Celebrating 1978AFramedreamhouse's 100th Post!

Its hard to believe we made it to 100 posts, but here we are. There is now nearly 9,000 page views, 5 followers, regular contributors and lots of comments. We are definately gaining momentum here and undeniably THE source for A Frame info. Virtually every topic about the A Frame house has been covered so future posts will be mostly about revisiting and further examining covered topics with new photos and comments. Congratulaions fans, we came this far. ;-)

Miscellaneous: My Gas Bill



My gas bill.

When I opened my gas bill last month, low and behold what do I see? What appears to be the right side of the A Frame with a lean to styled front entrance. What a treat. See, the architecture really isnt Swiss A Frame, its more Spanishy, seventies, southern California. Very prevalent where I live. We even have Casitas which would correspond to the 1982 Cottage.

Custom Repaints: Black Roof and Brown Floors, Also Green Walls

Black and brown repaint front.

Black and brown repaint rear.

Green beige repaint (during).

Longtime followers of the blog will know that I tend to be supportive of subtle upgrades and customizations of the nearly perfect and classic design of the house and alternately critical of complete changing/modernizing. These two houses which I came across recently have softened my opnion because I think they were done in the right way and really are aesthetically pleasing. The top house from what I recal sold on ebay auction for $250 plus shipping, so was valued higher than factory original due to how well it turned out. I love it, its conservative, realistic and the topiary plants are perfection. The greenhouse belongs to a follower whom I hope doesnt mind me posting it (let me know if you do). Its very similar to a project I would like to do in the future. As I am an orange/yellow house preserver I have been scouring ebay for years now for a cheap, abused pink on in order to justify the repaint. Personally, I think no matter what the repaint, whatever is white should remain white, the roof and floors are what you reinvent and the window trim is the wildcard. I think colored tape trimmed over the edges would be the best way as paint leaves imperfections. After the last ebay house purchase fiasco (forced refund, etc) I am highly reluctant to attempt another transaction, but it sure would make a great post my finished reinvention. Anyway, I was thinking white walls, lime green floors (mimicking green shag carpet (please see my incredible shrinking woman blog) and medium brown roofs lending itself to timeless realism. So it would still be 70's, just an alternate coloring, much like the Wolverine kitchen playset featured in the blog about contrasting the Dream kitchen appliances and the competitors quality. They have an orange/brown version, then came out with green/white. Really just a lateral move.



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

Real Life Examples: T Posts, Gables and Red Tile Roofs

Slight variation with curved arch and left side balcony.

Correct porportion, just not off a balcony.

Here are some real life examples of the T bar part of the 1978 DreamHouse. The T looks more like 'the cross' to me giving it an almost church appearance, but I guess different people see different things. The top two phots are of where I live which does have noticable similarities to the 1978 smallhouse we love (purely coincidental, I swear!) Its 1980's Modern architecture with Spanish influences. The next two photos are of a community down the street from me. The bottom ones are my real life California Dream Home with architectural similarities to the Mattel 1978 orange and yellow house.

Real life diagonal ceiling (my home).

Real life slant red tile roof 1 (my home).

Real life slant red tile roof 2 (my home).

And some yellow back doors on a different property: 

Other Topic: Star Traveler

I think the largest vehicle Mattel made for Miss B is related to the largest house Mattel made for her. They are both late 70's, iconic in design and are bright, sunshine yellow! Here are more real life examples from TV/movies. The beige one above is from 1980's, Resurrection, starring Ellen Burstyn who has had a near death experience and emerges a hands on healer. I only saw this movie because I watch alot of netflix since good, current TV shows are essentially nonexistant. The exception being Raising Hope (please check it out) which last week featured, 'The Kisser', a rambling semi homeless guy who travels around (in what else besides a restored 1978 Star Traveler) to see the 'worlds smallest' exhibits.  Where else can you see Chloris Leachman making out like that I ask you? There is an actual sunshine yellow one in my town, I just havent bothered to pull over and take the picture yet but I will I promise. Eventually. Siansonea, this post is for you! ;-)

Mint enough for ya?

Reinvented as the 1985 or '86 Rockers tour bus, it still blows any Barbie RV since  made out of the water in terms of size and coolness. 

70's awesomeness! 

Recent reinvention, ala silver bullet campers of days gone bye. 

I always did enjoy the artist's rendering on the back of these boxes:

You could get your very own Star Traveler AKA a GMC Glenbrook, nearly factory original here:

If you would like to pick one up for yourself, just know that it is very large so it will take up some space in your toy area, but you can get some amazing deals on facebook marketplace in your area like this one: 

It's only 15 minutes away from me, but I literally have no place to put it, plus it's a restoration project, though I think there is an online seller who makes reproduction stickers. When I sold the one I had it took a very LARGE size box to mail it, so it's a lot of trouble. =-/ 

Miscellaneous: A Frame on 'American Dad'

I love the show American Dad. Its not for everyone, but always makes me laugh. This 'frame' kind of looks like the two side pieces put together with the center piece behind it and the cottage in front of it. Probably should have been drawn as a garage. Anyway, there you have it.  

Real Life Examples: Diagonal Slats in the Movies

This real life version of the diagonal slat walls is from the 1983 flick, My Tutor, starring some very well know actors like Kevin McCarthy. Its a coming of age/T and A flick with a fun intro (80's aerobics with spandex leotards). I have some mroe recent ones this week to be added to the post

Ebay: Further Tales of Terrible Packaging

I didnt get the memo about there being a cardboard shortage.

Random, newly scratched and bent valuable pieces.

Mr Owl, how many hours does it take to clean off explosive Cockroach excrement off vintage toys? 

ZERO packing material!!!!

Pictured above are 2 seperate Feebay transactions. You can see in the patio triangles I bought, they fashioned a homemade box sparing not even a centimeter for packing material. They weren't damaged, but still. The most recent (and last one I will ever buy) house bought on Feebay was a good deal ($20 for house, $35 for shipping). The house advertised online looked great and nearly complete. The house that arrived came in a home made box that was more tape than cardboard, all the post covers were brown and shattered, roof panels and windows were severely heat warped, the box insides and roof panels had white scuff marks from the walls rubbing agianst is in shipping and many pieces seen in the listing photo never made it to me. The seller thought it was acceptable to ship a very large, vintage toy this way and I had to go through Feebay to force a refund since they refused to reimburse me for original shipping much less return shipping. So, in conclusion I will no longer be buying houses on Feebay because its gotten so bad with dirtbags out there that damage the item while they have it stored in a hot garage for years (complete with browning, warping and bug carcasses) and facilitate further damage by crappy packing when selling. This last one has completely removed any joy or motivation I have had in the past to renovate and resell these houses.

My interest in Beaver Cleaver 1950's suburban colonial homes lead me to this unfortunate experience.  Another hillbilly thought they could shove an antique fragile toy in a tampon carton that was more painters tape than box, use no packing material, no insurance and the house had a spiders nest. When first we practice to deceive.....I ended up with a partial refund.

Porch was bent in order to fit into the box that was too small for the house to fit into. Really?  The house did end up looking nice once it was de-grossed in the shower, polished, furnished, given a front lawn and photographed well. If I had the counter space I'd make a Nick at Night cul de sac. 

Straight from Reno, Nevada another bunch of dirty, broken toys thrown into a box last minute and shipped out. What, a dirtbag in Reno?, say int aint so! Not even the obligatory Walmart (WallofChinaMart) bag thrown in for good measure?

Wrapping a 35 year old toy in a priority mail envelope? Thanks sooooo much. ...

 Listing quote: Chairs are damaged, they still stand, one leg missing. Reality: This is what arrived in the mail-chairs smashed into 12 different pieces, missing 3 leg pieces. 

Once again, someone cheaply wrapped a 21 year old NIB item in paper only! GRRRR!

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