Sears Home Kits and Building Plans

[Shibumi]

Cool look at the Sears Homes that were available by mail-order....

https://www.boredpanda.com/20th-century-diy-kit-sears-house/

 

[1930artdeco]

I want one! Well, one or two plans I really, really like at least.

Mike

 

[3fingers]

There was one of the ten room models shown in the article about 3 miles from where I sit typing this. It was disassembled and hauled to Wisconsin some years ago to be mated with a twin there to make a small mansion. I have no idea how the project turned out, but I was glad someone bought the house because it was headed for a bulldozer and a match.

 

[Bushman]

There's an entire neighborhood's worth of these Sears houses across from the old town library in my town. One of them had been my aunt's first home. Her family started to outgrow the house, and they moved into a newer, bigger home across town. I wish they still built homes like these. They're quaint, homely little houses that make great, cheap starter homes.

 

[3fingers]

Carlinville Illinois has an entire addition to the town built of Sears homes. They were built by Standard Oil to house people who worked for their coal mines.
The mines only lasted a few years and the houses were mostly abandoned until Standard sold them off. They sold cheap and were fixed up by the new owners.
All but a few still stand.
There are about 150 of them, making Carlinville the home of the largest Sears home community in the country.

 

[Shibumi]

I'm real glad that some are still going strong!

 

[Edward]

Ikea are doing something similar now - https://dornob.com/flat-pack-ikea-house-built-shipped-for-under-100000/ . Would make a great little unit for a student, or a pied a tere or holiday home. Not sure I'd want to live full time with that layout (I don't like open-plan kitchens, and having to go through the bedroom to get to the bathroom is a non-starter if you have guests), BUT the basic concept is fantastic. Could be a very cool thing to have as a gust-facility if you have a big enough garden - also for Summer lets, or students.

 

[LizzieMaine]

And of course, sometimes things can go wrong...

 

[Doctor Strange]

You beat me to it again, Lizzie! I couldn't stop thinking about "One Week" from the start of this thread.

 

[3fingers]

Ikea are doing something similar now - https://dornob.com/flat-pack-ikea-house-built-shipped-for-under-100000/ . Would make a great little unit for a student, or a pied a tere or holiday home. Not sure I'd want to live full time with that layout (I don't like open-plan kitchens, and having to go through the bedroom to get to the bathroom is a non-starter if you have guests), BUT the basic concept is fantastic. Could be a very cool thing to have as a gust-facility if you have a big enough garden - also for Summer lets, or students.

I'm sure there are markets where that might work, but not here. It looks like a house trailer and I can purchase a fair percentage of frame homes here for $86,000 already built and ready for occupancy that somebody will be living in long after my lamp goes out.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The "tiny house" movement is very much a growing thing that would be tailor-made for pre-cut kit jobs if somebody wanted to get on the ball with that.

Of course, not everybody welcomes the idea of people doing what they have to do to live affordably. The bourgies are up in arms in my town over what allowing such structures would do to their property values, their "green lawns" and of course the "kind of people" who would occupy tiny houses. I look out my window at my ten feet of frontage between house and street and at the stark and tree-free parking lot my neighbors constructed for their AirBNB racket, and I wonder where these oh so very "concerned citizens" were when all that was going on. They can pound their green space as far as it'll go.

 

[Bushman]

Personally, I prefer a larger yard and a smaller house. My neighbors next to me live in an entirely new neighborhood built about several years after the neighborhood I live in was built. We each get our half acre, but the sizes of the newer houses make your lot feel so much smaller.

 

[3fingers]

I have given some thought as to what I would do if my wife would precede me in leaving this mortal coil.
The tiny house idea has a definite appeal.

 

[BobHufford]

https://www.wkrn.com/news/national/...rs-catalog-in-1920s-still-standing/1536250149

 

[Edward]

I have given some thought as to what I would do if my wife would precede me in leaving this mortal coil.
The tiny house idea has a definite appeal.

I love the concept, but I know I'll never be able to be minimalist enough to make it work.

 

[1930artdeco]

Some of those tiny houses looked really nice. My current house is only 860 Sq ft. IT is small by todays standards but fits me just fine. Now...if I could just figure out how to get my garage to expand to three or four times it size.........

Mike

 

[Jason29307]

My home is a Sears home built in 1920. I don't remember the name of the base house. It is in the 1920-1926 section at the Sears archives site. The owner who has it built picked a base house and added a back deck to it as well. Very well built house. If you ever wonder if you have a Sears house, look at the framing wood or wood for the basement structure is it has one and look for a stamp on the wood of SH and a three digit after the SH. Also look behind the paneling for a Sears homes stamp.
Really well built home..

 

[GHT]

I have given some thought as to what I would do if my wife would precede me in leaving this mortal coil.
The tiny house idea has a definite appeal.

 

[3fingers]

View attachment 176954

Well maybe not quite that tiny.

 

[Radiospector]

I’ve seen a home similar to the van Jean colonial but the sunroom was extended to have French doors on both sides of the fireplace. It was a good layout and the rooms seemed to have a lot of space