The Space, and My First Round of Mistakes

Several people have said to me that they would love to create an attic for Evangeline but they don't have the space for it.  So I thought I would start by showing the relatively small area of a spare room where I intend to permanently keep this display.  We are lucky enough to have a spare room on the 3rd floor of our house, adjacent to our attic.  I think it's fitting to have Evangeline's attic next to a real attic, as sort of an attic within an attic.  The previous owner of our house had a workshop in the room and he built a work table into a corner nook and that is where I will build this.

The worktable is 69 inches long and 24 inches deep so that will be the dimensions for the base.  I should add that I have already constructed a first round of the attic and I made several mistakes that really were deal-breakers.  My original intent was to build a base and then make a triptych of walls secured with hinges to sit on top of the base.  Mistake number one was using plywood that was too thin for the base.  I had wanted the walls to just sit on top of the base but I now know that the dimensions of this project are too big to support that.  The walls need to be firmly attached to the base and the plywood I used was too thin for that to work.  Mistake number two was thinking I could have the three wall sections connected by hinges.  Again, given the size of the project they need to be firmly attached to each other.  My third mistake was thinking I could just rest the roof on top of the walls.  Again, nope, it needs to be attached.  So, in short, the base, the three walls, and the ceiling all need to be firmly attached.

The first base I constructed was on 1/4 inch thick plywood.  I bought balsa planks from Michael's to make the floor boards.  Balsa planks come 24 inches long by two inches wide and can found in the woodworking section of craft stores.  I cut the planks into 1-inch wide strips and then varied their lengths.  I spray painted them with Design Master Walnut Wood Tone 758 spray paint from Michael's (always remember to print a Michael's coupon.  If you forget they can scan the barcode from your coupon on your cell phone if you can access your email on your cell phone.) I then adhered them in random lengths to the base using Elmer's Wood Glue.  Here is what balsa planks look like when you find them at the store, and after you have cut them and spray painted them:

Once I adhered them to the base, it looked like this:

pretty cool, huh?  looks just like real flooring.  Balsa is amazing to work with.  You can cut it with an Exacto knife and metal ruler.  The only down sides to balsa are 1) it's not hideously cheap ($1.98 per two foot by two inch strip) and 2) it's dents and scratches easily.  So while it's fine to use it for a display piece you wouldn't want to use it on something that you actually "play" with because it will look like crap in a few weeks time.  But if you are building a diorama and are always careful not to drag stuff around on it and you don't let your pets walk on it or your 5 year old niece play with it then you should be fine.  The other thing I should I mention is that balsa comes in various thicknesses as well.  I bought an assortment of thicknesses (some are 1/16" and some are 1/8" thick.)  Randomly varying the thickness of the floorboards is very subtle and makes them look very attic-like.

Next I went to Lowe's and had them cut the walls for me from a single piece of white birch plywood ($24).  Know that Lowe's and Home Depot will only do straight cuts for you, not diagonals, so I had to do the diagonals at home myself using a rotary saw (this is when a butch husband comes in handy) I then spray painted the wall panels with the same paint I used on the floor.  I only did one coat on the walls, but had done 3 coats on the floor, to vary the shades.  Then I discovered that the walls were too heavy and large to be held together with hinges so I used nails.  At this point I was growing impatient and just wanted my display together so I could start the fun part, the decorating.  Impatience is seldom rewarded.  Here is what I ended up with:

I know it might look like a good start but it wasn't.  It just wasn't as secure as I wanted it to be and when I tried to add a plywood roof it was clear that it wouldn't be stable.   I had to just scrap it and start over.  So, this pic gives you an idea of where I am heading.  And I figure as long as I am starting over, why not make it bigger....