Beacon Hill - First Lights & a Challenge in the Parlor

 Th past few days have seen  progress in the dining room and front hall. Wallpaper, trim, and lights!

The dining room sconce was first. The tape wire that serves it is on the hall side of the wall, so it had to be installed before the hall could be papered. The chandelier will be wired to a bit of tape on the floor of the room above. It will be added when that flooring goes in, to protect the joint.

The front hall was a bit tedious, as the stairs had to be moved in and out sevrl times to adjust tolerances. the near door in the parlor wall had to be blocked and the far door had to be enlarged to accommodate the Houseworks door. I was able to do the enlargement fairly easily using my pistol-grip Dremel. I drilled a series of holes along the new profile and used pliers to snap off most of excess wood. The Dremel's drum sander, with a bit of corner clean-up from a utility knife, finished the job. The door fits but cannot be installed until the parlor wall is papered.

 

There are three lights here -- a ceiling light in the foyer, a sconce under the stairs, and a chandelier above the front door. Unfortunately, the chandelier is blocked from view by the stairway. There will be a mirror on either the back or side wall, above the landing, which I hope will reflect light from the chandelier. When it was staged with a few piece of furniture, it became obvious that  had this room also received wainscoting, it would have been way too dark.

Next comes the parlor/music room. There are to be two sconces on the back wall. The challenge is that the tape wire is on the same side of the wall. I have thought about this for days and have a plan.

This is a template for the wallpaper. My thought is to paste the upper portion, make a horizontal cut just below the sconce and fold the paper back to expose the tape wire. Then the wires can be soldered and the paper pasted over.  The wallpaper has a busy pattern that I believe will easily hide the surgery. If anyone has a better (read easier) idea, please let me know!

The parlor has another challenge -- a table lamp that will sit on a table in a bay near the front of the room, away from the wall.  How to hide the wires without drilling through the table and floor and coming up from under the house?

Beacon Hill - Foyer/Hall Floor installed

 

The floor looks a bit bowed. It is. Will use double-sticky tape to hold it down. The near doorway into the parlor has been blocked. 

Next step is to install the lights in the dining room so the hall can be papered. Need to find my soldering iron. The eyelets are too long. See how they have poked through the ceiling?

Beacon Hill -- Foyer/Hall Parquet Floor Construction

 

When I realized the Houseworks red oak flooring could be cut easily with scissors and utility knife, I immediately thought parquet!  The design I settled on is more like inlay than parquet, but I think it will be a nice addition to this center portion of the ground floor. 

I started with an idea but not a specific drawing. It is evolving as I work. The golden oak board all run from side to side with the walnut boards creating the pattern, which reflects the detailing on the stairway. I'm gluing the pieces onto graph paper cut to the dimensions of the area. I thought to cut all the pieces and lay them out before gluing, but they are so light that they kept skittering across the worksurface. Plan B is cut a piece, glue a piece; cut a piece, glue a piece.  Haven't decided yet if there will be a design in the center of the large square. 

The el-shaped white area in the upper left is the footprint of the stairway.  I have some 1/16th inch wood that I may use to level out the whole floor as it will not be seen when the stairway is in place.

The colors are Minwax Golden Oak and Walnut. The walnut is a gel. I like the way it goes on. I use a rolled up bit of paper towel as an applicator, sort of a blunt drawing stump. No brush to clean. 😀 

Beacon Hill - Dining Room and on to Hall/Foyer

 

Finished up the dining room but for the drapes/curtains. The wooden window wall turned out well. I swapped out the wide shelf that was supposed to go under the window for a narrower one.  Still wide enough to hold some kind of pretty. Look in the far right upper corner. I wasn't ready to break my brain cutting the cove molding to make a fitted corner, so I sawed the top off of a Newell post and inverted it, butted the cove moldings against it.  

Three things left to do in here --- the drapes/curtains, which will have to wait for fabric;  the tape wire brads poking through the ceiling; and the light fixtures. All in good time. Regarding the brads, I think I'll wait until all of the wiring is finished, then use the trusty Dremel to grind them down, patch with Spackle, and repaint.

Moving on to the front hall/foyer. The initial plan called for closing the doorway nearest the front door, so I made a plug for it. There will be a ceiling light above the front door and a mirror on the wall to the left of the front door to bounce the light, but I'm wondering if this corner won't be too dark. The plug will not be glued until the jury comes in with a decision. The first step for this room is the floor. I have an idea for an original parquet design and process, but it is untried. Fun to experiment!

Beacon Hill Dining Room Drapes 1

 

I had an idea that the awkward beam might morph into a pelmet to blend with drapes that would frame the window alcove. This morning I woke up determined to find out. I used a piece of craft foam to cut drapes and pelmet and stuck them into place. I believe this is doable. Now, to find the right fabric!

Wainscoting and Window Wall - Beacon Hill Dining Room

 The wainscoting is finished and installed. The door is not glued, as it will be easier to paper the hall side of the wall without it in place. The walnut-stained cove molding will be installed over the white strip by the ceiling. The arrow points to a bit of wall that confuses me. It probably is meant to define the window alcove, but in my scheme it is just in the way. Will work around it for the time being and then decide how best to camouflage it.

The window wall has had me flummoxed from the get-go. The section above the interior window unit is just sort of there. I think I will cut a piece of wood to fill that entire section and stain it, so the window wall will then be entirely wood. I can't see trying to incorporate any wallpaper. The drapes to be installed on either side of the alcove will be behind the skinny white beam. It may make sense to cover it with the same fabric of the draperies, turning it into a sort of pelmet. We'll see!

Back at Work - Dining Room

 

It is hard to believe the Beacon Hill was started in 2013 -- eight years ago! After a hiatus of several years while life intervened, I finally found my mini mojo and dusted out the craft room. One of the hang-ups is my indecision about how to finish the exterior -- clapboard? brick? stucco? stone? combination? The easiest way to get around that is to concentrate on the interior and face that later on.

The tape wire is installed on the ground and middle floors, but not on the top floor, so the logically place to begin is the ground floor. What is indicated as kitchen in the plans that come with the kit will morph into the dining room. It has a bump-out with three adjacent windows that I think will be board and batten on the exterior. The window sections are glued and painted and put aside for installation later.

This is the dining room with the porch window blocked. The red paint chip is the color key for this room. The floor overlays the kit floor. It is stained with Minwax Aged Oak. The door and all trims will be dark walnut for contrast.

I noticed the brass eyelets used for the tape wire joins have poked through the 1/8" floor above, leaving a couple rough spots on the ceiling. Not sure how to deal with that. Wish I had noticed sooner. I could have used ceiling paper to hide before gluing in the plaster rose. 

I wasn't sure about using wainscoting as I was afraid it would make the room too dark, so I made up a panel to audition. It is made from some of the siding boards, Victorian skirting board, and a reasonably shaped piece of molding I had on hand, all stained dark walnut. The white strip at the top will be covered with dark walnut cove molding, which will also extend along the board that runs parallel to the set of three windows.

Of course, the next step was to see it staged with the basics.  I needed to see how all of the wood tones worked with the wallpaper. 

I don't recall whether the light over the small cabinet is wall mount or stands on the cabinet, but in either case the mark may need to be adjusted. There is enough tape wire on the other side of the wall to raise or lower it. The breakfront and dining set were made from kits. The chair seats have not been covered; did not have the wallpaper at the time.

The window frames are stained, but I think light-colored drapes or curtains will help lighten the room.

Not sure if there will be a rug in this room or not. If there is, it will have to be in light tones to contrast with the dining set. 

Note to self: exercise blogging muscles! I apologize for the haphazard spacing of this entry. It has been a while since I posted!