In the beginning, I joined Facebook under protest and only with the stated purpose of creating a stronger internet presence for me and my books and my career.
Subsequently, I’ve found that if I write a blog and do NOT post a link on Facebook, this site gets significantly fewer hits.
So this is a little Friday night experiment. If you’re coming to this site for some reason OTHER than Facebook, please leave a comment below and tell me when and how you landed here!
Teddy and I thank you.
Before there was Teddy, there was "Daisy," a one-in-a-million dog that knew me better than I knew myself. She was one of those animals that seemed more like a human than a canine.
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Daisy got me through the divorce to my first husband "Tom," to whom I was married for 24 years. We'd take long walks in the countryside sans leash, and she never wandered away. She was good company.
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Teddy might be a little jealous.
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Read about Sears Homes by clicking here.
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I’m signed up for your blog. I don’t do Facebook.
I found out about you when you were having a relative exhumed in Lake Mills, WI.
I live just south of there and followed the news story on this website. I do not do Facebook.
I don’t do Facebook. I don’t need another venue for my deadbeat friends and relatives to track me down with sob stories about being broke.
I’m a longtime blog subscriber. Originally found you on a Pinterest pin.
I don’t think there are any Sears Homes here in Australia, but love your posts and wish you all good things for the future.
I’ve followed your blog on my feed reader for years, love your knowledge of Sears homes.
My home isn’t a Sears home, but an almost Sears Mitchell. And I don’t do Facebook. š
Surprisingly ā because I am ALWAYS on FB ā I arrived here tonight via my RSS reader instead.
I come here from a link from my own blog.
I also use wordpress, I can see where people come from as a far as facebook or pinterest, flickr, another blog or even a hyperlink from another blog. I bet you have that feature too!
You can find that under ‘STATS’.
You can also see what was googled or searched to land on your blog!
I think I found this blog through a google search.
I was bored one day about a year ago and did a search for “Sears Houses.”
I had read one of Rosemary’s books several years ago, and was delighted to find she had a blog.
I found your site years after reading one of your books and doing a “binge read” on your posts to catch up.
I don’t have time for facebook and only look at my wife’s when there is nothing better to do.
By the way, I have a running count of 3 Sears Crescent houses in my area and numerous ones that must be a kit house. š
Rick
@Rebecca
Some were built in Queensland during the gold mining days.
I can’t remember the name or the author of the book I read back in the 1990’s that stated this.
If I find out I’ll post again.
There were a number of companies in Australia that manufactured pre-cut and portable houses. See the attached link.
https://sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/exhibitions/timber-cottages-portable-machine-made-ready-cut
I found this just because I was randomly interested in seeing plans and such for these types of homes, googled and boom. Here you are. I live in Houston by the way.
My wife and I purchased a 1927 Sears Westly after living in a ranch style house for years, and found it is just what we wanted.
Stumbled across this site during a google search, and read every article!
People tell me, “We can’t wait to see how you are going to update the house!” but I keep doing projects to put it back to original!!
Keep up the great work, I really appreciate the wealth of information.
Kevin
I got here because I’m wondering if I own a Sears home in Longmont, CO.
I go on Facebook but didn’t find you from that. I just a Google search on Sears houses.
Are there Sears houses in Colorado?
I found your blog when I was investigating a supposed Sears house in our family, but it wasn’t a Sears House.
I got hooked on your blog when you were investigating Addie’s death and never left.
I subscribe in a feed reader so I don’t miss a post. I’m always so glad to see what you write!
Praying for you, too!
Found you while doing google search. I have a Sears Home, but wanted to know if the walls were ship lapped.
I inherited this home and my parents did so many remodels but they never took out they just added more.
They put paneling over the wood walls and I was thinking about taking down all the paneling, scared of what I might find.
No Facebook for me.
I started reading your blog after my sister found and mentioned it when she bought a house that may or may not be a Sears Maytown in 2013.
I googled Sears Kit House and found this site: http://www.arts-crafts.com/archive/kithome/rt-searskits.shtml, and found your name there as the foremost authority on Sears kit houses.
My great grandfather purchased a Sears kit house (not sure of the year yet) and had it erected in Bonham, Texas. There is no doubt it is a Sears kit (the story has been passed down through the generations) but I don’t know the model/style.
The closest I can find is The Woodland (shown here: http://www.antiquehomestyle.com/plans/sears/1923sears/23sears-woodland.htm ). The exterior is identical, and the floorpan almost is – but there are enough differences in the floorpan that tells me this is not their exact model. So I am on a quest to find the model!
I got to your website by contacting Nancy Mitchell from Apartment Therapy about the article she published January 2017.
I believe I am the owner of a Magnolia or its precursor which was built in 1908 and has a twin built in 1909 ninety miles away.
I would like to confer with you about the possibility as well as send you some photos. I have attempted to forward my correspondence with Nancy, but am not sure if I have a correct email address.
Hi Rose, I found you (and your books, and wonderful site) searching for info on kit homes.
I’m writing a piece about them for the Boston Globe’s real estate section, and I’d love to interview either by phone or email you if you’re available in the next few weeks.
Let me know how to contact you? (Email generated an auto-reply.) Thanks!
I found you by googling Sears homes. I don’t do Facebook, either.
The Washington Post has an article about Sears’ hard times, and there’s a mini video about Sears kit homes, which reminded me that every time I think about Sears kit homes, I get sucked into a day of reading about them and wondering — again — if my house is a Sears kit home.
But I don’t think it really is; it’s too cheaply made to be a Sears home. Circuitous route, as it were. But I’ll find you on Facebook the next time I go there. (I really do not like Facebook, but my boss requires me to be on it.)
No Facebook here. Saw the WashPost article/video on Sears homes, and sent it to my parents, who have a Sears home in Bradford PA.
Meanwhile, I got to wondering which design they have, and searching brought me to this wonderful blog.
PS: My parents wrote just wrote that they have a Maplewood.
Rosemary, I am so, so, so sorry for your loss and for what you were forced to experience.
I am also a recent widow…my husband (the love of my life) passed away less than two years before your husband, on May 2, 2014.
It was a natural death but a very sudden one and I was sitting right next to him when it happened. I had PTSD for months afterwards and felt so much guilt, and if only I had done this or that differently.
I felt so many of the same feelings you have expressed, and yet I cannot truly say I know how you feel because my husband did not choose to die and did not blame me for dying. I cannot imagine the crushing weight of that and I cannot imagine what kind of person would heap that on you.
As your husband, he had a responsibility to give you the opportunity to “fix” whatever he thought was your “fault.” But never, at any time, was it your responsibility to make him happy.
If he was not happy, it was up to him to work at it…starting with your relationship.
You can’t fix that of which you are not aware. I looked at his picture and said (out loud) “Shame on you for doing that to her!” That said, the only thing I can add is that, trite as it sounds, time does heal all wounds. You are a very strong person.
As far as what got me here, I didn’t go to Facebook first. I was trolling the internet for information on kit houses because I have been fascinated with them for years.
My favorite is the Sears Mitchell, but I have given up on ever finding one for sale. If I did find one, it would probably be a thousand miles away.
I live in Georgia now but am thinking of moving closer to family in Virginia (the northern Shenandoah Valley). I am looking for property so that I can build a replica. If my dream comes true, I will send you a picture!
Hi Rose! I found you by trying to figure out whether or not my newly purchased home is a kit home or not.
You’re the expert according to google, so I’ll dig around and see if your resources can help me out!
I wandered the web here from a link on Sears homes in Norfolk VA.
A friend just bought a Vallonia in Portsmouth VA.
I’m looking for vintage millwork advertisements and wound up here.
(The post depicting the couple reading a blueprint on the Sears Catalog cover is pretty funny.)
I’m not entirely sure. We lived in what might have been an Aladdin Hudson in St. Joseph, MO, where there are TONS of American Foursquares and Bungalows.
I decided to do something about my grief of having to leave our Hudson, and began designing my own interpretations of the Foursquare.
I suppose I was looking for information on Sears homes, since they seemed to have been the “big frog in the little pond.”
Not from FB, did a search on Sears home kits and found your site. I was familiar with the Craftsman style Sears homes but am bowled over by the Magnolia!
I tweeted Sears and said if they are looking to save their store, they should look into selling house kits again.
Lots of people would love to bypass expensive custom builders and their plans when building a home.
Not from FB. I did a search on “Bungalows Pennsylvania” and found you.
I love these homes and want to find one we could buy outside of Philadelphia.
Previously, it seemed my searches only found those in CA or the Midwest.
Thank you for keeping your site going (after your relatively recent tragedy).
The site is a boon to me; I am so happy to have found it.
Hi Rose,
I hate facebook and maybe only login once every six months. I found your wonderful website by searching ‘Sears Magnolia house’ on Google last year and have been coming back regularly ever since.
I have just finished reading ‘The Houses That Sears Built’ Its a signed copy that I bought cheaply on Amazon.
Thank you so much for all the great information and stories in the book and here on the website.
I fell in love with the Magnolia after seeing the Sears catalogue picture on the internet, one day a few years ago and now my boyfriend and I are building, as close a replica of the Magnolia, as we can on five acres, down here in Australia.
Denise, Stawell, Victoria, Australia
denise39plus@gmail.com
Hi Rose,
I did not come to your website from Facebook. I was searching for 1927 Dutch colonial homes and I came across your site.
I grew up in a 1927 bungalow, although I do not know if it is a Sears home. Many of the homes you feature on your site look familiar to me.
Thank you for your wonderful website.
Mary
I found you in researching my 1929 Sears and Roebuck Hoosier Cabinet.
It was my grandparents for many years. I have now inherited it after about 15 years of garage and barn living – it needs help.
I am looking for information on what it is ‘supposed’ to look like as my memories are not super detailed and in pictures there is always somebody blocking at least part of it.
Any help or ideas or pics would be greatly appreciated.