Rowhouse bits and pieces

The Queen Anne rowhouse is very close to finished, and we’ve entered what I think of as the “bits and pieces” phase—there’s lots of fiddly trim work left to do, and I tend to be lazy about doing it. (The Rosedale has been languishing in this state for two years!) All summer, I was putting off finishing baseboards because the dollhouse store was out of stock on the 1:12 window casing I’m using for baseboards. Or so I thought… it turned out I was looking in the wrong bin. Or maybe my brain was trying to psyche me out because I didn’t want to finish baseboards.

One of the remaining spots was here in the office. There was a crack in the flooring that I thought would be covered up by baseboard, but I was wrong.

I fixed it by cramming in several pieces of very skinny basswood. I didn’t even use glue, but they’re packed in there pretty tight, so I think they’ll stay put.

The foyer was another room that was waiting on a few pieces of baseboard, and I had to get these in before gluing in the stairs or I never would have been able to reach.

Gluing in the newel post was difficult. I got some super glue on the floor in my first attempt, which is annoying because there’s no way to reach in and sand it off. On my second try, using tacky glue and reaching in through the French door, I was able to hold it in place long enough for the glue to take.

With the bottom set of stairs in place, I was able to add basswood trim around the opening between the floors. I couldn’t do this before because the trim piece right next to the staircase would have prevented the stars from sliding into place.

And I added baseboards around the bottom of the staircase. Technically there wouldn’t be baseboard on the part facing the wall opening (just like technically there wouldn’t be wallpaper there, either), but I wanted it to look nice.

The dollhouse store is also out of the crown molding I’ve been using, so I bought a different style for the kitchen. You can’t really tell, and that room is more modern than the rest of the house anyway, so let’s pretend they did a renovation recently…

The double window and trim are now glued in. The settee in the bay window is a Cassidy Creations kit I’m in the process of assembling. It still needs upholstery.

Next up: stripwood trim for all the jaggedy corners and edges. Some of the pieces are 1/4″ wide and some are 5/16″ wide, depending on where I’m using them.

I spent an entire afternoon painting and sanding, painting and sanding…

With the exception of the floors behind hinged panels, where I couldn’t add strip wood without getting in the panel’s way, I’m adding basswood over every exposed plywood edge. It makes the house look neat and finished.

I made my own corner pieces here so I could use 1/4″ trim on the exterior edge (to match the opposite corner) and 5/16″ trim on the interior edge (to cover the 1/4″ plywood plus siding).

With the trim up, it’s time to attach the hinged panels permanently! More on that in my next blog… it didn’t go *quite* as planned… (In this pic the panel isn’t attached, it’s just sitting in place.)