Completed Renovation #7: Before and After

Yes, believe it or not this is the same house after a 1 week long restoration process. It arrived damaged, filthy, and neglected. After washing, polishing, replacing parts, painting parts and putting it all together it's another successful restoration. Insider tip: for photographing it for the resale, I do not use any long screws, I carry it into position by holding the base plates and leave the screws in a zip lock baggie (see in photo). They are not necessary to set the house up for display. Though I did use one piece of tape to hold the center piece white roof rafter together since it almost always bows outward. On this reno the pieces were white enough that I did not have to use any bleaching between cleaning and polishing. My planting skills have improved since then.

House for Sale 

This house is clean. 

Nice rear. 

Squeaky clean! 

When out, I am always looking for suitable replacement parts for the house. I found this bathmat that has the exact same pattern of the front double doors and side panels. I think, to make upgraded custom replacement doors, one could cut to size, paint and affix to card board or some other strong yet thin material. 

Some will arrive to you this bad, definitely making a thorough shower necessary.  This tends to be what shows up on Craigslist, usually $80, and at least 2 hours drive time each way. Where do I sign, lol. 

Before and after. =-) 

Plan on this arriving from Ebay or Craigslist houses. They have been in the attic/garage/basement or outside for 20-30 years. I actually enjoy the whole restorative process since there is such contrast between the before and the after. My houses emerge from this process sparkling white and complete.=-) 

Make no mistake, when you order online, you will likely get a dirty, filthy house that to be cleaned properly. My process is to run a hot bath with very strong soap and de greasing cleaner, fully submerge all the parts for the afternoon, once all the vintage crust is softened up I get a toothbrush and larger harder bristled brush and go to town on everything, giving special attention to scrubbing out corners and crevices in a wicking outward motion. By this time you will notice a slimy brownish layer of filth on the water's surface - keep going until every square inch has been scrubbed. The only caveat is the window glass, those you will want to only use a toothbrush very carefully as not to scratch the clear part. Then, drain the bath, then with a nozzle sprayer rinse the residual sludge off every part. This is there I have a few old bath towels laid out in the bathroom in which to lean all parts vertically against the wall so they drain off the excess water onto the towel. After an hour or so, I come back and with a small hand cloth individually wipe everything down using q tips to get into all the small tight nooks and crannies. Then I wait until the next day when everything is now bone dry and perfectly clean in which to polish and condition everything with the appropriate products outlined in other posts here on this site. Any kind of plastic restorer will do. I polished my own personal A Frame with headlight cleaner as it contains a mild abrasive essentially sanding it to a fine shine. Most notably were the roofs and sides of the yellow floor pieces are now high gloss (photos in another post). This is why I do not take adopting and renovating another house very lightly due to all the work involved. Even the screws will need restoration, also in another post. Then there is the four flower boxes resto and printing the instructions for the next owner. Cleaning it thoroughly first is the only way to have a minty finished product.  These antique toys have spent the better part of the past 40 years in attics, garages, basements, sheds and closets so need TLC to revive them.

 

It wil taken 2 cans of this to get the job done. (flat white spray can paint).