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The kit included 750 pounds of nails, 22 gallons of paint and varnish and 20,000 shingles for the roof and siding. Sears estimated in 1908 that a carpenter would charge $450.00 to assemble Modern Home #111, The Chelsea.
According to the company's calculations, a painter would want $34.50 to paint the two-story foursquare. The plasterer's bill would be around $200, they figured, which included nailing up 840 square yards of wooden lath and applying three coats of plaster. Masonry and plaster was not included in the kit, but the Bill of Materials list advised that 1,100 cement blocks would be needed for the basement walls and foundation.
Skilled labor and lumber needed to build homes were in short supply in post-World War I years. But Sears, Roebuck and Company was ready and waiting with kits, available by catalog and containing everything needed to build a house.
The housing shortage in 1918 was so severe that analysts estimated that 1 to 2 million homes were needed immediately. Soldiers returning from WWI, as well as a steady stream of immigrants through Ellis Island fueled the demand for modestly priced houses. Sears had been courting business from this wave of foreigners for more than a decade. Its 1905 general merchandise catalog offered: "Write your order in any language. We have translators to read and write in all languages.".
The company's Modern Homes were hot sellers in the 1920s. Pre-cut lumber in the house kits made skilled carpentry unnecessary and solved the problem of lumber shortages. The Sears Modern Homes catalogs of the early 1920s were the largest the company published. They offered 90 different house designs, as well as plans for garages, outhouses and chicken coops.
The Sears catalog homes truly were "Modern Homes," with centralized heating systems, electric lights and indoor plumbing. The salutary effects of living in a modern home were extolled throughout the pages on the 1920s catalogs.