My Lucky Day....

This past Saturday 3 ladies from my miniature club and myself went on a mini adventure. One of the few miniatures stores left on our side of the state was having a miniture garage sale.  They do this event once a year to let local miniaturists get together & get rid of things they no longer want.  So we all decided we HAD to go.  We all met up bright & early and took the 1 1/2 hour road trip to the store.  This is not a huge event by any means, but it is always fun to search for our new treasures.

Now to fully understand why the treasure I found means so much to me, I need to fill you in... This store also does and event on the first Saturday in December which is a day full of Christmas make-it - take -its, raffles, and just a fun time all around.  Some club members and I had gone to that event & while we were there, I fell in love with this partially finished house that someone had decided they wanted to sell.  Well, the owner of the store was not there at the time, but one of the long time helpers was there and gave me a price for it.  It was more than I wanted to pay, but I really did want this house, and I knew it was just perfect for me.  So after a few tortured hours of debating this in my head & discussing pro's & con's with my buddies, I decided I was going to get it.  I went & told the helper, that I would take it.  However, the store owner was there and after finding out the selling price said that no, he wanted almost double that the original price.  Which in all honesty, would be a fair price for this house, but it was way out of my range.  I was dissapointed to say the least, but it simply was not meant to be.  It haunted me - I had dreams about that house after this happened, & it would make me a little blue, but that is how it had to be.  The helper person had joined our mini club after that, and I would always joke with her whenever I saw her and would ask her how "my" house was doing?  Has he sold it yet?   (I had no bad feelings towards her, she was a s surprised as I was when it happened).
Anyway, fast forward 6 months to the garage sale event - and during this, the helper person came up to me and said that she had actually taken the same class for this house & she did want to sell hers as well, but I had to commit to it now, because she had someone else there that was interested as well, but she wanted to give me the first shot at it.  She was selling hers for the original price she had given for the other one (which by the way is still in the store), and gave me 10 minutes to decide.  I immediately got one of my mini friends who knows the whole situation to discuss.  Knowing how I felt about this house, it was really a no brainer, but when doing these things, I do like to have a second opinion to be sure it was not too impulsive.  So, I am now beyond happy to report that I am the proud owner of a Rik Pierce kit.  From what I can tell, this was a class he had done in 2009 or 2010.  I do not know which class my house was done at, but I can find out.   I ended up finding a link to a blog (over at Debbies link blog HERE) that does a chronicle of her taking the class & doing this house.  Her blog- The Witches Cotttage for the house is really well done & it will be a great reference for me.  My chimmney is a little different, but it looks like the same house otherwise.  Some of the photos are washed out a little, it was 102 degrees F. & the sun was just brutal, but I had to get the before pictures done so I could play!

The front of the house

The inside

The side and the swamp area

I just love this chimney!

Closeup of the fireplace.

As you can see, there is a minor repair to be done on the front awning, but it looks fairly simple.  Other than that, the only thing is the roof.  It is complete, it just needs to be painted and aged.  All of the electricity is done & it looks great!  I have a horrible photo of it, but it will show you what it is like when it is dark....

all lit up - (very poor photo!)

I think I have decided where most of my dragons are going to live!  This would be a great house for my collection... :)

It will be a while before I can actually get to working on this, I have to get ready for the National Convention in 3 weeks, but I did want to share before it got too hectic.

Take care,