Part 2 of the post. Read Part 1 here.
Second Verse, Same as the First
My instincts are spot on. Here’s what happened when I added the second row of white tiles:
The tiles are lined up nearly perfectly. Also, I added a flashlight to the mix so I could see what I’m doing!
Here’s a close up:
OK. So they aren’t perfect, but they aren’t as misaligned now. Better.
From there, it’s just adding row after row after row. I take a break at about halfway through to admire my work:
Pretty!
Yes, I admit that these aren’t as “lined up” as the first two rows. Since this was just a test run to ensure I like the pattern, I got a little lazy and sloppy as I added rows. I promise this laziness will not carry over when I lay the floor for real!
I also stopped because I wanted to check something out.
Fine, But not Right
As you can see from the pictures, I took out the wall to do this test run. When the wall is in place, the room is very narrow and hard to navigate with my full-size hands. Plus, since I haven’t dealt with the uneven floorboards, I’m guestimating everything. Like where the edge of the border should be on the wood floor side. I eyeballed where I thought the end should be, like so:
As I started, it looked fine to me. But, when I got to the halfway point, it didn’t look right anymore. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but something told me I was a touch wide, so I pop in the wall to check. I am right. Everything is fine, but not right.
That’s darn near-perfect alignment. But, there’s no room for the other side of the border. Oops. I’d chalk this up to a newbie mistake, but it’s really not. I just went one too many over because I was working without the wall in place!
That’s an easy enough fix. I took the wall out, removed the white tiles on the end, then put the wall back in place to get this:
Ah, much better. That will totally fit!
Then I just kept going, and going, and going, and going.
Lookin’ Good
I paused again at about three-quarters of the way down. First off, I need a break. Second off, I was running out of tiles!
As you can see, I have a row of white, then the start of a new row of blue. And that was the end of that!
I have more white tiles, but not enough to complete a row (I think). And I definitely don’t have enough blue ones.
Man!
However, because the two light blue tiles (Elsa Blue and Ocean Blue) are similar colors, I run a little experiment and swap in the other blue in the next row to see if I notice a difference. I do:
With one or two tiles here and there, it’s not remotely noticeable. But a whole row? Not happening.
Sigh.
Well, there’s nothing I can do about that except buy more tiles. So, I move on to the next part, finishing off the border. If nothing else, I should make sure I have enough of those tiles before I go shopping.
Starting at the back, I immediately notice a problem:
Hmm. That shouldn’t happen.
But it is, and it’s a good thing! If the border doesn’t fit with these tiles in place, I can take them out and use them below! It won’t be enough, but it’s something. So, I pull the blue tiles and keep going:
Huh. That works much better without the blue tiles on the end. The one problem, though, is that I’m not thrilled with it. I was hoping it would be the same colors on both ends (white), not white on one end, blue on the other. But, it is what it is!
Of course, that means I’m not “saving” any tiles since I’ll have to cut these in half, but again, it is what it is!
Detail Work
With the border as good as it’s going to get until I go shopping, I slide the wall back in to get a better feel for the overall look of this creation.
Cool, still clearly in “under construction” mode, but cool.
A more “backed up” view gives a different impression, though clearly still under construction:
But, overall, it’s about what I expected. Now, I have to clean up the minor details.
Thresholds
First, I knew going in that I would have to create a transition between the two rooms. This is normal and happens in real houses, too. I was leaning toward a wooden transition because in a real house where you have tile in one room, and a wood floor in the next, wood is the transition piece. I don’t know why.
I’m still undecided. But, no matter what I end up doing as a transition piece, there will be a “safety issue.”
I’ll do my best to pick out border tiles that are flatter than this one (I’ve got a few), but that will look a little weird, and there’s nothing I can do about it.
Which gap where
The next thing I have to worry about is where to put the border gap. Do I fill in the back corner and create a gap in the front of the dollhouse, or go the other way and leave that corner spot open?
Here’s what the border looks like when I slide everything to the back:
Looks nice, but here’s the front:
The one corner gap is no big deal. You have to try pretty hard to see it because it’s hidden by the roof when you look at it straight on. The problem, though, is that to keep the whole border in line, that gap has to extend across the front of the dollhouse:
I hate that look, so I try pushing the row down, except for the one in the corner, so there’s still a gap, but it’s hidden by the roof:
It works. But, the problem is that if I go this route, the rest of the rows won’t line up correctly, and I will eventually end up with a visible gap somewhere. Or, I’ll have misaligned tiles or something else weird. I decide to keep the gap in that far back corner where no one will see it.
Which wall where
The last problem, of course, is the wall. Well, not really the wall, but the floorboards. The longest of the boards are too long. My first instinct is that I have to pry up the long boards and shorten them. Or, pry them up, destroy them, then make new ones.
The short boards (short being relative, here) are too short, I think. So I have to create new ends for them. Also, cutting small pieces of balsa wood was a pain. But making super-mini end boards for this would be impossible!
What a mess.
Then I get to thinking. Why pry up the long boards and risk killing them when I could cover them with the wall instead! That would eliminate the need to remove the boards, and I could line up the wall with the ends of short boards, too. Then I wouldn’t have to cut super-mini ends!
I place the wall on top of the long boards. And, it mostly works:
You can see a few peeking out toward the back, but this works. It makes the boards the right lengths and eliminates me prying them up, which we all know would be a disaster. Funny. But a disaster!
Doing this solves my problem, even if it does create a gap under the wall, but that’s easily remedied by covering it up with tile:
And, after playing with it for a bit, I find that I can put my blue row back in and have the border exactly where I want it!
The short boards are still an issue, but I can fix that, too, I think. I’ll just have to make new ones.
More Shopping, More Work!
Next up: buying more tiles and gluing them to the floor. I predict fun times ahead, folks!
I may try one or two more things with the existing tiles, but I don’t think it will pan out. The other blue color is, I think, going to go in the front hallway, all one color. Maybe… I have ideas!
What do you think of the tile pattern? Or my idea with the wall? Am I better off prying up the floorboards and redoing them? Let me know in the comments!
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