A new start

Hobby Builders Supply—the company that runs the very popular annual Creatin' Contest—contacted me (and a number of other modern miniature bloggers) to see if I'd be interested in receiving this year's kit. And so a box containing Denise's City Cottage Kit arrive a couple of weeks ago and sat in the corner of the kitchen until I'd finished my build for the Shapeways 3D Printed Miniature House Contest.

Yesterday, after I'd made a library (as you do), cleared some space and put a pile of stuff away, my thoughts turned to the new build.

While I was filing photos of The Hideout I noticed that the adjacent folder had contained photos I'd taken when I was contemplating creating a writers' retreat called The Garrets and another contained photos of the unfinished Shed project. Perhaps this was the inspiration I needed?

I cut out a piece of cardboard to the interior dimensions of the cottage and arranged some furniture I had to hand. As you can see I originally contemplated having four rooms in the cottage but decided that it would make each room claustrophobic and cell-like.

And so I tried just two rooms: each in a different style but containing the basics.

I'd already decided, if I was to go ahead with this idea, that there would be front windows overlooking the view, the small window from the side of the kit would move to the back above the bed for cross-ventilation (and night-time star gazing) and that entry would be from the sides.

So I printed out a copy of the original kit photo and traced over the basic details:

 My first thought was to leave a long window on each side of the centre for a good access to the view, but since that's where the bookcases are going in this iteration of the build, I figured it probably wouldn't be such a good idea I tucked the concept away in case I decided to rearrange inside and have the sitting area there, which would work well with the window placement.

 So I tried again, raising the front windows to just above desk height right across, and adding weatherboarding for interest:

And realised, if I made this and painted it with the creosote-coloured paint I bought for The Shed, I'd have created a typical New Zealand bach...

#HBSCreatinContest2015