2010 Article from Toy Fair

http://www.switched.com/2010/02/18/toy-fair-2010-our-favorite-designs-for-the-young-at-heart/

Welcome!

You Too Can Sell

 I needed to make room for new things so I sold my Emerson house. I knew it would be a pain logistically and its still a recession so I wouldnt make any money on it but anyway here is my story.  I researched values on Amazon and Feebay. It was difficult to determine a proper value because my house is already built and its the original now unavailable orange/birch color. I also had to decide if I would sell it furnished or not. After advertising it unsuccessfully on Craigslist for a few months I resigned myself to sell on Feebay paying the fees, dealing with testy uneducated buyers, the risk of damage or loss from shipping and so on. It was on there for a good month or so as local pick up only. I put it on sale, no movement. Just a few people asking if I would ship it across country for free they would be interested. Then when I was about to take it down and advertise it as unassembled and unfurnished a person thousands of miles away bought it having not read the description that mentioned twice that this was local pick up only. She agreed to pay more to have it shipped to her in the midwest. As the post office does not ship items this large, I had to go through UPS. I chose to ship it in two halves due to the size of it. Uhaul sells a 'shorty wardrobe' box that was the smallest each halves would fit in. I shipped the factory box in its original shipping container with the furniture box, car and accessories inside. After mailing everything out I emailed the buyer a nice longish letter letting her know what to expect, when to expect it and how to change the batteries in the house as well as thanking her for her business. I never heard back. I paid UPS $215 to deliver it 1 week ground (with insurance and signature confirmation). It cost $37.50 at Uhaul for the boxes and packing popcorn. I paid Evilbay around $30 selling fee and Paypal $20 transaction fee. As I invested $430 (house, furniture, extra furniture, accessories, car) and spent $300 to sell it after getting nearly $600 for it total, I ended up losing $120 to build it, furnish it, make this blog and go to all the trouble of selling it.  I still never heard back from the buyer about how much she appreciated my bending over backwards to ship it to her, how well it was packed, or how much she loves the house and all the extras. SO, that was my experience I hope yours is less trouble and more lucrative. =-) 

Instructions

A few people have asked for copies of the instructions, so here they are. You can right click and save these to your computer. You can also click on them here to enlarge the images. Enjoy. 

Carport Calamity

I initially bought this metal Ertl 1/18th scale 1961 Cadillac to compliment the house and was excited to park it in the carport. You can see in the photo its the correct length (actually a little longer than needed) but it still is dwarfed by the house height wise. Curious about this anomaly, I put the Mystery machine in and it works much better scale wise. Unfortunately I think it dresses down the house, but there you go. It might have to be Mystery incorporated's headquarters after all. ;-)

Brinca Dada House on TV

Fans of the show, Divine Design, will recognize Candice Olson featured in this Brinca Dada house post. As a long time watcher of the show (super inspiration about decorating modernly)I was thrilled to see her segment at the start of the show featuring the one and only modern small house we are all so fond of. Good design gets around and this adult toy (bad choice of words) is no exception. We love you Candice!

Lights, Batteries, Action!

When I built my Emerson house and plugged all the wires together, with baited breath waited for there to be light and....nothing. After checking coneections, emailing Brinca Dada (and NEVER hearing back by the way), I finally decided to dig around inside the secret panel in the chimney. I swapped out the batteries and Voila! it worked. A solar paneled small house is pretty cool. I have since disconnected the two halves of the house because its just too damn heavy to move around when its together.