Changes I am making to the Tennyson

1. Stairs

I decided to not add the interior stairs. The rooms where the stairs are located measure only 9.25 inches wide, and the stairs would have taken up around 2.25 inches, making the room around 7 inches wide, which is too narrow for much of anything.

2. Base and Steps

The kit is designed so that the bottom floor sits flat on the table. I decided that since I am wiring the house for lights, I wanted to raise the floor so that a transformer can be located under the house. Doing this requires that I make front steps up to the porch.

3. Interior Trim

The kit did not include any trim to go around the interior doorways between the rooms. I cut some out of scrap wood.

4. Porch Posts

I didn't like the porch posts provided with the kit. So, I purchased some Houseworks posts, newel posts, and eaves brackets. I hope to still use the railing that was provided in the kit, although there are many pieces and it will require a lot of work to make them smooth.

5. Bedroom Door

The instructions did not say to build a door for the doorway between the second floor rooms. However, the piece of plywood from which the divider wall was cut happened to be a very nice piece of plywood, so I saved the piece that was left when I cut the door opening from the wall.

6. Knee Walls

In the attic, the ceiling slopes down to the floor. The area right above the eaves cannot be used, so I decided to build 3-inch high knee walls in the attic. The knee walls will make some of the assembly easier. It will be easier to paint and wallpaper the attic, and to wire the attic for outlets. I will also be building a window seat in the dormer window.

7. Roof Support

The kit provided pieces for a post in the attic, that could be used as a planter. I didn't like the design. At first, I thought about building a chimney inside the attic, which would align with the chimney on the top of the roof. However I changed my mind and decided not to use a support at all. The knee walls seem to work to stabilize the roof. (From the back of the house, chimney does look a bit odd. The fireplace is on the first floor, and there is no chimney between the fireplace and the roof. Where does the smoke go? I guess this explains why the house has so many windows!)

8. Deletion of Canopies

The kit included pieces to make canopies over the window and door on the second floor. I didn't like they way they looked, so I decided not to build them. In the "New" Tennyson, these canopies have been replaced with a whole roof structure over the balcony. I guess I am not the only one who did not like the design.

9. Round Attic Windows

I really like these round windows. To emphasize them, I made "stained glass" windows to replace the plain ones in the kit.

10. French Doors

I liked the way the "stained glass" turned out for the attic windows, so I decided to put "stained glass" in the french door windows too.

11. Gingerbread Trim

I think that the gingerbread trim provided in the kit looks too large for this house. I am replacing it with narrower, simpler gingerbread trim.

12. Chimney

I didn't like the way the chimney was designed, so I used scrap pieces to make a new cap for the chimney.