The 1923 Do-It-Yourself Homes Back in the Day
The awaited moment had arrived. Dad gathered Mom and Sis and hopped in the wagon with his brothers to the railroad station. They welcomed the first shipment of their family’s brand-new DIY home. All the lumber was precut and arrived with instructions for dad and uncles to assemble and build their new home. Mom and Dad picked out the Do-It-Yourself home: the Osborne Model from Sears, Roebuck, and Company’s catalog. It had three bedrooms plus a front porch and an interior bath; no outhouse. In just a few days, the home was erected, and soon after, the whole family slept under the roof of their DIY custom-made Sears Modern Home.
The Sears Catalog provided choices for all the other elements that make a house a home: windows, doors, cabinets, mirrors, siding, roofing material, wiring, plumbing supplies, and more. The 1600-page Sears Catalog, the home improvement retailers of 100 years ago, shipped their orders to the front door of their new home.
More than 72,000 DIY custom homes were erected during the first half of the 1900s. Over 350 Do-It-Yourself home models and many more still stand proud today.
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The 2023 Do-It-Yourself Home Kits Now
Consolidated freight confirms with Dad that their home will arrive this afternoon. The Gleeson Model, one of many FUN choices with 3 bedroom/2 bath, is perfectly engineered from Cold Formed Steel (CFS), has a lightweight and high-quality material that weighs less than wood, and has many other advantages as a modern steel framing material.
Unlike wood, steel doesn’t warp, expand, or burn; the walls are perfectly straight. Instead of hammers and nails, lightweight steel frame construction means working with screws and torque-regulated screw guns. Instead of installing utilities by drilling through wood, FrameUpNow DIY kit home panels are pre-punched to accommodate electricity and plumbing. Now, Mom, Dad, and his brothers can erect the frame of their home in only a few days.
Now that the Gleeson Do-It-Yourself home kit is framed and standing, Mom and Dad head to Home Depot and Lowes for roofing material, windows, doors, siding, and flooring, while Amazon will provide many of the finishing touches.
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Message from our Founders
Watch how our metal frames, preparation, and installation work with our DIY videos.
FAQs
Get answers to common questions about our metal framing systems, DIY kits, and more.
Glossary
Steel Frame Home
Watch how our metal frames, preparation, and installation work with our DIY videos.
Kit Homes
A do-it-yourself metal or steel framing kit house is a home where most of the major components, such as the framing, are prefabricated in a plant and then delivered to your site, where it is assembled.
Sheds & ADUs
Add a steel frame shed or Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU)/casita for an easy way to add more room.
DIY Steel Frame Building
The steel frame is a building technique with a “skeleton frame” of vertical and horizontal steel, much like wood framing.
How to Build a Metal Frame Home
Choose the home plan, and FrameUpNow will ‘build’ the Cold-formed steel (CFS) frame for assembly.
House Plans
FrameUpNow has several plans to choose from, such as a barndominium, farmhouse, modern farmhouse, guest cottage, and garage.
Environmentally Responsible Steel Frame
Steel is one of the greenest eco-friendly construction materials. Due to its strength, you don’t need a lot to do the job. There is no waste created as there is when building with wood.
Steel Framing Sustainability
The use of components formed to length results in no production waste.
Severe Climate Forces
Steel framing is the most weather-resistant building material for high winds and earthquakes and has the best overall durability.