Cardboard Christmas

I believe this is your best work yet…(but your tunnel/tree stand will be hard to beat)…and I also know that Ralphie Parker would feel right at home… …keep the neighborhood growing…how about something in stucco?…

Howard…

Good suggestion, Howard. Actually, the first house-from-the-'hood project, I gave that a stucco-like finish:



Uncertain if this was a Sears house, but certainly they catalogued "four-square" type home designs. This was actually based on a house down the street from me.

I don't recall the exact stucco recipe I used, but I suspect it was something you suggested on an earlier project. I seem to recall having mixed a small amount of fine model railroad ballast material into some craft paint...maybe.

I've been working on another Sears house, this the Maplewood, albeit from a bit later, 1932:



Pretty straight-forward, except for that front entryway bit. I made a few minor changes, like dumbing down that chimney, but otherwise pretty much as drawn. I recall our home search some 40 years ago, the first place we looked at was very similar. I seem to remember there was a dormer off the back of the second floor.



Anyway, with the exception of a shrub or two, calling this done:



Gotta go vacuum up the glitter mess in the basement.

Paul...

I'm really liking everything I see about this latest house...(and all your other Sears Houses)...especially the "storybook roof" over the entrance...I believe this is the fourth one in your Sears House series...keep it up!...

Howard...

PS...you'll never get all the glitter up...no matter how much you vacuum...don't ask me how I know...

Thanks, Howard...no shortage of houses offered by Sears back in the day. Too bad Sears isn't around anymore.

A friend of mine flipped me this photo of one he found on StreetView:



Made me realize I have the windows balled up on the right side. Oh well, not making architectural models (at least not intentionally ).

I never really liked the glitter-house railroad signal-tower I built a few years ago...it was just a bit too simplistic and the glitter application looked awful. I'm thinking I'll try a second version of that next. I saved the roof from the first one, thinking it is salvageable, but the rest will need to be rebuilt ground up. Probably be a while, however, before I get back to it.

Paul...

CONGRATULATIONS!...100,000-plus views of the Sears series of houses you created...

Howard...