Did you know that retail giant Sears used to sell not only home appliances as it does now, but also the whole homes?
It’s true. A user of Reddit named RealHotSauceBoss has recently put up a post about his grandpa’s home which was bought out of a Sears catalog in 1916. It turns out that back in those days Sears sold even mail-order houses. You could choose from several options and have the house delivered via horse-drawn wagon. Of course, it came in pieces, but there were also blueprints and instructions for assembly! Can you imagine buying a house just like that?
According to archives, roughly 75.000 mail-order homes were sold by Sears between 1908 and 1940. The house from the picture seems to be a “Model #137”, it was sold for about $1,062. In 1916 it was a sum of money that roughly equates $27,000 today.
The current owner says that his grandpa’s house is still in a pretty good shape. He wrote: “It has held up remarkably well all things considered. Obviously the wood wasn’t treated back then so the exterior was in rough shape, but the house was structurally sound. To preserve the interior we essentially had to build a shell of HardiePlank over the old exterior, then we put storm windows over the original windows. The original roof was unrecoverable due to wear and leakage, so it was completely replaced. The basement is in unbelievably good shape considering that cement is a century old! It continues to be a really interesting project.”
He is going to fix the interior, but it is tricky as the house is so old. For example, the oven weights several hundred pounds, it’s going to need some fixing after they find the way to get it back in the kitchen through the narrow staircase.
But let’s wish this man luck as it is great to see such care for a place that could easily be called a historical landmark!
