1982 Cottage : Buying Experience Numero Dos...

I had been trying to win a reasonably priced A Frame cottage for about a year when I finally won one for $20 plus shipping. It was mostly complete, I paid immediately and the next day got the email. The seller clamied she had broken some tabs while assembling it and wanted to refund my order. I told her not to, I still wanted it. She wrote back, I think I will refund you because per ebays rules you cant sell an altered item, it must be exactly as it was listed. And she did refund me after sending the email. My theory is that the week before she had been watching them go for $50-$100 and was disapointed not to get that amount herself and made up some story in order not to let it go for so low. Needless to say I was upset about it but there was nothing I could do. I ended up getting a cottage a few months later in good shape with most of the smaller parts and a box, so I was able to buidl one nice complete cottage and I sold the box/paperwork back on ebay for $35, and the leftover parts to almost pay pay for my house I kept. The cottages almost always get $50 plus and for that dinero I would rather have the big house, so I dont actively look for cottages anymore. Its still a cool playset though!

Personal Decor: A Very Barbie Hoarders...

This house is filled to capacity. Luckily the proud owner is a fellow renovator and has restored it to its original beauty since taking the photo. =-)

Okay, the furniture isn't too bad, but there are waaay too many people in this house. Theres even someone sitting on the toilet. Really?

Other Topic: 1950's Danish Modern Furniture

I thought you fans of good taste and design would appreciate a quick post about a recent Ebay transaction. It involved a customized Barbie Go Together Living Room set. Here are the pictures you can see for yourselves the quality of the work and sale price. I watched them for days and even I was surprised at the final price for each set. 

A Frame In Mass Media: Article in Atomic Ranch Magazine

Here is a mid century swiss miss with double yellow doors, white beams and a sweeping roofline similar to the '78 Mattel house we adore. Its an A Frame (roof line ends at ground) and the back drop is the desert of southern California. Based on experience I would say that its a 3/2 approx 1700 square foot home with pool built circa late 1950's. Next time I have my A Frame out, I plan on ading miniature cactus and palms to see how it looks.

A Frame: Article in Atomic Ranch About A Frames

Atomic Ranch is a great magazine for vintage architecture, mostly Brady Bunch style, with occasional A Frames peppered in. Its nice to see an article devoted solely to the style we are all so find of.

Ebay: Depressed Housing Market

This is a recent sale on Evilbay. You will notice that the total price with shipping was about $106. Being that shipping will be about $60 the actual price the seller netted was about $46 with the box and patio triangles, which according to my calculations would be $100 for a complete house, $100 for the box, and $35 for the triangles all plus shipping, so all in all that was a hell of a deal. I did bid, but I dont want the original box, so didnt bid high even though it sold for much less than it was worth. Thankfully the seller said they are shipping in a regular brown box to protect everything from damage and labels.

TV: A Frame in the Movies

I'll most likely be adding to this post as time goes on, but here is the initial draft. The photo is from a little known flick called, 'Scenes from a Chilly Winter' from 1979 starring John Heard. I generally like John Heard though this was sort of a fatalistic slow train wreck kind of film depicting an essentially nice guy falling in love with an emotionally unavailable woman (reversal of stereotype much?). At any rate, she lives in an A Frame with her big ol' goon of a husband and he parks outside and watches at night, eventually constructing a model in which to play out different scenarios of 'getting the girl' with the miniature A Frame house. In this 'frame' you can see him about to toss the house into the trash (as ebayers who part out the walls and small parts routinely do). He is fed up with waiting around and is finally moving on. I dont think I will ever throw my A Frame into the trash, but I thought it would make a semi interesting post. ;-) SIDEBAR: See, the roof goes all the way to the ground, hense a textbook A Frame or swiss miss. I reverted back to calling the 1978 DreamHouse an A Frame because I just didnt think California Contemporary was sticking, though the 2011 'A Frame' is a Malibu DreamHouse, so perhaps progress is afoot.

Miscellaneous: At Long Last, Floorplans for the House!

I just drafted these on floorplanner.com Thought it would be a fun project and it was. When I get more proficient at the software I will post updated pictures. I tried to match the furniture as best as I could. I made the rooms 10'x10' large.












1978 Mattel A Frame Barbie Dream Doll House Red roof yellow floors mod groovy 1970s 1980s custom OOAK