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tkgally

The Internet Archive has scans of Sears catalogs from when it was a major mail-order retailer. For example:

1911: https://archive.org/details/sears-roebuck-catalog-122-spring...

1922: https://archive.org/details/SearsRoebuckAndCoCatalog1922_201...

When I was young, they were especially known for their tools:

1974/1975: https://archive.org/details/SearsCraftsmanPowerAndHandTools1...

More here:

https://archive.org/search?query=title%3A%28sears+catalog%29...

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My house, built in the 60s, is actually 4 Sears cabin kits. The guy bought them, and assembled them end to end, making a long house.

Same guy dug the original ditch by driving back and forth with his jeep for an hour during spring rain. This gives a perspective on his can do attitude.

But really, I'm living in the house still, so it can't be that bad.

>Same guy dug the original ditch by driving back and forth with his jeep for an hour during spring rain.

wtf? how deep is the ditch?

When I bought, it was maybe 2 ft deep. 60s Jeeps weren't quite a wide as today, either.

I dug it out properly after buying. It was a perfectly good ditch though, but I wanted to drain more water at the back of the property, so I lowered it another 2 feet.

You literally can't do that today in any jurisdiction with building code. It wouldn't be illegal, but the hoops you'd need to jump through (and they way they'd likely try and screw you at every turn) to string together a bunch of kit buildings and call it a "house" would make it so expensive that you'd be better off hiring professionals to build a house the normal way.

Have you tried living in a freer state?

Unfortunately yes. I wish it was that easy. That's why I said "jurisdiction with building code". Florida is free AF. They have pretty serious building code for anything people are expected to occupy because hurricanes. The mountain west is free, on paper, at a state level. But at a local level there's fucktons of jurisdictions that are basically run by carpetbaggers from California (if not in literal state of origin then spiritually) who make everything hard. The various offgrid cabin forums are absolutely chock full of horror stories about how those people run the place.

Are double-wide trailer homes and prefabricated housing all that different?

From the perspective an enforcer that wants an easy meal without much risk to themselves they're a way tougher nut to crack. They're built by "big enough" business that getting their stuff engineered for all the various codes is an expense they can easily amortize over their production. And these businesses can afford lawyers and have every incentive to fight unreasonable stuff so the vultures in your local zoning board or building commissioner's office are unlikely to pick a fight with them. In contrast, some random guy is way easier prey.

But yes, on a fundamental level there's little difference between plopping a modular on a grid of piers vs plopping sheds on a grid of piers. The biggest difference is the level of finishing that's done at the factory.

Wait, were those tools all Sears branded? Hopefully they were private label and not actually manufactured by Sears!

Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about the Craftsman brand:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craftsman_(tools)

My personal recollection from the 1970s is that Craftsman tools had a reputation for high quality and that people I knew bought them at Sears stores.

I bought a set of Craftsman tools from Sears in the late 2000s. They’re solid.

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