At first glance, the Rembrandt looks like a massive Dutch Colonial, but in fact, it was 1,672 square feet. As early 1900s housing goes, this was certainly a spacious home, but not dramatically so.
However…
Building this two-story home from a 12,000-piece kit that arrived via boxcar would certainly have been a challenge! Each piece of lumber was numbered to facilitate construction and the blueprints were written with extra detail and accompanying explanations (to help novices), and the kit came with a 75-page instruction book, however…
This still would have been quite a project to tackle!
Based on my research, about 50% of the people who purchased Sears Kit Homes hired contractors to build their house, and the other half spent a lot of time poring over those detailed blueprints and built the house themselves!
What is a Sears Home? Click here to learn more.
To watch Buster Keaton build a Sears Home, click here.
The Sears Rembrandt
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For a "big" house, it had a very small kitchen!
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Lumber was numbered to facilitate construction, but still, building the Rembrandt from a kit would have been quite a task!
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Catalog image of the Rembrandt
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The real deal in Annapolis, MD. And notice it has Buckingham Slate on the roof. Buckingham Slate is the crème de la crème of slate and weighs 1,400 pounds per square. When building a house that will have a slate roof, the roof is specially constructed to accommodate this tremendous amount of weight. Here in the Southeast, I've seen several Sears Homes with this Buckingham Slate roof.
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Sears Rembrandt in West Chicago, Illinois. Where's a chain saw when you need it?
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This Sears Rembrandt is in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Photo is copyright 2012 Andrew and Wendy Mutch and can not be used or reproduced without written permission.
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Comparison of the Rembrandt in Ann Arbor with the original catalog picture.
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Beautiful house but it sure looks chilly!! Photo is copyright 2012 Andrew and Wendy Mutch and can not be used or reproduced without written permission.
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To read more about the Sears Homes that Wendy and Andrew found in Michigan, click here and here.
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