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two Craigslist finds....fingers crossed


vbharrington

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After having to take time off from minis due to work (and life) I am anxious to start back.  I was on Craig's List looking for a swimming pool slide, when I came across two dollhouses.  The first is only about five miles from me, it's a San Franciscan (I'm pretty sure, not 100% sure of model) for $100.  The other I believe is a Newport, comes with furniture, and is $225.  I am attaching seriously considering buying both houses.  I have the room, and I prefer rehabbing to building.  My 40th birthday is Monday, so I may have found my gifts (to myself)  If anyone can confirm/correct my model names (neither owner was sure of the model), or if the picture shows some kind of glaring problem I've missed, please let me know!

dollhouse 1.jpg

dollhouse 2.jpg

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Awesome finds!  The Newport kit is about $460 dollars and this one looks beautiful...from this view anyway. Keep in mind that the Newport is probably MDF so it's going to be heavy. I think you should get them both too:) Happy Birthday:birthday:

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The Dura-Craft San Franciscan appears to be the 550 model (the earliest).  I would want to take a thorough look over both houses before paying those asking prices, though, to make sure there are no glaring, irreparable problems.

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1 hour ago, havanaholly said:

The Dura-Craft San Franciscan appears to be the 550 model (the earliest).  I would want to take a thorough look over both houses before paying those asking prices, though, to make sure there are no glaring, irreparable problems.

Holly, what would you consider not repairable? As a group, we have a marvelous record of overcoming every challenge thrown at us. <where is a patting-yourself-on-the-back emoticon when I need one?> :D 

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For one thing, that San Franciscan doesn't have a tower roof from the look of it and that would probably be a hard item to reproduce. You can get a nice SF kit on eBay for $100 that will be complete. I'd pass on that house and go for the Newport. Use the extra $100 to buy some stuff to put in the Newport.

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Well I picked up the San Franciscan this morning - I did get an extra $20 off of her asking price :). There is a tower roof, it is a low, plastic tower roof that I have seen on a few houses like this before. Aside from some missing stair rails (which will be no problem to replace) and a couple broken shingles, there is nothing structurally wrong with the house, it is very solid. However, it smells like cigarette smoke and cat litter (and the cat litter is worse than the smoke) - does anyone have any idea for getting rid of the smell?

I am set to pick up the Newport on Mon or Tuesday - I'm treating myself to both :)

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6 hours ago, KathieB said:

Holly, what would you consider not repairable? As a group, we have a marvelous record of overcoming every challenge thrown at us. <where is a patting-yourself-on-the-back emoticon when I need one?> :D 

As Kelly mentioned, it needs a new tower roof and I'd like to see the condition of the interior.  By irreparable I mean $100 ought not to need replacing windows, interior walls, doors, etc.  The roof that's on the tower isn't the original, although if Vickie's happy with it, it's better than having to figure out a new one.

Vickie, I think the fabric softener sheets are supposed to work on stale cigarette smoke (I don't know what would work on cat litter odor, though).

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59 minutes ago, vbharrington said:

Well I picked up the San Franciscan this morning - I did get an extra $20 off of her asking price :). There is a tower roof, it is a low, plastic tower roof that I have seen on a few houses like this before. Aside from some missing stair rails (which will be no problem to replace) and a couple broken shingles, there is nothing structurally wrong with the house, it is very solid. However, it smells like cigarette smoke and cat litter (and the cat litter is worse than the smoke) - does anyone have any idea for getting rid of the smell?

I am set to pick up the Newport on Mon or Tuesday - I'm treating myself to both :)

Maybe try Cedar chips for the smell(They sell them at Walmart in the section with hangers and ironing boards). Is it cat litter or pee smell?

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The only way to get rid of cigarette smoke is to realize that it is actually covered in nicotine. You can't just cover the smell up, you have to wash it off the surface. I would do that first with an ammonia solution (it kills pee smell) and then spray the entire house with Kilz primer. Wear gloves when washing off nicotine. It will penetrate your skin and you will wonder why you can't get to sleep that night.

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If you wash it, you can use baking soda and hydrogen peroxide 3%. Google it.

Oxiclean might help.

Also, after cleaning it as much as possible, you can wrap it in a plastic bag with a lot of dryer sheets - seal it up and leave it for a week. I have done this with some purchases that were cigarett-y and it helped a lot. Also, after cleaning, dryer-sheeting it - just leave it in an open air space for awhile. Good luck!

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I love that Newport - yay!!! GO get it!

As for the cat pee/cigarette San Fran - that should help embolden you to rehab the $%^& out of it. You'll learn a lot from that and/or it will be wonderful in the end. Win win. Good luck!

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7 hours ago, rodentraiser said:

Hmm...I hope these people were respectable. A house smelling like cat pee is a house that could have been a meth lab.

But good buys! You really aced a couple of nice houses!

Or just a house with smokers and cats....

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Based on the number of cats that were lurking around in the house (we saw at least 5) then I'm putting my money on the cats as opposed to the meth lab :)  I'm going to try washing it down and then bagging it up some cedar chips.  I hope to be able to pick up the Newport either tomorrow or Tuesday.  I'm quite excited about both of these for summer projects.  I grew so frustrated with my farmhouse rehab that I had to step back from all of it, hopefully these will not become the train wreck the farmhouse is/was.

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Well, the Newport now in the "She Shed" with my other dollhouses.  It turns out the lady had bought it already assembled about 15 years ago from AC Moore.  She bought (literally) a whole house full of furniture at the same time. At some point over the years the railings broke off the top of the tower, but that is the only thing that is structurally wrong with this house.  It's also plywood instead of MDF, so that is a huge plus for me since I move my houses myself.  She also included the hardwood flooring and wallpaper she had bought to use in the house but never got around to.   I'm really only unsure of a few things, first is that she decided to paint one of the 3rd floor rooms bright red - not really my thing, but wallpaper will handle it.  That was the only room that was painted instead of wallpapered. Secondly, I am not sure how I'm going to get into the "front" room to decorate it - in my Harborside, the front opens to allow access to the front rooms, but this house does not. However, that is a small issue considering I got this house at such a great deal. I hope to post some new pictures as soon as I get a chance.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 5/16/2017, 1:57:49, vbharrington said:

Well, the Newport now in the "She Shed" with my other dollhouses.  It turns out the lady had bought it already assembled about 15 years ago from AC Moore.  She bought (literally) a whole house full of furniture at the same time. At some point over the years the railings broke off the top of the tower, but that is the only thing that is structurally wrong with this house.  It's also plywood instead of MDF, so that is a huge plus for me since I move my houses myself.  She also included the hardwood flooring and wallpaper she had bought to use in the house but never got around to.   I'm really only unsure of a few things, first is that she decided to paint one of the 3rd floor rooms bright red - not really my thing, but wallpaper will handle it.  That was the only room that was painted instead of wallpapered. Secondly, I am not sure how I'm going to get into the "front" room to decorate it - in my Harborside, the front opens to allow access to the front rooms, but this house does not. However, that is a small issue considering I got this house at such a great deal. I hope to post some new pictures as soon as I get a chance.

I bet the pee smell is mostly on the outside do to the cat spraying it. Vinegar also removes the smell...but your house will smell like a pickle for a little while!

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