Part 1:

What HBS wants from this project is the exterior landscaping to showcase new products. But, as you all know so well, I needed to finished the interior before I could begin on the exterior. Before I could put in the second floor, I needed to be able to reach the interior of the first floor. One thing about creating on-the-fly is that I seem to be on the verge of painting myself into a corner all the time...

      When I ran out of the Pre-mixed Adhesive and Grout I had been using to "daub" my walls, I tried joint compound and was very unhappy with the results. It took forever to dry and, when it did, it broke out into cracks everywhere. So I took the empty tub of Pre-mixed Adhesive and Grout up to Home Depot, went to the Customer Service desk and said, "Where is this stuff?" The guy scanned the bar code and said, "This isn't ours. Try Lowe's." I drove up the highway to the nearest Lowe’s and sure enough, Sam had forgotten he'd gotten it from them. The brand name is TEC and I love this stuff! It goes on like thick cake icing with lots of peaks and air holes. But, 15 minutes later you can remove the masking tape, pat it with your fingertip and eliminate any imperfections. Five minutes after that, it's set up enough to move on to the next wall. As far as filling in between faux posts and beams for an authentic plastered look, this stuff can't be beat!

      For the first floor, I started out with the new Houseworks "flagstone" plastic sheet. I sprayed it with Model Masters' "Panzer Grey" and let that dry overnight. I made a template of the first floor by taping together various strips and squares of cardboard around the perimeter of the room. Using the template, I cut out the shape of the room and trial fitted it. With the scraps, I tried filling in the mortar with Mortar Mix and dollhouse Stucco. When I wiped off the excess, the Mortar and Stucco had so much grit that they sanded off the grey finish. So, I tried the Pre-mixed Adhesive and Grout stuff and it wiped off clean without scratching -- on my samples only. When it came to the real deal, it took off the top coat of grey paint in a lot of places, too. I ended up touching up the scratches to the point where I might as well have hand-painted the entire floor!

      I decided to make the second floor into a loft to solve the how-do-they-get-to-the second-floor problem. I cut the second floor back, almost even with the entry hall, so that it is open at the fireplace end. I used Houseworks' Random Oak flooring to finish the ceiling of the first floor and the floor of the second floor. Then, I put in faux 3/8" square beams and a post to support the loft.

      At this point, I don't have a light fixture for the first floor. I have an idea but no time to pursue it. So, I ran my wiring thru the faux beams and left a wire dangling -- waiting for the future fixture. I placed an outlet on the second floor -- again, for future development. With a wattle and daub, post and beam construction, tape wiring is out of the question – only round wire works. The wire on the first floor's ceiling is embedded in one of the beams. On the second floor, the wires got plastered over. I ran the wires down the edge of the (from the back) left hand wall edge and surrounded them with faux posts.

      To finish the interior roofs, I used Random Oak flooring to simulate planking. Looks great, by the way. Wonderful way to finish an attic space.... Later, when I have the time, I'll put in faux beams upstairs...

      As of last night, I finished plastering the interior walls, downstairs and upstairs. The second floor is in. The roofs are finished on their interior sides and can be positioned. So today, I was finally ready to play with the thing I was interested in from the beginning -- creating a landscape from which the house appears to have organically sprouted.

      Last night, as I drifted off to sleep, I wondered why Rik Pierce doesn't use

Styrofoam sheets instead of Rigid Foam Insulation. I was thinking of a beach I made for an HBS project and how easy it was to create sand dunes by sanding them with another piece of Styrofoam. Today, of course, I know the answer...

      The Rigid Foam Insulation is like the finest Styrofoam you can imagine. The

density is so fine a craft knife slices thru it like butter and sand paper smoothes the edges in a heart beat. OH, WHAT FUN!!! I've been slicing foam insulation for most of the afternoon and having a blast! A week or so ago, I went into Corel and designed templates for the landscape but when the moment came I didn't use them. True to the spirit of this project, I just started cutting free-form!

      I started out with the left side of the house (from the front), cutting a 1/2" layer of foam even with the foundation of the house. I have this story in mind: a natural out-cropping of rocks formed a protection from the north winds for hunters and shepherds who built fires against the inside, south wall of the outcropping. Time goes by and someone builds a crude stone hut against the outcropping. One of the natural stones is the hearth stone of the fireplace and the back of the fireplace is raw granite. More time goes by (1400's) and someone adds a post and beam, wattle and daub construction

onto the stone hut. By the 1600's, the cottage has seen renovations – the lower levels of the original wattle and daub has been replaced with brick infill. The thatch roof has been replaced with a clay tile roof...

      So, I'm building up layers of rock around the left side of the house. Slicing thru the foam insulation like butter and carving and slicing in whatever direction feels right. There are no mistakes with this medium; cut too close, no problem; just glue on some more with Liquid Nails and cut again. The whole assembly is getting covered with Celluclay, or Mortar Mix, or whatever, so the bare bones don't matter. So, I've got the stone outcropping growing up the side of the house. And a rock garden starting to happen around the window seat on the south side.  And a place for a tree at the southeastern corner of the house. (For HBS, this will be a Birch tree from our inventory; for me, it will be some kind of bonsai with roots.) And, in the right side front yard, I'm not sure, but a Well Kit is calling my name...

      Sam comes home and says, "Those don't look like rocks to me; lemme hit 'em with my heat gun and melt 'em together." Tomorrow, he is going to aim his heat gun at some test pieces of foam insulation and convince me that his charred foam looks better than my staggered layers of foam... (I'm seeing them with Celluclay and various foam mulches and vegetation so they aren't the stacks of foam that he sees.)