Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 October 1880 — Home Making. [ARTICLE]

Home Making.

Did yon ever build a house? I do not mean a house to rent or a house to sell, but a house for your own home ? If not, you have missed a very sweet experience, not only in the building, but in the realization of your hopes when you go to live under Cur roof-tree. Tour own, not because you ve paid so many dollars for it, but doubly precious because of the loving labor every room has cost you, the bright pictures of home happiness you have imagined as the stone and brick grew into shape and comeliness, the self-denial yoi practiced to secure this ornament or that comfort, the delightful surprises you planned for the dear ones for whom after all the house is being built, the long consultations with your wife as you cagntpa watched the workmen. You can easily give a reaeon for every nook and corner of the whole structure; even its defects are dear to yon because of some remembrance associated with them; this room is larger than is necessary at present, because the children are growing and will soon be gathering a good deal of company about them; this one is inconveniently small that the other may be larger; this is of peculiar shape to humor a whim of the wife; this odd window was placed in that sunny corner for her plants ‘ the hall is square and roomy because all love to gather there, and a hall is a sort of index to the house; it should tell of comfort and warmth, and the glow of good cheer throughout; this small room which a stranger might consider illy lighted and inconvenient, has a thousand uses, and indeed, could not lie dispensed with; a narrow passage here is to accomodate the lmys, add enable them to slip in from their work and change their clothes Wore coming to table, or appearing in the parlor. A sunny room for the mother, a cozy corner for the lather, light, cheerfulness, room, plenty of fresh air for the children and as much attention as possible to the peculiar tastes of each member of the fiunilr. The time spent, the economy practiced, the sweet anticipations, the lingering over small details, these make the home for more precious than any money value can estimate. Do not, therefore, liny a house if yon seek a permanent home, bat wait and build for yourselves. More than the house shall yon build. As it takes on symmetrical and tastefhl proportions, there will surely grow in your hearts a tenderer love and a truer value sf all the pood things that cluster round, and center m a genuine heme.