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Little Habitats 50s travel trailer kit by Stan Ohman - looking for info


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Hi all, 

I just picked up the cutest travel trailer kit on eBay. It's called the 1950s style travel trailer kit by Little Habitats. It looks seriously adorable from the black and white instruction booklet but doing a quick google search I've been unable to find out anything about this kit or company. So I'm reaching out to the wealth of knowledge on this site to inform me on what I have :D Has anyone built one of these? Do you know if they made other kits? Or other minis? Any info is appreciated.

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I found a couple of articles on Stan Ohman:  https://products.kitsapsun.com/archive/1997/02-21/0025_by_dollhouse_show__to_the_last_de.html and https://products.kitsapsun.com/archive/1994/03-10/291567_bravo_cover_story__lilliputian_.html.  Looks like he was doing his work mostly in the 80s and 90s.  It's a shame that the articles don't have pictures anymore.  I found a pin of one his dollhouses here:  https://www.pinterest.com/pin/176133035401503970/?lp=true  Nothing on the travel trailer, though.

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27 minutes ago, thriftymini said:

This is also an interesting article (from the Seattle Times archives).  Stan Ohman made the shell of the Mount Vernon in Miniature (10ft long, 8 1/2ft high, and 6' wide).  A very expensive group project.

 http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19980217&slug=2734951

 

That is amazing!  The amount of hours and the size of it!  I was frustrated that I couldn't see it, so https://www.mountvernon.org/the-estate-gardens/the-mansion/mount-vernon-in-miniature/

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Well I go to work for twelve hours and come home to some awesome links. Thanks Ladies! :D 

It looks like Stan was quite the artisan and I’m so excited to have one of his kits. I feel like I can rest assured that it’s going to be fantastic quality if the articles are anything to go by. Sadly I found an obit for his wife Ursula. I haven’t found one for Stan, but I fear he may be no longer with us. 

 

Pic of my kit here http://www.greenleafdollhouses.com/forum/?app=gallery&module=gallery&controller=view&id=135317

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3 hours ago, Samusa said:

...Sadly I found an obit for his wife Ursula. I haven’t found one for Stan, but I fear he may be no longer with us. 

Sadly I fear you may be right; that Mt Vernon article was from 1998, 20 years ago.

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1 hour ago, havanaholly said:

Sadly I fear you may be right; that Mt Vernon article was from 1998, 20 years ago.

Maybe not.  Based on when he graduated from high school (1947), he would be around 89 years old.  He remarried in 2006 and seemed to be fairly spunky.

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Thanks for posting the link to the mount Vernon house Deborah, it is amazing! The mechanics he built to enable viewing remind me on Queen Mary’s dollhouse. Does he inspire you to build an entire sagamore hill? :D 

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5 minutes ago, Samusa said:

Does he inspire you to build an entire sagamore hill?

LOL!  Where would I put it?  Even at half scale, it would be a little too large.  It had 23 rooms!  I do love how carefully Stan built Mt. Vernon.  He even got copies of the original blueprints!

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26 minutes ago, otterine said:

I love the sleuthing going on around here.  :D  That is a great find, and I am eager to see what you do with it.

The sleuthing is the fun part! :D 

‘I found another article on Stan. http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19950311&slug=2109450

A perfectionist, Ohman selects his own trees - usually alder or cedar - has them milled to order, then air-dries them for three years.” 

Wow,:eek: this guy didn’t muck around. I wonder what kind of wood my kit is going to be. 

 

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29 minutes ago, Debsrand56 said:

LOL!  Where would I put it?  Even at half scale, it would be a little too large.  It had 23 rooms!  I do love how carefully Stan built Mt. Vernon.  He even got copies of the original blueprints!

You could donate it from the people of California :D I bet it would be awesome. You could take a trip there and measure every room including the cupboards. Just like Stan. :clap:

My husbands Grandparents and Father are buried at Arlington National cemetery.. The next time we visit, I’m going to have to do a side trip to Mount Vernon to see that beauty.

 

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I have been searching the web for hours looking for pictures of this kit built and I think I’ve finally found some. It looks pretty similar to me, what do you think? Is this it?

fb2324_40d7b09b52f74b2c8cf003d61099fa15.

 

fb2324_ae814385b8ed41948469da5eeef19605.

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12 hours ago, Samusa said:

The sleuthing is the fun part! :D 

‘I found another article on Stan. http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19950311&slug=2109450

A perfectionist, Ohman selects his own trees - usually alder or cedar - has them milled to order, then air-dries them for three years.” 

Wow,:eek: this guy didn’t muck around. I wonder what kind of wood my kit is going to be. 

 

WOW!  He was majorly committed!  In my family carpentry goes back about 4 generations.  My grandfather who passed in 1947, worked building field hospitals in WWII.  My Uncle (my mum's only brother) has been a sort after carpenter most of his life - working on the old houses in the city doing restoration work.  I wonder sometimes if that's where my love of wood has come from - certainly one of my favourite things to do in minis is woodworking.  My dad had just started getting into woodturning as he started his retirement before he passed suddenly at 64.

When I searched your kit I came across some directions for the kit - but assuming you'll have those?

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10 hours ago, Samusa said:

what do you think? Is this it?

If it's not, it's pretty darn close.  The shape is right, and the configuration (including the wall between the two rooms) looks right.  Persistence pays off!  This should be so much fun.

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