i wonder if anyone noticed the little design in the corner of the base in the fourth pix down in this topic...

at first i thought it was a "maker's mark" of some kind...but is actually "ted's initials"..."TA" combined into a graphic design...

his "proof of ownership" i presume...pretty neat idea...

howard...

Good eyes, Howard!

Wonderful! I love seeing these little treasure brought back to life. A second chance to mesmerize a new generation to the magic of Christmas. Did I understand correctly that you didn't use the original top of the base? The reason I ask is I just did a complete refurbish of the "Grandfather" house and the base was completely smashed. I couldn't bare to through the original parts away so I figured out how to rescue the base. I took all the pieces apart, moistened them and sandwiches the parts between two pieces of heavy glass. Now that they were flat I gave the exterior parts a light sanding. I then glued new paper hinges to the inside of the four sides. This gave me a four sided box with no bottom. I formed a piece of Styrofoam to fit tightly into the cavity and then glued the original bottom onto the base sealing the edges with my stucco compound. Then re-coconut. Pictures to follow. If you did reuse the original parts please disregard this dissertation. LOL

You’re right - i only reused the original bottom of the base. That was one of my first restorations and with more experience now I would feel more comfortable reusing the entire base. Your instructions were very helpful. I have tried wetting parts of old houses and they do dry out in amazingly better shape.