Renovation: The Trick is.....

As I was sorting out my 3 and a half 1978 California Contemporary Dream Houses, it occured to me that I have left a big issue largely unaddresed. How do you pick out/grade parts when you have a choice? Its different for each different kind of part, and thats where it gets 'tricky'. For me, I had two painted, and one non painted wall assortments to choose from. As the unpainted walls were fairly bright white I chose those as my number one best walls. For the roof, floors and windows, and 'glass' doors you want the darkest colors possible as the sun fades these colors and LIGHTENS them. It is the exact opposite for doors. You will want to pick out the lightest color doors as the sun fades them to a DARKER shade eventually brown. One thing to keep in mind is the condition of the hinges/pegs. For example, I chose the set of front doors that was slightly darker than the palest set because both doors had both hinge pegs and that meant they would swing in and out without scotch tape. I chose the sceond best set of rear windows since all of the hinges were damage free making for a tight fit. Incidentally, all the best windows fit snugly and held position since they hadnt been removed too much over the years. Out of all three and half floor assortments, some sets were dark, some pale, but the peculiar thing to me was that not only was there a 1978 and 1979 dated pieces, there was one set that was not dated. That led me to the issue of once I had sorted out the best minty pieces, I had a 1979 roof, 1978 patio triangles and 1978 floor pieces. So, in constucting the most minty house out of 3.5 houses one will be confronted with wether or not to match the numbers. In the end I decided not to. It was mainly because having the best, minty parts is more visually important than maintaining the illusion that the house in question has never been parted out. I wanted it to all be a 1978, but the roof was so very dark red and non scratched. Incidentally, I do have a rare orange roof panel set I am setting aside. I am not sure what I will do with it, but its highly unusual.

Another issue is the flower boxes. I had a big bag of flowers and plants for the planters so had to decide the best way to ration out the pegs and 'good' flowers. I have always embeleshed the planters with small scaled silk florals. You can see this in my earlier post featuring my first refurbished house. So, in making a 'best' house out of three, I used a good asortment of the bag of plants plus a prudent smattering of non-mattel plants. I like the overall effect, I think it fills it in and makes it more lush and vibrant than just the stock flora, it left more original material for the other two houses, and its a one of a kind customization. Now that I have my first place house, I display it on my green out door carpet square. It really pops the yellow floor pieces, as seen in the post, 'Custom Add on, Great Idea'. I stage the house with minimal furniture and some '73 townhouse pieces since they are smaller scalled and yellow & orange.

Though this is an unrenovated A Frame, you can get your repainted one to look this good with some elbow grease.  Occasionally you will find a minty one like this, it will cost more but its always better to have original unfaded, unpainted pieces. 

1978 A Frame: Furnished

The whole enchilada. 

Here is a photo with everything in it. Kind of capsulated image of the product line. In the left corner you can see the original factory shipping carton. I still dont know how these exist if you bought one in the store, it would be on a shelf in the smaller color box, so where does the shipper come in? I guess thats another mystery.

This is a perfect example of the fully furnished original house. This one does feature does have the rare orange floors. The crisp white walls show what an A Frame that has not been exposed to heat or light looks like. 

This photo does beg the question, "Why are the planters so bare?"

A Frame House: Staircase

Some doll houses come with a staircase, usually spiral. Though our beloved California Contemporary did not, you can still retro fit one to it. The white spiral staircase pictured here is from the 1984 Glamour Home for Barbie. The black staircase above is the My scene party house. I will post a better photo of one retrofitted to the classic '78 home.

MGA Entertainment (Bratz) staircase. 

I wish I had kept my other Bratz staircase, I made them both like this: painted tan with wood grain contact paper steps, but would be a good fit for the 78 house painted white with yellow contact paper steps: 

It's almost a perfect fit. When I see the Bratz houses online, they are usually missing the stairs, so I am not sure where they are going, but they are increasingly rare. I am also saving the palm trees from them for this Malibu Dream House. 

I have been trying to score one the 1984 Glamour Home staircases but they are rare, so looks like about $60 when parted out on Feebay: 

If you look closely, the steps landing base has a subtle flagstone pattern reminiscent of the 1978 house floors; another reason why this should have been a thing with the 70s house and why it would go well with it, provided it was tall enough. 

Something like this would hav worked for the 78 Dream House; I used to see these houses in thrift shops but not so much anymore. 

Loss and Damage: The Worst Offender

Good ol' fashioned just being thrown away by empty nesters. 

So which is the worst offender when it comes to the 1978 Mattel A Frame DreamHouse? Being stored away in a hot, humid attice for 25 years where temperatures can reach 150 degrees or more not to mention racoons, rats and squirels munching away ranks pretty high. Bratty kids rough housing with it, scraping it along cement driveways, scratching and pulling the windows amd doors out damaging the hinges and pegs, coloring on it with markers? The sun, with its cruel scorching rays bleaching the color right out of the red roof, browning the yellow doors and white walls. How about the heartless ebay sellers who routinely gut the homes for parts, throw out what doesnt sell or is damaged, not use packing material (or use newspapers with staining ink), and use orignal shipping cartons for mailing boxes to buyers? My personal favorite is bored housewives with cans of spray paint and the illusion they have artistic ability. Or is it simply the ravages of time that also fade everything and discolor the clear windows and doors, and rot the boxes? Its hard to say, I guess its a combination of all depending on which house is in question. Thankfully, most things can be fixed, by cleaning, painting, glueing, taping, buying spare parts and storing properly rescued homes.

"Yes, Virginia, even to this day when vintage toy collecting is almost a religious experience for some, there are those that let a 45 year old toy in its original box rot out in an old decaying barn in Flyover, USA."

***actual ebay listing description: 

PS: "We cleaned it" means - I took it into the yard, hosed it off for 5 minutes and let it dry in the sun while the screws rusted and the sun faded the red roof pieces, and the dog may have lifted its leg on it, so... You're welcome.


Also, they went to the trouble to type out, "This toy would be great for children to play with".  =-/ 

I guess if I lived in this environment for 30+ years I wouldnt look so hot either! =-( 

So, if you don't know already, the screws are not galvanized so they will rust when wet, never ever expose them to water, ie hosing off 40 years of dust from improper storage instead of taking the time to clean it properly as outlined in other posts, you must completely disassemble the house and set aside the screws in a ziplock baggie (screw renovation post is live so search term it for details).

When I clean an A Frame, it involves about an hour in the shower with a tooth brush, sponge and dish soap, I meticulously dry all the pieces using q tips and bath towels prior to polishing and painting pieces. Here, you can see that in the mail you will get one of two kins of A Frames, one is covered in 40 years of dust, the other was sprayed down with the hose, which rusts the screws, so you get dust residue AND water marks. Le sigh...

Pristine house in the direct sun on the rough concrete, could this be a curb alert? I'm sure this has happened in the past, but this particular one is a Facebook marketplace item for $350 with furniture and pool. =-) 

I dont even know where to begin on this recent facebook marketplace ad...They took FOUR factory original houses, broke off the structural posts to make this obscenely oversized practically unusable, hideous Frankenstein structure, painted it the color of concrete (Im assuming it was not cleaned prior so you'll have caked on dust in the details, it's now soaking wet  on the hot rough asphalt as it appears she hosed it off (allowed to get dirty and or was just left outside for a long time) so good luck with those now rusty screws, never even bothered to do the flowers (probably threw them away), and now she's asking hundreds of dollars for her "project" she's now done with. It does break my heart to see this, but it emphasizes saving the original houses that are left since people keep permanently modifying them like this. If it was repainted you'd start to lose the finer details and it may crackle/bubble on the older dirty paint. =-( 

This one has been taken care of: 

So it is possible to find a complete, near mint set of column covers still to this day (2023), they aren't all yellowed and shattered, but it will cost ya. =-) 

Yes, Virginia, leaving it out in the yard on a blazing hot sunny day will color change white to tan, dark red to faded orangey-cream, and dark yellow to very light yellow:

(plus a screw could fall out and you won't see it again till the lawn mower turns it into shrapnel: kids and dogs beware!) 

Furniture: Foreign Issue: Dream Furniture From Across the Pond...

Courtesy of Flickr.com, you can see the alternate color versions of the dream furniture collection.

Of course the orange and white dining set is the bomb. Blythe collectors are big on the Dream collection including it in bookself dioramas. I definately prefer these color choices to the pink and blue of the yankee versions. UPDATE: as unbelievable as it sounds, a Canadian recently sold a desk and wardrobe (without boxes) on feebay and they each sold for $270 plus shipping. =-O

Complete bedroom set from Germany. Currently on sale on a foreign site if you google it. They also have the complete dining room set in white and orange, but the picture would not load. 

I am told the pink versions of the cottage and dream pool are from the Philippines. Anyone know anymore about this? 

I'm not sure if these are custom, foreign, or final production but I like them: 

The Deutche version: SOOOO cool! 

Other Products: Late 1970's Barbie Scale Boat and Trailer

Fair enough, this has no direct link to the A Frame house we all love so much. I included this post for several reasons. One, its just a cool unusual toy that I had never seen before a few weeks ago, two it IS yellow, orange and white, like the house, three, it could make a cool addition to an A Frame set up and lastly, I have received feedback to include more related toys on the blog. I think this set came out around 1970 or maybe a bit after. It looks like it matches the original 1972 camper. UPDATE: I have since found out that this is a reincarnation of a Big Jim set. Big Jim if you dont know was sort of a Brawny Mountain Man for little boys to play with. He had a camping 'friend' and they did things like go fishing, hunting and other 'manly' stuff together. Kind of like the two fellows from Brokeback Mountain. Anyway, some of the sets were molded in different colors for Barbie and Ken, for example the Western Barbie Horse trailor and truck for Dallas was first a desert truck for Big Jim. I had a 1983 Alvin and the Chipmunks tour van that when I sold it to a comic book/toy store the owner recognized it as a re-do of the 1970's Big Jim Camper (for 2) funny, they never did make a girlfriend...

Trading Cards

You can just barely see near the upper left corner of the layout the A Frame house. I had never seen these cards before. They were a bit more than I could budget for, but still an interesting addition to 1978 house collection. I cant imagine too many kids trading Barbie cards.

Custom Repaints: Diff'rent Colors and a Home Made House

I am all for freshening up and subtle customizations on an old, worn out toy, but I cant stand behind these renovations. For starters, the 1982 Cottage version of the Mattell A Frame house is rare enough as it is, two it matches the A frame and needs no color change and three, there are enough Hannah Montana/Bratz/etc modern homes out there for those who want something 'new'. The pink one, I cant figure out how they moved the walls around, but thought it was interesting enough to include here. These were of course on feebay, I saw it on my weekly cottage hunt and was briefly intrigued, then dissapointed. The green and brown large 1978 House I can't figure out. The pictures aren't that great, and they marked it up for their 'improvements'. I can only hope that the windows were in such poor shape that spray painting them black was only a lateral movement. The yellow to green color change is not bad, but anything that is white should stay white, the only variables should be the terra cotta roof and yellow floors/doors/windows. Color me perplexed.

Grey and blue.