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Buying and Selling Homes

Sears home

16 years ago

I have a sears home (the Haven) which is for sale. The house must be moved or will be scraped. Anyone interested in taking apart and rebuilding somewhere? Make a offer. Contact me for more information. Located in Delaware. 302 270 0036 thinkrv@yahoo.com

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Comments (12)

sue36
16 years ago
You might want to post on Craig's List. Good luck.
sparksals
16 years ago
What is a Sears home? This is the 2nd post today that I've seen the term posted, yet I've never heard of it before.
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Thanks for the heads-up. Sadly, that article does NOT have much info from my books, and it's rife with errors. And - even more sadly - the house shown in the article is NOT a Sears Kit Home. :( They're calling it a "Sears Elsmore," but here's an Elsmore. Here's the house shown in that article: And here's a *real* Elsmore. :) Thanks again for the note. I appreciate it! Rose
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Thanks, Rose. To achieve this resuscitation, we had to: * have new cypress clapboards specially milled to match the original so that the patches would not be obvious; * inside, take down the damaged original plasterboard and insulate the exterior walls before putting new drywall on; * restore the opening between the LR and the DR to its original width (at some point, the house had been used as a church); * replace all the windows with woodframe double-paned replicas of the originals; * heavy up the electricity; * install SpacePak flexible duct AC; * jack up the porch roof (it is clear from a heavy beam running front to back in the basement that the entire house had had to be jacked up a bit at one time, which is why there are no level horizontal surfaces in the house); and * replicate some of the roof corbels and other bits of trim that had gone missing over the past nine decades. I finally found on craigslist a door that is close to the original. Of course, by the time it was installed, the paint on the porch was already needing attention again. The bottom line is that we spent too much money (for the neighborhood, not for the house) to give this old sweetie another 90 years with no vinyl siding. [On this street so close to where box cars would have delivered the kits, there are two other Americus examples; they look ok from a distance, but the siding is not cypress.] It was a harrowing project that could not have been undertaken without a GC who has an affinity for old houses. I made some not great decisions along the way (i.e., the tile in the master bath looks closer to avocado than stone green). It is the most gratifying project I have ever completed. I'd do it again in a heartbeat if I had the money. And you need to keep up your good work so that other people will become as besotted as I am. Thanks again. hbk
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kec01
16 years ago
In the early part of the 1900's, Sears sold all the pieces for building homes in kits. One could somewhat pick and choose the features they wanted and the home would be built that way. Once a kit was ordered, all the pieces would come and building would start. The link on the searsarchives website below gives a good summary. Nowadays, with trend to bulldoze smaller homes and build McMansions, many Sears homes (and Montgomery Ward, and Aladdin etc) have gone the way of the wrecking ball.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sears archives
triciae
16 years ago
There are still many Sears farmhouses in New England.

/t
richard_f
16 years ago
I grew up in a Sears house in CT. They were popular because in many parts of the country it was hard to get building materials. Sears would put the whole kit on a railroad car and send it to you.
logic
16 years ago
I find Sears homes to be fascinating. Many still exist in NJ..although they are not always easy to recognize, due to remodeling.

Those that have been well maintained and/or restored to their orginal form are beautiful. :-D
dianemargaret
16 years ago
here's a link

Here is a link that might be useful: sears home
sparksals
16 years ago
Wow! You learn something new everyday!
Carol_from_ny
16 years ago
One of the gals that post on the Gardenweb actually wrote a book about Sear's Homes, she was even on tv awhile back talking about the subject.
Pipersville_Carol
16 years ago
A Sears house near my home was relocated recently, seems like there are people out there interested in saving them.

Contact your local newspaper, ask them to do an article about your house (that's how the one near me was saved). Also do a google search for Sears house preservation societies and ask them for advice.
Rudebekia
16 years ago
A pristine Sears home just sold in my area (Mpls/St. Paul) for a whopping $600,000 -- a huge amount here. They are well built, much in demand homes for certain buyers.
Denise Evans
16 years ago
You might want to list it on specialty web sites like oldhouses.com. Also contact the magazine American Bungalow and see if they can list it in the magazine. Their website is:http://www.ambungalow.com/AmBungalow/home.htm

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