Custom Houses: Summer 2016

This I like. 

Hmmm, brown patio triangles...

Some have wondered about customizing the house into a mega mansion or condominiums. While you can see here that it is done, I would not suggest cutting the wall posts down to make a custom house since it further reduces the inventory of houses out there. I have placed the houses side by side, added a few 1982 cottages for guest houses or garages and thats always fun. If you want vertical mega mentions, why not buy a 6 foot tall plastic shelf? Its bigger, more open and much less expensive. You could still top it off with an A Frame section. Also see the vintage cardboard townhouses, also stackable.

at $15, this is a MUCH better option fro creating open style condos or mansions for Barbie and her friends. Please do not cut down wall posts to make a cluster-#$%# of vintage toy, folks. You can put the house or cottage on top to cap it off. 

This configuration always reminds me of a shopping center for some reason. The sides could be mid century butterfly roof houses. 

 Faded Glory: Here is the reason why complete restoration is necessary. Many of these homes are just too faded and far gone to leave as is. Just remember to completely remove all dust and dirt prior to spraying.

Im not sure whats going on here, it kind of looks like there was a fire and this is the smoldering remains the next day. Definitely not 'A-Frame Meth House'.

While not an A Frame configuration, it is the largest set up I have ever seen!

Real Life Examples: Summer 2016 Edition

As we have talked about before, this house has somewhat of an identity crisis. Mattel generically calls it a 'DreamHouse', we have dubbed it (incorrectly) an 'A Frame', and now Mattel is calling the updated version a 'Beach House'. I live in Southern California and see real life examples of the 1978 Barbie house all over. It is mostly a 1970s contemporary home with Spanish and modern influences. These photos illustrate my observations in similar colors.

Mid century mondrian style coloring and lines. 

1980 house, long sloping roof, white railing in front, red tile roof. 

Socal beach houses with shed roof line

Shed-roof roof line

How I imagine the decor to really be. 

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

Diagonal slats. 

Drive by of a 1970s split/double shed roof house. 

If the house were real, and you were downstairs looking up into a yellow floor base plate. 

I believe this is an interior of a 70s home that the 1979 Barbie House Designers were going for when they designed the DreamFurniture line. Modern, fun, colorful and very groovy. It wold be nice to have a hanging lamp and stereo to go with the living room set. 

take away the chimneys and middle sections and you have a couple of side pieces to the house, notice the shed roof style roof line and clean, contemporary lines 

Notice the window frame? Hmm, I know I have seen this before someplace. This is the back of a house that does not have a closet or a balcony, and I use foam board to make up the front facade of the second floor, leaving the Cross T bar side to expose the rear facade. 

While the above is a 1910s Canadian row house, it actually features our 1978 Malibu house bump out closet. Still a terrible idea whatever the country or century, there it is. Personally, I think a wardrobe or even using the smallest bedroom as a walk in closet would be a better idea than this odd addition that tells passersby, "This house has crappy closets, have a nice day". 

Appliances and Furnishings: Another Solution to the Nonexistent Kitchen Sink

This is the 1970 Ideal Mini-Matic Kitchen with real working meat cutter, blender and mixer (and metal utensils with metal hanging rack). This lot also features the rarer 'yellow' version of the '73 townhouse dining table (the small counter came as an add on set with the mixer).  I picked up this great little lot for $30 total for everything (including shipping). It was very dusty and I cannot get the appliances to work, but overall it was a great deal and I am happy with it. Theoretically, the wall/window panel can be placed in the open outer wall of the A Frame house to finish the kitchen. The set features all 3 colors of the 1978 Barbie Dream House - orange, yellow and white.  The avocado appliances are oversized, but totally optional in your set up.

Enjoy this gem of a jpeg, an exquisitely installed kitchen set up utilizing Sindy cabinetry. I love the commitment to only yellow and white and the room divider bookshelf. One day I hope to e organized enough to put something like that together. A+

Real life pots and pans thanks to Rachel Ray's line at Kmart. 

Can you find our harvest gold lovelies? Custom painting a sink/cabinet wall is a GREAT idea for customizing a space for the 1977 appliances to go with. 

Homes For Sale: Current Housing Market (Summer 2014)

The vibe has definitely changed since I started following, collecting, restoring and blogging about this house in 2009. It used to be that I (or anyone) could easily snag a 'pre-renovated' house for $25-$65 plus shipping (generally $25-$40). Of course they were disassembled, seller packing ranged from no packing material (or care) whatsoever to each and ever piece being labelled and wrapped in styrofoam wrapping (not cheap). Nowadays (6 years later) I noticed more and more, number one: you definitely cannot obtain a house for less than $100 total, regardless of completeness or condition, secondly: people are throwing away (or 'I'll try to look for them') the post covers due to their condition (which I have blogged several times about how to restore brown, shattered ones) and three: sellers are too lazy to disassemble these for the prices they expect (not to mention their poor grammar and syntax). It seems that they often are not Barbie collectors, are ignorant of keeping all the parts together (and just how much is missing) and perhaps picked these up at yard sales or thrift shops for $20-$30 and are trying to make a quick buck. Sometimes they hose them off (which rusts the screws) and that does not properly remove 35 years of dust and bug crust. Its a very unfortunate situation; if I was wealthy I would purchase some of these and restore, but often they are thousands of miles away and there's just no way to get them since even if I got them to agree to ship, I would not trust a complete stranger to actually send a house if I sent them a check, and have them pack it in a way to prevent damage in shipping. Today there are SEVEN houses, all unrestored and incomplete and the owners refuse to ship them!!   Sigh..............

Box: 1982 Cottage : Closer Look

Recently, a never opened Cottage went for sale on Ebay. It was a few hundred dollars, which may seem high but it did have an interesting history of not only being a foreign issue box but also having belonged to original retail buyers. Also, the box was especially crisp and minty, an unusual trait since most boxes are faded, torn, dented and wrapped in tape by now.

Somehow, this one escaped color fading. Often the 4 post covers have yellowed but that's an easy fix with a $4 can of white pray paint AFTER cleaning them really good. 

Period decor: the remolded pink version 82-87? 

Perhaps the precursor to the inspiration behind the 82 Cottage. 

keywords 1978 Mattel A Frame Barbie Dream Doll House Red roof yellow floors mod groovy 1970s 1980s custom OOAK 1982 cottage