Good afternoon,

Here is my next project. I am doing a fix up and a repro while Im at it. This little black house was a House of the Month in April of 2008 on Papa Ted's site.
There are several versions of this common house, but it is the only one that came in all black as far as I know.
On Ted's site Tom shared pics of two that he owns. One with Black/grey coco and another which is like the one I'm fixing up with Black glass glitter.

The one Im reproing is going to look like Tom's coco one with the foil roof and pink coco on the base.

This house is also exciting for me because I get to use both the new 9L window and the 15L Windoor, I recently created.

On the fix up Im going to use Tom's cornstartch/bleach slurry to clean up the white areas. Then fix the base up and replace all the white and red coco, along with the windows. The black glass glitter is in fairly decent shape. I'm also going fix and paint the bottom of the snowman.

I haven't decided if Im going to make a mold of the snowman and cast him from rock hard puty or just do one out of sculpey for the new house.

Hope everyone is having a great day!! The rain has returned to the Pacific NW so it looks like we'll be spending some time in doors.
-Brian

Hello and good morning,

I got the restoration all done on this little black house. I'm just starting the repro.

-Brian

one more..

Wow, your a putzing machine.

You must have stock in coconut coatings.

Thanks Steve,

I'll just let the cat out of the bag. I recently figured out how to make my own coco. I traded Pete for quite a bit for the new windows I made that he is going to sale on his site. So I had a lot to make houses with. The red on this house is actually stuff Pete made. But I made all the white. I had been trying since 2006, so it was a great day when I figured it out. The last couple houses I did have mostly been with the coco I made.
I'm going to keep the secret to myself for now, I love sharing with you all, but I value my friendship with Pete and he is using the profits he is making to reinvest in the hobby and I would love to see what new stuff he comes up with, as well as see his collectors guide come to fruition. He treated me very well with the trade we did for the windows, and I have enjoyed chatting with him about the different mysteries of these houses. So I encourage everyone to continue to buy his product.
My coco is a little shaggier than Petes, he has really perfected it.

I figured something was up. Considering how much you've been using lately.
Also I understand your position on it too.

Steve

Brian, with a witch or spook instead of a snowman, that would make a great Halloween house.

Paul, Yeah, I think it would look pretty cool with an orange roof too! Might have to do one up like that eventually.

I just finished the construction phase of the repro of this little guy. Pic below.
-Brian

Good Afternoon!

Got the repro all done. This one took me a little longer than normal. I had a hard time getting the dark grey right for the coco. It took me three times to get it. The first batch of coco came out a little greyish green, the second batch was blueish, and the third batch was the winner.

This house was my first attemp at a foil roof, and I love working with the foil. It molds right to the shape of the house and then all you have to do is trim away the extra. I'm surprised we don't see more foil roofs on the Japanese houses, it was much faster than painting and flocking.

Here are the pics.....

Here is a side by side like the pic of Tom's on Papa Ted's site.

The house on the left is my new reproduction and the house on the right is the original with my restoration job.