Kit Homes – Sears – The Ashmore
"In offering this high class, artistic bungalow to prospective builders, we are pleased to be in a position to assure them that it is one of the richest and most refined examples of bungalow craft thus far submitted to the public. Experts in the bungalow building line declare that there is a reason for every gable, every timber and every window – in fact, that it is a house with a purpose." ~Sears Modern Homes, 1917
Starting in 1908, and running through the early 1940’s, Sears offered a catalog of Modern Homes for purchase by mail order. They even offered barns, chicken coops, garages, cabins and outhouses. The Ashmore was offered from 1916-1924, and was part of the "Honor Bilt" series, the highest-quality line of houses, with its clear-grade (no knots) flooring and cypress or cedar shingles. Lumber was pre-cut in the factory, and shipped by railroad ready for installation. This was a huge time saver in an era before power tools existed. It is reported that more than 100,000 of these kit homes (all models) were sold by Sears, but sadly records of exact numbers and locations of models were lost in a corporate house cleaning after the program was shut down. Sears was neither the first nor the only company to sell mail-order houses, but they were the largest, selling as many as 324 units in one month (May, 1926). Homes could be ordered in any quantity, and there were even a few company towns that were built using these kits. Today, many of these homes still exist, and their owners often don’t even realize they are living in one.
If you look closely, there are several minor variations in my model compared to the catalog illustration. While some of that was done for practical reasons to save on tris and texture space on the final model, it should also be noted that many of the homes in the program were offered over several years, and often featured minor changes from year to year that weren’t always reflected in the catalog image (which was sometimes just a rendering anyway). There were also many options, and Sears even offered architectural services to modify the plans. For example, you may notice that my roof purlins are slightly different from those pictured. Some houses used the ones I’ve modeled, while some used brackets instead. I used real houses that were actually built from the Modern Homes program for reference wherever possible. In fact, this whole project (yes, there will be more!) was inspired by my discovery of a Sears Ashmore in my own neighborhood while looking for inspiration for my Pittsburgh bungalows. I made the chimney out of bricks just like the house in my neighborhood too.
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Features:
Level 4 growable (3 tile wide lot) There are no lot variations included, but there are four roof color variations included for additional variety.
Tris: 2358 (Yes, I know it’s high, but all that detail doesn’t come cheap)
Textures: 1024 x 1024
_a, _c, _d, _i, _n,_ s
Custom LOD:
126 tris
128 x 128 textures
_c, _d, _i
Model and textures by Bungalow Man, not to be re-uploaded to the workshop in any form without permission.
Required items:
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Generic Tree pack — Steam Workshop
SKF - Pavement Theme Decals — Steam Workshop
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