Diagon Alley Project – Day 15

Ok, this day was completely nuts. I had tons of help, so much that I spent the entire day delegating.

Joe Simpson showed up early and got started on shaping bricks for the wall. Sorry Joe, not the funniest job.

Joe working the bricks

Zoe and Michael showed up in the afternoon to relieve Joe, after his fingers fell off.

Zoe and Michael, brick making machines

The result of all their hard brick making work really paid off. The #diagonalleyproject now has a proper entrance to match how epic this thing is going to be.

This turned out amazing!

The Waddell’s dropped Lucy off and her and Haley got to painting Madam Malkin’s.

Haley and Lucy painting
Madam Malkin’s looking good

There was a lot of brown paint to finish today, so the Miller-Klein’s were the lucky ducks to get that assignment.

The Miller-Klein family reporting in

And then my Sister Martha showed up with the grand kids and they took over the brown sky bridge painting, with the help of Avery naturally. 🙂

Avery teaching her cousins how to drip paint

Achim and Bill were all over the place working their magic today.

Bill creating more roofs
Bill and Achim adding more detail
Bill, nice job!

April & Matt Parish showed up with their girls and got to painting, starting with the remaining purple then moving to the green. Florish & Blotts, Magical Menagerie and Madam Malkins all painted today!

Magical Menagerie has paint!

Diagon Alley Project – Day 14

Today is the Whittier Elementary annual fall carnival, so around 5pm we are going to crack open some beers and take a well deserved break. But first, lets get to work!

Wade Ambrose reported for duty today and tackled the remaining items to be painted on Ollivanders.

Wade on paint duty.
Ollivanders paint nearly complete!

Wade hit Quality Quittich Supply as well.

Brilliant red of Quality Quittich Supplies.

Mike Walker dropped the rest of the brackets by today and OMG, these things are amazing. His attention to detail and the curves are brilliant. The funny thing is, he never did this kind of bending before this week and went out and bought a bender specifically for this project. This dude is uber talented!

Brilliant work by Mike!

I was able to finish up the Madam Malkin’s detail piece last night, and got it up today along with the door trim.

Madam Malkins detail.

Nate dropped the corbels by today, so I put a couple together, sanded, up and ready for paint.

Corbels added to Eeylops.

Time to enjoy some beverages and pose for photos.

Posers posing.

Diagon Alley Project – Day 13

I have been posting pictures of our little projects progress on social media, and now the list of volunteers is growing.

Adrienne Berman came by excited to get started on a little project we talked about earlier in the week. John Helman cut a bunch of bricks for the project last week and now they are going up!

Adrienne making bricks.
Lots of work, but going to be worth it!

Cyndy Eng-Dinsel and my neighbor Richard came by to help. Together they slapped a lot of paint on Ollivanders today.

Cyndy is ready to paint up high.
Richard ready to paint like the flash.
Ollivanders has paint!

Mike Walker stopped by today and delivered the first sign bracket. Holy cow these are awesome!

Metal brackets by Mike.

I managed to get a couple things done today on the list, Magical Menagerie received all its trim and I slapped together the upper windows for Ollivanders.

Magical Menagerie trim.
Ollivanders windows waiting to be put up.

Diagon Alley Project – Day 12

It was a shop day for me building a couple things for Madam Malkins, which hasn’t got much love until now. The detail above all the Malkins I have seen are ridiculous, and I tried to capture it the best I could.

Custom door trim.
Madam Malkins door detail taking shape.

Was able to throw together Malkins window frame.

Madam Malkins window frame complete.

The doors are going to need some realistic looking details, time to print!

I need some door knobs and lock sets, Lulzbot to the rescue.

Haley put some red paint on Quality Quittich Supplies after school.

Man this red looks great!

I prepped some art for Nate over at Kerf Design who is going to cut a bunch of corbels for me with his massive CNC machine. 🙂

Diagon Alley Project – Day 11

Busy day today!

Today was more trim on some of the shops. Finished up the Ollivanders door trim.

More trim around Ollivanders.

Put up some trim around the Quality Quittich Supply windows.

Trim up on QQ windows.

Went over to Bill’s yard today and grabbed these downspouts that were perfect for Ollivanders. The bottom section was already bent and no modification was needed.

The perfect downspout right in Bills yard.

Tim came by today to help out, so I put him to work on the door steps and shop trim. Before he got started I need to draw out some plans on each of the shops he was working on so that I could get down what was in my head so he could have something to go on.

Florish and Blotts detailed plans.
Tim trimming out some doors.

I finished up the Eeylops trim today and Haley got started on paint first thing when she got home from school. We have all been giddy with anticipation to start seeing paint go on.

The Eeylops windows trimmed.
Haley painting Eeylops

Bill worked on the sky bridge roof today and that added a lot to the sight line down the alley.

Mike stopped by today to talk about metal sign brackets. He is excited to make some for the project and is going to get started right off, so stoked!

Kurt from Geekwire stopped by this afternoon and dug the project. He is going to come back later in the week for an official interview and some photos.

Diagon Alley Project – Day 10

Today was a great day and the weather is supposed to be amazing all week, so excited. I was able to put up the Ollivanders door and trim it out. I completed a lot of the trim on the Ollivanders turrets.

This old door that was on its way to the dump was saved!
The Ollivanders door and turret trim is up.

I found a really cool Hogwarts crest on Thingiverse, printed it, painted it and got it up on Quality Quittich Supplies.

The Hogwarts crest above Quality Quittch Supplies.

I have been saving all the scrap pieces of 2×3’s and 2×4’s to use on the brick wall entrance. I slapped some on today.

The opening is starting to look like bricks.

I received and email today from Kurt Schlosser over at Geekwire and he is interested in writing up a piece on this project, how exciting!

Diagon Alley Project – Day 9

Bill and James, along with his son Conor, came to help today. We managed to get a roof on Florish and Blotts as well as some really cool structure to the sky bridge roof. I found these really cool circular columns in Bill’s yard that I salvaged.

Jon and Conor working on the Florish and Blotts roof.
The sky bridge roof is starting to take shape.

I found and printed some really cool lanterns from Thingiverse, these things are perfect!

Tyler, a Celtic soccer coach and now family friend, brought by some goodies from his brothers shop in Ballard, Ballywho Curiosity Shop. These things are going to add so much great character and detail to the #diagonalleyproject!

Diagon Alley Project – Day 7

Achim showed up today in a big way! We did some work in the morning then went to Lowe’s to grab some more wood at noon. Not only did he buy lunch but he insisted on buying the lumber as well. Blessed to have such generous friends.

Achim focused on adding faces to all the window boxes I slapped up earlier in the day. We rocked some of the facade trim together as well. Always a productive day working with Achim.

That allowed me to focus on the Ollivanders’ turret trim, sqwee!

The golden snitch print is finished, but not digging the wings because they are too ridged. Think I need to print some with white NinjaFlex. And for the record I absolutely love my Lulzbot Taz 6 printer.

Diagon Alley Project – Day 6

Got a real early start today because I was so excited about putting together the Ollivander turrets. These things were the number one thing I was looking forward to accomplishing on this project.

That was a little tricky to do solo.
Perfectly out of sorts.

I got a little crazy with the exaggerated angles but I think it looks great!

No level used here.

Was a little rainy today so I put some tarps up. But the afternoon deluge of rain didn’t stop Bill from working on the roof’s today. I was in the shop working, warm and dry. 🙂

A little rain doesn’t stop a Scout Master. Bill my neighbor contemplating his next move.