SEQUIM — When Diane and Jim Luoma made their move to Sequim, they drew some attention.
Residents of Hawaii for the past 15 years, the Luomas brought their recent purchase — a Hollywood model 1916 Sears craftsman kit house — to Sequim, bringing it up from Shelton to Dungeness’ Cline Spit on Monday.
Jim Luoma said the home is a complete original with the exception of a 1970s kitchen. He said he and his wife plan to remodel it to the original condition at their new address on Grandview Drive.
The couple is originally from Michigan, where they were both master carpenters.
According to masonwebtv.com, the house sat on 125 acres in the Deer Creek area in Mason County. The Capitol Land Trust purchased the property in 2010, and last year, the land conservation organization determined the house had to be removed.
After purchasing the home from a family trust in the Twin Rivers area of Shelton, the Luomas scouted the coast from Brookings, Ore., to the Olympic Peninsula to locate their new home, finally settling on Sequim.
A crew from the Marysville- and British Columbia-based Nickel Bros. company was in charge of loading, unloading and moving the home, which was settled in place by Tuesday. The move started Saturday.
The cost of the move was $162,000 plus utilities, according to masonwebtv.com.
Sears was one of several national companies such as Montgomery Ward that sold kit homes through mail order in the 1910s and 1920s. The Luomas said this house originally sold for a little more than $2,000.
Crews from Nickel Bros. help unload a 1916 Sears kit house off a barge onto Cline Spit on Monday. Jim and Diane Luoma bought the house and moved it from Shelton. (Steve Jones)
