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.

Well, im trying once again to get my credit card company to do a charge back. Hopefully, with the information shared here I will have a better chance this time. Thanks to all for posting.
I too would be interested in an Advent House from Raymond. Perhaps all may work out well for the holidays:)
Thanks again,
Rob

Raymond...I definitly would love a house built by you, even if I can't get it till next year. I'll wait, it'll be worth it. I would be willing to put a deposit on it too. Let us fanatics know your decision. We're behind you all the way!

Pat

I am heartbroken! I looked a their website a few times each year just waiting to be able to afford that beautiful house that I had seen on the movie. I thought for 2009 I would be able to purchase it and now...Please keep us updated if Raymond thinks he would be able to make the house. It is so beautiful - SOMEONE has to make them!

Paypal will not honor my claim since it has passed 45 days after ordering. Looks like I'm screwed.

Hey, guys! WOW! I got Harriet's email about the posts that were being put up and I was stunned to see them. Great feedback.

So here's where we are so far...It's looking pretty good at this point for us to go ahead and do the houses. Still a couple of details to work. The biggest being the final price. Since we'd really like to do the houses in brick, it'll drive up the cost. So we'd like to know if everyone would want the brick (it really does look amazing opposed to paper.

After reading the other posts, here's a couple of things and other notes about our house:

1. Our house has 22 windows, the main door and the tower. I know there may have been some confusion about this, so I'll explain. An advent calendar only goes to Christmas Eve. Not Christmas Day. The other company was not true to the movie. If you watch "Christmas Vacation", the tower is No. 1 and the main door is December 24th. So our house stays true to the movie. We go with the idea you light the house on the 1st and countdown to Christmas Eve.

2. Our house has four sides so the light in contained inside the house and does not flood out the back.

3. We added 4 extra windows on the sides of the house. 2 on each of the first & second floors. The sides are not shown in the movie, but we thought we\'d add them to give the house a sense of realism. It looked a little bland on the sides. These windows area also lit and give a great display.

4. The other company doesn't seem to actually light the tower, just the atrium. Our artium and tower are both lit.

5. We used matching images in the windows and main door. Not all windows are displayed in the movie, but we we can see most of them. So where two kids are on a sled in the movie, two kids are on a sled in our house and etc. We also used the actual image from the movie in the main door. FYI- we have to work out the legality of all the images for the house before we sell anything.

6. We used real brick. This is a major factor. It looks AWESOME but adds to the price, so we're working on that issue.

7. We're working on payment schedule. Since a lot of people were burned from the other company, we're trying to figure out a way to work to everyone's advantage.

Can everyone tell us where they're from so we can get an idea of how far the shipping will be? Someone mentioned they travel our way so that might save you on the shipping.

If anyone has any questions, please let me know.

Hi Raymond. I am from North Huntingdon, PA (near Pittsburgh). I would prefer the brick. So glad to hear it\'s looking like you\'ll make them. You\'ll make a LOT of people very happy!! :)