BUILDING OF A MANSION 291 



conditions would be radically different, and by August first you'd be 

 in a wringing perspiration running a lawn mow r er and swinging in 

 hammocks on porch room and balcony to your heart's content. Even 

 if the sand lighter was on the mud flats the contents of another 

 would be piled on your ground. Those Georgia pine beams and 

 hard brick would be in place, and the other fellow waiting. Build- 

 ing, instead of being a continual rasping menace, and an Iliad of woes, 

 wondering what exasperating set-back would come next, would be a 

 joy. From properly built and legitimately greased ways is easily 

 launched the most ponderous super-dreadnought. 



But assuming that cautions two and three were omitted from 

 the contract, you may find the contractor considerably in your debt 

 before the chaotic state above described has become chronic. At this 

 stage you are practically powerless, and are in his hands, so far as 

 time of completion is concerned. You cannot discharge the few ordi- 

 nary workmen he has left and substitute a larger and more capable 

 force; this would be considered uncalled-for interference and break 

 the contract, and his over-draft in a measure places you in his power. 

 The dilemma is most exasperating, yet in the midst of it all the 

 builder airs his trials with workmen and material supply men so 

 eloquently that, ten chances to one, in a weak moment you in a 

 measure commiserate him in his jeremiads and possibly commit the 

 farther folly of allowing him to still draw ahead of his just dues. 

 It is true, your house is weeks, perhaps months, behind schedule time 

 for finishing, but you can only worry, fume, and pay the bills, deriv- 

 ing meagre satisfaction by swearing that if ever this house is finished 

 you will never build another, and perchance wearing out the patience 

 of friends and neighbors by the recital of your woes, whereas a con- 

 tract drawn along the lines stated would have placed you among the 

 optimists in building. 



The Building of a Mansion. 



If the building of the $2,500 to $12,000 house appears intri- 

 cate, that of the $50,000 or $100,000 mansion seems more so, though 

 it is not in reality. Thorough consideration of and preparation as to 

 the following four distinct points are the essentials for complete 

 success : 



1. Location. 



2. Plan. 



3. Material. 



4. Method of building. 



To build satisfactorily a house of this size, no matter how much 

 care has been taken in preparation of the plans, is practically impos- 

 sible without minor, and sometimes radical and more or less expensive 

 changes, but if built along the lines indicated these changes will cost 

 less than if the one contract system had been adopted. Changes 

 under a one contract system, unless very carefully guarded, lead to 



