I had decided right from the very start that the ground floor would be a Food Hall, and to this end I'd bought quite a few shelf units and counters in white. I'd also bought Fimo bread and cakes, as well as cheeses and cold meats, from eBay (this was before I discovered that I could make my own out of Fimo). For Christmas 2003, Allan bought me a large quantity of grocery packaging, so that I was very soon able to complete the right hand side of the ground floor - grocery, dairy and cold meats, and bakery. With a few resin customers and staff added, the section soon came to life. The left hand side was to be the greengrocery department, and thanks to Angie Scarr's excellent book I was able to make all the fruit and vegetables that I needed. Having started to make things from wood, I decided to make a display stand for the produce. Again, I now feel I could make a better one, but I will keep the first one of which I was so proud.
It was at this stage that I realised it would be unlikely that I would ever use the front doors supplied with the kit, as I so liked having it open to view. However, I did want to have display windows at the front, and also thought that revolving doors would be an interesting feature.
To make the revolving doors, I bought three shop doors (three rather than four to allow more space for the ladies' large skirts), and having stained them I fixed them to a central pole, and with the aid of various oddments I had tucked away in a drawer, and a great deal of luck, managed to construct doors which, at the flick of a finger, revolved merrily and without a wobble. They are shown at the right, with Martha carrying out her groceries.
Next, I turned my attention to the windows themselves. Like the revolving doors, I wanted to make each one to be free standing, so that I could easily lift them away from the front of the store when necessary. I made them glazed on two sides, wood at the third, and they are still open at the back. I want to find some way of making a semi transparent back, so that the food hall can still be seen through them.
Once I had all the dimensions of the windows and doors, I was able to make the fascias and name boards. I bought a square brass clock off eBay to go above the doors, and with the aid of some gold corrugated card fitted a shutter behind the central part of the fascia, as shown below.
