Dolly House update/progress

There had been a long break in dolly house progress due to time schedules, HOT weather and recently, horrible smoke from massive fires all over the Northwest.  

But....progress is now being made again!

I hired a man to do the "mudding" as some call it.  Others call it taping and jointing.

Either way, I found it was a job that I didn't want to do, nor have time to do!

As of today, he has already put 27 hours into the project and he has said more than once,

"This is a really hard project!".  And he is a professional!

And  perfectionist so I can't be more thrilled to have him working on my ever-so-special building.

These are the first pictures I took of his work:

He works in a manner where there is very little mess and NO dust as he does a sponge sanding technique as he works.  I LOVE that!

These next pictures were taken when he was at a place where he had to come back to finish the other half of some of the joints.  This put us at a place where he may have 5-8 hours more work until he is ready for texturing!  My excitement level is high!

He was out yesterday to finish up those joints so when he comes back next Sunday and Monday, this building should be textured and ready for paint!  

(He is doing this on his weekends as he has a real job as well.)

In the meantime, my husband and I got the skirting up around the house!

I had already put up the facing boards around the house.  That is when the weather got really hot and I abandoned the project until this last Saturday.

I still have to put up trim as well as remove all of the bricks, stack them properly and set them in mortar.  (I just quickly stacked them to keep animals from going under the house since we had the skirting up.)

Next year, my raised garden beds will be in front of the wall, but not extending to the front porch and not up against the building.  I will leave a good 4" walkway between building and gardens. 

 I REALLY wanted the bricks all the way around the porch but the way the skids were placed under the building just wouldn't allow a proper finish so we put up the siding/skirting along the front face.  

Gravel will be pushed up to the deck to a height of about 6 inches and I'll build a little stoop as well.

On the right side, I will put the bricks in a nice pattern and stain that exposed board to match the color of the little park bench that I bought and refinished. 

I have a lot of gravel to move this coming weekend to all perimeters of the house.

My goal is to have this house finished and all dollies moved in by the end of October  :)