If you would rather build a house than buy one, there are several ways to go about it. You can get an architect to plan the house and get a contractor to build it; this should result in just the "perfect" house for you, but can be expensive unless you are more than careful.

Hire the plans drawn and be your own contrac­tor, letting the work out to sub-contractors, as con­crete men, carpenters, electricians, plasterers, etc. Do this only if you have had considerable business expe­rience and have plenty of time to devote to it, as the supervision of these workmen is what you pay the general contractor to do.

You might get plans out of a magazine and pro­ceed as suggested above; or get some experienced person to help you with the plans and build part of the house yourself, hiring professional help only where necessary.

Of you could buy a lot, draw your own plans, and do the whole job yourself, with the help of your family, hiring specialized skills only where absolute­ly necessary. This is the most work, but can' also be the most fun and the least expensive. Much de­pends on your experience, your skill, and the time you can afford to devote to the work.

If you decide to hire a general contractor to build for you, select him with care. There are several cri­teria by which to judge a contractor's ability and competence.

Ask to see several houses that he has built; let him show you the houses, which he should be proud to do, and look them over carefully. Satisfy yourself that he has done the type of work that you want in your new house. Also get him to show you houses he built two or three years ago, to see how they are standing the hard usage of living. Go back later and have a good talk with the people for whom he has built, rinding out from them how well they have been pleased in their dealings with him. Has he done what he said he would? Has he built the house on time, and with efficiency?

Equally important with the quality of the house are the business methods of the contractor. Does he have a reputation for paying his bills? Does he get the work done with dispatch? Is his work well or­ganized, or do his jobs run at loose ends?

What has been his attitude toward coming back and making necessary adjustments on the windows, doors, or plumbing, to get everything to working satisfactorily? This may seem like a lot of trouble, but it is nothing compared to the trouble you can get into, if you let the contract to an inefficient or dishonest contractor.

If the majority of his customers are highly pleased with the work he has done for them, you are reasonably safe in dealing with a contractor, but if a large percentage of them condemn him for various shortcomings, beware when you employ him, or bet­ter yet, look for another contractor. It is a mistake to suppose that by getting a good iron-clad contract, and a very complete set of plans and specifications, that you can get a dishonest or incapable contractor to do you a first class job.

Most contractors are honest and capable, of course. If a man has built several houses, all of which are eminently satisfactory, that is pretty good evi­dence that he will do the same for you. A little dis­creet inquiry will often give you several worth-while clues as to what to expect from a certain contractor.

Sometimes a banker or the loan company will be able to help in selecting a contractor. They proba­bly will not say anything against anyone, but if you listen carefully, they will praise some much more highly than others.

The real evidence of what a man will do is what he has done. But you can't tell much about it just driving by in the street and looking at the houses at a distance. A house may not be beautiful according to your standards, but the contractor may have built it exactly according to the plans that were given him, and it may suit the owner just fine. Given a different set of plans, he will build an entirely dif­ferent kind of house.

When you have found three or four contractors who meet your standards, you let them have the plans so they can bid on the job; that is, to let a contract, give sets of the plans and specifications to several reputable contractors, let them figure the cost, and make a firm bid, telling exactly how much it will cost to get them to build the house in strict accord­ance with the plans and specifications. Then you get all the bids together, study them carefully, and de­cide which builder you prefer.

Always keep these figures in the strictest confi­dence. It is very unethical to tell one bidder what another has bid, unless you have a formal bid open­ing, which is not usually good on small jobs. On large public works, formal bid openings are the accepted thing.

The bids may vary a great deal as to the price asked, but it is not always wise to accept the lowest bid, as you must do in a public bid opening. If you have been wise, you have asked only builders in whom you have confidence to bid on your job, but even then there are differences in the quality of dif­ferent builders.

Sometimes the builder second from the lowest, or even the middle one is to be preferred. Two or three hundred dollars will not make much difference on a twelve-thousand-dollar contract, but it might save you a lot of headaches to get a builder who would do you a first-class job, without your having to watch him too much and haggle with him all the time to get him to do the work the way you want it.

A good reliable builder is greatly to be preferred over one that is careless or indifferent. Get the best builder you can who also has a reasonable price. It may sometimes happen that the best builder is also the cheapest. He can do his work well and inexpens­ively because he has things well organized, and has an efficient crew with good up-to-date equipment.

Get your contractor to give you a list of the sub­contractors he intends to use on your job. Check into the reputation of these sub-contractors. If you keep your ear to the ground, you can get a lot of in­formation without too much trouble. Of course, you can't believe everything you hear, but a person's repu­tation as a reliable builder is worth considering. Avoid irresponsible builders.

The Contract

The contract is a legal document, signed by both the owner and the contractor, usually before a notary public, which together with the plans and specifica­tions make up the contract documents. The contract identifies the plans and specifications, states when the work is to be started and when it is to be com­pleted, states exactly the cost of the building, when payments are to be made and how much, makes provision for changes in the plans or specifications if the owner desires them, states who is to do the building, and should also make some provision for settling disputes in case of disagreement. Make up your mind for sure before you sign the contract, as you will find it difficult, if not impossible, to do much changing after the contract is signed.

Select the best contractor you can get and then trust him. After you have let the contract to a re­sponsible builder, have confidence in him instead of annoying him by asking too many questions and getting in the way on the job. Do not give orders to his workmen. They are working for him, and not for you; if you have any orders to give, give them directly to the contractor, or possibly to his foreman.

A builder likes to do things the way he is ac­customed to doing them and the way his crew has learned to work. Anything that interferes with this routine slows down the job, making it more ex­pensive.

As the job progresses, you will see why it was so necessary to have the plans complete and the speci­fications so accurate. These are the only things you and the contractor have to guide you in building the house. If they are not clear and accurate, the con­tractor may have an idea exactly opposite to yours about what you want.

Don't just go out and change your mind every day about how you want the house built. That will certainly cost you money and result in a poorly built house.

This is a good place to emphasize the importance of careful planning over a reasonably long period of time, to give you opportunity to change your mind several times, and to investigate many possibilities.

After you have started to build, stop going to visit more houses to get ideas about your house. Do all this before you complete your plans and let the contract. You can't get everything in one house any­way. After the contract is let, do not make any changes unless you find that a gross mistake has been made. Every time you order a change after the con­tract is signed, you will pay from five dollars to a hundred dollars extra, more than it would have cost if it had been incorporated in the original plans and specifications.

In inspecting the work of the contractor, if some­thing does not look just right to you, get some un­biased experienced person to look at it with you be­fore you say too much. What may not look good when partly done may, in fact, be perfectly OK when finished.

When the house is finished, before the final pay­ment is made, go over everything carefully to make sure that nothing has been omitted and that every­thing is working in a satisfactory manner. Check to see that all the bills have been paid and ask to see the signed payroll to see that the workmen have re­ceived their wages. Also check into the payments that have been made to the sub-contractors to see that they are all paid up in full. If the contractor hasn't paid for these things, then the owner must pay them, even if he has paid the contractor.

Suppose you decide to do most of the work your­self and sub-let only certain parts of the job. Then you are not looking for a contractor, but you do need to make the same kind of inquiry regarding the sub­contractors that you expect to employ as you would for a general contractor. You sign a separate contract for each specialty sub-contractor.

There are several things around a building that are best done by specialists in the field. Most people that would like to build for themselves would do well to plan on hiring the plumbing, the wiring, and the heating done by persons who know what they are doing. Of course, you can hire them by the day as well as by contract if you wish. Then you can help them and might save something. One of the big con­siderations in deciding how you will go about getting your house built is the time you have to spend on it.

If you have a reasonable amount of spare time, are well and strong, and a bit handy at doing things, and particularly if your wife is enthusiastic about the proposition, you can build a good house at reasonable cost. Of course, although you will have to hire some of the work done, it is surprising how much of the work you can do yourself, especially if you have a friend who is a builder, who will give you a lesson now and then, or at least to whom you can go for advice. Sometimes you can hire an old carpenter to help you, who will also show you how things are done, and who can help you in negotiating with the sub-contractors.

By building the house yourself you may save part of the financing costs, the escrow fees, the real estate man's fee in the sale of the house to you, the contractor's profits, and a considerable part of the labor costs, which should total up to several thousand dollars as your reward and wages for building your own house, besides the fun and satisfaction of doing it yourself.

Before you plunge too deeply into the building operations, there are certain things to consider.

Building a house is no job for a Sunday dilettante. There is real work involved in building a house. You have to get a shovel and wear blisters on your hands, take a pipe wrench and get your hands greasy, drive nails until your muscles ache. But, behold the result when it is all finished. A thing of beauty, a home for your family, and your own handiwork! The risk is considerable, the labor tremendous, the result glorious. This is no job for weaklings or quitters. It will bring out the best, or the worst, that is in you. Don't start to build, unless you really want a house more than almost anything else in the world.