fortytwo: the fema house

i made my first attempt at making a gingerbread house on saturday. i found a great site that included a template for the walls and roof of the house. i cut out the different pieces after work one day and was not paying too much attention to what i was doing. the result was lopsided walls and a roof with a gap of half an inch in some places.
for a while, it looked like the house was going to turn out well. the walls were standing up and the roof was not collapsing. we even started to place vanilla wafers on the roof to mimic shingles (this may have been our fatal mistake). sadly, we were not able to finish the roof. the wafers slowly fell down and eventually half of the roof came down. to prevent the walls from separating we tied a piece of string around the house. my mom thinks the house is hilarious and is introducing it to everyone as the 'FEMA house' (not a very pc name).
if i ever make another house, i think i will try to make it themed. i was thinking of a sweeney todd themed gingerbread house, because my favorite gingerbread people to decorate are the dismembered ones (see the picture below).
BEFORE:
AFTER:
COLLATERAL DAMAGE (from the falling shingles):