Sears 122?

This may well be a heavily remodeled Sears 122, circa 1910.

Gambrel roofs are quite rare here, but not totally absent - maybe one in 300 houses of the era, in the areas I've been prowling. One of my theories is they are more likely to be from kits because local builders are less likely to have experience in their intricacies.

The one in the images is the only cross-gambrel I have seen, and the fenestration & side door match the 122, while the mismatches range from obvious remodeling to very plausible remodeling. The house faces south, which is both the weather side for storms and of course the sunny side for freeze-thaw, so it tends to need siding repair/replacement soonest and a bay window on the south is very likely to suffer moisture infiltration.

Gordon-Van Tine?

This strongly resembles a "flipped" Wardway 101 - as shown at http://wardwayhomes.com/blog/2010/07/wardway-homes-a-little-slice-of-heaven/ - but it is missing the dormer and the eave-line is lower! The gapped instead of paired upper front windows strikes me as less of a problem.

The porch & first floor fenestration matches, the bay window shape and roof matches - and yes, per Google Maps satellite view, it appears there is a bay window on the other side as well, which presumably matches the one on this side.

So at this point, I am calling this a probable Gordon Van Tine (who made house kits for Montgomery Wards to sell as "Wardway," and sold most of the same houses themselves), that is as yet undetermined whether a catalog variation or a modified version.

Why

An interest in old houses, or not-so-old houses, has long been part of my life, ebbing & flowing over the years.

Right now it is peaking, and focused on the kit houses sold by Sears, Montgomery Ward, Aladdin, et al, from before 1910 to the World War II era. And maybe a bit after.

My attention does tend to wander off to Vernacular Houses, to Bungalows, to British Half-timber, to German Fachwerk. Or to Lincoln Logs or Legos.

Mostly it tends toward the houses of ordinary folk, not fancy houses by architects or eccentrics. Not that I have anything against my fellow eccentrics -I'll just let someone else blog the eccentricity of their abodes.

But focus isn't my priority. And I may change my mind.

Maybe I'll post pictures of churches - if they are ordinary churches.

This blog exists for my own amusement, not for rules.

Reader beware.