More prep work...

Hurray for prep work. I can't wait to get to the point where I'm actually BUILDING something!! The closest I've come is assembling the base. It went together with a couple of support beams and some glue. Not very impressive, but it's a start.

After the base was together, I started with some of the painting. There are two outside porches that needed the floors painted (white), and I did the internal ceilings at the same time. Since I was painting a large area I used a foam roller. You can get small rollers very inexpensively. They also work in the "real" world for painting trim or furniture.

In between coats of white I got the shutters painted. I was trying to bring out the rust color of the shingles, but my color choice ended up being too bright. I mixed a bunch of craft paint in and managed to get the color a little more earthy-looking. You can see both colors in this picture. The doors are the original color and the shutter parts are the mew, darker color.

Once the shutters were dry (two coats- and boy were they a pain to paint!) I assembled them (ie: glued the panels on the bases). I wasn't 100% happy with them though. I'd left them a little streaky to try and mimic the shingles (I love the look), but it needed something more. So, I dry-brushed a bit of copper around all the edges. It's not really apparent in the pictures, but it adds a little shimmer and I'm really happy with the final product.