Preface - Although not everyone can have a beautiful house on a large lot in an idyllic country setting, overlooking mountains or lakes and still have it acces­sible enough for everyday living, a few can. Why not be one of the few?

This book is intended primarily for those who want to get their money's worth in a satisfactory house whether they build it with their own hands, buy it, or hire it built.

1. Build a house -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.

2. Selecting the lot - Renting is the temporary solution to the housing problem. We shall now assume that you have decid­ed to stay awhile and are ready to begin looking for a place to build.

Where are we going to find that lot, so we can build the new house? I do not like to drive forty miles through heavy traffic to get to work every morning and back again at night.

3. Your own house - If you want something that offers more oppor­tunity for gracious living, for a more leisurely ap­proach to life, for a different type of entertaining, or perhaps you just want a view, what you want to do is to build your own house.

If you want things the way you want them, if you are not satisfied with the average house, if you want luxury but can't afford to pay too much of a premium for it, if you do not like so much uni­formity, if you are a rugged individualist (alas, the breed is getting scarce), if you do not like the same level lots, the same lack of imagination shown in the design of tract houses, the stereotyped way of living associated with subdivisions, you want to build your own house.

4. House planning - Perhaps the ideal way to buy a car is to go down to the dealer, select the one you want, write a check for it, and drive away in a new Cadillac, Continental, or Imperial; but many of us have to be content with a second hand Chevrolet or Ford, and that on the installment plan of dollars per month for eighteen months.

5. Kitchen p lanning - When Grandpa wanted a chicken dinner, he "ran down" a likely looking young rooster, "wrung" its neck, and brought it in for Grandma to "draw," to dress, and to roast. Meat used to be killed right on the farm, and all canning was done at home. This required a kitchen that at best was something less than a show place, especially when it was nec­essary to use a smoking old coal-burning cookstove, and all water had to be carried from the spring in a wooden bucket, and a kitchen sink was yet in the future.

6. Drawing plans - The next step after the lot is paid for is to com­plete your plans. You may have been dreaming for years, but now is the time to crystallize the plans and getthem into final form. This is admittedly difficult, as many of the ideas we have are mutually incom­patible and contradictory. We have to begin to make choices, to make definite decisions.

7. Financing - The financing is an important part of buying a house. Do not be misled by low down payments. Al­though two hundred dollars moves you in, just how deep are you in? Some people get in a lot deeper than they expect to. Read all the fine print in the contract before signing.

How large are the monthly payments? How many years do you have to keep up the payments? Are the payments arranged to include the taxes and the fire insurance, as well as the principal and in­terest?

8. Quality House? - Not everybody drives a Cadillac or a Rolls-Royce; many people drive Fords, Chevrolets, Plym-ouths, and some even drive Volkswagens.

To be satisfactory, a house does not necessarily have to be of the very best and most expensive con­struction in every way. It must have a good substan­tial foundation and a weatherproof roof. Few econo­mies are possible in these two features. There are less expensive ways, however, of doing many things in building a house.

9. Getting it built - 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.

10. Tools - You will need a few tools in order to build ef­fectively. The following list should serve as a guide in buying the necessary tools: Shovel. Any good shovel should prove satisfactory. 8 lb. sledge.

16 02. hammer. This is about the right size for most people. For framing, a 20 02. hammer is some­times used, and a 13 02. for finishing. But most-people work better with the same hammer for all purposes, and a 16 oz. is the best all-around si2e. There are several good makes, but perhaps Stan­ley, Maydole, Estwing, and Vaughan are among the best. It pays to get a good hammer, as it is the most used tool on the job.

11. Basement - One of the things to be decided early in the plan­ning process is whether to build with a basement or without it.

Many people find a basement a necessary part of a house while others think it does them practi­cally no good. It is largely a matter of what a per­son is accustomed to. It is true that the volume of space added to a house by a basement is large, and the cost is small, but is the space usable and desir­able, or is it largely waste

12. Materials - Most houses are built of lumber, as it is not very expensive, is readily available, is strong and durable, and is easy to work. Ease of working is perhaps the most important property as far as the amateur build­er is concerned. A saw, a hammer, a hand axe, a square, a plane, and a few chisels will equip a per­son to make almost anything out of wood. Wood can be securely fastened by the simple process of driving a few nails; no other material is so easy to fasten.

13. Slab building - Building on a slab has a few advantages and several disadvantages. By building on a slab is meant pouring a concrete slab over the area of the house, around which walls are built and over which the roof is placed. The slab, with suitable floor coverings, forms the floor of the house.

The advantages might be listed about as follows:

14. Stake out - Find the property line at the street. This will usually be marked by stakes or will be even with the inside of the sidewalk. Measure back from this line the required set-back distance. This is often 25', sometimes more, and rarely less. It should be shown on the plot of the subdivision, or you can get the necessary information from the place where you get the building permit. If there is no exact requirement, use your own judgment, but do not get the house too close to the street.

15. Building permits - In many country places no attempt is made to control the construction of houses; you just decide what you want to build and go ahead. Most cities and a large number of counties have an agency, often known as the Department of Building and Safety, to regulate construction. Before you start to build, you are required to get a building permit.

16. Excavation - If there is no basement, the excavation will be rather simple and not too difficult. If you are in an area where there is no really cold, freezing weather, the foundation may not need to go down more than a foot into the original undisturbed earth, of a width sufficient to carry safely the weight of the building without settlement.

17. Foundation - Forms for footings are usually just dug into the earth. For a shallow foundation, you can dig care­fully and let the earth serve for the forms of the footing. You can then build your forms or a wall of blocks on the footing you have poured in the trench.

The forms for the foundation can be made of lumber that you will use later in the building.

18. Good concrete - Even if you live where ready-mix is available, you may wish to know how to make good concrete, and if ready-mix is not available, you must learn how.

Select good clean gravel or crushed stone. If the largest stones are not much larger than 1" in diame­ter and are well graded from fine to coarse, you have a fine start toward good concrete. A few larger stones will do no harm.

19. Framing - Now that the foundation is in place and level, you are ready to proceed with the framing. Of course you remembered to put the bolts in the foundation, 1/2" bolts at all corners, and not more than 6' apart in any place.

It has taken a long time to get the lot graded and the foundation in, but the framing will make a big showing in a short time.

20. Room framing - Plumb Cut. A cut on a rafter that will be vertical or plumb when the rafter is in position in the roof.

Level Cut. A cut that will be level when the rafter is in position.

Pitch. The relation between the height of the roof and the width of the building. A roof of one-fourth pitch would be one-fourth as high as the width of the building. A half-pitch roof would be half as high as the width of the building.

21. Cornices - Cornice has been defined as "any horizontal, molded or otherwise decorated projection which crowns or finishes the part to which it is affixed as, the cornice of an order, pedestal, door, window, or house." More commonly the term is applied to the finish placed on a building at the point where the wall meets the roof. The treatment of the cornice may be rather simple, or it may be very ornamental.

22. Roof coverings - The purpose of a roof is to keep the weather out of a house, an umbrella on a wet day and a para­sol on a hot day. The kind of roof that is best for a particular house will depend on many things. The preference of the owner should first be considered. Although good roofs are sometimes made of grass, palm leaves, or cedar bark, these are not commonly used in America.

23. Wood Floors - The woods used for floors are oak, maple, pine, fir, pecan, beech, hemlock; but by far the most com­mon wood for flooring in houses is oak. Maple is used in public buildings, skating rinks, dance floors, etc. Eastern hard maple is very tough, close-grained and durable under hard usage. It is fairly light-colored, and is less interesting as the floor in a house than oak.

24. Heating systems - There are many kinds of equipment used to heat houses. Because the fireplace is the most ancient it should be considered first, although as heating equip­ment it deserves little consideration. A fireplace exists to warm your soul and to make a room cheerful; do not count on it to raise the room temperature much except in its immediate vicinity. Whether you in­clude a fireplace in your new home depends largely on whether you like a fireplace or not.

25. Plumbing - One of the most important features of the mod­ern house is the plumbing. Without good up-to-date plumbing a house can never be satisfactory. The kitchen sink is probably the first fixture in impor­tance, followed closely by the bathroom and the laundry.

he floor plan should show the exact location of each plumbing fixture, and give the size of the fixture where there is a choice of sizes.

26. Wiring - Several items must be decided before you begin planning the wiring. Will you cook with electricity and use an electric oven? What about heating water? What about heating the whole house? This will re­quire special study and will be treated separately later.

If electricity is used solely for lighting, and per­haps for a vacuum cleaner and the usual small ap­pliances, you can get by with a rather simple instal­latio

27. Painting - Painting and varnishing are done to protect a surface as well as give it a more pleasing appearance. There are various kinds of finishes to suit many tastes and to serve many purposes. Surfaces that must stand a great deal of wear need a very durable finish, whereas some surfaces such as ceilings need merely to look attractive.

THE END