This was perhaps the most problematic of rehabs I have had to do. Making a decision on the color of the house and coconut was VERY difficult and am not sure I succeeded even yet. The coconut on this house was SO BADLY DETERIORIATED that it looked more like brown sawdust than the straw coconut we all love. About the worst I have ever had. The finish was SO deteriorated that it was a judgment call as to whether it was yellow or lime green. As far as the color sense of the Japanese either would likely have worked. I have included a before picture from the auction page and a finished photo after the work is all done. THANK YOU PETE! Without his coconut this would have been impossible. The after photo colors are a bit more intense than in real life so will try to get a daylight picture which does better. The base was and is an intense and dark purple which After I took off the remainder of the tree the original protected coconut was a very dark purple. For now the photo looks dark blue but it is purple. Also the house is a lime green and this looks minty! Eh what?
Still a very odd house with an arched dormer and this roof is done in pink! Whereas the rest of the roof is the usual tomato red. The very top was originally a semi-glossy finish with some glass glitter on it. I used some artists acrylic gloss medium with white paint and some glitter but got too much glitter. I may experiment with this more later.
P.S. to Pete. That was the last of that dark purple coconut and I need more of the Tomato Red! Tom

Tom, that's great you had the skills and Pete had the materials to fix this guy up. I like the luffa tree, too, as well as your choice of Santa.

For those who don't know Pete, here's a link to his online descriptions of the materials he provides for restoring these old houses: http://cardboardputzhouses.com/marketplace/index.html