Day Sixteen -- Shingles (and a little more)

Finally! Time to shingle. It was a slow process, mostly because the glue fumes were making me giddy. Shingling begins in the valley between the gable triangle and the front roof. This entailed cutting the shingles in half, and I quickly learned why I got so many extra shingles. Cutting with scissors almost guaranteed that half of the shingle would be wasted. Cutting with a boxcutter yielded better results, but I honestly don't like those things -- they make me nervous. Mike said he had a better tool, but using it would have meant waiting for him to be here to (1) find it and (2) show me how to use it.

I didn't wait.

Stage one:

Stage two:

The instructions say to glue the last line of shingles both to the roof and to the gingerbread (that scalloped thing on top), but I decided that was impossible, so I glued to the roof and hoped for the best. Judy, from the dollhouse store, assured me that she puts the top row on sideways, as I did. That made a whole lot less cutting, which made me happy. The porch roof is shingled, too:

Finally, the back:

None of these pictures are close-ups because I'm not overly proud of the finished product. I hope that jar of leftover dye is still in the refrigerator to touch up some little gaps I ended up with. Mike assures me he has a tool which will slice off the shingle edges which hang over the side edges where some more gingerbread will be glued. This one I'm waiting for.

There is a gap where the two sides of the gable triangle 'meet.' Mike thinks he can fix that. I'll let him:

Finished stenciling the front door:

Then, with time on my hands, I started papering the partitions which will divide the rooms. These are the two sides of the middle room upstairs:

One little bedroom upstairs:

The other:

I stopped, although I have the paper for the living room and kitchen downstairs. I'm going to let my engineer husband measure the exterior/interior walls so I can cut the paper to fit.

Then there will be lots of touch-up paint work before installing the stairs, windows and front door. After which, there will only be decorating to do. I bought some tiny frames for pictures of grandparents, great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents.

Holy cow -- I'm almost done!