Mockingbird Hill Cottage

You’d better believe that I ran out to the porch for this one! After a long and rainy day, this beauty was our reward.

More rain today and tomorrow. It’s pretty dreary out there.

I find myself feely drowsy a lot and I know it’s because I’m finally getting some sleep, along with releasing long held tension from the past 5 years. I imagine a lot of people are feeling the same way. We’ve been held hostage – he’s still trying to hold us hostage. I would liken this aftermath to PTSD on a massive level. (I’m no expert, of course.) It’s going to take a while to recover. The last two nights, I’ve fallen asleep between 9 and 10, while watching tv. I can’t seem to stop it, though I try. My body and mind are letting go.

Let’s see, what else? We watched My Favorite Year  the other evening – one of my very favorite movies. Peter O’Toole is brilliant, as is the rest of the cast. It makes me happy.

We’ve begun watching The Queen’s Gambit  on Netflix. Excellent! It’s so well done and the subject matter is fascinating. We’re also watching older episodes of The Great British Baking Show. 

I’m rereading A Fatal Grace  by Louise Penny, the second book in her series. I’m going to pull these books out to reread from time to time. In the meantime, the newest John Connolly arrived in the mail and I’ll probably start that later today.

Don’s playing guitar and writing some instrumentals, which are lovely. He’s cooking lots of interesting dishes.

We’re hanging in there, trying to just be, to support each other, and to gradually let go of everything that is the Orange Man. Joe Biden is  the President-elect, OM will  be gone. I’m ticking off the days.

Barbara asked about the bedroom in the dollhouse. Here is a picture of the wallpaper I’m using:

I have some touch up work to do there before I wallpaper, using spackle to fill in the gaps between the dormers and the walls. I might start in that today. Yesterday, I spent hours looking at miniatures on eBay and Etsy. I have three projects ongoing at the moment, the vintage Lake House, the modern dollhouse, and Dove Cottage. So when I start looking at miniatures, I’m thinking of all of them. Oh, the possibilities!

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.

I spent the afternoon working on the door to the dollhouse. It’s pretty much done, though I have to do a bit of finishing work because it doesn’t fit perfectly. The door (which is actually 2 doors glued together) are from the replacement kit that Barbara sent me. The original house had no door. Greenleaf dollhouses are dicey on fit to begin with, but since the replacement doors were from a newer kit, the fit isn’t exact. I’ll try to tweak them, but frankly, I’m just thrilled that I got them in there! And that my leaded glass insert worked.

No doorknob yet. I’m looking into that. I wanted the outside of the door to be stained and I applied 4 coats to get it to the color I wanted. I could have painted it dark gray like the trim, but that was too matchy-matchy and I thought it deserved a rich wood finish.

Since Greenfield doesn’t supply any hinges and miniature door hinges are notoriously hard to install with all sorts of stories about damaging the wood, I went with a suggestion that I found on the Greenfield forum. Insert a piece of chamois or fabric or Tyvek between the two halves of the door and then insert it between the molding/trim and the wall. I used Tyvek from an old envelope. It worked. Not beautifully, but it worked. I very seldom open the door on Hummingbird Cottage since I’m usually looking at it from the big opening, so I’m fine with it the way it is. I’ll add some touch-up paint where the trim doesn’t quite meet the door.

This is why I don’t like this brand of dollhouse. They are less expensive, which is great, as dollhouses can be expensive, but the savings is shown in cheap plywood that is splintery and components that aren’t uniform. Every piece of trim that is to be used around the windows and doors is uneven, narrower at the top or the bottom. It’s annoying. Everything has to be sanded and when you sand, you risk making the piece too small, as large chunks of wood come off. So you have to try to fix things, which results in a lot of extra work. If they provided the windows and doors as inserts already installed in frames, I’d like these kits a whole lot more.

Complaints aside, I think a little more tweaking will make them look even better. Baseboards are next, but I usually hold off on them until I’m sure of furniture placement. I don’t install one long baseboard on walls where there will be furniture, as the furniture is then too far away from the wall. (It’s why I don’t like the baseboard heating in my real life house.) Once I know where everything should be, I cut the baseboards to fit around the furniture. So, that can wait.

Now, the bedroom. And, of course, gathering more and more bits and bobs for the living room and kitchen. I love decorating the rooms, it’s my favorite part of the process.

Hang in there. Last night, I had my first really good night’s sleep in a long time. Sigh of relief.

Stay safe.

Happy Thursday.

 

 

Well, we spent two hours on the phone with the company that is helping us select a new supplemental (to Medicare) insurance policy. For those of you who aren’t aware of it, the Screen Actors Guild, which is one of Don’s unions, told us we would have their union policy, (which was through Blue Cross) and I quote: “for the rest of our lives.” It was a great policy.

This year, they broke the news to union members that they couldn’t afford to do that any longer. Basically, the ‘rest of our lives’ was a lie. So now we have to scramble as this policy ends on December 31st. The company that is guiding us through the process is quite good and I liked the woman we spoke with, but the end result is that it’s going to be more expensive for us. I’ll have to buy a separate Dental Insurance policy, our deductibles will be higher, Don’s treatments for macular degeneration may not be fully covered as they were before.

We can’t afford these changes. But we have no choice.

I am so, so angry about this.

At the end of the conversation, we were both so upset at the realization of just how much is changing that we vowed to take a break and not deal with it until we get the info in the mail.

They promised us and they broke their promise.

I don’t know what we’re going to do. 2020 has been just plain awful.

In other news: we’re going to change the day we start using the dumpster as we now realize it’s going to rain nearly every day for the next 5 days. We think we’ll have them deliver it next Monday instead.

I did another dollhouse update video on Instagram. Just posted it yesterday. So it’s there if you want to see it.

What else? I’m going to work on said dollhouse today and try to finish up on the sanding of the front door, etc. I need to order the wood for the baseboards. As it’s going to rain today, going up to the office/studio sounds like a good thing to do.

As always on Veteran’s Day, I salute all of our armed forces, past and present, including my dad, who fought for four years in WWII.

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.