Coach Lamp

I ordered a pair of coach lamps to flank the front door of Merriman Park and they were on back-order so I kind of forgot about them.  One of them arrived in the mail yesterday, which makes me a little nervous.  There was no explanation as to why they sent just the one and of course no one has answered my inquiries as of yet.  Hopefully, I'll end up with a matching set and not get two similar but different lamps!  (This stuff happens to me all the time). 

Once, back in my thea-TAH days I was making a costume and needed a certain number of paste jewels to sew onto the bodice and the helpful staff at the shop I bought the gems at assured me --swore up and down-- that they could "special order" the number I needed, so I reluctantly purchased the few they had in stock (against better judgment) and foolishly stitched them to the garment and OF COURSE it turned out they were no longer available! 

Ever since, I am a bit sceptical of "back" and "special"-orders.  Anyway, here's the lamp"

I like how the black cast iron color is repeated in both the lamp and the balcony railing.  Cross your fingers that the other lamp arrives, someday!

As I feared the LED, battery-powered light is absolutely garish!  Karin Corbin says I can tone it down with paint, but the color is such a ghastly, neon-bluish hue that I fear any attempt at masking it will only result in an even more hideous tone.  I suppose I will try anyway because I could never live with it as is.  Perhaps there are less shall we say vulgar colored LED bulbs available?

Maggie Smith (as the Dowager Countess of Grantham): "It's too bright!  I feel as if I am on-stage at the Gaiety!"

Finally, some sunlight...

It may only be thirty degrees outside, but at least the sun is out.  So I quickly snapped a pic before the next storm rolls through. 

I'm having a hard time getting used to having Merriman Park upstairs in the dining room.  Its just so --so big!  I hope that the new cabinet I am going to build to set it on will help make it look more "in scale" with the room. 

The funny thing is, I was considering adding small one-story wings or "dependencies" to each side of the house, one an orangerie or conservatory off the library on the left side and the other housing a kitchen off the dining room on the right.  I planned on having terraces on their roofs accessed by the upstairs boudoirs.  But I don't think I'm going to go through with this expansion (unless I move to a larger house).

            Merriman Park looms in a corner of the dining room.


I do believe I am, on the other hand, going to add a cupola to the roof!  I found arch-topped windows in 1/24" scale that are the perfect size for an octagonal cupola.  I'd like it to have a domed roof and weather vane, of course.  And would it not be spectacular with a tiny, little chandelier burning inside it at night?

Speaking of  electrical matters, I ordered a transformer and wiring supplies yesterday.  Which reminds me: as long as it's so sunny out, I should go ahead and replace the faulty dimmer switch in the spare bedroom...

Happy Spring (???)

Ah, Spring!  When a young man's fancy turns to thoughts of .....shoveling snow?

While most of you dear readers of Merriman Park are plucking tulips and daffodils and no doubt arranging them into delightful springtime bouquets,  this is what we woke up to here in drear Minnesota:

 

              Our house, The Lilacs, taken March 23rd, 2011

I think it was fellow miniaturist Kate who mentioned in a recent post that she was working on her latest project on her porch, where there was a nice, cool breeze blowing.  Well, bless her heart!  Guess I could go ahead and do the same thing --if I wanted to loose a few fingers and toes to frostbite.

Can you tell I'm still a little bitter over missing out on our trip to Florida? 

Oh, well...as we say here in Minnesota: "oooh, it wooon't last tooo long, yooou betcha!"

And this is what it will look like in three months:

Night Shots

I couldn't resist.  I snapped these (with a pillar candle in each room) before the whole house --Merriman Park as well as my own real house!-- burst into flames...

                Gives you an idea of an electrified Merriman Park.

Reminds me of eighth grade:  World Religion class.  I made a model of some Russian Orthodox cathedral.  It was pretty impressive -- I remember having to convince my pals that I actually made it and didn't purchase it at --what? --the Russian Orthodox Cathedral Model Store?  Whatevs.  Anyway, naturally I got an A+ on it but what to do with it afterward?  My juvenile delinquent, so-called friends had a fabulous idea:  blow it up to smitherings.  I was too into peer-pressure issues back in those days to resist so naturally I agreed.  So there went my A+ model Russian Orthodox cathedral --up in smoke and a bang, bang, bang of M-80 firecrackers.

Bricks are FINISHED!

And, because our friend Eric, aka "thing," was over helping out with our invalid, Blanche --er, I mean Glen-- I had him help me schlep the hulking Merriman Park out of its former basement lair and it is now ensconced in its permanent home.

The wall color kind of looks like sky!  This photo was taken in the early evening, on a rainy (but not snowy, thank god!) day, so it will be interesting to see how it looks in the sunlight.  But even in this terrible shot, you can see some of the detail better.

                          Oops! Forgot to glue the stairs on!

You would laugh out loud if you saw the pathetic, so-called shelf it is currently sitting on.  I dragged it out of the garage ages ago in one of my Design on a Dime make-overs, as a temporary stereo cabinet, which I never got around to replacing.  I am going to build a brand new cabinet this summer --a proper pedestal for Merriman Park to sit upon.

Confidential to Nick:  

Hope you had a very Happy Birthday!

Center Component FINISHED!

I finished the center component today --this means all the windows and the door are permanently fixed in place.  So I can remove the whole central bay of Merriman Park all at once!  No more windows toppling out and breaking into pieces!  I finished the stonework and I added corbels to the upper corners of all the second story windows.

          There's that ghostly specter again in the center window.  Spooky!

I'm deliberately avoiding bricking the end section --it's so tedious!  But I will try and get it finished tomorrow. (My last "vacation" day).  Yes, I should have been sitting on the beach this weekend --if it weren't for poor, crippled Glen-- but getting so much work done has actually been rather satisfying.

                  "Butcha ARE, Blanche!  Ya ARE in that chair!"

Installing the balustrade

We were supposed to leave for Florida today, but because of Glen's accident on the icy sidewalk our vacation was canceled.  Ugh!  This Winter has been a complete nightmare!  But I decided to take the day off anyway and work on Merriman Park.  I got a good start on the railing, after stewing about it for several days.  Thanks to all who "held my hand" and gave me the advice I needed.

The splats are set into holes drilled into the balcony floor and the handrails are set into the pillars.  the tops of the splats are set into a narrow groove cut into the underside of the railing.  I still have to cut spacers to fit in between the spats.  I'm pretty happy (and relieved) this task is almost complete.

 I permanently glued the columns in and reinforced them with small brads which were set with pre-drilled pilot holes.  No cracking this time!  At least now I no longer have to fret about the columns toppling over and breaking. Someday, I'll be able to say the same thing about the windows and doors.

My goal is to finish bricking the "East Wing" end wall, and fine-tune the stonework.  I also took Monday off, so I think this goal is attainable...stay tuned!  All this work done and no unsightly sunburn!  Florida, Schmorida.