The Basement staircase.

Now that they've got a spiffy new front door, I had to give the servants a means of access.   The stairs originally purchased with this property weren't really what I wanted after all so, and because there were stairs held over from another project, I had a go at putting together a couple of sets myself.

Then of course, they needed a handrail.   For some silly reason I got fixed on using spindles (obviously blinded by the fact that the picture I was using as reference had spindles) and I spent ages thinking about the best way to work that out until I had a light bulb moment when it dawned on me that I didn't have to religously copy the reference photo and that spindles were not absolutely necessary.  Therefore, with the help of some kebab sticks and skinny dowel, and only three spindles they now look like this although they're not permanently fixed in yet:

A view down into the area on the left:

A servant's eye view from inside:

and the right hand side.   I'm not sure if the coal bunker and log store will stay in that space but for the moment I'm happy to keep them there.

The Servant's Entrance

Remember this?   I showed this door first when talking about Humbrol Paint.     Well, that's the inside of this:

The Servant's entrance.   It sits beneath the main front door in the basement under the pavement walkway.

I've even given them their own door bell - how nice am I?

I'm Back!

I think I've managed to do justice to Netherton after this visit!   The majority of my purchases are for this property - it just worked out that way.   Despite taking a list I managed to find a lot of things that weren't on it (isn't that just the way?)

There's only one organiser who has fairs up here so I must admit to taking full advantage when I'm on my twice yearly trip to Miniatura - and I think it shows!   It was also smaller this time round (in my opinion) but the quality was as good as ever and there were some really wonderful minis to be seen.

Update:  Andy mentioned in his post that some of the items were difficult to see (I was obviously in too much of a hurry to get the pictures up!) so here are more detailed pics:   The little wooden item and yellow piece beside it is a butter pat from Pear Tree Miniatures, the two little black items are boot scrapers, the little box at the front of the second pic is a little watch case with a watch inside and there's a little pen and ink stand to the left on the meat safe in the first picture - that was another item from Danny Shotton.

The Basement

Although that's the exterior of the building dealt with, there's still the actual basement or the "area" as it was known, to decorate.   This is the servant's entrance.

As the basement is attached to the house, it opens in three sections with arches dividing each area.

The back walls were painted in the same finish as the house and a deep "skirting" with coving was added to give a bit detail and to match up with the outside of the basement. For the walkway fibre glass sheet flagstones were used.  

(I hasten to add, the raggedy edge shown is not there now - that was just a test piece put in to see the effect)

Once that was laid the walls had to be tackled.   To do this, and because of the arches leading through to each section, paper templates were cut and dealt with as individual pieces.    As luck would have it, I found an Edinburgh property on the market for sale with a picture of the basement area giving just the detail I needed.   This showed the walls as bare stone.   To do this I used Bromley Craft Products stencil and compound which I already had in my stash. That was the easy part!

This is the effect you get immediately after removing the stencil. It then had to be sanded and painted, using acrylic paint, to achieve what I hoped would be a realistic looking stone wall. This took some time, I may say, and heaven knows how many times this was repainted just to get the required effect but eventually I think I've achieved this and I'm happy with it.

There was just one little final touch - a pair of nesting housemartins.

The Exterior

This is Netherton as it stands at present.

Making a Grand Entrance.

The last sections of the main exterior to be dealt with were the front door, portico and pavement.   There's nothing fancy here and nothing has been altered or added.   The front door has been painted matt black with a door knocker and door knob added.   I'm pretty sure I'm going to leave the side lights clear but you never know, that might change in time.

I knew I wanted to use real stone on the steps and pavement and initially random flagstones from Richard Stacey were laid because they were already in my stash of bits.   The thinking behind this was that at the time the house was built the "random" style would be fitting and you can see how they looked further down.   It wasn't until they were laid that I had second thoughts so up they all came and down went grey flagstones (again from Richard Stacey) - much better!

Next job on the list was to add detail to the pillars at the foot of the stairs.   They were crying out for something quite imposing so after a fair bit of wrestling with the Dremel I fitted these lights.

Two topiary swans were also introduced to either side of the front door.   (You can also see the random flagstones in this pic).

I then needed to add some railings (just to prevent the servants and passers-by from toppling down into the "area"!).  A little railing detail to the top of the basement wall was also added to match in with the railings already fitted to the area windows.

I'm on the lookout now for a suitable finial of some description to add to the posts.

The final additions to the basement, as it stands at the moment,  are  some supports (for want of a better word) on the basement side of the railings.   I don't know what the correct architectural term is but I wanted them anyway!

.........and that's the exterior to date.    In the next post, I'll show the whole completed frontage.

Note - a few people have asked how my sister Valerie produced the leaded fanlights in the previous post about windows.   She used imitation lead relief available in a tube (I don't have it here otherwise I could have given a product name) on acetate and cut it to shape.   They're not properly fixed in yet but will just be glued in, the same as "window glass", and I've passed on your nice comments for which she says "thank you".

An Award.

I've just received this award from Genevieve. Thank you so much!   It is so nice of you to think of me and it brightened up my Monday

I now have to pass it on to six others.   This is such a difficult task...............

Christine at Hollyhock Cottage

Sabiha at Sabs Mini Interiors

Sylvia at Lotjesdollshouse

Nina at Tudor Doll House

Brae at  Otterine.com.blog

Josje at A Beautiful World

I enjoy what you're all doing very much.