Wednesday, November 27, 2013

More and more and more and ..,. bricks

Left side of the house
The whole focus for the last few weeks (and many more to come) has been the application of the bricks. Given the size of the house and the scale of the bricks, I will have to apply approximately 12,000 bricks to complete the main house.

I realized as I applied the bricks to the side gable that the top quoins should have been larger so I left a gap in the brickwork so I can go back and add them in.

End Gable














Ground floor partially complete

With the polychromatic brickwork on the gable, leaving the other levels all one color seemed rather plain so I decided to add black diamonds inline with the quoins on the left and right. As the quoins are not exactly three bricks high, I made maker lines across the sides so each three course of bricks where held to the quoin spacing. At least these slightly larger spacing lets the gray paint underneath show through as mortar.   

Chimney with clay pots











I put the chimneys in place to support the front half of the roof when open, but I can see it is going to be rather fun trying to glue the bricks around the base of the chimney, and then I will have to add the flashing. The chimney pots themselves need some coloring to weather them before they are glued in place.





Front gable
 As the front gable was smaller, I only added the diamond at the apex without the zed pattern on each side. Once the gutter is in place much of the front exe pattern will be obscured but at least there won't be any bare gray patches.
Side gable with roof trim









Once all the brinks were applied, I could install the roof trim. I glued blocks to the back of the trim so I could glue it flush to the face of the roof edge. I will most likely add a coat of paint to help fill the gap.
Front gable with roof trim

A rare view of the right side of the house
Diamond pattern below front windows

Max waiting to move in







The post at the roof apex is for a weather vane.












I always seem to start on the left, but here is a view of the right side of the house. Of course I have to keep looking back at the left side to make sure they match.




I decided on a more open diamond pattern below the windows on the front of the house.
















Genevieve wait patiently as always. She has been collecting many items for the inside of the house and the future garden so soon it will be time to post some pictures of the inside.