It's a Sears House!

I moved into my house on October 15, 2004 and it is located in the driftless area of Wisconsin. The house was ordered from a Sears catalog and delivery by rail. The house is called “Crafton” and the floor plan is 3318C (the one in the middle) and was in the catalog in the 1930’s. My house’s floor plan is flipped with the bedrooms on the left side. The home original cost was around $916 to $1,399.

I was told by the last PO that they found a Sears mailing label when doing work on the place. I found the Sears label on old broken up door frame in my shed while cleaning. The picture shows the mailing label that would be placed on your order.

The PO remodeled the bathroom and kitchen so I have been trying to determine what they looked like before the remodeling. I have some idea but would be interested in finding someone who has an unaltered kitchen or bathroom.

The dining room still has the original build-in china cabinet. Most of the molding is still left but I believe the rooms had at one time crown moldings. I can only guess this since the plaster is indented slightly 3 to 2 inches next to the ceiling in all the rooms.

Most the windows and doors are still there. The kitchen window was altered in attempt to make it more efficient but this window leaks the most. They ordered a replacement window to be inserted in the old window frame. The replaced insert are missing the 6 over 6 and it looks awful. I been planning to replace it but now it has moved up on my “To Do” because I have found wet rot last fall while scraping off paint. Both closet doors in the bedrooms were removed and replaced with cheap hollow sliding doors. I looked for the door but one of the POs must have thrown them out. I started to replace the closet doors with folding door that at least match the profile of the original doors in the house.

I consider myself lucky that most of the house has not been changed. I still have the front porch. since many a house front porch has been lost only to become part of the house. Lastly the final change to the floor plan is a small 8x10 ft three-season porch added to the back of the house with a deck off it. The three-season porch may have been added at the time the house was build but the deck was add by the last owner's because the three steps up to the porch did not have a small landing next to the door.

If you are interested in knowing more about Sears home I would suggested Rosemary Thornton Site: http://www.searshomes.org/. The Wisconsin Historical Society has a very nice article about Mail Order Homes: http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/wmh/pdf/wmh_autumn01_draeger.pdf.