Jeff Barganier Homes Should Say Merry Christmas

Travel Experiences with Jeff Barganier Homes Should Say Merry Christmas

Sometimes, the best stories are not far from home. Last Christmas, Cindy was watching a show on the Magnolia Network about a family that had renovated a school house for their home. The mother of that family made a replica of it out of card board boxes and decorated it for Christmas as if it were a ginger bread house, albeit, one that could be displayed for years to come. Cindy thought this was such an attractive idea that she had to try making her own. She pondered the thought for most of the year. But this fall, she took out a photo of the house she wanted to create and set about finding the right materials, including boxes of just the right proportions.

The parts she knew she couldn’t make with any degree of authenticity— shutters, columns, Santa, reindeer—she purchased from Hobby Lobby and other stores that sell items that go in dollhouses. The tiny shutters she found were the only ones available. So, they drove the proportion and scale of the whole project. Other materials included project board for the roof, paper, cardboard, and spray foam insulation which doubled as “snow” and adhesive. While she started out using Gorilla Glue, she soon discovered that spray foam and hot glue dispensed from a glue gun were superior for quickly “cementing” the home together. The Gorilla Glue, on the other hand, took forever to dry while she waited and strained to hold pieces in place. The house she decided to create is actually our daughter’s beautiful home. Cindy plans to present the prototype to her family as a Christmas surprise right about the time this feature goes to press. The replication of this old Southern home is reminiscent of its history. It was once disassembled at its original location in Savannah, Georgia then transported to and reassembled at its present site in North Georgia. Cindy thought that creating the model would be a fabulous way to surprise the grandchildren with something they would be able to enjoy and cherish for many years to come. Cindy says her own mother, Betty Etheredge, “always worked so hard every year to make Christmas Delivery Day really, really special. She went overboard creating fun moments for me. In turn, I’ve enjoyed doing the same for my family; and, especially, having grandchildren makes it all the more fun.”

Cindy placed wax paper over the inside of the windows to create the illusion of “old wavy glass” one would find in a historic home of its period. To light up the interior she cut holes in the back of the model and placed battery-operated

candles inside to make the home look warm and occupied. For hint of a decorated Christmas tree inside Getting Started the home, she used tiny multi-colored lights; and a flickering candle to imitate a cozy fire in the fireplace. She avoided expensive realistic columns used in miniature models; and, instead, used simple dowels purchased at Hobby Lobby. But she did order small decorative porch railings for use in between the columns. When she realized that the windows were too short and the columns to tall, she found another box to serve as a porch, giving the home its true-to-form conventional foundation. She cut holes in the porch box and recessed the columns into hot glue, making them stable rather than wobbly.

Cindy says the hardest part of the project was creating the roof and dormer windows. For a roof, she scored and bent project board but had to figure the proper angles for rafters to hold it up. Thus, the house looks like it’s being supported by the columns but really isn’t. “It has real rafters like a real house.” She admits

it was all “tedious trial and error.” She calculated the angles and lengths of the dormers until satisfied with them, then struggled to properly glue them in place. The boxes are spray-painted white because the house was white. However, she cautions, because cardboard is extremely difficult to cover, one must first spray them with Kilz Primer to avoid splotches bleeding through. “In the end, it all worked out great,” she says, claiming the project took two weeks to complete.

We placed the little Christmas house in the front window of Cindy’s design shop and the reaction of neighborhood children was priceless. “As I was sitting in my chair, and people didn’t realize I was here, I got to see parents and children happily discover the model. The kids bradded their

Forming the Roof little faces against the window, just loving it, as parents pointed out Santa’s stocking cap disappearing down the chimney. Then I brought my mother over to see it. She froze! Her hands flew to her

Front Door face. Over and over, she said, ‘oh, oh, oh,’ and then burst into tears. So, I pray I’ll get the same response from the grands. I’m hoping they’ll place it in the great room by the fireplace for all to enjoy over the holidays.”

The model is decorated with garlands, red ribbons and pine cones, reflecting the home’s original decorations for the family’s first Christmas in it. “I placed Santa and reindeer on the roof because my parents put them on our roof when I was a little girl,” Cindy explains.

We hope this feature will say Merry Christmas to all you cherished moms who made your homes special down through the years during this blessed season. After all, you knew that a home should say Merry Christmas!

Jeff S. Barganier is a novelist, travel writer and manager of Cindy Barganier Interiors LLC (www.cindybarganier.com). He travels far and wide upon the slightest excuse for something interesting to write about. Contact: Jeffbarganier@knology.net. Instagram: @jeffbarganier. You may print out Jeff’s features at www.jeffbarganier.com and take them with you when you travel!