Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 110, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 May 1911 — The American Home [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The American Home

WILLIAM A. RADFORD

Editor

Mr. William A. Radford will answer questions and give advice FREE OF COST pn all subjects pertaining to the subject of building, for Oie readers of this paper. On account of his wide experience as Editor, Author and Manufacturer, he Is, without doubt, the highest authority on all these subjects. Address all inquiries to William A. Radford, No. 178 West Jackson boulevard, Chicago, Hl., and only enclose two-cent stamp for reply.

What we need in houses is more pleasing exteriors and more convenient interiors. I like to notice the houses as I pass along a country road. Some look very comfortable and homelike, but/there are too many of the other kind—bare, neglected-look-ing places, and uninviting, not because of cheapness, bue because they lack care and the inspiration born of refinement. In town and in the country I see both old and new houses that I would not care to enter, just because the outside appearance is not attractive. An architect can draw a good design and a builder can put it up in thorough workmanlike manner, but after it is finished and the family moves in, unless real good common sense moves with the family, the neighbors will be inclined to admire the fine house from a distance. Then there are a good many freak houses, houses that are built to suit some one with a fad or fancy of their own. The fellows have been experimenting, which is very costly work. When a man decides to build a house he should remember that the modern dwelling as it is built today by the best talent in the building line is the composite work of one inventor after another for thousands of years. A man must have an extraordinary opinion of his own ability who will deliberately step very far outside of the beaten path, worn as it is by such a succession of architects and builders. There is only one right way for a man who is unfamiliar with building

operations to manage, and that is to employ a man to draw his plans who has spent years in studying architecture and making house plans, a man who knows how to take advantage of materials and how to lay out the space to the. best advantage. It requires a great deal of experience just to read a plan correctly after it is drawn. Plans are drawn to a scale that is easy to understand, but there is not one novice in a thousand who can look at a plan and get a correct idea of the real size, dimensions and accessibility of the different rooms. He may know in a crude sort of way that a quarter of an inch on the plan

represents a foot on the finished work, but unless he is accustomed to a uniform exaggeration of that kind he is sure to feel disappointed in some particular when the house is built. The matter of specifications is just as important as the drawings. There • are a great many little things to specify in making a contract that a person unaccustomed to such work will never think of. A person might possibly find a contractor liberal enough to do all the thinking, supply all the brains and take a crude plan and turn out a satisfactory job. But It wouldn’t happen that way more than one time tn a million. Con-

tractors are in business to make money; that is all right enough, nobody objects to a contractor making a fair profit, what you want to guard against is an unfair profit. The only way of letting a contractor know exactly what you Want is to have it specified both in the drawings and in the contract. A man may study a plan a long time and think he knows all about it, but while the house is going up he can always find room for improvement. This leads to altera-

tions, which are generally expensive. The house shown here is well adapted for construction in the country on a large lot. It has a frontage of forty-one feet and a length of fiftysix feet and contains ample room for most any family. On the first floor the noticeable feature is the large reception hall. On the right of this is the living room and also the sit-

ting room, in each of which Is a fireplace. There is also a kitchen of large dimensions. On the second floor there are five bedrooms, each accessible from a central hallway. The closet room is also generous.