So you've decided to buy our Advent House Kit and build it yourself! Great! We have worked very hard on putting together a kit that is easy to assemble and produces a most beautiful Christmas Advent House that you'll be able to keep for many years to come and display with pride each year.
Here are the following options for purchasing an Advent House Kit from us:
The Base Model: Contains the base model of the kit with no finishes, brick, lighting, or extras of any sort. All of the additional options listed below are designed for this Base Model kit. The Base Model is a good kit for the true do-it-yourselfers who just need a starting off point and then they'll add all their own finishes. The base model contains the main structure itself, plus: 24 windows, and the door, the Atrium and the Tower.
On top of the Base Model Kit, the following options are available as 'Add-On' purchases, each available in our Etsy shop.
Brick Options: We offer 3 options of exterior brick finish for our Advent House:
- 1 - NO exterior finish: For those who want to find their own exterior finish, you can purchase the Base Model and not purchase a Brick option. This is good for those who want to use other exterior materials, such as shakes, siding, or stucco texture, or if you want to find your own brick exterior.
- 2 - Laser Engraved Wood Brick Panels: This option includes 7 'panels' of laser engraved brick that each match one of the 7 front walls. These "brick" panels simply get glued right to the face of the Base Model Frame walls. Simply glue in place, putty and sand the corners, then paint with your choice of color. These laser engraved brick panels do NOT require grouting. Do note that the outside corners of these engraved brick panels will show a seam without additional manual hand work to get them cleaned up.
- 3 - Plasti-formed Brick Sheets: This option includes 8 sheets of Plastic formed brick that each covers about 72 square inches, which is enough to cover the front and side walls of the Advent House. This plastic material is easy to cut with a scroll saw. Gluing this material to the base model frame walls is a little more work to keep it flat and secured. This plastic brick will require grouting, which is included in the brick add-on purchase (light grey in color) The plastic formed brick add-on includes 4 plastic preformed exterior corners for a nice clean corner on the finished Advent House.
- 4 - Real Clay Brick: For those wondering about the real clay brick sheets that we used to offer, they are currently not available for us to purchase for these kits. We are working on finding a new source, and in the meantime, you may be able to find some online on other websites. If/when we get this option available again, it will include a container of grout (light grey in color). The real clay brick option will also include 4 plastic preformed exterior corners for a nice clean corner on the finished Advent House. Please note: There is a very slight color difference between the real clay brick and the plastic formed brick corners.
Lighting Options:
- 1 - NO lighting kit. For those wanting to find their own interior lighting kits and methods, you can purchase the Base Model without any lighting options.
- 2 - LED Kit: We offer an LED lighting kit that includes the power block, the LED controller, and the preassembled LED lighting strip required to light the entire interior of the Advent House, as well as the Atrium and the Tower. Our LED kit has full color LEDs for all your lighting options.
Side Window Options:
- 1 - NO Side Windows: The original Christmas Vacation movie Advent House did not have any side windows on the model. If you want to stay as true as possible to the original movie model, then you will NOT want the side window kit.
- 2 - Side Window Kit: For those who want to add a little more character to your Advent House, we offer a 'Side Window Kit' that includes 6 total windows, 3 for each side of the Advent House. This kit also includes the Keystone numbers from 26-31, or use the backsides of the keystones for no numbers. The side window kit will require additional window images which are not included in the kit.
Tools Options: We have a set of tools that we offer that will help with assembly and finish if you don't have the tools already. This tool set requires ground shipping. Things included are:
- Exacto knife set
- Gap filling CA glue
- Thin CA glue
- Tube of Clear E6000 Glue
- Wood putty and putty knife
- Foam sanding block
- A roll of painters tape
Finish Options: For finishing your model (beyond the exterior brick options), we can also provide a set of the texture and paints that we use to finish our models. This Finish Option requires Ground Shipping. The finishes included:
- 2 cans flat gray primer (for most of the areas you'll be painting)
- 1 can matte black primer (the outside of the back door and the back of the model)
- 1 can glossy white paint (for inside the Advent House to reflect light)
- 1 can grey stone texture (for the stone bases/foundation and the roof texture)
- 2 cans semi-gloss Hunter Green paint (for all the green parts)
- 1 can Shiny Gold paint (for the keystones and tower spire)
- 1 small can Glitter Blast Dimond Spray (for the keystones)
- 1 can matte clear polyurethane spray (to seal the paints and texture for finish)
- 1 bottle 'Snow' for the roof and top of foundation
- 1 bag of 'powdered snow' to add 'flakes' and sparkle to your snow
Windows/Door images Option:
The Base model does NOT come with the printed images for behind the windows and the door. This is because many of our customers want to use custom family images on their custom Advent House. This option is available for those interested in getting a set of images pre-printed on vellum.
This option comes with:
- 2 different door images
- 36 images to choose from for the small windows
- 18 images to choose from for the medium windows
- 18 images to choose from for the large windows.
Some of these images are available in more than one window size, so be sure to plan out what images you want where to ensure no duplication of an image in more than 1 window.
Are you wanting/needing something not listed above? Let us know by contacting us through our Etsy shop!
