Indiana’s $1 Million $1,600 House

In all my travels, I’ve seen only one Sears Hillrose, a spacious foursquare offered by Sears Roebuck. (Updated! I’ve now seen a surfeit of Hillroses! You can read about them here!) That Hillrose was in Prophetstown, Indiana (near West Lafayette) and it was...

A New Day on Gosnold, Part 4

Saturday morning, my dear husband arose at 5:30, had his morning coffee and by 6:00 am, he had started on his assigned chore: painting the kitchen in old 1925-built Colonial Revival. I helped a bit, but he did the lion’s share of the work on Saturday. Sunday...

Sears Magnolia in Syracuse!

We have confirmation on our seventh Magnolia. Absolute, incontrovertible proof. Earlier this month, I contacted the owner, and learned that she has documentation, showing that this house did indeed come from Sears and Roebuck. Between that, and the visual...

A New Day on Gosnold, Part 3

In “Driving Miss Daisy,” there’s a scene where Hoke is studying family pictures in Miss Daisy’s home and he comments “I just love a house with pictures, Miss Daisy. It do make a house a home.” When we first moved into 3916 Gosnold...

Goodwall Sheet Plaster and Sears Homes

In the 1916 Modern Homes catalog, Sears offered a new product:  Goodwall Sheet Plaster. It was promoted as being far better than traditional plaster, which involved a painstaking, labor-intensive process of nailing up thousands of pieces of wood lath (small, thin wood...