New Home Kits: Just Build Me a Country Home near the Trees
More than a century ago, Sears Roebuck and Company delivered home kits around the country. Buyers chose their favorite building kits from catalogs. In the end, there were 370 home kits available. These were not tiny homes. In fact, beautiful large craftsmen and colonial styles were in the selection. People could also order big barns decked out with stalls for the cows.
Lester Building Kits
#219947
Today, new homebuyers can look towards complete building systems featured by Lester Buildings. These durable buildings start small or medium. Here’s a residential project #219947 and there are oodles of samples you can look over at lesterbuildings.com. We like the exterior balcony and the interior mezzanine. The 28′ x 48′ x 16′ dimensions allow for the mezzanine. The Slate Blue primary color and Pewter Gray secondary, along with the Bone White trim, provide a wonderful, cozy offering.
Sears Catalog Homes
In North America, Sears, Roebeck, and Company – sold over 70000 Catalog Homes. These offered central heating, indoor plumbing, and electricity. Most were built between 1908 and 1942 in the East Coast, Midwest, the South, and California.
However, these offerings continue to expand. Frank W. Kushel encouraged owner Richard Warren Sears to manufacture home kits and distribute them. The kits were delivered by Sears-supplies lumber cut to custom links. The new railroad boxcars transported the home kits and trucks delivered them to the home sites.
The first specialty catalog, the Book of Modern Homes and Building Plans, offered 44 houses and styles priced between $360 and $2890. Over 32 years, the variety of options extended to 370,000 models. Towards the end, the Home Club Plan became favorite.
Seven Expensive Sears Models of The Magnolia
We discovered samples of these Sears Modern Houses listed in the National Register of Historic Places. We found that friends and relatives, in an event like a traditional barn raising, regularly assembled these homes. Today, the standing Sears home kits cannot readily be distinguished from other stick-built homes.
Colorado Builders – Home Kits
For information about Colorado home kits, contact Sapphire Construction, Inc. at (303) 619-7213. Our team custom designs each building using high-quality, engineer-tested materials from Lester Buildings.
APR
2023
About the Author:
Allen Randa is a second generation Master Carpenter and Owner of Sapphire Construction Inc. Allen personally manages each project from beginning to end. That includes the first meeting, the estimate, the contract and architectural designs.