Budget Breakdown: This Sears Kit Home in Houston Originally Cost $1,299. It Just Got a $368K Glow Up

Michelle White was recently at a neighbor’s dinner party when another guest—a visiting architect at Snøhetta—asked to see her house. Michelle and her husband, Haden Garrett, had spent more than a year renovating their Houston Heights residence, which dates back to the 1920s. They long suspected it was a Sears kit house—sold via catalogue from Sears, Roebuck and Co. and shipped to the buyer via railroad boxcars. Michelle’s neighbor, who lived in a Sears kit house almost identical to hers, had done the research, finding old advertisements that led everyone to believe their homes were the Josephine model: four rooms total, including two bedrooms, a kitchen, and a bathroom, retailing for $1,299, not including cement, brick, or plaster.

"I knew a bit about Sears houses and their history," says Michelle. "We live a block away from an old rail line that would go to the factories. The train would stop off here—this is the first suburb of Houston to the north of the city—and dump out houses."

The post-dinner tour revealed an updated residence, but one that didn’t stray too far from the spirit of the original. An addition doubles its square footage, a simple palette of white paint, oak flooring, and millwork blending with the details of the original house; the couple wanted to keep it from appearing ostentatious or overly designed (a rising problem in the neighborhood, they say.) "We loved the home and wanted to preserve it as much as possible and expand in a way that felt modest and in keeping with the neighborhood," Michelle says. "It was important to keep the proportions sensitive to the original profile."