So you want a new house! Then, why not get one?

You could buy it, but it's more fun to build it. One of woman's oldest problems has been how to keep a roof over her family.

Let Us Take a Quick Look at How the Problem Has Been Solved in Other Times and Places

We have no intimation that Adam and Eve had any kind of structure in the Garden of Eden that they used for a home, and in a perfect climate a house might not be necessary. But in this tempes­tuous world with its great variety of inclement weather, a family would be pretty much out in the cold without some kind of shelter.

Although caves are said to have been the earliest dwellings, they certainly were not very comfortable at best aside from the fact that they were also rather scarce.

The earliest constructed dwellings doubtless con­sisted of branches or pieces of bark placed at the base of a large tree, thus enclosing a living area partially protected against wind and rain. This was later elab­orated into a fairly satisfactory place in which to live. The word "rooftree" still persists in our language, indicating an early relation between trees and houses.

Bamboo huts with palm leaf roofs are widely used in many parts of the world, and people are very happy with them, but they are not yet the accepted dwelling in this country. If the cost of construction and the tax rate go much higher, we may have to find cheaper ways of building, even here.

The hogans, made of crooked logs and clay by the Navahos in Arizona and Utah, are really very comfortable on windy and cold wintry nights, but for everyday living some people might complain of the inadequacy of the storage space, and the lack of a picture window. (You know there is just one room, and the only light and air come through a hole in the center of the roof.)

One early type of construction, which is still used in many places, is called "daub and wattle" and con­sists of setting sticks and poles in the ground, tying twigs and branches to them, and plastering both sides with a mixture of clay, sand, and straw. The roof was made of grass or leaf thatch, or cedar bark. This made a surprisingly good, permanent building. A little patching was sometimes necessary after a heavy, driving rain, but if kept in repair these build­ings last a long time. Sometimes they were built on a foundation of stones, which kept moisture from soaking up from the earth into the walls, and made a much better building.

The sod shanties of the early days of the prairie settlements served their purpose well, until better houses could be built. The modern adobe house is a very satisfactory development from this type of con­struction.

The Western part of America could hardly have been settled without something like the log cabin, which was quickly and easily built, with materials readily available. A sharp axe was the only tool really needed to put up a good building.

Where people are constantly on the move seeking pasture for their flocks or fresh hunting grounds, portable dwellings have been developed. The teepees of the Indians and the mohair tents of the Arabs are perhaps the best known of this type of dwelling. The American trailer house is the latest development in this long line of portable living units.

A small tribe in the Malay peninsula lives with­out building houses of any kind. They just wander through the tropical forest like a herd of deer, sleep­ing on the leaves under a friendly tree and finding their breakfast where they can, from the fruit, flow­ers, roots, birds, animals, and insects of the jungle. They do not make furniture or artifacts of any kind except a simple blow gun for poison darts to aid in capturing the daily food, and maybe a simple apron of bark or grass.

They do not have history or literature, music or art, science or handicraft. Their life is completely barren of even the most simple elements of culture as we know it. Someone might add that they probably do not have ulcers, either. Let's not have a stampede to join them.

Permanent Homes Necessary for Gracious Living

There is no use in trying to show that we need homes. When you come to think of it, most of the important activities of our modern civilization, ex­cept picnicking, take place in buildings. They are essential to our way of life. Among these buildings the home is the most important to the family. In fact, a home is absolutely necessary for a happy family life.

But there are several types of homes, some better suited to a particular family than others.- Some peo­ple are much better off in an apartment, while others need a large house and two or three acres of land to be comfortable. It all depends on the people and their manner of living, what they like to do, and what they consider important.

A casual observer might conclude that the most carefree approach to living would be to stay in a hotel. You could get up any time you wanted to and never be late for breakfast; or if you slept until noon, lunch would be ready, but not waiting impatiently. Somebody else would wash the dishes, make the

beds, and tidy up the room. You would not have to worry about groceries, menus, or cooking. You could come and go as you please, and no one would care. There would not be a thing to worry about—except one small item that requires attention—paying the bill.

If a hotel isn't just to your liking as a steady diet, there are several other possibilities that should be considered.

Renting an Apartment

Small, two-room apartments can be found that make housekeeping very simple, and inexpensive; while some luxury apartments provide for lavish liv­ing without the responsibilities that go with having a house of your own to look after. Many good apart­ments between these extremes are available that will provide reasonable living space without too much expense, that will still be easier to keep up than a house. In an apartment you wouldn't have to mow the lawn, or trim the shrubs, or spray the roses, and someone else waters the flowers, if any.

Garbage collection, water, heat, and sometimes electricity are all included in the monthly rent. Only one bill to pay and nothing that requires a thought on your part, and no responsibility for the looks or upkeep of the place. If you want to be out of town for a month, you do not have to arrange with some­one to water the lawn.

Just don't have any children or pets, and keep your parties quiet, and send your guests home by nine o'clock in the evening; go to bed early, and don't get up singing in the early morning. Don't play the saxophone or your hi-fi, and keep the tele­vision tuned to a low level. In fact, the less you do, the better you will get along in an apartment.

When the sink gets stopped up, the manager will call the plumber, who always seems to be away on his vacation; meanwhile, you wash the dishes in the bathtub. If the people in the next flat do not follow the rules, complain to the manager, who will try to keep them quiet; but after listening to their story, he will ask you to move.

There is no vantage point like the apartment next door for keeping track of the neighbors; when they come and go; who comes and goes with them, and at what awful hours, and what disgraceful things they do. Of course, it is well to remember that when you look in a goldfish bowl, the fish also look at you.

All kidding aside, for families where both the husband and wife have steady, full-time jobs in busi­ness or industry, where they both work so hard that they don't have time or energy enough left to keep up a house, they are surely better off in an apartment, as it does save work and responsibility.

If a house is just a place to sleep, a place in which to eat a hurried breakfast, and a starting point from which to rush off to work, a place to return to after a late show, to tumble into bed, and to get a little sleep before another hurried breakfast, then off to the rat race again for another day, and a repetition of the same routine, then do not buy or build a house. By all means rent an apartment; it will save you work and worry and will fit your needs much better.

One way to get luxury living without having to own and service all the features yourself is to buy an apartment in a group where the apartments are individually owned, but the swimming pool, tenni3 courts, barbecue, and other recreational facilities are owned cooperatively by the group of people living in the apartments. An individual family might find it too expensive to maintain a swimming pool, for one or two uses a week, but it wouldn't cost too much, in either money or effort for a group of fifty people to keep up a pool.

Renting a House

But an apartment house is obviously not the place for a family with children. It is a poor emo­tional climate for them, when they must always be quiet so as not to disturb the neighbors, and when they have little opportunity to get outdoors and run and exercise, and shout as they ought to be able to do. If they must always be afraid of getting in someone's hair, how can they grow up normally and naturally? Life can be so much more interesting for them if they can be in a place where there are trees to climb, pets to love and care for, and where they can feel that these things belong to them. A public park helps, but it is not nearly as good as a place of their own.

If you think an apartment is not the best place for you to live, perhaps you can find a house to rent. This also has its advantages and disadvantages. You are not tied quite so securely to one place. If you are not too sure how long you will be in a place, or are subject to sudden transfers by the policy or caprice of your company, or if you are the type that takes sudden notions to quit and try your luck somewhere else, then you should rent, and not try to buy or build a house.

Renting also has the advantage of relieving you of some of the responsibilities that go with owning a home. When the roof leaks, just call up the land­lord and ask him to take care of it. If you need paint or repairs, let him look after it, and pay the bill. When the tax collector comes around, it is not your problem. You do not need to worry about deprecia­tion. If your family outgrows a house, you can move into a larger one without too much trouble and ex­pense.

It is well to remember that money paid out in rent is gone completely. If you had bought the house ten years ago, and had made rent-like payments for ten years, you would have accumulated a considerable equity in the house, and you would also have bene­fited from the large increase in property values dur­ing that same period. Buying a house gives you some­thing to sell when the time comes to move.

There is not much point in having a house and land, if you do not find pleasure and enjoyment in taking care of it. If the yard is so large as to be a burden to either the husband or the wife, then they would be better off without quite so much. As long as maintaining a house and garden can be fun, all is well, but what future is there in having to work yourself to death in order to live in fine surroundings which you do not have time to appreciate? Enough is enough. There are two extremes to avoid—a spa­cious house and wide-spreading lawns, or a tiny house and no lawn or garden. Let's not overdo it either way.

Renting should be thought of as the short-term solution to the housing problem. Let us not rush out and buy a house, and get stuck too permanently in one place. Don't be in too big a hurry to buy. Rent­ing will provide a place to live, without too much capital investment, and will permit you to move without too much trouble, if necessary.

If you have moved to an entirely different part of the country, you should be careful not to buy until you have decided for sure that you intend to stay. It may also be better to rent for a year or two, until you discover what town or what part of town is best for you.

Sometimes a good house can be rented for a year, with an option to buy included in the contract. This gives you more time in which to make up your mind.

Buying a house is a large undertaking, which should be given plenty of thought and consideration. In the meantime, renting is obviously the thing to do. If you rent in the part of town where you think you might like to live, you can study the neighbor­hood to find out whether it is just the district you want or not. When you have decided exactly where you want to live, it is time to begin thinking of buy­ing or building.

Buying a House

It is too bad to get a house bought and then de­cide to move. But it is equally unfortunate to post­pone buying too long. Rent money is lost and cannot be recovered. If you are reasonably sure that you are permanently located, that is for five years or more, then it is time to begin to think about buying or building a good permanent home.

Perhaps the ideal way to get a suit of clothes would be to find a good tailor, have him take your measurements, and help select a suitable fabric; then let him make the suit. But most of us go to the places where they sell ready-made suits and buy them di­rectly. This saves time and is usually less expensive, though admittedly the fit is often not perfect, and the tailoring somewhat less than might be desired.

It is a good deal the same way in getting a house. You can hire a good architect to design you a house and find a reputable contractor to build it, or you can buy a house ready made. The ready-made house may not fit your family as well as the custom-built house, but it may be a pretty fair fit, and you can live very happily in it.

A tailor-made house will probably cost more than a ready-made one, but whether it will be worth more will depend upon the wisdom of the designer, the skill of the builder, and the cooperation of the owner.

In this present chapter we shall consider only the proposition of buying a house already built. In a later chapter we can go into the problem of actual­ly building your own house.

It costs something to keep a roof over your head, any way you do it. It is one of the expenses of living just as food and clothing are. The question to decide is how to get the most satisfactory roof with the least expenditure of time and energy.

The ownership of a home is now within the reach of any person who has the determination to go out and get one. It may take time and it will cer­tainly take effort, but it is greatly worth while. The satisfaction of having a place of your very own, a fortress from which you can defy the cruel world, a headquarters for your living, a place where the landlord does not tell you what to do, and particu­larly what not to do; these are some of the rewards of owning your own home.

Why do you want a new house? Are you tired of renting, or has your family outgrown the present house? Or are you in the wrong neighborhood? Or is the house getting obsolete? How much do you want a new house? Enough to spend the best years of your life paying for it?

Why should a person own his house? Because he does not like to have a landlord come and collect a big price every month for the privilege of living in his run-down old house; because the payments he makes on his own house gradually give him an equity in the place; because it saves the necessity of moving so often. In a rented house a person can't make any changes without permission and then he doesn't want to make them anyway, as he may have to move soon, or the rent may be raised if he fixes up the place too much.

Buying a House in a Subdivision

The first thing many people think of when they consider buying a house is to rush down to the latest subdivision and sign on the dotted line. That may be a good idea, and again there may be other possibili­ties that should be investigated.

The needs of all families are not the same. Some people are better off in an apartment; others get along better in a house, but find it more to their liking to rent. Many people find ready-built houses in a tract or subdivision the exact choice to meet their needs. Some people are content to buy older houses that require extensive repairing and major remodeling to be livable, if they can get them cheap­ly enough, whereas other people find it more satis­factory to buy old houses that are in pretty fair con­dition needing only minor repairs and painting. In either case watch your step.

If all houses look about the same to you, if indi­viduality is not a prime consideration in your think­ing about houses, if you can be satisfied with a house in a new subdivision where the contractor is build­ing them by the dozens or hundreds, you will proba­bly get a better value there than anywhere else. You should get more for the money with less trouble over financing and other bothersome details. The house is complete. All you need to do is to pay $100 a month for the rest of your life. You would pay the same for rent anyway, meanwhile accumulating a large bundle of worthless rent receipts. If you buy, you are gradu­ally building up an equity in the house by your pay­ments. Part of the payment goes for interest, taxes, and insurance, the rest for payment on the cost of the house.

The houses offered for sale in the various sub­divisions vary greatly in quality. But still, the best values in houses are often found in subdivision or tract houses where companies build houses to sell on a mass production basis. These builders have worked out the most economical ways of building, and, we hope, pass on part of these savings to the buyers. Since they have the financing already worked out, all you need is a small down payment. You have the advantage of living in a community where the houses are all of the same age and general quality of design and construction, even if that level is not of the highest.

If a tract house that suits you is near your work, or near where you want to live, it may be the best solution for you. As you shop around trying to find the best house offered for the money, don't be taken in too readily by flashy advertising, high-pressure salesmanship, and low down payments.

Good buys can sometimes be found with small operators who build to sell, but only a few houses a year. There is more variation in quality among small builders, and it is well to check thoroughly, as some small builders are away above average, and some far below. You might get a very good buy from a small builder.

Buying an Older House

When a house owner is transferred to another place, he will often sell his house at a reasonable figure. But remember that you are getting a house that is not exactly new. If all it needs is painting and the price is low enough so you can afford to spend four or five hundred dollars on minor repairs and redecoration, it might be a good buy.

If a house is two or three years old, the defects such as settling of the foundation, shrinkage of the lumber, cracks in the plaster, and other evidences of poor workmanship or faulty construction will have had time to make themselves obvious to the most casual observer. You can thus rely with more confi­dence.

Maybe you can find an older house in the vicinity where you want to live that is well arranged, that is in good condition, needing only a few minor repairs plus a good paint job to make it as good as new. If you can get it cheap, it might be a good buy for you.

But the deepest pit you can fall into is to buy an old house expecting to remodel it completely: put on a new roof, change the doors and windows, move the partitions, level up the floors, put a new founda­tion under the house;  and of course put in new plumbing, new wiring and light fixtures, a new heat­ing plant, new floors, new kitchen cabinets, new screens, and new steps on the porch or, worse yet, tear off the porch and build a new entrance.

When you look the situation over calmly, you will see that if you must renew practically every­thing, it would be easier and cheaper to do it in a clean new place, unhampered by the existing struc­ture, which you are practically tearing down anyway.

If the old place is structurally sound and does not require very much replanning to meet your needs, and you can get it really cheap, then maybe you can afford to remodel it. A few new cupboards, new plumbing fixtures, some new wiring, new heating plant, and plenty of paint will nearly always be re­quired, and their cost should be considered. Avoid the snare, however, of the complete face lifting and remodeling. It costs more than a new house.

Remodeling Your Own House

If you already own a house in a good location on a large lot, but the house is old, or obsolete, or too small or not well arranged, there are several things you could do to make it more livable. You could add a room or two, or do a limited amount of remodeling, or change the plumbing fixtures and tile the bath­room, or put new cabinets in the kitchen, and of course, paint and paper where necessary to give the house a general "spruced up" appearance.

Since all this costs money, it is always wise to con­sider whether you might get more for the money by selling the old house and starting over in a new place. Much depends on the lot. If you have no spe­cial attachment to the place, it is often cheaper to sell and build new in a more desirable location. But be sure to find the new lot before you sell the old, as it is not as easy to find extra good locations as one might think.

If your lot is large, well located, has excellent shade trees, and you like to live there, think care­fully before you part with it. While remodeling costs almost as much as building new, sometimes parts of the old structure may be usable, and the cost might not be quite so high as building an entirely new house.

Examine the old building carefully and minutely to see what features of it are in good condition. Per­haps the foundation is solid and is holding the house in shape perfectly. Maybe the frame is solid and sub­stantial. Perhaps the roof is not sagged out of shape, and only the shingles need replacing. This is not too expensive an item but it is most important. Do not do any interior painting or rebuilding until you are sure that the roof is entirely weatherproof.

If the roof, frame, and foundation are in good condition, the house is probably worth remodeling. Try not to move more partitions than you have to as this becomes very expensive. Perhaps new win­dows are called for; the windows are not very ex­pensive, but patching the plaster on the inside and the siding or stucco on the outside, where you re­move the old windows will cost money, unless you are plastering the whole job anyway and placing new material on the outside.

Often new oak floors can be laid directly over the old floor, and a very handsome result obtained. New linoleum should not be too expensive for the kitchen and bathroom. Very probably you will want new plumbing fixtures, but the drainage pipes may be as good as new. Some of the water piping, par­ticularly the hot water piping, may have to be re­placed. Perhaps you will need a new water heater, and maybe a new heating plant. Of course you will want new cupboards in the kitchen, and probably a new sink.

Although these things do not all have to be done at once, usually it is less bother to get them all over with at one time, as it becomes discouraging if the house is torn up too long or too often.

Judging a House

When you have found a house in a desirable lo­cation that looks interesting, look it over carefully for evidence of quality construction or the lack of quality. Does the house have the general appearance of being in good shape? Do the doors swing freely, and do they fit the openings? A poor fit of the doors often indicates the foundation is settling. Do the windows operate freely? If not, look out. Of course, sometimes paint may stick the windows and they can be pried loose and made to operate freely. Are the floors level and in good condition? If the floor is high in the center of the room, it is not because the floor has risen, but because the walls are settling. Do not buy a house if the floors are not level. This situation is very difficult to correct and usually indi­cates a serious defect in the structure.

Look for evidence that water has been a prob­lem. Are there spots on the ceiling or walls that show that water has been leaking around the roof area? What about under and around the windows? Look around the bottoms of the walls near the baseboards for water marks. What about areas near the shower bath, or around the laundry trays? What about water stains on the bathtub indicating a leaky faucet? Watch slab floors for signs of moisture; this might be indicated by buckled or uneven linoleum, or floor tile curled up at the corners. If you find many of these features, do not stop there, but keep on looking until you find another house.

If the floor is of frame construction, is the area under the house well ventilated? Crawl under the house and examine the framing under the floor. Take your pocket knife and test the joists and sills to see if they have started to decay. Get up into the attic and look over the situation; it is surprising what you may discover. The two most important parts of a house are the foundation and the roof. If these two are in good condition, it is a pretty good sign that the house is structurally sound. But structural soundness is not the only, or even the most important criterion to use in judging a house.

Study the Plan

The structure exists solely to enclose the space that you will live in. Study the room arrangement carefully. Does the passage from one room to another seem natural and easy, or do you have to walk too far to get anywhere? Do you enter the house grace­fully? Will the rain water drip down the back of your neck while you search through your purse for the key? Is there a closet near the front door for wraps? Do you come directly into the living room, or is there at least a hint of an entrance hall?

Will the living room be the principal passage­way through the house, with traffic lanes across the carpet in a year or two? Where will you put the piano or the davenport? What about the television? Is there a good place for it and the spectators around it, where they can be out of the way of other activi­ties?

Is the kitchen complete with adequate work areas where they will be convenient? Is there a good place to eat? Is there a place in the house for a dining table? What about the storage of food supplies?

Is the house light and cheerful, or dismal, dingy, and dark? A gloomy house can have a very depress­ing effect on a family.

Are there enough bedrooms, and are they large enough? Are wardrobes large enough, and fitted with rods, shelves and organized storage space? What general storage space is there for suit cases, fishing tackle, cameras, projectors, golf clubs, etc.?

Is there a special closet for cleaning equipment? Check the location and size of the bathrooms, and the arrangement of the fixtures.

In selecting a house, be sure to get the things in it that you have always wanted. That is the reason you are buying instead of renting. If you want oak floors on a wood frame, don't settle for asphalt tile on concrete, which is much cheaper to build. Some people have trouble with their feet when they stand and work on hard cold floors, as concrete floors tend to be, even when covered with asphalt or vinyl tile.

If you buy a house to be paid for in twenty-five years, how old will you be when it is all paid for? How much repair will it need by that time? Will it still be a good house, or will it need to be replaced?

How long should a house last? If well built on a good concrete foundation and if the roof is kept in repair, a house should last several centuries. Many wood frame houses are still in use that were built in the colonial period of America. They are still strong and in sound structural condition, but aside from their historic value, how well adapted are they to modern living? Houses do not ordinarily fall down; they just get out of date and show signs of the wear and tear of everyday living. Minor repairs, patching and a good painting are all they need to be like new; that is, like they were when they were new. But fashions in houses change rapidly the same way they do in hats, except the fashion in hats may change a little faster than it does in houses.

A careful look around any American city will show a critical observer that houses built before 1900 are not now considered top flight housing. Most dis­tricts built in the twenties and thirties are beginning to show signs of losing their first lustre. In fact, things are moving so fast that anything built before World War II is now considered almost ancient. Obsolescence is the enemy of houses. Where the designers do not keep their eyes open, some houses are obsolete by the time they are finished. Many houses have elements of built-in obsolescence. If you are going to buy or build a new house, be sure the plan is up to date. Although this does not mean that the latest fads are to be followed, careful thought should be given to each part to see that it will be the best for a particular house in a given location for a specific family.

When you are satisfied that the house pleases you and will make a satisfactory home for your fam­ily, compare the price with comparable houses to see that you are not being overcharged. Is the financing so arranged that your budget can take care of it? When you move into a new place, there are always many unexpected expenses, and a reserve of several hundred dollars should be allowed for these things.

What is said in the following chapter about find­ing the right location applies equally to buying a house already built and should be read in connection with this chapter.