Home Builders Catalogue

This was a Father’s Day gift for my retired contractor husband. Lovely book and clear printing. Even I got a kick out of the old pricing for beautiful materials!

BUY IT! Buy it for SURE! This is a gem. Tons of stuff in it, like the rolls of 1 1/2 inch lead pipe. Gotta love that!!! I found so much stuff in here that is from the year before my house was born. I uncovered some of this stuff as I replaced leaking plumbing, including the old lead pipe they used for the p-traps. AND I confirmed that my 2-panel doors could actually have been original. (A friend insists they were a '20s remodel.) I also found other old plumbing stuff, and tons of other stuff. I even figured out what used to be on the exterior of the house next door, based on what the stripping company gripe about! A wonderful read at night.

Love this book. Although one may no longer order the items, the original names of the items are extremely useful when searching for thosebproducts to restore old house to original specifications.

I like history and this time period especially, so I thought this would be a really awesome thing to have. I also have two larger catalogues from this period as well, a Sears & Roebuck and a Montgomery Ward. This catalogue is a nice addition to the collection, but I don't think I would be as thrilled with it as a stand alone piece. It does have a ton of cool stuff in it, but not as much as my big books. Great book, but not my favorite.

We have a 1912 bungalow and this book is going to come in SO handy as we work at undoing some of the "improvements" that have been done to it over the years. Plus it is just fun to look through. I have had a couple of catalog reproductions in the past that were very poor quality- printed on newsprint type of paper, poorly printed and hard to read or the print being so small as to be nearly unreadable. Such is not the case here. It is a crisp copy on the quality of paper you would hope for in a paperback.