Progress on the ground floor. The fire surround is finished. I used balsa wood with 3 coarts of dark wood stain varnish. To cut the metal plates inside the chimney was not easy. My mum got me a dremmel tool for my birthday and for my first try, the cut was not exactly straight. Never mind, it does not show. The dremmel is fantastic. It's so much easier to make things when you have the right tools. Anyway here is the finished fire surround with shelving on either side, which was quite common in thirties houses. You will notice I also added the skirting boards and picture rail.

Here with some decorations. The two vases were a gift from my friend Rita (thank a million Rita, I love them!). They are made of glass and seemingly hand painted, so delicate and beautiful. I think they look nice on the chimney. The fire screen is from a Dutch artist: Arjen Spinhoven (https://arjenspinhoven.nl/) and was bought at a fair in Holland last year. It's laser cut and comes in a kit. I painted it with silver metallic paint. The clock is a brass, non-working clock I found in a very unlikely place: a beach shop in Knokke-Heist, selling beach gear and toys. They also had a brass oil lamp.

The door between the hallway and the kitchen is glued in place. Cranky, I forgot to install the door handles BEFORE gluing the door in. Doing that while the door was in place was a bit of challenge, but eventually I managed that. Also at first, I used tacky glue which did not hold the handle in place and made a mess. I had to remove everything and cleaned it quickly before it dried. On the second attempt, I used super-glue and almost glued my fingers together in the process.
I must remember to install the handles before installing the doors on the upper floors....
For the door decoration and handle plate, my scrapbooking cutting dies came in handy.
If you click on the pictures, you can enlarge them and see the details.