An evening celebration

Saturday evening. When I believe most normal people are out and about being sociable.

I'm at home, getting excited about the idea of seeing my newly-finished build in the dark.And making up a scene where two friends meet for a drink to celebrate one of their birthdays.

This looks like a nice place to stop for a drink...

(Although a little quiet, but the night is still early.)

 What A FABULOUS gift! You have such good taste and know me so well...

 (A gift from Kikka N last year: I wasn't sure if it was a Shapeways piece, or even 3D printed so didn't include it in my contest entry)

A quick coffee

 At your favourite cafe.

An early morning start

Well hello! You're here early: we're just opening up. If you'd like to wait a couple of minutes the coffee machine will be ready to go and we'll have the seating out.

Here, let me move these chairs so you can grab a water while you wait.

Perhaps you'd like to grab the comfy bench?

There's lots of room...

Or maybe hide down the back in  the corner?

Of course if you'd prefer to grab a seat outside, we'll have them out in just a tic.

A slight sidetrack for the sake of street art

Because you can't have a laneway cafe without a paste-up or two, can you?

A slight change of direction

Because I may have just discovered I have more time than I thought and so can introduce some last-minute changes...

(And not have to deal with working out how to make a vertical garden at the last minute.)

A bit of balsa for breakfast

A light at the end of the tunnel...

Deadline tomorrow. I'm at that stage where there are a few things that just aren't going to happen (but I know that's normal).

I also know there's no way in hell I'm going to win. But winning's not the point.

I've lost a stool. I'll have to cope.

But the tea-light shade trial is working a treat. The internal pillars are glued on to the back wall and drying under a pile of books. The external pillars are downstairs recovering from their 'grunge wash'.

And the night is still young...

A break with books

It beats watching paint dry...

A morning coffee

Before I get back to work...

A lot done

I've cut and under-coated the pillars

 and left them to dry (there'll be no washing around here today!)

Marked out where the pillars will go, and mocked up the furniture I still need to build to see if it will fit where I thought it would go before I start building the final pieces.

I'm a bit concerned that if I put the radiator and water-glass shelf where I originally planned to, no one will be able to get to the bench seat at the table.

Things will become clearer once the pillars are in place: which will be at least another two days by my reckoning. But the undercoat should be dry by tomorrow morning, when I can do another test fit before I paint them with the top coat.

Meanwhile, I try the idea of having the radiator and water-glass shelf to the left of the pillar, where there's certainly spare space for them.

I also remember that the original cafe had a storage cupboard up high on the wall above the table, with an interesting ladder contraption leading to it. I mock up a cardboard version to see how it fits.

 The scrapbooking paper I bought yesterday works well for the ceiling, which makes me very happy,

and I use a piece of the cheap brick paper I bought at Victorian Dollhouses to see how it works below the ceiling (similar to what I spotted while breakfasting at Ona).

Yep, I think I'm getting somewhere...

Café ordering: a step-by-step guide

Step One: Clear your work table.

Step two: Find your project.

Step three: Waste some time artfully arranging your new purchases for the project on a piece of card to take a photo for your blog.

(Making sure you get a nice close up of the many paper options you bought.)

Step four: Rebuild the pieces back to the state they were at ten days ago.

Step five: Get distracted thinking of how fun it would be to make a 1:12 scale version of the build so you can pretend you took it to Margell for the weekend to finish. Take a photo and then realise you should probably spend the time building the full-sized version rather that a miniature version,

Step six: Get an overwhelming urge to visit your local cafe for a coffee, justifying it by promising you'll put together a to-do list of what you need to finish on the build today.

Step seven: Convince yourself that they're probably closed today and perhaps you should just DO SOME WORK ALREADY!

A wee bit exciting

The front's finished and the floor is in. No disasters so far!

A testing time

While the second coat of varnish was drying on my cafe front this morning, I ducked out to run a couple of errands.

First stop was Officeworks, where I got my front window signs printed onto overhead projector plastic:

(A test that worked out beautifully and cheaply).

Then the hardware store to buy a test pot of paint. I'm checking if I can cover the front wall of the cafe with sandpaper and then paint it.

 I'm also checking out the two cans of granite paint I have to see which would look better for my foundation (once they're dry I'll also see if I can paint over it with the cream).

Now I'm off to cut the floor to fit, and make a radiator...

A cardboard cutout

Walls!

Table and chairs,

bench seating, pillar and radiator,

and a quiet corner.

The front (without a slope on the laneway):

And again, with a slope:

Which to chose?

On one hand, I like the idea of using the window sills as a ledge to support the table tops (possibly having them hinged so they can be put away at night. Which I couldn't do if I added a slope to the laneway:)

On the other hand, I suspect having the added detail of the slope will add an extra 'zing' to the look of the final piece...

I'll continue to mull the decision over while I work on some other things.

A decision (or two)

Before I add the second coat of varnish to the shopfront, I need to decide on the interior measurements so I can cut the walls and floor to start working on while the varnish dries.

But first, I should decide if I want to include the gentle slope of the laneway outside my inspiration to my build, or leave it flat (and, I suspect much easier. But also more boring...)

Another coat of varnish

While I was varnishing the inside of the shopfront, I figured I should try an extra coat on the front of the door to see how it looks.

And it looks better.

Dammit, now I have to give the whole thing a second coat.

An attempt to justify breakfast out as 'research' (and make you not notice the lack of noticeable progress on my build)

I met friends at Ona cafe in Manuka for breakfast this morning, and took some reference photos for my own cafe build:

(I like the pops of colour with the accessories, and the chair pad made from an old coffee sack)

(Black ceiling with hanging plants.)

(Distressed brick at the top of the wall, suspended ceiling with pot plants. And roof trusses.)