Original......on sale in Texas.
rented one for a while back in the early 2000s.
Neat old house dating from the end of the 19th century or early 20th century. Might have actually been a pattern built before the sears home era but matched the planes of one I saw a decade ago. makes sense that Sears would not have reinvented the wheel but taken existing designs fro their program.
Had one heating grate in the whole hose, right at the front door. Convection heating of the upstairs with small grates in each room to allow the hot air to go up. worked surprisingly well and was not at all inefficient, though the upstairs were a few degrees cooler in winter.
All the plumbing (one bathroom) was in one corner of the house, kitchen below bathroom (on second floor). crawl space with dirt floor and concrete pad for heater. very easy to get at everything and maintain it.
Insulation was old newspaper.
Not a lot of room but it was a pretty comfortable house. Never had an air conditioner nor did I really need one. The way it was designed if you opened the top windows the air would sort of convectively cool, really worked well if you had one window fan in the upstairs. Attic was also well designed so if you opened that door and the windows on the bottom floor it sort of sucked cool air in during the evening.
Fairly high ceilings compared to modern homes. I think that was part of what made the rooms comfortable.
It was a very livable house and kind of an eye opener to me how efficient you could make a house in terms of comfort with minimal modern conveniences.
Original......on sale in Texas.
As a contractor over the years, I've pulled out some real old newspapers during remodels.
Interesting to read the news of that day.