Hello. I'm in the process of buying a home built in 1911. Some have said it's a Sears home (the electrician thinks so but the city inspector didn't). 'Care to weigh in? It's in Lansing, Michigan so could possibly be an Aladdin home, too. It's a block away from an old set of rails in more frequent use when the home was built.

The city archives did not have an historic picture of the home but did find out that the original owner was a foreman at a lumber yard so he could have built it himself either from a kit or otherwise.

Here are some pictures of both the interior and exterior:
FlyerListing.pdf

Thanks in advance for any ideas pro or con! Even if it's not a kit, is it considered an Arts & Crafts Bungalow?

Your new home is an American Foursquare.

It was a very popular Colonial Revival house style from 1890 and 1935. Simple and economical to build, they dot the landscape from coast to coast.

You can see a collection of foursquares if you click the link above, and you can read about the characteristics of that type of house here: The American Foursquare.

The woodwork in the house is really great.

Lauren

I'm inclined to call your house a two-story Craftsman, because I tend to reserve the term "bungalow" for houses with more bungalow characteristics. It has a great interior with lots of Craftsman detail so you should have fun with it.

As for its being a kit, it's possible the plans and materials were purchased from Sears or Aladdin. We know that people in the lumber business knew a good deal when they saw it ... it wouldn't be the first house built by a lumber foreman or owner. Out of curiosity I looked at the Clarke site (http://clarke.cmich.edu/resource_tab/aladdin/annual_sales_catalogs/aladdin_catalogs.html) at the Aladdin catalogs and the M-2 looked possible but I don't think it's a match. The problem is it's such a vernacular style. Is the front porch original? It looks like it may have been added later ... maybe during the 1920s to add a sun room?

R.

I'm not sure if the sunroom was added or not. The woodwork to the french doors matches the rest of the front room, but the other side of the doorway seems to be maple rather than oak. The windows to the sunroom are cool, though: they're 12-pane with original "bubble glass" and very interesting latches. This picture comes the closest:
window latches in sunroom

quote:

http://clarke.cmich.edu/resource_tab/aladdin/annual_sales_catalogs/aladdin_catalogs.html

I looked at that one, too, but the floor plan is very different (bedrooms and bath upstairs; living, dining and kitchen [and porch area] downstairs). The stairwell is in the front room area, too, not at the back of the house like the M-2. Exterior, though, is the closest I've found to date!

Maybe it IS a foursquare, but can/did they often have craftsman-styled interiors?

Yes, many foursquare houses have what we now call "Craftsman" style woodwork and interior details in them. Including colonnades(the divider between the DR and LR), built in buffets, art glass, and wainscoting.

Here is an example of a Sears home similar to yours:

Wow, VERY similar. The floor plan is just about flipped with the living room and dining room making up the left side and the hall is part of the living room area with the pantry becoming a front closet.

There used to be a pantry (back room), but that was torn down several years ago according to the city inspector. I haven't figured out where the fireplace was. I know where the chimney is, but it doesn't seem to translate into an obvious place on the first floor for the hearth.

The measurements look very close to mine, too. Neat. I haven't found any stamped joists or many of the other tell-tale Sears Home signs. The upstairs interior door hardware looks like the pictures, but that's the only indication to date. I'll have to measure the exterior and see if it "fits"; I understand that's one of the first culls.

The chimney may not have been for a fireplace as we all think of it. It may have been for the original basement furnace(wood or coal) and the woodstove in the kitchen. Below is a 1916 Sears kitchen.

Hey-

Your house isn't the Springfield (the Sears House that Lauren posted) I have to dig out my Sears book and compare yours to one house that it may be be. I don't think it's a sears though.

Your wood work is gorgeous! What kind of shape are the wood floors in?

Donna

The floors downstairs are fairly okay. I took up the horrible, smelly carpet in the front room. The carpet tape they used was less than kind to the pine flooring in the center.

The floors upstairs have big gouges in them. I'm guessing they're pine, too.

'Anyone have a source for what to do to refinish oak floors with pine floor centers? I can't say I've found a site with that kind of information yet!

I'm in Lansing too. This has got to be one of the best (i.e., most affordable) places in the country to buy an old house, especially if you don't mind doing some restoration. My house is a 1930 bungalow and I'm currently trying to figure out if it's a kit house or what. Anyway, the woodwork in yours is fantastic, really stunning. The outside doesn't look to me like Arts & Crafts design...mine isn't either but it does have some nice A&C-like features inside.

Thanks, SpartanGirl! Yes, there are some good deals to be had here - - if you look long and hard. I had to tour a lot of duds before finding this firecracker.

Keep in mind that Arts & Crafts or Craftsman is different from Craftsman-style. Arts & Crafts was actually a design philosophy that had to do with a fusion of design, materials, and craftsmanship. The underlying predicate was simplicity and honesty of material, attention to detail, and mastery in execution. True A&C or Craftsman homes or furnishings were handmade of high-quality local materials ... and they weren't cheap, which was one of the problems A&C designers ran into in England.

Craftsman-style is about the design and the way something looks. Many kit home bungalows fall into that category because they were mass-produced in factories according to a standard series of plans.

Your house would probably have been described as "artistic" when it was built. Craftsman-style is a more recent definition though it was used by Stickley to popularize the movement here in the US and is alternately used with "Mission style" to describe design detail, particularly in woodwork. (There is some overlap with Art Nouveau though that movement had a completely different philosophical foundation.)

You could describe your house as a Craftsman-style foursquare because the only difference from the standard foursquare definition is the gabled roof instead of the pyramidal shape. It sounds like the floor plan is pretty standard.