Early 20th Century Catalog Homes

[hpinson]

There is an interesting article about the pre-cut catalog homes of the early 1900's, over at Tiny Home Blog:

http://tinyhouseblog.com/tiny-house/house-come-free-shipping/

[Adam Roby]

The wall plates were even notched for "easy assembly".  Cool concept... we have prefab houses here in Quebec, entirely made in a warehouse and assembled on site.  I know of a few kits that are sold, kind of logs but fabricated with insulation and hollowed areas to pass wired and plumbing but they require some knowhow to assemble.  I like the idea, if you are able to build but want it to go as quickly as possible.  Must save a ton of time not having to measure and cut each piece...  guess it would likely doubles the cost?

[rick91351]

We gleaned a lot of stuff from such when we were looking to build.  One thing that really - really seemed to have changed over the years was the concept that the kitchen could be part of the entertainment schema of a home.  That or it was like the old farm houses I knew or lived in where eating / dining and cooking.  Sometimes doctoring a calf or was just pretty much right there. 

The old style of a more formal dining and the kitchen seemed in most drawings at least we came across.  The only interaction between kitchen and dining was relegated to a feature called the pass through.  Where the feast was shoved through from the kitchen to the dining area and dirty dishes shoved back through.   That was about the only interaction with the kitchen.  Which was okay because it was hardly large enough to entertain in as common today.   

[rick91351]

The wall plates were even notched for "easy assembly".  Cool concept... we have prefab houses here in Quebec, entirely made in a warehouse and assembled on site.  I know of a few kits that are sold, kind of logs but fabricated with insulation and hollowed areas to pass wired and plumbing but they require some knowhow to assemble.  I like the idea, if you are able to build but want it to go as quickly as possible.  Must save a ton of time not having to measure and cut each piece...  guess it would likely doubles the cost?

There were two main players in the early kit homes that we found.  One of course was Sears and Roebucks and their Craftsman Brand Homes.  The other Alladin but there were many more.  They actually were pretty comparable in price from what I can tell.  But when you get into the kit homes of today with the especially the log home market it is pretty hard to compare apples and apples there because each seems to have their own kicker or call on.  Be it easy to wire or best insulation factors or ______.  There it is so hard to figure it all out and pencil it out DIYS versus picking up the phone and making order.  Very few of us have the routers and bits and drills that the log factories have tooled up with.  To me time is also a real issue.  Log homes are often so labor intensive to me I lost my fascination with them pretty quickly.  Though I would still like to help build one if the person building it was experienced and knowledgeable.           

[hpinson]

Kitchen party! I cant' imagine it any other way. Formal dining rooms are so cold and ... formal. 

[rick91351]

Kitchen party! I cant' imagine it any other way. Formal dining rooms are so cold and ... formal. 

In the house we are building we actually opted for a large open kitchen and a nook off to the side we have planned to use our old - old dining set in there and getting the most useage.  We have a huge rose wood formal dining set we imported from China when we had the business going.  So we morphed the dining room into the front room with the loss of the wall.  So it is now one huge rectangle carrying both.

This should allow more useage of both the dining sets and basically a O shape - We had to leave the wall separating the kitchen from the front room pretty well as it was.  However with the passage ways especially at the nook being a little over eight feet it envelopes the nook in to the front room.  The nook and kitchen being one.....so everything just seems to flow.  Then there is a smaller passage way between the kitchen and the rosewood set that will be in the front room / dining room.

This will allow us to have those winter card parties and get togethers plus family dinners and invite the whole area......  It will give Ellen a huge country kitchen to can and cook and I me to cut and wrap game and who knows I might ever return to one of my favorite hobbies of years ago COOKING!!