps


steps steps

They were cut from plywood and smoothed with sandpaper.
My aim is to make them look as if built from two large stone slabs.

The ballustrade at the right side will get the same dark brown stain as the door and some rustic banisters with a short handrail.

steps
Covered with air drying clay and painted with acrylic colors.

(Click here for step by step instructions)		 steps
The steps look a bit alien at their final location. But I think with the ballustrade and some greenery added they will fit in well, later.

back to top



5.

Under Construction



6.



7.



8.









.
.