Ria built a residential home, which is a craftsman kit by FinestKind Models (part #112). In other words, you get a box of stripwood, sheets, cardboard, and several type-written pages. If you can build this kit, you might as well start doing scratchbuilding, because it is at the same difficulty level. I have not been able to find any information about this particular kit, so I suspect it is an old one and long out of production. However, we did see Turner Model Works (who bought FinestKind Models) at a train show selling a new version of this kit. It is a lasercut kit, and therefore much easier to assemble. It is no longer called by the same name, but it yields the same final result. However, they don't show the kit on their web site. You could probably e-mail them and reference this page.

These photos show the kit's box and its label.

Inside the box we find a bag of metal detail parts, a bag of sheet material (wood and cardboard), a bundle of dimensional lumber, and a bag of window frames (probably Grandt Line).

Also included are scale and isometric drawings of the structure, and type-written pages of instructions.

The first thing Ria did was to assemble and paint the chimney, as well as paint the window frames.

After making photocopies of the drawings, she cut out the paper parts that make up the walls, pasted them to the sheet material provided for the walls (using Eileen's Tacky Glue) and cut the walls to shape, including cutting out the window and door openings.

Next, Ria installed glass (clear styrene) supplemented by Krystal Clear to simulate real glass. After the window frames were fitted and glued into the wall sections, she cut some curtains. The curtains were made from fancy paper napkins found at the dollar store. The window frames have already been weathered using Bragdon Enterprise weathering powders. The wall sections have also been re-enforced with square strip wood. Although both sides of the walls were painted, some warping still occurred.

Ria tried to follow the instructions which state to work on the flooring before assembling the walls, but it seems somewhat backwards. The walls are rather fixed, whereas the flooring can be adjusted to fit. So, instead she started assembling the walls. This photo shows the small section's walls attached. Also installed are the horizontal boards that will hold up one side of the porch roof.

This photo shows the walls of the larger part of the house assembled.

After taking a long hiatus from the project, Ria continued by completing the walls, fabricating the flooring, installing the cardboard roof panels, and applying rows of Wild West Models' adhesive-backed shingles. Painting the shingles before applying them (painted with acrylic paints) causes the shingle paper to warp somewhat. This leads to some of the shingles popping up off of the roof, which makes the roof look older. She then applied weathering powders to age the roof some (used light gray). The porch roof and poles are next.

The structure is now finished and she's been adding a lot of details. In fact, the whole thing has grown into a full diorama. Yes, that is a hand-painted watermelon on the picnic table next to the house.

Note the chickens on the porch, the man mowing, trash can, and the dog house in this scene. Behind the tree on the left is a clothes line.

This is the home of a small family farm.

They have a nice field of organically-grown vegetables and fruits. The backdrop for this diorama is one of the corner modules of the Houston S Gaugers' model railroad club's layout.

Here are a couple more close-up photos.