No, I haven't fallen down a rabbit hole never to return.  :D  Life has taken over the past few weeks, but all in positive ways.  In some fun news, friends surprised me with a miniature lathe for my birthday!

They even machined new tools since they didn't feel the included ones were good enough.

Of course, I am super excited but have no idea what I am doing.  Luckily, the gift comes with lessons from the very friends who gave me this marvelous new tool.  Here's the test run my friend did to test it out.

This will help greatly in my pursuit of The Scale Cabinetmaker projects, and I feel positively spoiled rotten!  :D

Continuing work on the door and windows.  I spray painted four doorknobs and two keyholes in antique bronze since the area for door handles was so narrow.  I had to put the knobs a little off center from one another due to the draft strip down the middle.

I love the way it turned out, though.  :D

Right now, I have the outer trim held on with putty since I'll need to use the curve to mark the shingles as I round the top.  I tried to fix the bad sanding job on the curved portion, but I'm still not happy with it.  So, Gustav will get a climbing vine later on.

The threshold for the door was painted Neutral Grey after a good sanding to droop the middle as though it has been worn over the years.  I'll add some subtle aging once I do the landscaping.

The window I bought from Hobby Lobby would not go back together correctly, even though I was careful to keep the parts in the right order.  I won't put a wonky window in a build I've been so carefully planning. So, while I await a Houseworks replacement in the mail, I will continue working on other parts of the build.  I have a few extra days off for the upcoming long weekend, so I hope to get a lot accomplished.  :]

It's mini show time again!  I headed to the Bishop Show - Chicago Fall 2017 event tonight and came home with a few goodies.  I also saw the classes for next year's Bishop International Show, so I have some things to consider.  :]

All About Miniatures.  A beautiful JBM Miniatures upholstered stool.

Iklectic Kollectibles.  This beautiful tiny doll is by Ethel Hicks.

The Little Dollhouse Company.  I am a sucker for white ceramics.  :D

Sir Thomas Thumb.  I did not buy these, but they were amazing to see.  Yes, those power tools work!

While I'm at it, I will share the birthday goodies from Debora.  Always in need of small accent tables, and HoM kits are perfect for that!

This delightful box has working hardware.  By Ron Stetkewicz Miniatures.

Rustic piggy.

Working padlock!!!!  :O  I haven't take it out to try it yet.

Owl cane.  The insert reads, "From an owl cane hand-sculpted by Linda Parr (1941-1985)."

Hardware from The Dolls House Mall and Olde Mountain Miniatures.

Hand crafted hammer.

Thanks so much, Debora!  :D

I have disabled all photos on my blog, which is a bit ridiculous for a tutorial and show-and-tell blog.  I am once again dealing with a difficult Pinterest user who is insisting on pinning every image in my recap posts to Pinterest.  As I was copying countless links to report to Pinterest, I disabled pinning temporarily to catch up.  This person then decided to work around that block and continue pinning.  So, I took my site offline for a bit to stop the pins so I could finish my DMCA report to Pinterest.  Since I figured it would be best to offer an explanation, I put the site back up and just blocked the images.  No images, no pins.

I hope to be back in business soon.

In my perusal of windmills online and from my own stash of vacation photos, I've found that the windows and door frames are often rust red or white.  Check out this beautifully converted home, for example.  I've opted for Americana White Birch in satin instead of true white.  Painting frames instead of staining makes life easier all around.  I don't have to split between interior and exterior colors, and the filling on the arched door conversion won't show.

I microwaved the window purchased from Hobby Lobby to take it apart since it was not the kind that already comes in parts for easier painting. White trim on the interior would be a bit stark, so I stained the interior trim Minwax Driftwood to coordinate with the circle library.  The tiny bit of white showing will be fine and not as intrusive as large white frames.  I need to finish the sashes, so this isn't back together just yet.

To make life easier, I also microwaved the door frame to separate the interior trim.  I was then able to work with all the pieces without masking.

As for the door color, I fell in love with this inspiration photo.  To achieve a close approximation, I used two coats of Aubergine by Folk Art followed by two coats of Purple Pansy by Anita's.  I finished it off with Krylon satin spray.  The hinges are by Classics.

I cut mortises in the door panels to hang the doors like the real deal using a very sharp X-Acto knife to cut and shave the wood a little at a time.  The mortises on the door ended up a little large, but both the door and hinges are dark so it will be less noticeable.

I matched up the two sides to get the hinges as even as possible.

I painted the cut portions purple to blend better.

I used Aleene's Quick Dry supplemented with super glue gel to hold the hinges in place.

I let that set, then drilled pilot holes for the nails.

I added a dot of super glue gel to the nails except the one closest to the working portion.  I didn't want to risk getting any glue on the mechanism.

I set the completed door panel into the frame along with the one without hinges.  I marked the hinge placement on the frame, then cut mortises to fit.

These turned out better after practicing on the door panels.  I followed the same process for attaching the hinges to the frame.

After cutting the remaining frame mortises, I glued the trim back to the frame.

Tiny hinges are fiddly and temperamental, but the door turned out pretty well considering it started as a window with shutters.  :D  As expected, there was a gap between the door panels.  If I had built the doors from scratch, I could have made a rabbet join down the middle.  Instead of trying to reverse engineer that sort of thing from a ready-made component, I will just add a thin strip of wood painted to match down the middle on the interior.

The left panel hinges are fairly tight and don't want to stay completely closed, so I might end up adding an interior bolt.  We'll see after I get the knobs in place.

To be continued...