18 ms·

Sears offered complete houses in large DIY kits

297 points by taubek 3y ago

hedora 3y ago
We recently built a house. We'd absolutely have considered this if they were still being offered. We couldn't get any of the modern prefab builders to call us back, so we ended up going full custom. I'm sure we would have gotten more bang for our buck with some sort of middle-ground kit.
- bombcar 3y ago
  From my understanding the prefabs are amazing great if they’re exactly what you want, but as you deviate from that the more and more full custom actually becomes the best deal.
hiidrew 3y ago
Good podcast on this: https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-house-that-came-in-the-mail/ https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-house-that-came-i... The houses look fairly ordinary, here's an example: https://img.atlasobscura.com/w5ka7Nu51kS6w9gIH24ObDyeKBfhbkPybJB_6_Ry7aw/rs:fill:12000:12000/q:81/sm:1/scp:1/ar:1/aHR0cHM6Ly9hdGxh/cy1kZXYuczMuYW1h/em9uYXdzLmNvbS91/cGxvYWRzL2Fzc2V0/cy9mZjc2YjYwYzMz/ODZmMjM5YTZfQ2Fu/dG9uIE9oaW8gU2Vh/cnMgTWFnbm9saWEg/d2l0aCBCb29rLmpw/Zw.jpg https://img.atlasobscura.com/w5ka7Nu51kS6w9gIH24ObDyeKBfhbkP.... I wonder if I've ever visited one unknowingly.
- gs17 3y ago
  I lived across from one (nowhere near as nice as that one though), and you definitely can't tell.
- soderfoo 3y ago
  > fairly ordinary I don't know if I'm just nostalgic for American homes, but that home looks striking to me. But I know what you mean.
- nonethewiser 3y ago
  That’s so much nicer than I was expecting. I figured it was something like a trailer home.
- JoeAltmaier 3y ago
  Easy to do! I've known several in my hometown, even rented one for a while. Recently looking at properties for sale around the state, found a fancy house with a pillar'd porch and elaborate newel post, pillared doorways, sliding doors, screened summer kitchen in the back - and instantly recognized it as a Sears Roebuck house with added features! If you enter into a 'parlor' with a switchback staircase on the right, fancy newel post, maybe a gabled landing then it's a good chance. To the left, a double doorway to a sitting room. Right from there, pillared fancy doorway (possibly sliding doors) to a dining room with bay window. Behind that a pantry and then a screened summer kitchen, often closed in in later years. Straight from the entryway you get a sort of closet with the basement stairs on the right (and maybe another exterior door) and a shelving unit on the left. Through that to a play room or downstairs bedroom. If there's a bathroom it's behind that. All lathe-and-plaster walls, wainscoting of various designs depending on the money they had to spend. Upstairs a short hallway with four doors to four bedrooms. Maybe a sleeping porch behind the first bedroom on the right. Anyway seen this design around here (midwest) many times, sometimes a little larger or smaller but always the same layout!
tylershuster 3y ago
See catalog here: http://www.searsarchives.com/homes/1908-1914.htm http://www.searsarchives.com/homes/1908-1914.htm
- onlyrealcuzzo 3y ago
  If home materials prices tracked inflation - you should be able to buy the same kit for less $60k today. The model 115 would be ~$33k. You can hardly get a plastic shed for that price.
  - treis 3y ago
    It also doesn't have a bathroom. I'd be interested to see what like for like cost would be. I suspect that it would be less adjusted for inflation.
    - onlyrealcuzzo 3y ago
      There's basically no economy of scale in construction: https://www.construction-physics.com/p/why-are-there-so-few-economies-of https://www.construction-physics.com/p/why-are-there-so-few-... All the money to be made is selling to the top end of the market, especially since land is priced at developing the land as much as you can (to then sell to the top end).
ArcaneMoose 3y ago
My in-laws actually live in one of these! It's quite nice but no central air :)
- MarkMarine 3y ago
  Mini-split systems to the rescue. Or, an attic system with high velocity air, but that’s big $$$
  - IIsi50MHz 3y ago
    High-velocity air is amazing. Nearly silent, tiny openings instead of large grills, fairly even temperature throughout each floor of the house, doesn't tempt people to put a business-style drop ceiling in a historic home. I wish it becomes common enough & cheap enough that all the old leaky space-hogging ductwork, everywhere, gets replaced.
- adolph 3y ago
  I grew up in a small one that did have central "air" in the form of an attic fan. At about the center of the house there was a ~4 foot fan mounted in the ceiling, concealed by louvers that opened when the fan turned on.
JimtheCoder 3y ago
I'm trying to find a reference for it, but I vaguely remember a large subdivision around the Toronto Area being built using modular components. The interesting part was the prefabricated components were being built onsite, in a large metal building. I guess you can get an assembly line concept going, work at nights, in poor weather, etc, to really crank out a bunch of homes in a short period of time...
0xcde4c3db 3y ago
I wonder if something like this could be done today with prefabricated panels (e.g structural insulated panels) and some sufficiently bulletproof joint system to meet modern safety and efficiency standards without requiring a bunch of training. You'd presumably still want licensed professionals to do the actual utility hookups (and some jurisdictions would probably want them to do the interior wiring/plumbing as well), but at first glance I feel like it ought to be viable.
- thghtihadanacct 3y ago
  You can buy 'tiny homes' at home depot now ... there was some on here not long ago.
- stevehawk 3y ago
  menards sells plans/supplies
- hotpotamus 3y ago
  Habitat For Humanity is able to do it with a good amount of untrained volunteer labor.
- aurizon 3y ago
  A few factory made home startups have come and gone. Sadly the standards/codes vary state by state = hard to automate. I can see a large market for 9 foot panels 4 feet wide with a pre-wired plug as an option to have a wire to an attic wire set.Some 2" thick, 4", 6" Some with windows, thicker for exterior insulation foamed in option. There would be some with closet door kits, front door kits etc - buy your own door or buy theirs. There may be someone doing this out there now.
- throwway120385 3y ago
  It already is, and in great quantity, done with prefabricated panels. I worked for one of Quadrant Homes' builders in the PNW about 12 years ago and our framing came out pre-assembled on trucks. We would then nail it all together. They even boomed up the bottom and middle floors pre-assembled and nailed them together on-site.
ortusdux 3y ago
They still have quite the fanbase. Someone near me had one relocated via barge a few years ago.
andrew_ 3y ago
One thing overlooked is that the majority of the components were made in the U.S. This was pre-globalization, when even fasteners, pipe, and fittings were manufactured in the U.S. The increase in number and specificity of building codes has come in-part due to foreign-made building materials and poor QC. Even the quality of lumber has decreased as old growth forests that were harvested 80 years ago no longer exist. Heart pine lumber that were used in 1940s homes (I own one) is more dense and stronger than new growth pine lumber. [1] It would be tough to offer the same kind of kit in this day and age given the difference in building material back then compared to now. [1] https://etmoore.com/news/reclaimed-heart-pine-vs-yellow-pine/#:~:text=Durability,around%20870%20for%20yellow%20pine https://etmoore.com/news/reclaimed-heart-pine-vs-yellow-pine....
- JimtheCoder 3y ago
  "It would be tough to offer the same kind of kit in this day and age given the difference in building material back then compared to now." I see a lot of houses going up around here using metal studs...
  - andrew_ 3y ago
    totally. metal studs are widely used in commercial construction as well. you'll also see metal studs in finished basements instead of wood furring strips. they're used where they're a good fit, and if the region and conditions there support it.
- jameshart 3y ago
  Not sure I follow how the location of manufacture of fittings matters. Is it your assertion that domestic manufacture is inherently of higher quality, and therefore in less need of regulation? There’s just some inbuilt good old Americanness in those 1950s US-made fittings that meant an untrained homeowner could reliably construct a sturdy and safe home without screwing it up, in a way that is just not possible when the parts are made overseas?
  - ceejayoz 3y ago
chrchr 3y ago
The construction of these houses is depicted in this documentary: https://youtu.be/5Q0FMxZBmO4 https://youtu.be/5Q0FMxZBmO4
cj 3y ago
Closest modern day equivalent is probably a DIY Tiny Home. Here's one for $66k (steel frame only): https://www.homedepot.com/p/Bungalow-Raised-Deck-loft-2-Bedrooms-2-Bathrooms-1428-sq-ft-Included-Deck-Loft-Area-Tiny-Home-Steel-Frame-Kit-BRDL2B2B1428/321336351 https://www.homedepot.com/p/Bungalow-Raised-Deck-loft-2-Bedr... Other companies out there bundle additional components (more than just the frame). A quick google search turns up DIY kits that includes insulation, floors, walls, etc. Edit: This was actually on HN a couple weeks ago https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36209328 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36209328
- jimcsharp 3y ago
  We've got Beaver Homes up north: https://beaverhomesandcottages.ca/Search/Bungalow https://beaverhomesandcottages.ca/Search/Bungalow As far as I know they include everything.
- olyjohn 3y ago
  The fuck? 1400sq feet is not a tiny home. That's the size of the house I live in. Also for barely more than that, you can just get a manufactured home, that comes with walls, power, carpets, insulation, plumbing, cabinets and bathrooms. These tiny home things are all a joke, they're not cheap, and never have been. It's kinda like these people building container homes. Sure they're cheap to start, then you start putting in all stuff that makes it a house, and lo-and-behold it becomes as expensive as a house.
83 3y ago
Prior discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18265533 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18265533 This often comes up as a "look how much cheaper housing used to be" discussion. Keep in mind things like gfci outlets, fire code, insulation requirements, electrical/plumbing inspectors, permits, etc weren't an issue back then.
- medion 3y ago
  Someone should do a study to see how many of these are still standing versus how many are not, and how modern hyper housing regulation might have influenced the outcome. My guess is those Sears houses were more than good enough without all the added bureaucracy of today.
  - vkou 3y ago
    Generally speaking, old structures that are not up to code aren't just torn down because the code changed.
    - bombcar 3y ago
      In fact very few code changes for residential buildings cause retroactive enforcement. Called “grandfathering” you’re allowed to continue to use a house that was legal when you built it. There are often laws that say repairs beyond a certain point must bring it up to code, but minor repairs to keep it working are fine. Now you may want to get it to code, but that’s another question.
  - ender341341 3y ago
    For the framing/support that's probably true, but things like electrical are largely written in response to fires/shocks. The house kits seemed to started falling out of fashion as society started deeming electricity an essential, though the timeframe also had other things like the depression/ww2 going on to cause issues with it too.
  - 83 3y ago
    I tend to agree that we're past a point of optimal amount of bureaucracy in housing. I don't know that I'd go as far as saying these were more than good enough, though they are close. Things like fire rated doors/drywall might not lower the likelihood you'll have a house fire, but they will give the occupants time to exit safely. Ditto for electrical breakers/gfci.
MarkMarine 3y ago
I live in one of these. Still standing since 1908, and honestly the quality of the wood used in the construction is the secret, I’ve been trying to find tight grained fir that I can make some plugs to patch some holes drilled for wiring in the original wood floor, and I can’t even come close. Luckily mine was made by a craftsman who obviously took pride in his work.
- jweir 3y ago
  I too live in one, although it was heavily modified around 2009 with a second story put on it. All the houses on this side of the street are the same Sears house model and all have been slightly greatly modified over the last 110 years. They are pretty nice!
- bamfly 3y ago
  I owned a house built around that time, for a while, but not a kit house. The lumber they used for structural members (huge, 8x10ish boards, very long, all around where the foundation met the house; joists; et c) or for other parts that were never meant to be seen, like floor underlayment (which was a bunch of ordinary boards laid diagonally, so they wouldn't match up with wood floor boards laid atop it—not plywood) would probably have gone to veneer these days. Knot-free, perfect stuff. Much of it's likely nearly impossible to get these days at any price, in the same size and quality, short of salvage from houses like that. I never got much of a look in the walls, but it was 2 stories plus a full-height floor for the attic (need that for temp control, in the days before air conditioning) and was "balloon" construction, which means they used a whole bunch of boards 2-3 stories high to frame the exterior walls, which, again, probably nearly impossible to find these days, straight and strong enough to do such a thing.
  - MarkMarine 3y ago
    I follow some wooden window restoration businesses on YouTube and usually that is the first thing they say. Save your windows, because you can't buy wood of this quality anymore no matter what you spend.
    - 3y ago
haunter 3y ago
Also see here: people looking for still standing Sears houses https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/do-you-live-in-a-mailorder-sears-kit-home-these-house-hunters-will-find-you?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=atlas-pagehttp://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/do-you-live-in-a-mailorder-sears-kit-home-these-house-hunters-will-find-you https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/do-you-live-in-a-mailo... Sears house sites https://www.searshouseseeker.com/2015/11/blogs-about-sears-homes-and-other-kit.html?m=1 https://www.searshouseseeker.com/2015/11/blogs-about-sears-h... House database(s) http://www.sears-homes.com/2015/02/wheres-list.html?m=1 http://www.sears-homes.com/2015/02/wheres-list.html?m=1 http://www.searsarchives.com/homes/enthusiasts.jsp http://www.searsarchives.com/homes/enthusiasts.jsp
- hackernewds 3y ago
  Very impressive. We fail to appreciate today that Sears used to be the Amazon of their time
  - tastyfreeze 3y ago
    Slower turn around but just as convenient. Sears dominated mail order for 100 years.
  - h2odragon 3y ago
    The amazing thing is how hard Sears worked not to be the Sears of our time, leaving the field open for Amazon to eat their legacy.
    - bluGill 3y ago
      More amazing is they tried things like protege that failed and gave up right before the internet took off.
      - h2odragon 3y ago
        itym "Prodigy": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prodigy_(online_service) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prodigy_(online_service)
aurizon 3y ago
Yes, they were huge in the depression. I live in one my parents bought and built in the 30's for $1400. One large room, 2 bedrooms 12x12, kitchen 9x12, bathroom 7x7, mudroom 7x7. Just wood. They used an early lay-away plan and it arrived as lengths of labelled wood and a number of single pane swing to open windows. Totally un finished, no wires/plaster/lathes etc, they wired/plumbed it but did not plaster it as we used it as a summer cottage They left to Dad and he got married and he and wife added insulation and dry wall and a sleeping loft. 3 kids later and after being widowed, I live here alone and see kids/brother via the internet. It is still a small house, but grandfathered taxes are only $560 a year. I now 84, taxes will leap after I pass... I doubt such kits are viable now, as this was built over several years with grandparents in tents and codes/inspectors - what are those? The current codes and frequent inspection milestones as the build progresses are less suited to kit homes. Might be viable for a handy person with hired in trades for trade tasks. Home building is ripe for a disruption - huge inertia in the code/inspect system. Law here states you must have a window in every room to ventilate the fire place?? I can see many people happy in a house with a home office, TV room etc with no window. Hang a 48" 4K display on the wall and dial up an IP view of any where at all, or watch TV?
- vkou 3y ago
  (Bed)rooms don't need windows to ventilate a fireplace, rooms need windows so that you don't burn to death if a fire traps you in one. It would be great if people would understand why Chesterton's fence was put up, before knocking it down.
  - aurizon 3y ago
    well, with fire/smoke detectors in every room....little need and when you are on the 30th floor - do you want to exfenestrate?
- hotpotamus 3y ago
  I had a co-worker who built a house in the same sort of way while living with his father nearby. I did ask about inspections and he said that out in rural Texas, they just don't do that, and they also pay very little in property tax. Generally speaking you want at least one window per room as a means of escape in the event of a fire in case the door is blocked, but the natural light might also be important to people.
wittjeff 3y ago
Montgomery Ward also offered kit homes through Wardway Homes https://www.pinterest.com/richlandpreservation/montgomery-ward-co-wardway-homes-1924/ https://www.pinterest.com/richlandpreservation/montgomery-wa...
- sowerssix 3y ago
  At first glance I read that as Wayward Homes. Heck of a start for a sales pitch.....
bamfly 3y ago
Buster Keaton's short film "One Week" is based around a kit house of this sort. Like a lot of silent era comedy, it's still pretty damn funny: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Q0FMxZBmO4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Q0FMxZBmO4
jeffbee 3y ago
Half the time some local NIMBY refers to the "vernacular" of some supposedly irreplaceable house it turns out to be a catalog kit home. It is one of the stupidest aspects of American discourse.
- GenerWork 3y ago
  The phrase "historical" has been so abused that at this point I assume that it just means that it's 70 years old and there's nothing else special about it.
  - bombcar 3y ago
    There’s a literal garbage dump that is a historical site - http://historicfresno.org/nrhp/landfill.htm http://historicfresno.org/nrhp/landfill.htm I understand the reasons but it’s still just a dump
- onlyrealcuzzo 3y ago
  I mean, the kit homes aren't eyesores like the typical McMansion builders pretty much have to build if they're to make a profit in today's environment. There's not a lot of money to be made buying land for top dollar and trying to build something affordable on it - especially with any quality to it, too.
  - hackerlight 3y ago
    > There's not a lot of money to be made buying land for top dollar and trying to build something affordable on it - especially with any quality to it, too. There's actually maximal profit to be made by building affordable housing (i.e. dense condos that make efficient use of expensive land). The only problem is that it's illegal in most places.
whydoineedthis 3y ago
i think you can buy an equivalent prefab home these days for about $125k. A bit of inflation over $84k, but not approachable. But the appreciation formula for such types of houses hasn't changed - still lower than traditional stick or stone.
- homero 3y ago
  Land is a much bigger issue these days. The actual houses are still cheap. When buying a house you're mostly paying for the plot which no one realizes
  - celdon25 3y ago
    > which no one realizes Ah, yes, the popular urban myth that houses in cities are made of gold and platinum (or similarly expensive materials) while the houses built on the periphery are doomed by planned obsolescence. Thank you for telling us that isn't the case.
  - silisili 3y ago
    There's a heckuva lot more than that. In the vast majority of cities, the land isn't worth a fraction of everything else involved. You can't just pay your 10k(or even 100k) for a plot, 125k for a prefab, then call it a day. If you could, house values would absolutely plummet. You've got the permits, the foundation, driveway, utilities, and the whole issue of paying someone to put the parts together, to name a few.
  - bombcar 3y ago
    You just need to look around more, lots with electrical and water/sewer already run to them can be as low as $10-20k. But not in San Francisco.
- asynchronous 3y ago
  Gonna need some citations for that chief, so that way I can immediately start building a house I can afford.
  - 3y ago
RcouF1uZ4gsC 3y ago
From an old comment in https://www.metafilter.com/62394/The-Record-Industrys-Decline#1742245 https://www.metafilter.com/62394/The-Record-Industrys-Declin... just a reminder of what Sears could have been if they had not taken short sighted decisions in the early 90's: Sears was started in the 1890's as a mail order business to compete against local general stores (think of all those westerns with "General Store" on one of the buildings - they were Sears competition). The guys Sears worked on railroads, and he saw all the middlemen tacking on markup as products moved west in the distribution chain until they go to the stores. So he started a catalog, the famous Sears catalog in 1893. It was 300 pages, and had everything. Now think about this for a second. In 1893, you had a mail order catalog that sold pretty much everything that was for sale in 1893 - machinery, bikes, toys, dry goods, etc. Does this sound like another business you know? So every year the catalog comes out, and after a few decades it becomes an American institution. For much of the population, the Sears catalog includes a decent quality, low cost version of every mass market nonperishable consumer product in the United States that wasn't a car (they did sell those at one point very early on. They also sold mobile homes too, up to the 1940's). You could pick anything from the catalog, mail in your order with a check, and in a few days/weeks you'd get it. If you didn't like it, for any reason, Sears had a "satisfaction guaranteed" policy that you could return it at anytime for a full refund. Now pay attention, because here's where it gets good. In 1931, Sears starts an insurance company - Allstate. It buys financial investment firm Dean Witter and real estate broker Coldwell Banker in 1981. In 1984 it starts a joint venture with IBM called Prodigy, an online computer service, sort of a prototype AOL. In 1985, Sears launches a new major credit card, the Discover card. For the next eight years, the only credit card you can use at Sears is Discover. At this time, the early 80's Sears is the largest retailer in the U.S. By 1993, the 100th anniversary of the Sears Catalog, Sears had built up considerable goodwill in the mind of consumers. They weren't the lowest price, but they had what you needed at good prices and the service was second to none. They had real estate, insurance, financial planning, and all at good prices with top customer service. This is 1993. In quite possibly the greatest example of corporate shortsightedness, Sears shut down it's mail-order business in a cost cutting measure. It spins off Allstate that same year, and soon dumps Dean Witter and Coldwell Banker. In 1993, Sears had the most extensive and sophisticated mail-order retail operation on the planet and they closed it. Two years later, Amazon.com launched, and was soon selling everything that sears sold through it's catalog. By the late-90's Walmart's push of low-cost China imports killed Sears retailing. Online banking takes off. Credit card use surges as mail order and retail purchases are shifted online. Sears had its own computer network in 1993. They had access to IBM, they should have understood the power of the internet. All they had to do was shift the catalog online instead of killing it off, promising in store returns and the same Sears satisfaction guaranteed. Discover could have been the credit card of choice for security and protection online. Dean Witter could have been what Schwab, E-Trade and Ameritrade became. Back in the mid-late 90s when many people were hesitant to use credit cards online, Sears could have been a familiar face online. Sears could have used the Catalog to create searscatalog.com or wishbook.com and owned online retailing, owned amazon's business, owned online brokerage and banking, but they blew their chances to save a few bucks in 1993. They could have made huge profits in the early 2000s real estate boom by leveraging that success with their real estate arm (imagine if Amazon sold houses). By my estimates, Sears could have spent about $200 million in 1994-1996 to develop and promote retailing and financial services online, and they'd be reaping billions. Sears could still be a huge American company today, instead of a historical footnote.
lettergram 3y ago
Home Depot still does https://www.homedepot.com/p/Bungalow-Plus-2-Bedrooms-2-Bathrooms-837-sq-ft-Tiny-Home-Steel-Frame-Building-Kit-ADU-Home-BGS2B2B837/321417499 https://www.homedepot.com/p/Bungalow-Plus-2-Bedrooms-2-Bathr...
HumblyTossed 3y ago
SEARS catalog was the Amazon of it's time.
AlbertCory 3y ago
As a Chicago native I have to mention its connection here. Sears was based in Chicago. Lumber came down from Wisconsin via Lake Michigan and got shipped out on the new railroad network as DIY houses. The Silicon Valley of its day. Or so I've read.
elihu 3y ago
> Sears asserted that an individual with "average" skills could construct the entire house within a span of 90 days. I wonder what the actual average construction time was for owner-occupants? Three months sounds unrealistically short for a single person, but maybe it's not actually quite as hard as I'm imagining it.
- peteradio 3y ago
  I'm not sure how they account for the foundation, but you could probably have the house roughed together in 2 weeks, that is studs up with sheathing and roof. The remainder is a real bitch though, imagine doing all that plaster mixing and throwing it up onto the walls!
- bombcar 3y ago
  Three months sounds about right - if you dig into modern house building you can see that each step isn’t that complicated, it’s just time. Having helpers on hand is probably not counted; literally one person is significantly harder than having three. Here’s a crew of three that threw up three walls of a garage in a day: https://youtu.be/D5U753R3N_A https://youtu.be/D5U753R3N_A (tons of other delays have happened, but framing is pretty darn fast - find a development near you can drive by everyday and watch, a whole house can go from nothing but a foundation to a thing with a roof in a week).
- anfilt 3y ago
  Building the main parts house even today is pretty quick. Most the time is spent on the finish work.
phoenixreader 3y ago
It is amazing to me that people used to spend one month full time on their own to build their own house using the instructions provided by Sears. Does anyone know whether any instruction booklets have survived? And whether it is possible for someone today to follow the same instructions and build their own house?
- AlbertCory 3y ago
  The story, not sure it's true, is that settlers out on the prairie would order these things and assemble them themselves, maybe with help from the neighbors. It wasn't your typical suburban guy with a job downtown. Don't ask for a citation on that.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
- WalterBright 3y ago
  These days the day after Sears dumped the kit in your front yard, it will have been thoroughly looted.
  - giraffe_lady 3y ago
    Not everyone has that kind of relationship with their neighbors walter.
    - bombcar 3y ago
      Any one with an empty lot is probably in an area that’s not too bad for construction material laying around, statistically speaking.
  - taeric 3y ago
    I mean, in those days, the city would spite mound houses that were fully built. Not sure things are fully worse today. :D
- 3y ago
sacnoradhq 3y ago
Trailer parks and doublewides also existed prior to microhouses. Prefab housing isn't new, it just has a bad rep associated with the trappings of predatory business models targeting the poor. Edit: Fun fact - The Sears catalog was used as improvised or actual toilet paper since before WW I.
- mulmen 3y ago
  I lament that I cannot wipe my ass with modern web design.
dcormier 3y ago
Relevant 99% Invisible episode: https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-house-that-came-in-the-mail/ https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-house-that-came-i...
rm999 3y ago
I learned about this from Red Dead Redemption 2 (spoiler ahead), where the protagonist purchases a pre-built home from a catalog modeled after the Sears Home catalog. What I found particularly interesting is that what Americans today consider stereotypical American farm houses were actually these Sears houses! They had a significant influence on the country's architectural history. source: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/bgxt8q/in_red_dead_redemption_2_a_character_purchases_a/elpbe2a/ https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/bgxt8q/in_re...
- mptest 3y ago
  In boardwalk empire too one of the characters lives in one.
ck2 3y ago
Anyone else as a kid used to read that big beautiful Sears catalog like a book, every amazing page full of wonder? Then all the little specialty catalogs. Then personal computers came out with the HeathKit and RadioShack/Tandy catalogs. Yeah I know we've saved so many trees but wow there was something to that physicality.
nicetryguy 3y ago
Your average dude 100 years ago could build his own fuckin house. Your average zoomer can't tell you the difference between a Phillips Head and a Flat Head.
- no_time 3y ago
  And who exactly is responsible for teaching them these things? Their parents.
jdkee 3y ago
I live in a fully restored (c.a. 2011) Sears Columbine house. We love it, almost open first floor floor plan and even has a root cellar under the front porch. We also live on the railroad tracks, which is how it was delivered. See https://www.antiquehomestyle.com/plans/sears/1923sears/23sears-columbine.htm https://www.antiquehomestyle.com/plans/sears/1923sears/23sea...
jschveibinz 3y ago
It’s interesting to note that in Akron, Ohio in 1950 (a medium sized industrial city at a population of around 350,000) a city home like the Sears home would have sold for around $8,000. Assuming the land at 1/3 the cost and a 1/4 acre lot, the land would have been worth about $2,500. With inflation, that lot should cost about $31,500 today. According to [1], the median cost of 1/4 acre in Akron in 2020 was around $25,000. To be fair, Akron does not have the economic advantages of the industrial 1950’s any longer, but the price is still close to the expected value from inflation. What has changed are people’s expectations. Today, a Sears home on a 1/4 acre lot is not what people dream about owning. Nevertheless, it is indeed still an option throughout the middle of the US, and once the people on the coast get hungry enough for their own home, they will move inland, do remote work and live very comfortably. [1] Zillow—via Sage AI
- ehnto 3y ago
  A lot in the middle of nowhere is what people don't want, hence why it's cheap. House pricing in the popular areas is perverted by speculative investment and shitty zoning, which are issues that still need solving. It could be much cheaper, then people don't have to move out to the middle of nowhere. We just need to get better at accommodating affordable city living.
  - coding123 3y ago
    Many people want to move to the middle of nowhere, despite not having a Chipotle, because they are sick of traffic.
    - mulmen 3y ago
      Huh. Strange that our perceptions are so different. I associate fast food with "the middle of nowhere". Part of why I like living in the city is that I don't have to eat at Chipotle.
iancmceachern 3y ago
This was one of my favorite things to look at in the reproduction sears and roebuck catalogs my parents kept around the house
fallingfrog 3y ago
I live in one of these. Still solid after 100 years, and the 2x4’s are actually two by four inches. I wish the walls were a bit thicker (so I could insulate it better) but no other complaints. I live right up the road from some railroad tracks, I think that’s how it was delivered.
duped 3y ago
I hope for a future where kit or prefab housing can be profitable for contractors/builders or desirable for home buyers enough that they'd go for it on empty land, because where I live the only new construction is "luxury" (in the sense that it's priced like $200/sqft and the minimum size worth building is 2k sqft). There's still plenty of stock in 2-3 bedroom single family homes from the 1940s-70s of that kind of construction but you don't see anyone building a small ranch today.
cpitman 3y ago
For anyone in the Los Angeles area, the Nixon Presidential Museum and Library has his childhood home in the premises, which is a Sears Kit home built by his father. You can tour the inside (but not the second floor, thanks to OSHA regulations, an agency founded by Nixon). One of the anecdotes they shared is that the kits did not come with fireplaces, so his father learned to mod kit based comes with a brick fireplace and made a side gig of doing it for others. Edit: looks like the National Archives has a virtual tour of the home here: Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum - Birthplace, United States https://artsandculture.google.com/streetview/richard-nixon-presidential-library-and-museum-birthplace/DQGKuA6dAavN6Q https://artsandculture.google.com/streetview/richard-nixon-p...
pontifier 3y ago
We really need to allow people to build their own houses again.
- ikekkdcjkfke 3y ago
  Just waiting for the god damn AI assistants to be more useful, we have the sensors; lidar, vision, chat comprehension. Then it's just a matter of loading up on amphetamins. "Help me build a Sears catalogue house from 1920. I own the property X and i have $87k. Be concise." X-GPT: "You do not have enough funds to build at this time. According to survey X your property contains X mineral. Go to this location X and buy shovel X, rock cracker X. Or I can order it for you and it will arrive tommorow"
flo123456 3y ago
There’s also a great episode of 99% Invisible about the Sears houses. https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-house-that-came-in-the-mail/ https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-house-that-came-i...
NoMoreNicksLeft 3y ago
While the trivia version of this is interesting (I've seen it elsewhere than Twitter), does anyone actually have a working list of all the models? Has anyone reverse engineered any of these to the point that modern blueprints and building plans exist for any of them?
RektBoy 3y ago
FYI in my country it's pretty common people build own house. Minimum are from the wood.
NoNameHaveI 3y ago
If you are interested in Sears homes, and near Chicago, I suggest you pay a visit to Downers Grove. I took them for granted growing up. There are quite a few Sears homes, and even a walking tour. https://www.architecture.org/news/happening-caf/sears-homes-in-downers-grove/ https://www.architecture.org/news/happening-caf/sears-homes-... Now, if I could just find kit homes online with prices listed. I hate "Contact us for pricing and availability". https://downersgrovehistory.org/Sears-Catalog-Homes.html https://downersgrovehistory.org/Sears-Catalog-Homes.html
sammyo 3y ago
There is a couple blocks of these houses near me (near Boston) that seemed like normal small homes. Did not realize until someone mentioned at a party that they lived in a Sears house.
_8j50 3y ago
My frustration now is I can't find non-DIY stuff. Like, I don't care about random appliances or furniture. Just getting a guy to install stuff along with the purchase is frustratingly hard.
dhunter_mn 3y ago
Since there are so many knowledgeable people here right now, I'd like to hijack a bit. I am retiring and moving to the Ozarks, where I bought an older home (mid - 60s) in the mountains that was framed in rough cut white oak. From what I understand, this is largely termite - resistant and of course very hard wood. Are there any downsides, other than being difficult to sink a nail into this stuff?
- tylershuster 3y ago
  Few trees left
- JoeAltmaier 3y ago
  That's a bad enough issue! I lived in a San Jose house framed in old Redwood. A century of drying and hardening made in virtually impossible to drive a nail. The 'dimensional' lumber (sawn to no particular standard) made it hard to fit any modern fixture. Having been modified several time over the century it was a warren of misshapen rooms and awkward hallways & stairs. Had a single 15 amp circuit for the downstairs and nothing upstairs. Wire run in conduit instead of inside the walls - and not stylish office conduit, galvanized pipes hung from the walls with nailed-in hangars! My neighbors had it worse - no foundation! Just built on the dirt. He jacked it up and used a skid loader to build a basement and foundation, get the wood away from the termites. Lived in it the whole time! An amazing couple.
jasonmcalacanis 3y ago
When I was a kid I saw a movie or TV show about a guy who had won one of these in a contest, but then threw a party and never completed the build out of the house... so the kit was left in parts all over the plot of land he won. I've never been able to find this movie.
- jasonmcalacanis 3y ago
  posted to Reddit to see i could find it https://www.reddit.com/r/whatsthemoviecalled/comments/14lhq21/a_movietv_show_about_a_guy_who_wins_a_diy/ https://www.reddit.com/r/whatsthemoviecalled/comments/14lhq2...

297 points by taubek 3y ago

We recently built a house. We'd absolutely have considered this if they were still being offered. We couldn't get any of the modern prefab builders to call us back, so we ended up going full custom. I'm sure we would have gotten more bang for our buck with some sort of middle-ground kit.

bombcar 3y ago
From my understanding the prefabs are amazing great if they’re exactly what you want, but as you deviate from that the more and more full custom actually becomes the best deal.

hiidrew 3y ago

Good podcast on this: https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-house-that-came-in-the-mail/ https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-house-that-came-i... The houses look fairly ordinary, here's an example: https://img.atlasobscura.com/w5ka7Nu51kS6w9gIH24ObDyeKBfhbkPybJB_6_Ry7aw/rs:fill:12000:12000/q:81/sm:1/scp:1/ar:1/aHR0cHM6Ly9hdGxh/cy1kZXYuczMuYW1h/em9uYXdzLmNvbS91/cGxvYWRzL2Fzc2V0/cy9mZjc2YjYwYzMz/ODZmMjM5YTZfQ2Fu/dG9uIE9oaW8gU2Vh/cnMgTWFnbm9saWEg/d2l0aCBCb29rLmpw/Zw.jpg https://img.atlasobscura.com/w5ka7Nu51kS6w9gIH24ObDyeKBfhbkP.... I wonder if I've ever visited one unknowingly.

gs17 3y ago
I lived across from one (nowhere near as nice as that one though), and you definitely can't tell.
soderfoo 3y ago
> fairly ordinary I don't know if I'm just nostalgic for American homes, but that home looks striking to me. But I know what you mean.
nonethewiser 3y ago
That’s so much nicer than I was expecting. I figured it was something like a trailer home.
JoeAltmaier 3y ago
Easy to do! I've known several in my hometown, even rented one for a while. Recently looking at properties for sale around the state, found a fancy house with a pillar'd porch and elaborate newel post, pillared doorways, sliding doors, screened summer kitchen in the back - and instantly recognized it as a Sears Roebuck house with added features! If you enter into a 'parlor' with a switchback staircase on the right, fancy newel post, maybe a gabled landing then it's a good chance. To the left, a double doorway to a sitting room. Right from there, pillared fancy doorway (possibly sliding doors) to a dining room with bay window. Behind that a pantry and then a screened summer kitchen, often closed in in later years. Straight from the entryway you get a sort of closet with the basement stairs on the right (and maybe another exterior door) and a shelving unit on the left. Through that to a play room or downstairs bedroom. If there's a bathroom it's behind that. All lathe-and-plaster walls, wainscoting of various designs depending on the money they had to spend. Upstairs a short hallway with four doors to four bedrooms. Maybe a sleeping porch behind the first bedroom on the right. Anyway seen this design around here (midwest) many times, sometimes a little larger or smaller but always the same layout!

tylershuster 3y ago

See catalog here: http://www.searsarchives.com/homes/1908-1914.htm http://www.searsarchives.com/homes/1908-1914.htm

onlyrealcuzzo 3y ago
If home materials prices tracked inflation - you should be able to buy the same kit for less $60k today. The model 115 would be ~$33k. You can hardly get a plastic shed for that price.
- treis 3y ago
  It also doesn't have a bathroom. I'd be interested to see what like for like cost would be. I suspect that it would be less adjusted for inflation.
  - onlyrealcuzzo 3y ago
    There's basically no economy of scale in construction: https://www.construction-physics.com/p/why-are-there-so-few-economies-of https://www.construction-physics.com/p/why-are-there-so-few-... All the money to be made is selling to the top end of the market, especially since land is priced at developing the land as much as you can (to then sell to the top end).

ArcaneMoose 3y ago

My in-laws actually live in one of these! It's quite nice but no central air :)

MarkMarine 3y ago
Mini-split systems to the rescue. Or, an attic system with high velocity air, but that’s big $$$
- IIsi50MHz 3y ago
  High-velocity air is amazing. Nearly silent, tiny openings instead of large grills, fairly even temperature throughout each floor of the house, doesn't tempt people to put a business-style drop ceiling in a historic home. I wish it becomes common enough & cheap enough that all the old leaky space-hogging ductwork, everywhere, gets replaced.
adolph 3y ago
I grew up in a small one that did have central "air" in the form of an attic fan. At about the center of the house there was a ~4 foot fan mounted in the ceiling, concealed by louvers that opened when the fan turned on.

JimtheCoder 3y ago

I'm trying to find a reference for it, but I vaguely remember a large subdivision around the Toronto Area being built using modular components. The interesting part was the prefabricated components were being built onsite, in a large metal building. I guess you can get an assembly line concept going, work at nights, in poor weather, etc, to really crank out a bunch of homes in a short period of time...

0xcde4c3db 3y ago

I wonder if something like this could be done today with prefabricated panels (e.g structural insulated panels) and some sufficiently bulletproof joint system to meet modern safety and efficiency standards without requiring a bunch of training. You'd presumably still want licensed professionals to do the actual utility hookups (and some jurisdictions would probably want them to do the interior wiring/plumbing as well), but at first glance I feel like it ought to be viable.

thghtihadanacct 3y ago
You can buy 'tiny homes' at home depot now ... there was some on here not long ago.
stevehawk 3y ago
menards sells plans/supplies
hotpotamus 3y ago
Habitat For Humanity is able to do it with a good amount of untrained volunteer labor.
aurizon 3y ago
A few factory made home startups have come and gone. Sadly the standards/codes vary state by state = hard to automate. I can see a large market for 9 foot panels 4 feet wide with a pre-wired plug as an option to have a wire to an attic wire set.Some 2" thick, 4", 6" Some with windows, thicker for exterior insulation foamed in option. There would be some with closet door kits, front door kits etc - buy your own door or buy theirs. There may be someone doing this out there now.
throwway120385 3y ago
It already is, and in great quantity, done with prefabricated panels. I worked for one of Quadrant Homes' builders in the PNW about 12 years ago and our framing came out pre-assembled on trucks. We would then nail it all together. They even boomed up the bottom and middle floors pre-assembled and nailed them together on-site.

ortusdux 3y ago

They still have quite the fanbase. Someone near me had one relocated via barge a few years ago.

andrew_ 3y ago

One thing overlooked is that the majority of the components were made in the U.S. This was pre-globalization, when even fasteners, pipe, and fittings were manufactured in the U.S. The increase in number and specificity of building codes has come in-part due to foreign-made building materials and poor QC. Even the quality of lumber has decreased as old growth forests that were harvested 80 years ago no longer exist. Heart pine lumber that were used in 1940s homes (I own one) is more dense and stronger than new growth pine lumber. [1] It would be tough to offer the same kind of kit in this day and age given the difference in building material back then compared to now. [1] https://etmoore.com/news/reclaimed-heart-pine-vs-yellow-pine/#:~:text=Durability,around%20870%20for%20yellow%20pine https://etmoore.com/news/reclaimed-heart-pine-vs-yellow-pine....

JimtheCoder 3y ago
"It would be tough to offer the same kind of kit in this day and age given the difference in building material back then compared to now." I see a lot of houses going up around here using metal studs...
- andrew_ 3y ago
  totally. metal studs are widely used in commercial construction as well. you'll also see metal studs in finished basements instead of wood furring strips. they're used where they're a good fit, and if the region and conditions there support it.
jameshart 3y ago
Not sure I follow how the location of manufacture of fittings matters. Is it your assertion that domestic manufacture is inherently of higher quality, and therefore in less need of regulation? There’s just some inbuilt good old Americanness in those 1950s US-made fittings that meant an untrained homeowner could reliably construct a sturdy and safe home without screwing it up, in a way that is just not possible when the parts are made overseas?
- ceejayoz 3y ago

chrchr 3y ago

The construction of these houses is depicted in this documentary: https://youtu.be/5Q0FMxZBmO4 https://youtu.be/5Q0FMxZBmO4

cj 3y ago

Closest modern day equivalent is probably a DIY Tiny Home. Here's one for $66k (steel frame only): https://www.homedepot.com/p/Bungalow-Raised-Deck-loft-2-Bedrooms-2-Bathrooms-1428-sq-ft-Included-Deck-Loft-Area-Tiny-Home-Steel-Frame-Kit-BRDL2B2B1428/321336351 https://www.homedepot.com/p/Bungalow-Raised-Deck-loft-2-Bedr... Other companies out there bundle additional components (more than just the frame). A quick google search turns up DIY kits that includes insulation, floors, walls, etc. Edit: This was actually on HN a couple weeks ago https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36209328 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36209328

jimcsharp 3y ago
We've got Beaver Homes up north: https://beaverhomesandcottages.ca/Search/Bungalow https://beaverhomesandcottages.ca/Search/Bungalow As far as I know they include everything.
olyjohn 3y ago
The fuck? 1400sq feet is not a tiny home. That's the size of the house I live in. Also for barely more than that, you can just get a manufactured home, that comes with walls, power, carpets, insulation, plumbing, cabinets and bathrooms. These tiny home things are all a joke, they're not cheap, and never have been. It's kinda like these people building container homes. Sure they're cheap to start, then you start putting in all stuff that makes it a house, and lo-and-behold it becomes as expensive as a house.

83 3y ago

Prior discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18265533 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18265533 This often comes up as a "look how much cheaper housing used to be" discussion. Keep in mind things like gfci outlets, fire code, insulation requirements, electrical/plumbing inspectors, permits, etc weren't an issue back then.

medion 3y ago
Someone should do a study to see how many of these are still standing versus how many are not, and how modern hyper housing regulation might have influenced the outcome. My guess is those Sears houses were more than good enough without all the added bureaucracy of today.
- vkou 3y ago
  Generally speaking, old structures that are not up to code aren't just torn down because the code changed.
  - bombcar 3y ago
    In fact very few code changes for residential buildings cause retroactive enforcement. Called “grandfathering” you’re allowed to continue to use a house that was legal when you built it. There are often laws that say repairs beyond a certain point must bring it up to code, but minor repairs to keep it working are fine. Now you may want to get it to code, but that’s another question.
- ender341341 3y ago
  For the framing/support that's probably true, but things like electrical are largely written in response to fires/shocks. The house kits seemed to started falling out of fashion as society started deeming electricity an essential, though the timeframe also had other things like the depression/ww2 going on to cause issues with it too.
- 83 3y ago
  I tend to agree that we're past a point of optimal amount of bureaucracy in housing. I don't know that I'd go as far as saying these were more than good enough, though they are close. Things like fire rated doors/drywall might not lower the likelihood you'll have a house fire, but they will give the occupants time to exit safely. Ditto for electrical breakers/gfci.

MarkMarine 3y ago

I live in one of these. Still standing since 1908, and honestly the quality of the wood used in the construction is the secret, I’ve been trying to find tight grained fir that I can make some plugs to patch some holes drilled for wiring in the original wood floor, and I can’t even come close. Luckily mine was made by a craftsman who obviously took pride in his work.

jweir 3y ago
I too live in one, although it was heavily modified around 2009 with a second story put on it. All the houses on this side of the street are the same Sears house model and all have been slightly greatly modified over the last 110 years. They are pretty nice!
bamfly 3y ago
I owned a house built around that time, for a while, but not a kit house. The lumber they used for structural members (huge, 8x10ish boards, very long, all around where the foundation met the house; joists; et c) or for other parts that were never meant to be seen, like floor underlayment (which was a bunch of ordinary boards laid diagonally, so they wouldn't match up with wood floor boards laid atop it—not plywood) would probably have gone to veneer these days. Knot-free, perfect stuff. Much of it's likely nearly impossible to get these days at any price, in the same size and quality, short of salvage from houses like that. I never got much of a look in the walls, but it was 2 stories plus a full-height floor for the attic (need that for temp control, in the days before air conditioning) and was "balloon" construction, which means they used a whole bunch of boards 2-3 stories high to frame the exterior walls, which, again, probably nearly impossible to find these days, straight and strong enough to do such a thing.
- MarkMarine 3y ago
  I follow some wooden window restoration businesses on YouTube and usually that is the first thing they say. Save your windows, because you can't buy wood of this quality anymore no matter what you spend.
  - 3y ago

haunter 3y ago

Also see here: people looking for still standing Sears houses https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/do-you-live-in-a-mailorder-sears-kit-home-these-house-hunters-will-find-you?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=atlas-pagehttp://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/do-you-live-in-a-mailorder-sears-kit-home-these-house-hunters-will-find-you https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/do-you-live-in-a-mailo... Sears house sites https://www.searshouseseeker.com/2015/11/blogs-about-sears-homes-and-other-kit.html?m=1 https://www.searshouseseeker.com/2015/11/blogs-about-sears-h... House database(s) http://www.sears-homes.com/2015/02/wheres-list.html?m=1 http://www.sears-homes.com/2015/02/wheres-list.html?m=1 http://www.searsarchives.com/homes/enthusiasts.jsp http://www.searsarchives.com/homes/enthusiasts.jsp

hackernewds 3y ago
Very impressive. We fail to appreciate today that Sears used to be the Amazon of their time
- tastyfreeze 3y ago
  Slower turn around but just as convenient. Sears dominated mail order for 100 years.
- h2odragon 3y ago
  The amazing thing is how hard Sears worked not to be the Sears of our time, leaving the field open for Amazon to eat their legacy.
  - bluGill 3y ago
    More amazing is they tried things like protege that failed and gave up right before the internet took off.
    - h2odragon 3y ago
      itym "Prodigy": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prodigy_(online_service) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prodigy_(online_service)

aurizon 3y ago

Yes, they were huge in the depression. I live in one my parents bought and built in the 30's for $1400. One large room, 2 bedrooms 12x12, kitchen 9x12, bathroom 7x7, mudroom 7x7. Just wood. They used an early lay-away plan and it arrived as lengths of labelled wood and a number of single pane swing to open windows. Totally un finished, no wires/plaster/lathes etc, they wired/plumbed it but did not plaster it as we used it as a summer cottage They left to Dad and he got married and he and wife added insulation and dry wall and a sleeping loft. 3 kids later and after being widowed, I live here alone and see kids/brother via the internet. It is still a small house, but grandfathered taxes are only $560 a year. I now 84, taxes will leap after I pass... I doubt such kits are viable now, as this was built over several years with grandparents in tents and codes/inspectors - what are those? The current codes and frequent inspection milestones as the build progresses are less suited to kit homes. Might be viable for a handy person with hired in trades for trade tasks. Home building is ripe for a disruption - huge inertia in the code/inspect system. Law here states you must have a window in every room to ventilate the fire place?? I can see many people happy in a house with a home office, TV room etc with no window. Hang a 48" 4K display on the wall and dial up an IP view of any where at all, or watch TV?

vkou 3y ago
(Bed)rooms don't need windows to ventilate a fireplace, rooms need windows so that you don't burn to death if a fire traps you in one. It would be great if people would understand why Chesterton's fence was put up, before knocking it down.
- aurizon 3y ago
  well, with fire/smoke detectors in every room....little need and when you are on the 30th floor - do you want to exfenestrate?
hotpotamus 3y ago
I had a co-worker who built a house in the same sort of way while living with his father nearby. I did ask about inspections and he said that out in rural Texas, they just don't do that, and they also pay very little in property tax. Generally speaking you want at least one window per room as a means of escape in the event of a fire in case the door is blocked, but the natural light might also be important to people.

wittjeff 3y ago

Montgomery Ward also offered kit homes through Wardway Homes https://www.pinterest.com/richlandpreservation/montgomery-ward-co-wardway-homes-1924/ https://www.pinterest.com/richlandpreservation/montgomery-wa...

sowerssix 3y ago
At first glance I read that as Wayward Homes. Heck of a start for a sales pitch.....

bamfly 3y ago

Buster Keaton's short film "One Week" is based around a kit house of this sort. Like a lot of silent era comedy, it's still pretty damn funny: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Q0FMxZBmO4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Q0FMxZBmO4

jeffbee 3y ago

Half the time some local NIMBY refers to the "vernacular" of some supposedly irreplaceable house it turns out to be a catalog kit home. It is one of the stupidest aspects of American discourse.

GenerWork 3y ago
The phrase "historical" has been so abused that at this point I assume that it just means that it's 70 years old and there's nothing else special about it.
- bombcar 3y ago
  There’s a literal garbage dump that is a historical site - http://historicfresno.org/nrhp/landfill.htm http://historicfresno.org/nrhp/landfill.htm I understand the reasons but it’s still just a dump
onlyrealcuzzo 3y ago
I mean, the kit homes aren't eyesores like the typical McMansion builders pretty much have to build if they're to make a profit in today's environment. There's not a lot of money to be made buying land for top dollar and trying to build something affordable on it - especially with any quality to it, too.
- hackerlight 3y ago
  > There's not a lot of money to be made buying land for top dollar and trying to build something affordable on it - especially with any quality to it, too. There's actually maximal profit to be made by building affordable housing (i.e. dense condos that make efficient use of expensive land). The only problem is that it's illegal in most places.

whydoineedthis 3y ago

i think you can buy an equivalent prefab home these days for about $125k. A bit of inflation over $84k, but not approachable. But the appreciation formula for such types of houses hasn't changed - still lower than traditional stick or stone.

homero 3y ago
Land is a much bigger issue these days. The actual houses are still cheap. When buying a house you're mostly paying for the plot which no one realizes
- celdon25 3y ago
  > which no one realizes Ah, yes, the popular urban myth that houses in cities are made of gold and platinum (or similarly expensive materials) while the houses built on the periphery are doomed by planned obsolescence. Thank you for telling us that isn't the case.
- silisili 3y ago
  There's a heckuva lot more than that. In the vast majority of cities, the land isn't worth a fraction of everything else involved. You can't just pay your 10k(or even 100k) for a plot, 125k for a prefab, then call it a day. If you could, house values would absolutely plummet. You've got the permits, the foundation, driveway, utilities, and the whole issue of paying someone to put the parts together, to name a few.
- bombcar 3y ago
  You just need to look around more, lots with electrical and water/sewer already run to them can be as low as $10-20k. But not in San Francisco.
asynchronous 3y ago
Gonna need some citations for that chief, so that way I can immediately start building a house I can afford.
- 3y ago

RcouF1uZ4gsC 3y ago

From an old comment in https://www.metafilter.com/62394/The-Record-Industrys-Decline#1742245 https://www.metafilter.com/62394/The-Record-Industrys-Declin... just a reminder of what Sears could have been if they had not taken short sighted decisions in the early 90's: Sears was started in the 1890's as a mail order business to compete against local general stores (think of all those westerns with "General Store" on one of the buildings - they were Sears competition). The guys Sears worked on railroads, and he saw all the middlemen tacking on markup as products moved west in the distribution chain until they go to the stores. So he started a catalog, the famous Sears catalog in 1893. It was 300 pages, and had everything. Now think about this for a second. In 1893, you had a mail order catalog that sold pretty much everything that was for sale in 1893 - machinery, bikes, toys, dry goods, etc. Does this sound like another business you know? So every year the catalog comes out, and after a few decades it becomes an American institution. For much of the population, the Sears catalog includes a decent quality, low cost version of every mass market nonperishable consumer product in the United States that wasn't a car (they did sell those at one point very early on. They also sold mobile homes too, up to the 1940's). You could pick anything from the catalog, mail in your order with a check, and in a few days/weeks you'd get it. If you didn't like it, for any reason, Sears had a "satisfaction guaranteed" policy that you could return it at anytime for a full refund. Now pay attention, because here's where it gets good. In 1931, Sears starts an insurance company - Allstate. It buys financial investment firm Dean Witter and real estate broker Coldwell Banker in 1981. In 1984 it starts a joint venture with IBM called Prodigy, an online computer service, sort of a prototype AOL. In 1985, Sears launches a new major credit card, the Discover card. For the next eight years, the only credit card you can use at Sears is Discover. At this time, the early 80's Sears is the largest retailer in the U.S. By 1993, the 100th anniversary of the Sears Catalog, Sears had built up considerable goodwill in the mind of consumers. They weren't the lowest price, but they had what you needed at good prices and the service was second to none. They had real estate, insurance, financial planning, and all at good prices with top customer service. This is 1993. In quite possibly the greatest example of corporate shortsightedness, Sears shut down it's mail-order business in a cost cutting measure. It spins off Allstate that same year, and soon dumps Dean Witter and Coldwell Banker. In 1993, Sears had the most extensive and sophisticated mail-order retail operation on the planet and they closed it. Two years later, Amazon.com launched, and was soon selling everything that sears sold through it's catalog. By the late-90's Walmart's push of low-cost China imports killed Sears retailing. Online banking takes off. Credit card use surges as mail order and retail purchases are shifted online. Sears had its own computer network in 1993. They had access to IBM, they should have understood the power of the internet. All they had to do was shift the catalog online instead of killing it off, promising in store returns and the same Sears satisfaction guaranteed. Discover could have been the credit card of choice for security and protection online. Dean Witter could have been what Schwab, E-Trade and Ameritrade became. Back in the mid-late 90s when many people were hesitant to use credit cards online, Sears could have been a familiar face online. Sears could have used the Catalog to create searscatalog.com or wishbook.com and owned online retailing, owned amazon's business, owned online brokerage and banking, but they blew their chances to save a few bucks in 1993. They could have made huge profits in the early 2000s real estate boom by leveraging that success with their real estate arm (imagine if Amazon sold houses). By my estimates, Sears could have spent about $200 million in 1994-1996 to develop and promote retailing and financial services online, and they'd be reaping billions. Sears could still be a huge American company today, instead of a historical footnote.

lettergram 3y ago

Home Depot still does https://www.homedepot.com/p/Bungalow-Plus-2-Bedrooms-2-Bathrooms-837-sq-ft-Tiny-Home-Steel-Frame-Building-Kit-ADU-Home-BGS2B2B837/321417499 https://www.homedepot.com/p/Bungalow-Plus-2-Bedrooms-2-Bathr...

HumblyTossed 3y ago

SEARS catalog was the Amazon of it's time.

AlbertCory 3y ago

As a Chicago native I have to mention its connection here. Sears was based in Chicago. Lumber came down from Wisconsin via Lake Michigan and got shipped out on the new railroad network as DIY houses. The Silicon Valley of its day. Or so I've read.

elihu 3y ago

> Sears asserted that an individual with "average" skills could construct the entire house within a span of 90 days. I wonder what the actual average construction time was for owner-occupants? Three months sounds unrealistically short for a single person, but maybe it's not actually quite as hard as I'm imagining it.

peteradio 3y ago
I'm not sure how they account for the foundation, but you could probably have the house roughed together in 2 weeks, that is studs up with sheathing and roof. The remainder is a real bitch though, imagine doing all that plaster mixing and throwing it up onto the walls!
bombcar 3y ago
Three months sounds about right - if you dig into modern house building you can see that each step isn’t that complicated, it’s just time. Having helpers on hand is probably not counted; literally one person is significantly harder than having three. Here’s a crew of three that threw up three walls of a garage in a day: https://youtu.be/D5U753R3N_A https://youtu.be/D5U753R3N_A (tons of other delays have happened, but framing is pretty darn fast - find a development near you can drive by everyday and watch, a whole house can go from nothing but a foundation to a thing with a roof in a week).
anfilt 3y ago
Building the main parts house even today is pretty quick. Most the time is spent on the finish work.

phoenixreader 3y ago

It is amazing to me that people used to spend one month full time on their own to build their own house using the instructions provided by Sears. Does anyone know whether any instruction booklets have survived? And whether it is possible for someone today to follow the same instructions and build their own house?

AlbertCory 3y ago
The story, not sure it's true, is that settlers out on the prairie would order these things and assemble them themselves, maybe with help from the neighbors. It wasn't your typical suburban guy with a job downtown. Don't ask for a citation on that.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
WalterBright 3y ago
These days the day after Sears dumped the kit in your front yard, it will have been thoroughly looted.
- giraffe_lady 3y ago
  Not everyone has that kind of relationship with their neighbors walter.
  - bombcar 3y ago
    Any one with an empty lot is probably in an area that’s not too bad for construction material laying around, statistically speaking.
- taeric 3y ago
  I mean, in those days, the city would spite mound houses that were fully built. Not sure things are fully worse today. :D
3y ago

sacnoradhq 3y ago

Trailer parks and doublewides also existed prior to microhouses. Prefab housing isn't new, it just has a bad rep associated with the trappings of predatory business models targeting the poor. Edit: Fun fact - The Sears catalog was used as improvised or actual toilet paper since before WW I.

mulmen 3y ago
I lament that I cannot wipe my ass with modern web design.

dcormier 3y ago

Relevant 99% Invisible episode: https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-house-that-came-in-the-mail/ https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-house-that-came-i...

rm999 3y ago

I learned about this from Red Dead Redemption 2 (spoiler ahead), where the protagonist purchases a pre-built home from a catalog modeled after the Sears Home catalog. What I found particularly interesting is that what Americans today consider stereotypical American farm houses were actually these Sears houses! They had a significant influence on the country's architectural history. source: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/bgxt8q/in_red_dead_redemption_2_a_character_purchases_a/elpbe2a/ https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/bgxt8q/in_re...

mptest 3y ago
In boardwalk empire too one of the characters lives in one.

ck2 3y ago

Anyone else as a kid used to read that big beautiful Sears catalog like a book, every amazing page full of wonder? Then all the little specialty catalogs. Then personal computers came out with the HeathKit and RadioShack/Tandy catalogs. Yeah I know we've saved so many trees but wow there was something to that physicality.

nicetryguy 3y ago

Your average dude 100 years ago could build his own fuckin house. Your average zoomer can't tell you the difference between a Phillips Head and a Flat Head.

no_time 3y ago
And who exactly is responsible for teaching them these things? Their parents.

jdkee 3y ago

I live in a fully restored (c.a. 2011) Sears Columbine house. We love it, almost open first floor floor plan and even has a root cellar under the front porch. We also live on the railroad tracks, which is how it was delivered. See https://www.antiquehomestyle.com/plans/sears/1923sears/23sears-columbine.htm https://www.antiquehomestyle.com/plans/sears/1923sears/23sea...

jschveibinz 3y ago

It’s interesting to note that in Akron, Ohio in 1950 (a medium sized industrial city at a population of around 350,000) a city home like the Sears home would have sold for around $8,000. Assuming the land at 1/3 the cost and a 1/4 acre lot, the land would have been worth about $2,500. With inflation, that lot should cost about $31,500 today. According to [1], the median cost of 1/4 acre in Akron in 2020 was around $25,000. To be fair, Akron does not have the economic advantages of the industrial 1950’s any longer, but the price is still close to the expected value from inflation. What has changed are people’s expectations. Today, a Sears home on a 1/4 acre lot is not what people dream about owning. Nevertheless, it is indeed still an option throughout the middle of the US, and once the people on the coast get hungry enough for their own home, they will move inland, do remote work and live very comfortably. [1] Zillow—via Sage AI

ehnto 3y ago
A lot in the middle of nowhere is what people don't want, hence why it's cheap. House pricing in the popular areas is perverted by speculative investment and shitty zoning, which are issues that still need solving. It could be much cheaper, then people don't have to move out to the middle of nowhere. We just need to get better at accommodating affordable city living.
- coding123 3y ago
  Many people want to move to the middle of nowhere, despite not having a Chipotle, because they are sick of traffic.
  - mulmen 3y ago
    Huh. Strange that our perceptions are so different. I associate fast food with "the middle of nowhere". Part of why I like living in the city is that I don't have to eat at Chipotle.

iancmceachern 3y ago

This was one of my favorite things to look at in the reproduction sears and roebuck catalogs my parents kept around the house

fallingfrog 3y ago

I live in one of these. Still solid after 100 years, and the 2x4’s are actually two by four inches. I wish the walls were a bit thicker (so I could insulate it better) but no other complaints. I live right up the road from some railroad tracks, I think that’s how it was delivered.

duped 3y ago

I hope for a future where kit or prefab housing can be profitable for contractors/builders or desirable for home buyers enough that they'd go for it on empty land, because where I live the only new construction is "luxury" (in the sense that it's priced like $200/sqft and the minimum size worth building is 2k sqft). There's still plenty of stock in 2-3 bedroom single family homes from the 1940s-70s of that kind of construction but you don't see anyone building a small ranch today.

cpitman 3y ago

For anyone in the Los Angeles area, the Nixon Presidential Museum and Library has his childhood home in the premises, which is a Sears Kit home built by his father. You can tour the inside (but not the second floor, thanks to OSHA regulations, an agency founded by Nixon). One of the anecdotes they shared is that the kits did not come with fireplaces, so his father learned to mod kit based comes with a brick fireplace and made a side gig of doing it for others. Edit: looks like the National Archives has a virtual tour of the home here: Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum - Birthplace, United States https://artsandculture.google.com/streetview/richard-nixon-presidential-library-and-museum-birthplace/DQGKuA6dAavN6Q https://artsandculture.google.com/streetview/richard-nixon-p...

pontifier 3y ago

We really need to allow people to build their own houses again.

ikekkdcjkfke 3y ago
Just waiting for the god damn AI assistants to be more useful, we have the sensors; lidar, vision, chat comprehension. Then it's just a matter of loading up on amphetamins. "Help me build a Sears catalogue house from 1920. I own the property X and i have $87k. Be concise." X-GPT: "You do not have enough funds to build at this time. According to survey X your property contains X mineral. Go to this location X and buy shovel X, rock cracker X. Or I can order it for you and it will arrive tommorow"

flo123456 3y ago

There’s also a great episode of 99% Invisible about the Sears houses. https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-house-that-came-in-the-mail/ https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-house-that-came-i...

NoMoreNicksLeft 3y ago

While the trivia version of this is interesting (I've seen it elsewhere than Twitter), does anyone actually have a working list of all the models? Has anyone reverse engineered any of these to the point that modern blueprints and building plans exist for any of them?

RektBoy 3y ago

FYI in my country it's pretty common people build own house. Minimum are from the wood.

NoNameHaveI 3y ago

If you are interested in Sears homes, and near Chicago, I suggest you pay a visit to Downers Grove. I took them for granted growing up. There are quite a few Sears homes, and even a walking tour. https://www.architecture.org/news/happening-caf/sears-homes-in-downers-grove/ https://www.architecture.org/news/happening-caf/sears-homes-... Now, if I could just find kit homes online with prices listed. I hate "Contact us for pricing and availability". https://downersgrovehistory.org/Sears-Catalog-Homes.html https://downersgrovehistory.org/Sears-Catalog-Homes.html

sammyo 3y ago

There is a couple blocks of these houses near me (near Boston) that seemed like normal small homes. Did not realize until someone mentioned at a party that they lived in a Sears house.

_8j50 3y ago

My frustration now is I can't find non-DIY stuff. Like, I don't care about random appliances or furniture. Just getting a guy to install stuff along with the purchase is frustratingly hard.

dhunter_mn 3y ago

Since there are so many knowledgeable people here right now, I'd like to hijack a bit. I am retiring and moving to the Ozarks, where I bought an older home (mid - 60s) in the mountains that was framed in rough cut white oak. From what I understand, this is largely termite - resistant and of course very hard wood. Are there any downsides, other than being difficult to sink a nail into this stuff?

tylershuster 3y ago
Few trees left
JoeAltmaier 3y ago
That's a bad enough issue! I lived in a San Jose house framed in old Redwood. A century of drying and hardening made in virtually impossible to drive a nail. The 'dimensional' lumber (sawn to no particular standard) made it hard to fit any modern fixture. Having been modified several time over the century it was a warren of misshapen rooms and awkward hallways & stairs. Had a single 15 amp circuit for the downstairs and nothing upstairs. Wire run in conduit instead of inside the walls - and not stylish office conduit, galvanized pipes hung from the walls with nailed-in hangars! My neighbors had it worse - no foundation! Just built on the dirt. He jacked it up and used a skid loader to build a basement and foundation, get the wood away from the termites. Lived in it the whole time! An amazing couple.

jasonmcalacanis 3y ago

When I was a kid I saw a movie or TV show about a guy who had won one of these in a contest, but then threw a party and never completed the build out of the house... so the kit was left in parts all over the plot of land he won. I've never been able to find this movie.

jasonmcalacanis 3y ago
posted to Reddit to see i could find it https://www.reddit.com/r/whatsthemoviecalled/comments/14lhq21/a_movietv_show_about_a_guy_who_wins_a_diy/ https://www.reddit.com/r/whatsthemoviecalled/comments/14lhq2...