Home Building Kits

Description

Kit homes have been around for nearly a century, but they've gained popularity in recent years thanks to fresh new designs and consumers looking for more affordable housing options in an expensive real estate market. A kit home -- even more do-it-yourself friendly than the average prefab home -- arrives mostly preassembled and requires less time and labor to put into place. Kit Homes Modern explains everything homeowners need to know about this low cost/high design alternative, offering a comprehensive look at the full range of modern kit homes currently on the market. A brief, entertaining history on the origin and evolution of kit homes, including how they differ from mobile homes, is followed by a visual, behind-the-scenes tour of the creation of a kit home -- from the architect's drawing board to the factory floor to its final destination. Kit Homes Modern will raise the potential homeowner's comfort level and provide a vivid and precise understanding of the structural and interior features of the kit home and the many options available. Tips and hints on buying and installing a kit home tell homeowners exactly what to expect and show them how to avoid costly pitfalls and mistakes. And an exhaustive resource section provides up-to-date references on manufacturers, architects, consumer websites, consultants, and contractors who specialize in kit homes.

Description

Home buyers and house architects agree: the most exciting things on the housing market today are modular homes. They can be built and reach move-in condition in just a few weeks, and they offer a host of customizing possibilities.Now Andy Gianino, founder and president of The Home Store, the largest dealer of modular homes in the Northeast, has written a comprehensive handbook for prospective modular home buyers. The book is packed with everything you need to know about buying and building a modular home--or a modular addition to your existing home.Gianino dispels the misconceptions about the limitations of modular homes and shows potential buyers that a modular home can be as good as, if not better than, houses built with traditional stick-frame construction. Then he gets down to the nitty-gritty: choosing a dealer, working with a general contractor, selecting a floor plan, choosing the customized details, even planning the landscaping around the house. Throughout the book the emphasis is on top-quality materials and cost-effective measures to ensure that the buyer gets their dream home at a great price. What's more, this book is equally useful for anyone already in the modular business or looking to get in as a dealer, manufacturer, designer, or specialized general contractor.Illustrated throughout with a 16-page fullcolor insert, plus a host of house plans, The Modular Home shows home buyers how going modular can expand their choices, save time, save money, and prove to be more durable than conventionally-built houses.

Description

This is a newly revised and expanded version of The Houses That Sears Built. This new edition includes more than 20 new photos of existing Sears Homes throughout the country as well as a plethora of recently discovered information. This major revision also includes reproductions of newly-discovered original documents from the Sears Modern Homes Department as well as compelling interviews with men who worked at the Sears Mill in Cairo, IL. You'll also hear the fascinating stories from Sears Homeowners who actually built their own Sears Kit Home many decades ago! Want to learn how to identify a Sears Home? This book contains new graphics, photos and easy-to-reference bulleted points that will tell you and show you - step by step - how to identify a Sears Home. It also includes four brand new chapters, such as "Chapter 3 - The Amazing Mr. Sears; A Brief Look at The Handsome Genius and His Store," "Chapter 5 - Milling About Sears Homes, A Look Inside the Sears Mill at Cairo, Illinois," "Chapter 8 - Homart Homes, The 'Other' Sears Homes, "Chapter 11 - Those Dandy Houses, Testimonials; Trivia and Reminiscences of Building a Sears Modern Home." Since the first edition of The Houses That Sears Built was published in Spring 2002, the author has appeared on CBS Sunday Morning News, PBS's History Detectives, A&E's Biography and WGN-TV News, as well as the New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, Dallas Morning News and more than 50 regional publications. As a result of this publicity, Ms. Thornton has received more than 1,000 emails and letters from readers all over the country, telling stories and sharing precious memories about their own "Sears Modern Homes," and she incorporated many of these stories into this new edition. This new edition of The Houses That Sears Built is more than a revision - it contains a tremendous amount of new information and trivia and wonderful photos that the Sears Home enthusiast will treasure and enjoy! About Sears Homes: Between 1908-1940, Sears customers ordered about 75,000 houses out of the Sears Roebuck and Company mail-order catalogs. The houses were shipped by rail to city lots and farms all over the country. Each "kit home" contained 30,000 pieces, including 750 pounds of nails and 27 gallons of paint and varnish. A 75-page instruction book showed home buyers, step by step, how to assemble those 30,000 pieces of house. Only 10% (approximately) of the Sears homes in the country have been discovered. Because of this, our communities’ best architectural treasures – our grand collection of Sears homes – are being damaged by remuddling and worse, demolished. There is tremendous interest in this topic and hopefully, The Houses That Sears Built will spur that interest even further. When you have finished reading The Houses That Sears Built you will be your community’s expert on Sears homes. You’ll learn how to identify Sears homes from the inside, outside and from courthouse documents. You’ll learn the interesting details of Sears homes’ construction. One chapter is devoted to the $1 million order of Sears homes that was shipped to Carlinville, Schoper and Wood River (Illinois). Another chapter is devoted to "The Lost Sears Homes." These are Sears homes which appeared only once in obscure Sears Modern Homes catalogs and were not included in "Houses by Mail: A Guide To Houses from Sears, Roebuck and Company," by Katherine Cole Stevenson and H. Ward Jandl.

Description

A delightful look at America's past. From 1908 to 1940 some 100,000 people purchased their ready-to-assemble homes from Sear's mail order. Presented here are approximately 450 models sold by Sears together with a description, a picture, floor plans, prices and locations.

Features

• ISBN13: 9780471143949
• Condition: New
• Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed