What is the advent mansion, from the Christmas Vacation movie, made of? Is it wood, plastic, foam? Thanks

According to the FAQ at their website:
http://www.theadventhouse.com/faqs.asp

"Each house is made of 3/8" MDF board, a high-density wood fiberboard. All of the windows are hand crafted out of basswood. The brick print is pressed into high quality card stock paper and is 3 dimensional. Each house is hand painted and then detailed with synthetic snow and icicles. Every house has a 15W light bulb that illuminates the house from within, giving each window and Christmas image a warm soft glow."

Hope this helps you out,

Michael Kiely
TheGreenHead.com

How large is the house (h/w/d)? Tx.

Advent House has declared bankruptcy. Has not honored any pre-paid orders.
Perhaps a scam all along?

Scam is RIGHT......Call your credit card co. They will help.Mr James Duncan and wife should be held accoutable.

So your post as I am awaiting my order for xmas 2008. Are you sure they are not going to fulfill their prepaid orders? Has anyone actually received one of these houses that is the quickest way of knowing whether they scammed us or not.

I just received my bankruptcy notice regarding the Duncans. Does the credit card company cover things like bankruptcy situations?

Well, I just talked to MasterCard and they said after 120 days there is nothing they can do. Seems that they filed just about 120 days after the last one was sold, how about that.
I also talked to the trustee and he said there is probably nothing we can do. IF there are any assets, which he did'nt think, then all the creditors would recieve another letter to fill out trying to make a claim. As he put it, "You can't get blood from a turnip"
He also said it sounded like "fraud" to him, and there was a chance the state of Utah could get involved. That does not help much when you really cant afford a $524 loss towards your Christmas presents.
I would encourage everyone to contact anyone they can think of to complain, State Attorney General, The Trustee, etc.
maybe at least they will make James Duncan provide copies of the blue prints and material list so we could attempt to make one ourselves.

I too, received the bankruptcy notice and cried when I realized I wasn't going to receive my advent house. I was really looking forward to it. The Christams Vacation movie has become a tradition in our family, and I was going to surprise them with the Advent House. How dissappointing. I hesitated paying for something in advance, but wanted it so badly, I gave in. I did contact my Visa company, and I AM getting my money back. I just have to fill out the forms. Maybe it depends on the credit card company -- so at least try with yours! I'm searching for another Advent House - one that's guaranteed to be in stock now and delivered!! I will let everyone know if I find one and would appreciate the same from anyone else who locates one.

I too was taken in by the website and was so excited to be receiving the advent house for this christmas season. I guess I was naive to think that someone who put such effort into their wedsite and sounded so sincere would be a scam artist. James Duncan had a lot of people fooled. What he did is so wrong, especially for a Christmas holiday item. If anyone finds plans please let everyone know so we can make our own. Thanks!

I am so glad I found this site. I felt so upset after receiving the bankruptcy notice and not having anyone I know understand how frustrating and disapointing this whole thing is. I not only feel foolish but angry that this person could do such a thing after getting the money up front. Their website said they had been in business for like seven years. Do you think that was a lie? I will have to try my credit card co. too. I have seen very nice advent calendar houses for the past two years at Sur La Table stores.

I posted back on July 4th. Just called my credit card co. They are investigating but takes 30 days...so I may get reimbursed. I would recommend calling your credit card company to see if they can help.

The Advent House rented facilities at the Industrial Depot in Tooele, UT

http://www.utahid.com/pdf/Articles/DepotReport-1Q2008.pdf

Perhaps a call to the local newspaper is in order to let them know what one their citizens is up to:

http://www.tooeletranscript.com/

I have also tried to call Mr. Duncan directly but no answer.


Here is another interesting link:

http://www.zzrbikes.com/modules.php?name=Forums&;file=viewtopic&t=30692&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=

Please let us know if you have any luck with your credit card companies, like I said, mine will not help me at all because they said it had been over 120 days since my charge and according to the law that was the limit on a chargeback. Doesn't seem fair to be able to get away with this kind of fraud, but maybe they will at least have to provide the plans. I was really looking forward to surprising my wife and family with this calender. Now I will have a hard time not getting sick every year when we sit down to watch Christmas Vacation:(

I am so glad my husband found this site. It didn\'t occur to me to check with my
credit card company because I ordered this 7 months ago. But after reading
the comments on this site I did contact Visa and they ARE going to give me the
money back. All I had to do was fax Visa a copy of my statement the charge was on and a copy of the bankruptcy notice. I would have much rathered have the Advent House but it is a relief to know I haven\'t lost the money as well.

I am going to be reimbursed by my Visa company for sure. I am going to call the Industrial Depot in UT, as mentioned by another guest to find out if they are still there, and if they are selling Advent Houses -- OUR Advent Houses!! If so, I will call the newspaper as suggested. We can't take this lying down!!

If anyone finds a similar Advent House that is truly obtainable, PLEASE be sure to let all of us know. This is such a disappointment! Thanks.

To the guest who posted the website on the bike link -- how do I find the info. on him on that site? Not sure what I'm looking for or how to get it. Thanks.

Hey, guys! One of you just emailed me about this company. She found my website with a replica of the house we built. It's complete with real brick an the actual image on Christmas Eve from the movie.

I'd love to be able to offer them. We've toyed with the idea for three years. If I can find a way to make it work, we may be able to do it. Check out the house we built at: www.ChristmasinPawleys.com

Hi everyone. I'm the one who may have found the answer to our prayers! I contacted Raymond after seeing his beautiful Christmas pictures online and his Advent House. We emailed each other back and forth and I'm crossing my fingers they decide to make these houses. I can tell he is a REALLY nice guy, and you can see from his pictures he and his wife LOVE Christmas and would enjoy making these. I think it's actually a blessing in disguise for those of us who got our money back -- his house is alot nicer! I didn't know it, but the "Advent House" house had only three sides (no back). His is obviously much sturdier being complete, is made of real brick (compare the two pictures -his looks way better with the contrast of the mortar on the red brick), and his windows seem to light up much brighter. Also, he explained to me that his pictures in the windows are more like the ones in the movie, and he has a "tower" like in the movie where theirs had an extra window instead. If he decides to go forward with these, I told him I'll be his first customer, and I'll give you guys all the details. For those of you who didn't get your money back from your credit card company, you should look into that further. Ask to speak to a manager, tell them you're going to switch credit card companies, because how can some companies refund money for "services not rendered", and theirs won't. Don't give up! Good luck.

Hi everyone. Raymond and I have been talking back and forth about the Advent House. He and his wife are still figuring some things out and trying to decide if they want to go forward with making some of them. He's interested in finding out what the demand might be. One other person besides me has expressed interest to him. I told him I'd try to help him by making everyone who posted here aware of what's going on. If you're interested, please post a message so Raymond can get an idea of the demand. Like I said, he's a really nice man and I've talked to him a lot. He's still working out the price and details and will let us know what he decides to do. I want an Advent House so badly -- I'm keeping my fingers crossed!! Thanks. Harriet

In response to Harriet's posting, Raymond I would be interested depending on price on how long it would take to get. Also I would want information on the weight and size because I am sure shipping costs could get expensive if it is actually made of real brick. That being said I would be very interested in buying a house from you. Supply us with some information on the house and the cost you would charge and I am sure there would be people on this site and others who would be interested like I am and Harriet is. Thanks and thans to Harriet for the work

Harriet, one thing I noticed abotu Raymond's house is that it only has 22 windows and then the door while the advent house had 24 windows and the door. So if Raymond did make them and sold them we may want to address that. Otherwise I would agree with you that it is much nicer. Also Raymond may want to address how he will accept payment obviously after we were scammed by Duncan we want to protect ourselves. And lastly I agree with Scott that it would be good if Raymond could post the weight and his anticipated price so we all have an idea. Thanks for all your work with this.

Just to help a little, might I suggest PayPal as a payment method? They offer buyer protection services on all purchases.

If Raymond is thinking about building the advent houses (his is gorgeous) I'll stand in line to buy one. I just about decided to order one from Advent House site and a friend told me to come here. I'm so bummed out. I REALLY wanted one of those houses. Like everyone here, it's a tradition in my house to watch Christmas Vacation every year.

Keep us updated.

Pat

Hi everyone. So glad some of you came onto the site and noticed the new info. on the Advent House. I\'m trying to get in touch with Michael who runs this site (he should have email addresses) to contact everyone else to read the new updates. I have a few things to tell you all about. First, to those of you who thanked me - you\'re quite welcome. I am really happy to share this info. with others who were as disappointed as I was. I am determined to have an Advent House (someday anyway) and I won\'t give up! About the windows, Raymond said his is actually just like the one in the movie. The other company\'s didn\'t have a tower and had an extra window instead. Also, his pictures are more like the movie, with the Christmas Eve picture being exactly the same. He said that was one of the reasons he decided to build his own instead of ordering from the other company -- which he almost did. I honestly never paid THAT much attention to every detail in the movie, but it seems like he really did his homework! The next bit of info. is only what I\'m \"assuming\"...Raymond will have to clarify this. I think the \"real brick\" means that he used tiny \"light-weight\" bricks instead of the pressed paperboard. I looked back at an email in which he told me his house weighs 30 pounds and theirs weighed 22, so shipping shouldn\'t be much different (unless it\'s more now due to gas prices!). He also told me his has four sides -- theirs didn\'t have a back. As far as payment goes, he mentioned something about just asking for a deposit until they are done - he knows everyone will be nervous after what happened. I\'m a pretty good judge of character, and we\'ve been emailing back and forth quite a bit about this house -- I personally have no doubts about him. I would send him a personal check tomorrow if I had to. He\'s a super nice guy and I feel like I\'ve become sort of friends with him. I hope you all look at his beautiful site. He and his wife are just like all of us--they love the holidays and Christmas Vacation!! He seems really smart, so I\'m sure he\'ll set something up that everyone will be comfortable with regarding payment. This last thing is very important to those who didn\'t get their money back from their credit card company. I posted that I did, because I was told I would be credited when I first called. The person I talked to actually had to look everything up for me that I had to put in writing to them because I didn\'t have my old statement. Therefore, she knew it had been charged back in Jan., and I told her I was supposed to receive the item THIS Nov. I sent in the info., never saw a credit, so I called them about it. They told me it was past 180 days and there was nothing they could do. I explained that the person I first contacted knew it was charged in Jan., and why did she tell me it would be covered?! Here\'s the clincher, luckily I blurted out that I was supposed to receive the merchandise THIS Nov. She didn\'t \"take very good notes\" this new man told me, and neglected to put in her notes that I was supposed to receive the merchandise THIS Nov. He said \"Oh, THIS November ... that changes everything!\" So, maybe your companies thought too that you were supposed to receive the merchandise LAST November and you just contacted them in July for a credit. The person I originally talked to was not the person who put the credit through--someone else investigates it and processes the credit. So that\'s what happens if the notes aren\'t exact--they say it\'s too late. I also sent them a copy of the bankruptcy notice. I got a letter just today saying my dispute was resolved and my account HAS BEEN credited. So try again, good luck and luckily this may change things for some of you. I\'m going to contact Raymond and ask him to post any more info. he has about the house for everyone. He told me a few days ago there is a 50/50 chance that he\'ll go forward with it, and wanted to see the interest first. Oh, the only other problem I foresee is that he obviously won\'t be able to get a bunch of these houses made with only 3 1/2 months left before the holiday. If he does it, he agreed I will be his first customer, so I\'ll be happy to be the Guinea Pig and give everyone all the details. As you can see, I have NO problem giving LOTS of details -- LOL!! I\'ll keep you posted! :)

Thanks to all of you for the comments and suggestions for getting money back. I just called Visa and thankfully was able to get a credit back.

Raymond - I would definitely be interested in one of the houses. Your version is awesome. BTW - my wife and I love visiting Pawley\'s Island. Thanks and Merry Christmas.