The area floors

After doing a few thousand bricks I am pretty much doing more of the same.  I used Richard Stacey versi slabs for the floor of the area.  They come with a buff side and a slate side so a choice of two finishes.  I am working with the buff stone side here.

measure the floor

First measure the floor

transfer to wallpaper 

Draw up this area on a piece of paper.  I use wallpaper - great size for all areas you will ever want, nice weight and loads of it and all for a pound from the left over wallpaper bin in a sale.  In truth the pieces you might be seeing for a long while are large sample pieces from B and Q and Laura Ashley - they are 'genuine' as we are redecorating the whole house so I didn't just scam them.

No idea why I am marking up on the pattern side (????)  Cut out the shape slightly oversized.

paper inside the space

Push the paper into the space and use your finger nails or back of scissors or weapon of choice to push into the edges to clearly mark up what you need to trim off.

mark the orientation

Trim to fit and put back int he space and check the accuracy of the fit.  I always mark one corner underneath to make sure it comes out and goes back in the right way round each time.  Spaces are rarely perfectly rectangular.

Paint paper 

I don't want the white paper to show between the cracks so I paint it with whatever dark colour I have.  Let it dry - well nearly! - I am too impatient.  Stick on the random slabs.  Being Mrs Symmetrical, I hate random.

under weights 

I then sandwiched it between a non-stick piece of silicone paper (glue side) and a chopping board and loaded it with books, I left it overnight to flatten and (almost) dry out.

Cover area with glue

Next day I covered the base with my favourite wallpaper glue.  I used a glue spreader for about a nano-second before I reverted, as I always do, to the best glue spreader - my fingers.  Usually my floors go down using double side sticky paper in case I need to remove them (wiring underneath etc).  I got brave here and stuck floor covering directly to floor.

et voila

The area is finished.  You will never see anything like this amount of it again.  Once the basement is glued to the doors you only get a glimpse from the pavement area.  Even so I am wondering if I should do something with it - after all my little people have to look at it through the windows. There again they can't access it easily.  If I was a good modeler it would be a bit grubby and maybe have a couple of weeds and some litter.  Then again I am reminded by all who know me that this isn't so if I lived there - it would be immaculate!