Chapter 82 - The Awnings to the Right Side Second Floor Porch

July 9th - 16th 2014

The first thing I had to do with the awnings was create some shingles.  I had some left over from the last porches but now I didn’t have many and I had to start from scratch.  First was to apply double sided tape to the back of the shingle material.  Then I had to paint it with a little color to have different tones when it came time to cut and mount the tiles.  While the material was drying, I could begin work on the underside of the awnings.

Adding some stain to one piece to produce darker color tiles.

First up was to apply the underside decoration.  The instruction had me leaving the end pieces off to be cut to fit later but from my previous experience, this was not easy to do.  So I opted to use the method I used before.  Mounting those pieces then cutting away the excess from where the corner beams would fit.  I just had to measure the angle and cut away the excess.  I then sanded and painted the pieces as well as adding white paint to highlight the underside decoration.  Next up was penciling in some guide lines for lining up the shingles as they get applied.  Now I was ready for more shingle production.

Adding the underside decorations...

...cutting away space for later installment of support beams...

...checking the measurements...

...stained and painted ready for shingle installation.

I measured out appx. 1cm spaces and cut the shingle material into strips.  I then cut the strips into uneven 1cm or less shingles.  There were a few old lighter colored ones that I probably can’t use anymore as I don’t have enough to spread out across the awnings.  But I can paint some over a even darker once they are installed - just to even out the overall shingle shading.  I started cutting the tiles then separated them out by color tone.  In this case just the two tones.  Then next was removing the tape off the back of each one and applying each tile to an awning.  Needless to say, this is not fun. I’ve already done two floors of awnings and this step is one of the most boring.  I ended up skipping a few days and went back to work on the tiles on a Monday and completed tiling by Tuesday. 
Next was to attach the awnings to the porch. I used some sticky wax and glue to attach them.  By having the wax I was able to position and then glue in place with at least some insurance that the awnings would not fall off.  Since the porch wasn’t attached yet, it made the installation easier by laying it on its side.

Measuring the cutting lines for the shingles.

Cutting the shingles.

Applying the shingles to the awnings.

Finished shingles.

Gluing the awnings onto the porch.

The last part was to add some tiles to cover the intersections of the awnings, paint the ends white to the underside support beams and touch up some tiles with dark stain. 

Underside supports glued in and painted white.

Corner shingles added.

Porch in place. Not yet installed tho.

The porch will be installed once I complete the other porch.  That way, I can pull down the whole floor and install them using my table.  But I've got another porch to build!!

View thru the porch into the Buddha room.

Chapter 60b - Right Side Porch Awnings, The Egg Carrier

March 12th - 26th 2013

The adding of the awnings has pretty much been documented previously.  It’s just a matter of making up the little shingles and slowly taking the tape off the back and sticking them on.  As simple as it seems, it’s very time consuming and boring.  Obviously you have to ramdomize the placement a bit.  I realised tho that at the end of the whole installment, I had made very few ultra-dark colored shingles so I had to just touch up some of the shingles with some darker brown to make the awnings match the other side.  Another change I made was that this time, I cut to size the smaller underside beams so that I wouldn’t have to go crazy afterwards trying to install the larger corner beams on the underside.  This way, I just installed the smaller beams, stained, put on the shingles, installed the awnings, tested the fit for the larger corner beams then stained those and painted the tips white and installed those.  They glued in perfectly.  DONE! (almost as annoying as making the tatami mats....)

Positioning the awnings and sanding to make sure they match up.

Glueing the small underside beams.

Preparing the underneath beams for later installment of the larger corner beams.

Adding the shingles one by one.

After staining, painting the end tips white.

Adding the corner beams. Easier once the smaller ones have been cut to accommodate.

Awning glued in place with corner covers as well.

Finished awnings after adding a few darker shingles by touching up with dark brown paint.

Of course in my internet travels I always come across interesting little details that I can add to the house.  Some months ago, I came across a picture of eggs wrapped in straw.  When finally I ordered some eggs, I wanted to make this little wrapping but of course couldn’t relocate the picture.  After digging around for over an hour on the net, I came across it.  It’s from a book about Japanese packaging.  Even if the book is entitled “How to....” there is virtually no explaination on how to wrap these eggs.  And of course, as I am discovering, I couldn’t find anything upon searching (using every term from macramé to wrapping).  It seems trying to find "how to's" for any Japnese minis is nearly impossible.  I did find the pic tho and figured, “I’m clever...I can do this.”  Ah....arrogance.

After two days of screwing around with these friggin eggs, I had to resort to glueing them in place then working the “straw” (in this case raffia) around the eggs.  Yes, I know.  The eggs are the wrong scale (1/12) but I don’t care.  I still like the final effect.

Inspiration for egg wrapping.

Started by bunching up some raffia....

...then adding the eggs.  I had to glue them in place. I used a piece of acetate underneath so I could easily remove the egg bunch once the glue dried.

Finished wrapped eggs.

Hanging in the kitchen.  They look like ostrich eggs !

And now, I can move on to a few new things.  I want to install the stairs next before actually making more bamboo blinds for this side of the house.  And I have been stressing about actually getting the house mounted onto its base.  I think another trip to Ikea for some kind of table/desk on wheels is in order ?

Chapter 59 - Left Hand Porch Awnings

Masking tape to hold in place for fitting.

Sanding down one piece for fitting.

September 18 - 27th 2012

This chapter came with the awnings which needed to be fitted onto the outside of the porch.  Fitting was necessary because during the build, the porch is not quite perfectly lined up around.  The instructions had me using double sided tape to keep the pieces in place while I measured and sanded the pieces down to fit.  Course the tape wouldn’t hold so I just used regular masking tape which leaves less damage and holds the pieces on while I sanded then fitted, sanded and refitted etc.


One piece in particular needed some heavy sanding.  It was off by quite a bit.  The trick was to sand to fit the front without distorting the back end.  I had to use the power sander for this one but in the end it seems to fit fairly well.

Next part was adding the underside beaming.  These needed to be spaced about 18mm from each other.  Since the corners need to line up underneath with larger corner beams, I had to leave some spaces on the end to be attached once the awnings are actually installed.  After that, it was just a matter of staining, varnishing and adding in the white tips for the overall decoration. 

Spacing the beams....

Painting the ends of the beams with white.

See through wood!

 In this chapter they gave us a sheet of thin wood paper (for lack of a better word).  The wood was so thin you could see thru it.  First I had to apply the double sided tape to the back, then measure out 1 cm lines where I would cut the wood.  Next was to actually paint some of the pieces darker so I just painted half the board with darker brown paint.  The first awnings on the ground floor we were given white wood board a little thicker than this one.  Consequently, I ended up with quite a few pieces of white shingles.  Something that this piece doesn’t have.  Luckily I saved all the other shingles as well as a sheet of the wood unstained.  Also because in the instructions, they say to stain the cut 1cm strips.  But I learned that this tends to bow out incredibly and I ended up with most of the shingles bowing out (and I still don’t know how to fix that) on the first floor awnings.  It looks rustic and I may play with that look more but I figured if I could get these shingles to lay down flatter it would be better.  Hence painting before and then flattening it under the cutting pad until dry.  Then cutting up the shingles into individual pieces.  It seems they were less bowed so this will be the procedure from now on.

Double sided tape underneath.

1cm height measured out for cutting.

Stained and then.....

...flattened.

Cut up strips around 1cm each, then irregular sized shingles.

Sorted by color for easier application.

Placing the shingles.  A little uneven is nice.

Finished awning.

After painting and cutting them into various width pieces, I began attaching them to the awnings.  The time consuming factor was simply peeling the tape off the back.  It was a total pain in the ass.  The tape never came off cleanly.  So, after a week of peeling, I managed to complete the 4 awnings.  Since they met up sort of off (with too much space) I decided to actually apply a few shingles over the junction of the awnings.  A little glue and masking tape to hold it in place over nite and the trick was done.

Masking tape to hold the awnings in place overnite.

Glue to hold the filler shingles.

Filler shingles did the trick.  Much cleaner.

Clamping the larger underside beams overnite.

 The underside just needed the larger beams and fill in small beams (with painting the tips) and this chapter was complete.  It really was hard to match up the awnings - I even have them off a bit on the right - but instead of unattaching everything that is the way it’s gonna be!

Finished port awnings! Only took a week!