Renovation: Replacement Closet and Doors: How To...

When faced with an incomplete house and no budget to buy replacement parts there is a solution you can do. At the dollar store you can find large sheets of thick paper and smaller sheets of craft foam squares. I simply traced the original onto the sheets and cut out. For the doors, I reinforced the foamboard with yellow paper to which I made a simple door handle out of which wasnt hard given the molded shape of the original. I am still working on a good way to transfer the pattern of the front door to the replacement. The closet takes a little longer but is worth the time. Be sure to use the shiny side as the outside of the closet and score along the outer edges for clean edged corners and add tabs for attaching the corners. I used a clear ruler to ensure proper scoring and taped the tabs on the inside so they dont show. Follow the same procedure to make the shelf, and I used a small wooden food scewer cut with wire cutters to length and glued with elmers glue. You can click on the photos here to enlarge them. I had a clear rear patio door thats edges were faded to white. I found yellow tape from the hardware store, aligned it with the inside edge of the frame part and used an exacto knife to trim off the excess and it turned out well. I dont think theres a way to make the inside go from brown to clear again, but the renewed yellow edges do freshen it up and contrast nicely againsts the white walls. You can see the tape in the left photo, below it is clay from the craft store you can bake in the oven and it cools to a plastic like durability. I am going to try rolling it out with a kitchen roller, imprinting a door on it, baking it and seeing how it turns out post the results. =-)

Replacement entire house

Alternately, one can measure and fit a piece of foam board in it's place, using a carpenter's square helps ensure a perfect rectangle to snugly fit into the opening. 

Miscellaneous: Things That Make You Go, 'Hmmm...'

There are many unanswered questions I have about the Mattel California Contemporary DreamHouse that I'm sure many of you have as well. For one, just why are there so few patio triangles? How ironic is it that ebay sellers throw away the big pieces to sell the smaller ones where the value is, when they are selling it to buyers who love these houses and are buying them to complete them? Why is the 1982 Cottage so hard to find? Why do some houses turn brown, and others are almost as bright and white as the day they rolled off the factory assembly line? Why is it that when you buy a house there is more than one window with heavy scratches that look like they were cleaned with a brillo pad? Was ruining one not enough? Same thing with broken hinges. Why dont more people stage these houses with green outdoor carpet that looks like a lawn? Why cant I find a suitable driveway? Why didnt they make a staircase for this house like the 1974 Bionic Woman Carriage house, or subsequent Barbie houses in the 80's and now? Why does the pink house currently cost as much as the original? Its a regurgitated holdover because Mattel was too cheap to design a new house for the 1980's (the Me decade of Dallas, Dynasty and Wallstreet coudlnt even get its own house?). Why do some weeks on ebay I have bought them for $10 plus shipping and other weeks they sell for hundreds of dollars? Why is the 1980 pool so hard to get ahold of, while the 1973 pool is all over the place, with box for like $15 bucks? Same thing with the 1976 Camper versus the 1971 camper. Why are there so many sellers out there that think its okay to use no packing material (or just thow a few walmart bags in there) and a box thats falling apart, when I would never dream of doing that? I pack it extremely well and only get any feedback at all about 1/2 of the time. Why cant I ever find one at a thrift store to save on shipping? Why didnt they ever make another such wonderful house? A pink, hinged victorian does not come close, nor does Hannah Montana's 'swingin' pad'. Why couldnt they have issued different color furniture (besides pink/lavender) in America instead of just Europe? I would love to have an orange and white China hutch and dining room set, or a red and white bedroom set or yellow desk. And why does the couch look like a bean bag chair? The bedroom set comes with a single size bed, so where does Ken sleep? Why didnt Dallas ever get his own stable? Thats all I can think of for now, but I am sure more questions will come up.

Magazine: A Frame DreamHouse Makes Magazine Cover

This is a 1958 Alexander built Swiss Miss in the Los Palmas neighborhood of Palm Springs, CA. The downstairs windows on the left side look like the eight rear windows on the Mattel version. See how southern California landscaping (palms and golden barrel cactus) suit the house very well.

Furniture: Foreign Issue: Record Values

Who would have thought foreign issue color variations would fetch so much mulah. The sale of one of these pieces would completely pay for at least TWO houses. What a great line of work this could be.

Ebay: How to Pack N' Ship This Mamoth Structure

Easily store the house in a 44 gallon christmas tree tote box, its roughly the same dimension as the factory box, and keeps out humidity and bugs. 

(top 3 photos-how I get them. bottom phot0- how I send it out)

Unless you have a UPS business account and get a hefty discount, I have found USPS parcel post with added size surcharge (boxes over 84" net size), insurance and tracking to be the most cost effective. The final weight of the box will be a hair under 30 pounds, so round up to 30 so it doesn't get sent back for 50 cents worth of underpaid postage. I live in California and shipped one to Indiana recently and it was $33 plus $2 for insurance. Though one just went to a town 1.5 hours away for $15 since it didn't have to get on a plane. Its the plane ticket that runs it up to $63 per shipment. Thats another reason why you want to use a large moving box and extra bubble wrap you have laying around rather than buy it all so it wont cut into your profit. This is actually an important topic since damage can occur if done improperly, not ot mention negative feedback on ebay seller accounts. What I receive is in stark contrast to what I send out. I get garbagey boxes re-used and taped together, with newspaper (if they used any packing material at all) and parts falling out of it as the postman hands it to me. All you can do is dump it all on the floor and seperate the garbage from the product. When I am done my hands are black from the newspaper or walmart bag ink. Usually the post covers are shattered from the sellers negligence. You also have to pick through all the crumpled up newspaper and bags since one tiny screw or flower may have gotten in there. I still cant believe sellers actually do this, its so offensive. I always use a nice, new large moving box (approximately the size of the orginal toy box) and do my best to re-create how Mattel packed them in '78. The main difference is that I use bubble wrap instead of cardboard partitions. I wrap all the smaller items in plastic baggies and tape them to secure it all, finally adding a thank you note and small bonus item they were not expecting like clothes hangers (since my buyer pays top dollar) before sealing all the sides with high quality string paper tape that you have to wet to adhere. The paypal shipping label adds that professional touch as well. Overall, out of 5 houses I bought in 16 months, only two were properly packed.

Another junky, partially open box packed with dirty newspaper used to ship my doll house! 

Renovation: How it all Happens...

Some of you may be curious as to my exact process from begining to end of resoration. Though I have posted before about the buying and re-painting of homes, here is some things I did not cover in detail. At the top you can see the shoddy, falling apart box as it arrives with parts/screws litteraly falling out as the postman hands it to me. Because its a big, garbagey mess, all you can do is dump it all out on the floor. Most of the post covers are smashed to smitherines during its long journey, and after I seperate the garbage packing material from the actual house parts, my hands are black with newspaper ink. I soak it all in a hot soapy tub for a few hours and use very hot water for the windows because its the only way to really deep clean off 25 years of crust, rust, crude and bug carcasses.Case in point, see the black ring around my tub in the photo. Merely wiping it all down does nothing besides schmeer it around. Its especially necessary to soak if you are going to repaint the white walls. The clock is to show that time is important to let the water penetrate the hardened dirt in all the nooks and cranies. You cannot rush a masterpiece! I really think thats where I earn my profit since all this takes the better part of an afternoon, including the windex and q tip treatment on the glass doors and windows after its thoroughly dried. It also takes over an hour to pack this property properly once you are shipping it to another person or buyer. The things that take the longest is the multiple coats of white when covering cheesecake colored walls and bleaching stained floors back to clean, bright yellow as detailed in earlier posts. Its physically demanding, but if I didnt enjoy it, I wouldnt do it. From what I remember 2 houses have arrived packed nicely with bubble wrap, a good sturdy box, confirmation and was a good experience. 2 didnt have any packing material at all, taking a few weeks to arrive, and one came in icky newspaper pictured above with smashed post covers.

Custom Configuration: Outdoor Kitchen Addition

Everyone may not like this customisation, but I think its a good use of an otherwise obsolete playset, the 1982 McDonalds restaurant. Mixed in with a 1984 Arco barbeque set and World Cost Market drink stirers with the stems removed. (If you do this, I used a dremel tool to file off the bottoms to make them level). Check out my earlier post, 'Compare & Contrast the '78 A Frame & the '82 M Frame'.

Parts: Inventory

Here is what 3.5 houses look like piled up together. All these pieces ave been cleaned, repaired and are ready to be marked up.

Renovation: New & Improved Planters/Flowerboxes and Fence

I'm happy with the embeleshed greenery. Some are from the dollar store, and some are pet store brand so should be available and affordable to everyone. There is monstera, other green plants, yellow and red flowers (not shown) that round out the factory assortment. I hope this gives you some ideas for your '78 California Contemporary. I am not a 'factory purist'. I think there is some room for improvement, plus it shows creativity. In the upstairs photo you can see the bedroom dresser I have thats faded to a really unique shade of salmon with pale orange drawers. The fence I am guessing goes to either a 1960's Barbie house or some kind of Arco backyard set. I dont know what the cardboard plants and stone planter are from but its a perfect match.

I noticed my 1978 Star Wars Cantina play set has a brown version of the flagstone floors and it got me thinking...How about his cool, miniature zen herb garden retreat upgraded add on for Barbie's house? The little blow mold form table counters are very reminiscent of the 1978 Sundae's Liddle Kiddle line. They are easily obtained on ebay rather inexpensively and of course can be customized in any way your imagination can think of: 

Blogger's Own: House and Configuration

So how good can I get one of these toys to look? Well, if you don't know already I am quite the scrooge when it comes to purchasing houses and materials. The last three homes I bought were $9.99, $9.99 and $13.51, all plus shipping of course. They usually come dirty, broken and discolored, though sometimes I have gotten great, minty parts for bottom dollar because someone was just wanting to clear space in their basement and it was a slow week on ebay. The house in this post is non painted, all posts are chip free, all windows hold position, all doors have all pegs. Thats the benefit of buying 4 houses, you get to constantly upgrade parts. Since I make a profit of about $100 per flipped house, my complete and minty house was more than free. In the corner of my spare room (and bathroom) is where everything is cleaned, super glued, painted, polished and parts are matched. I bought a metal shelving unit at target for $42 (not pictured) to store all the loose pieces and furniture and it works well. Anyway, here are the photos of how bright the colors are on a house that was matched with the best parts of 3 1/2 houses, and furnished with vintage Mattel and repainted Gloria furniture. The jukebox was a late '80s pink, I spray painted brown, added wood grain shelf contact paper, silver contact paper and it came out well. The newer looking kitchen is an old barbie set I did the same treatment to. To get the 'marble' contact paper to shrink wrap around the counters hold it over a lighter (carefully) then wipe off any black smudges with a rag. The flat screen is a glass frame from target for $6, the bed is a cereal box covered in fabric. The rocking chair was a cheap white Gloria bedroom set chair I painted to look 'seventies'. The bathroom, dining room and piano is also Gloria, alot of work, but well worth it. You will also notice some Barbie Talking House furniture. The green shag carpet is a dollar store bi-fold picture frame turned upside down. Clear vases and wastebaskets are Tiki shot glasses from the dollar store. You can see I used the 1982 McDonald's as an outdoor kitchen. The patio furniture is a 1984 Arco set. The bottom photo is where my minty A Frame/California Contemporary lives. Its on a discarded closet door, so is sturdier than it looks. Enjoy, and ask any questions you have.