Searching for Sears

The holidays are behind us now and all those “some assembly required” toys with seemingly a million pieces that had to be put together are a fading memory,  each piece with a little round numbered sticker that corresponded with the assembly instructions.

Sears Roebuck & Co

Believe It or not, there are historic homes in our neighborhoods today assembled the exact same way.
Kit houses they were called, they came on rail cars crated with an instruction booklet and every stud, floorboard, wall board, shingle, doors and windows was numbered. Im a bit embarrassed because that radio flyer wagon had 20 pieces and a kit house had thousands. As an Austin TX home inspector, I crawl lots of pier and beam historic homes. I look for the telltale signs of “kit houses” in search for Sears Kit Homes.

Sears Roebuck Company started shipping kit homes all across the US in 1908. Standard Oil (Rockefeller) was one of the biggest purchasers of these homes for “man camps” to work the oil fields. Many of these man camps were disassembled once the oilfields were developed and the houses were then moved into the country or city. I am aware of many Sears kit homes in the Permian Basin of Texas but I am in Search of Sears kit homes in Central Texas. Call Bumblebee Home and Termite Inspection to schedule your home Inspection now.