Dreaming of Christmas in the old house

A dream I have had for years would be to build back the old house my great grandfather bought here as his summer place. My dad was born in and grew up in that beautiful old house.

Luckily, when my grandparents tore it down to make way for a new house, my grandfather carefully took out all the trim, doors, windows, etc., and carefully bundled and stored them where they sat untouched until Luis and I moved onto the family property. If you have ever visited here, you know that we are taking some of those things and adding them to our house little by little.

I became fascinated with the Putz cardboard houses from Japan post WWII and tried to get some on ebay for my vintage Christmas, but kept getting outbid. Plus, they are pretty small at 4" high. I decided to make my own.

Then I thought why not make the old house? So, I gathered up some cardboard -- which in my case is easy as I recycle *everything* and usually have stacks of it.

I started cutting and glueing and finally ended up with this...

My dad recognized it right away and told me I needed the bottle brush trees as my grandmother apparently had them. So I found some vintage ones on ebay.

I thought the house needed a snowman out front.

I used tissue paper for the windows and Christmas lights for the inside. I dusted everything with "snow" and lots of glitter, which I was amazed to find these products "Made-in-USA."

The old rock wall still stands around the new house my parents live in.

I used a window from the house to showcase old photos of the house and my dad and his family here in Balsam. I made cardboard panels to fit behind each window which I covered with vintage pink-flowered paper from my parent's basement. I put some of the copied photos on sheet music or black poster board so they would stand out against the background. I then trimmed the edges with vintage lace from my grandmother's sewing room.

These photos include my dad, his brother, sister and my grandparents in front of the house. I wanted to add the photo of my children as it was taken in front of the little guest house that once stood behind the "big" house.