Can you guess what it is yet..........?

I couldn't resist it for a moment longer.

It's not my fault. The box was sitting on the workroom floor, all invitingly tempting.

So.

I swept all the stuff off the worktop and did a 'dry build' of the Pavilion kit to see what it looked like and kick start some ideas.

Firstly, the kit itself is absolutely top notch. It's made from MDF with routed slots so that each piece fitted together perfectly. The dry build took approximately 10 minutes, and as a seasoned kit builder I didn't even have recourse to look at the instructions, although admittedly that had more to do with the ease of assembly than any particular skill on my part.

I almost wept with relief when I saw that the 'interesting' roof was already assembled.

As I am congenitally incapable of making up any kit using only the components provided, I am already thinking of 'improvements' which can be implemented during the build proper. I'm not too keen on the rather slab-like staircase sides for a start, and perhaps the balustrade rails could do with some refinements. However, all in all it is a super little buy for only £7.51 and I can't wait to get started on it.

I want to make it look as if it has been in a forgotten corner of a large country estate. I think it was probably a folly built by the squire with the express purpose of luring his paramour somewhere private in order to have a 'dalliance'.

It should look neglected, and overgrown, with lots of critters in cracks and crevices. I have my eye on some very realistic spiders on ebay, and I'm sure I can rustle up a slug or two.

It will form the backdrop to a new project for next year which has been rumbling around in my head for a while, just waiting for the perfect setting.

Et voila, the perfect setting just dropped straight into my lap. I wish more things in life were so serendipitous.

I can feel a trip to the DIY store coming on........I need some 'old stone' coloured paint, and perhaps some moss coloured paint too. Not to mention some of that stuff you use to make verdigris copper. I still have several boxes of ivy etc left over from the toy shop build which can be called into use, as well as various decorative bits and bobs which I hoped would come in useful.

Anyway, here are two quick snaps of the dry build.





You can see what I mean about the roof. All those angles.......a recipe for disaster, or at the very least some experimental expletives.

As always, suggestions and ideas for architectural embellishments, decorative flourishes etc are very welcome.

Happy days.....