Renovation: Some Finer Points On Refurbishing

Could not believe these amazing flowers from Family Dollar a few months back. It was the only bunch they had and nearly identical to the 1978 flowers Mattel put out. 

Family dollar flowers with aquarium plants. I have checked several times and they have not restocked these small yellow flowers. 

My toolkit for refurbing planter boxes. A bread knife for cutting the Family dollar  florist's styrofoam to fit into the downstairs planters, garden snips, wire snips, and heavy duty kitchen shears all make this an easy task (just time consuming and requiring creativity and design skills. 

This paint brush is good for dusting nooks and cranies. 

Aerial shot of refurbed palnter boxes on latest flip. 

Left side is spray painted, ride side is my personal A Frame, unpainted. Big difference, nes pas? 

Original, unopened bag of plants.

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

Renovation: From Start to Finish

Perfectly packed. 

Quality material used, best to ship post covers on posts. Its safer for them and uses less room.

I dont love the mess popcorn leaves, but it does prevent weight from shifting. 

Obligatory brown, shattered post covers. 

34 years of garage dust. A grime against humanity. 

Filth, flarn and more filth. 

Finger smudge. 

Shower power! 

Priming rusty screws to match non rusty ones. I assume the rusty ones were the floor screws left on a damp basement or garage floor during storage. 

During, from brown to crisp white. My personal A Frame looks off white as its not painted. Almost switched out the pieces as these came out so nice. 

After on the posts, gleaming, oxy clean brite white! 

Found in any hardware store, hello electrical tape can be cut, trimmed and heated to fit over faded yellow window frames for this house, I made a separate post detailing the exact process. 

The before photo on evilbay. 

The after photo. Total project time: 3 days. Yes, this is the same house as above. The red and yellow parts are rather faded, its amazing how much richer the colors look next to ultra white.  

House beautiful, new flowers. 

This house is clean. 

Nice rear. 

As long time site fans will know I have had a few rough experiences buying the Mattel 1978 Dreamhouse  online. Sellers using photos of other houses, no packing material used, boxes that are mostly painters tape, holes in boxes with screws falling out and damage occurring during shipment are just a few of the highlights. I was all but done renovating due to the above mentioned. However, a few weeks ago I was looking for a project and decided to peruse ebay hoping to find a good deal on a used, abused A frame. The worser the shape, the more challenging (and fun) it is to transform it to its former glory. I found this one house that was typically filthy and had no flowers, but it did have every other part. I won it for $47 after shipping. The sellers were so nice, even asking me how to pack it and what type of box I recommended, it was packed extremely well with quality foam wrap and thick packing tape.  After an hour of shower power, 2-3 cans of Rustoleum flat white spray paint, much repair work done to the post covers, a few bucks worth of dollar store flowers, some tire shine polishing on the red and yellow parts it is looking pretty spiffy. Its mucho trabajo, but it pays off.

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

Miscellaneous: Sun and Asphalt

Whats the worst thing you could do to a vintage 34 year old playset? Well, here you see it in full color. You never want to put your house in the direct sunlight. The extreme heat will make dark colors go light, and the white parts go brown. Laying it all out on rough, hot asphalt is not a good idea either, even for a short photo op. When I want to photograph the house well its always assembled on a sheet of green plastic carpet near a window where it gets indirect natural light. Hopefully this A frame found a good home. 

Miscellaneous: Real Ones, Fake Ones and Opinions on All

A custom house I found perusing ebay last week. 

Cool, I would vacation here for a few days. Groovy door. 

Dont know the manufacturer or where to buy, it came up on a recent online search. 

Most excellent, beautiful photography. 

Furniture: Accessories: Finishing Touches Packs

The living room set, I have never seen it before. Long time followers of the blog know I do not care for the finishing touches packs. I think its just 'clutter-y'. But what A Frame blog would be complete without every single product made for the 1978 Mattel Dream House? 

The bedroom set, lacy and pink, so definitely not a fan here. But here it is. 

Real Life Examples: March 2012 Edition

A Frame house boat, with shingles

A frame barge. 

I always thought the green living room chairs were either bean bag in nature or just made up, here is a very close resemblance to the Dream Furniture chairs.  This is ModernWay vintage furniture store in Palm Springs, CA. 

I think I see now the commonality between a real A Frame and the California contemporary style the house really is. 

Optional fireplace up close. 

Side section in cream. 

Upper middle section. 

Another side section roof cut out in sunny California. 

Diff'rent Angles. Ok, so i make the most out of stop lights. =-) 

70's strip mall siding 

This is featured in another post, but is the classic A Frame that our house is named after. You can see again that Contemporary southern California (circa late 70's) is much more accurate than 'A Frame'. 

Diagonal slat door similar to walls. 

the shadows on my wall just reminded me of the vertical slats. 

Vertical slats on a 3 million dollar home garage door. 

Red roof, 2nd floor center balcony, you get the idea. 

keyword terms: barbie doll house dollhouse vintage 1970s 1978 1979 a frame malibu chalet orange yellow red white pink hot free for sale ebay pinterest etsy new old renovated dolls fashion clothes clothing lot estate parts wall walls door doors window windows part balcony closet flower flowers planters planter plant plants box boxes accessory accessories small pieces info information instructions how to put together where to find buy purchase locate available collector collectible gold silver platinum label individual post posts covers sides custom 3 three section sections patio triangles floor floors dark light build scres pictures club group rare custom ook htf oop in mint clean complete 1980 1981 cottage 1982 1983 1980s color colors anniversary 1984 1985 1986 large bog 3 ft 4 feet long high tall huge large open moveable arrangeable craigslist online forum question questions 40th 50th 45th 55th 60th 35th reproduction remade retro nostalgia nostalgic memories childhood play display mini miniature set up sections  mid mod mid century modern 60s kitsch fun playful open new design designer interior decorator decor designer  

architect architects idea ideas goal aesthetic eames eichler palm springs by the sea malibu granola earth tones earthy autumn wexler wood slats open playful fun 1960s 60s open playful play timeless heirloom 

I would love for my next house to be something like the above plan. Since the real life versions of these are now 60 years old and have likely had 1-3 renovations of who knows how good or what style, probably best just to take these prints to a builder and start from scratch with an empty lot.