Beacon Hill - OK, we'll do something else.

The plan for today was to assemble the porch base to keep the house from wobbling as I move it around on the worktable. It was a good plan, but for the fact that a couple of pieces are hiding. I know they're here someplace, and as the bajillions of pieces and plastic bags diminish, they will surface.

So, instead, I painted the roof trim and chimney, then assembled the top of the chimney and sanded and stained the front door assembly. I really only dug out the baggie with the front door bits in it to trace around the frame as a guide for the siding I want to put on before the porch is finished. Now that the porch is a project moved down the road, the front door isn't that important, but it will be nice to have it ready when the time comes.

The green of the chimney isn't accurate in this photo. It's a bit darker and more of a sage in real life. The trim has one coat of gesso and one coat of satin-finish Olympic paint. It needs one more coat of paint to achieve the look I want.

The top-of-the-chimney assembly is painted and the front door pieces are stained (Aged Oak by Minwax). They're resting on pieces of dry spaghetti on waxed paper. I'm spending a lot of time sanding. I don't want the grain of the surface wood to show and certainly don't want the edges to look rough. My hands are sore from sanding. Had to stop a couple of times when my fingers seized up.

What saved my fingers from total destruction is this little item, a sanding stick. Click on the picture to make it larger to see the details. I wish I could remember where I got this. I'd like to get more sanding belts. It is a wonderful tool for sanding small pieces, of which the Beacon Hill is generously blessed.

Over the past few days my ideas for painting have gone through a sea change. My initial idea was to use all eight of these colors on the outside, like a San Francisco painted lady. While there are some wildly colorful houses in New Orleans, it's not the house Sophia and the doctor would live in. The outside colors are now Crocodile Tears for the main color and Glazed Pear for the trim. I may use a darker green on the shutters for contrast, but nothing flashy.

I looked at Grazhina's pages on Victorian design and like the idea of stained wood wainscoting in the entrance hall. Above that I'm thinking to paint the wall Siesta and stencil a Georgian Leather pattern border. (By the way, the Crocodile Tears on the color chart is closer to the actual color.) Some of the other colors will be incorporated in other rooms. I like the way the palette works together.

I wonder what tomorrow will bring. :)