The Fairfield: Plugging Away

I spent another couple of hours plugging away at the little things again today.  I finished the first couple of coats of paint on the chimney, which is good. I'm not totally happy with how it is going so far, but then, more paint is likely to fix it up!  I am waiting for this coat to dry before I seal it tomorrow, and then grout it.  I am trying to get a lighter colour for the stones which are inside the attic, and a darker, more weathered tone for the exterior stones. I'm not sure that it's working, but I plan to add some black "soot" around the top anyway, and most likely some moss as well.

After the painting, I had a look at the corbels I ordered last year.  Unfortunately the larger ones are WAY too big for this project, and I don't have enough of the smaller ones to do the whole house, which is annoying.  I had a quick look back at the Heritage Laserworks website and they have a couple of new gable trims which actually might fit my house, so ordering another couple of bags of corbels might not be so bad if I can get some gable trim too.

After checking the corbel size, I knew that the balconies have to be larger, so I added 1/4" basswood strips to the outer edges and then puttied the gaps.

 I have been deliberating for ages on what surface the balconies should have, but I think I will just go for a weathered, stained concrete look. Not period-appropriate, but easy, and you won't see much of it once the railing is installed. I think I will run a small strip of trim just inside the outer edge to keep the railing in place.

After that I went to town on the eaves with a wire brush and chisel to enhance the aged timber planks look. I can't decide whether to paint them with crackle glaze or leave them as is? The exposed timber looks too fresh so I am deliberating on aging it somehow - maybe a grey paint wash? Or maybe crackle glaze and then a grey top coat?

I am pretty keen to get the trim finished, so I ended up placing an order for a couple more pieces of angle trim from a local supplier (with expensive post - annoying). I grabbed a laser-cut fireplace kit which looks vaguely Art Deco, and a dining table kit which will serve as the meeting table. They also had some tiny laser-cut dentil trim which I may add to the cornices.