Presenting Baxter Pointe Villa!  :D  Many of the photos in this post can be clicked to enlarge.  For a list of posts about how I made things, please click here.

And, from the back.

Here is what the original kit with the side addition looked like on the Greenleaf website.

Mine's a bit different, no?  ;]  I took a front wall from a second addition kit to make a deck on the second floor of the main house.  I also added depth to the side addition.

The cottage is named after my current dwarf hamster companion who won the lottery by being featured in the Greenleaf Gazette's Critter Corner as Hamster in Half Scale (well, to a hamster, $25 worth of yogurt yummies is decidedly a jackpot).  :D  Baxter is now an old timer (nearly three years old) and has retired to a luxury beach cottage right on the water.  Here he is in his younger days...

The scene in the background for some of the shots is appropriately captioned On the Beach.  Though I am a hobbyist photographer myself and I've been to the beach many times, the only photos I have seem to be in mid-autumn or have a lighthouse in the background.  Not necessarily a bad thing but not what I was going for.  And, any 'sunlight' you see in the photos, well, that's just my dining room ceiling fixture with its GE Reveal lightbulbs.  :D  Even I can't believe how well this fixture lights this house from outside!

I tried to make as much as possible and used some tried and true techniques from the Newport as well as diving into some new territory for me.  I'm very pleased with how the build turned out overall, but I must say the aquarium is my favorite!  I used the Greenleaf tutorial for it, adding my own sculpted polymer clay fish and LED lighting.  :D

I would love to sit in this living room, honestly.  It has such a serene quality to it.  That's real water in the pitcher, and yes, I spilled it three times while photographing.  :O

The painting above the fireplace is Racing with the Moon by Jacqueline Penney.  The candles in the fireplace are polymer clay and are lighted...I just haven't been able to train my camera to actually take a decent photo of them lit up.  I made a lot of the books myself but supplemented the collection with some from The Miniature Bookshelf and other miscellaneous suppliers.

The aquarium divides the living room from the kitchen, and there's a breakfast counter in front of the tank that I made from a curved scrap piece from the kit.

Here's the door I made and posted about earlier...it's a means to feed the fish!

This is an efficiency kitchen with only a range top and a half fridge.  When you are vacationing on the beach, you don't need to be indoors cooking.  :D

What a view!

Upstairs is a minimalist and serene bedroom.

Adjoining the bedroom is a bathroom with a soaking tub under skylights.  I have a lot of detail shots I'll be sharing in a separate post.  I love how this room turned out especially!

Outside the bedroom is a covered deck inspired by an Amanda Nisbet design.  I painted the ceiling Lilac Love and reproduced the brown and white fabric in her original design using Illustrator and having it printed by Spoonflower.  The journal is by Glenda of Peppercorn Minis.

The cedar shake exterior with white trim was inspired by Catskill Farms.  They have countless beautiful cottages on their blog that are perfect inspirations for miniature homes.  I had to hand split approximately 1,700 1:12 scale shakes to get the right proportion for the build...first lengthwise and then across the grain.

This was easily a six- to nine-month project crammed into three.  Even with all of the things on my idea list left undone, I still think I accomplished a lot in the time I had.  Lots of long hours and late nights.  :D  I plan to continue checking things off the wish-I-had-had-time-to-do list, so you'll see more of this house in the days ahead.

I also want to say a big thank you to everyone who helped with ideas and support throughout the whole process.  Your kind words and friendship mean more to me than you realize.  Thank you!

...more details to follow...but not tonight.  :D

UPDATE: Baxter Pointe Villa took 3rd in the contest.  :D