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A $12,000 house of field stone partially covered with stucco; a type common in English towns 



CHAPTER II 

 PLANNING THE HOUSE 



T IS a common saying that a man must plan and build three 

 houses before he will get what he wants. Judging from the way 

 in which he ordinarily goes about the job, there seems some 

 reason for this statement. 



The planning of a house requires considerable thought and 

 calculation. It is a most serious matter and should be taken 

 seriously. The owner naturally has ideas of his own, and 

 generally pitted against these are many time-tried conditions and the question of 

 good design, as exemplified by the architect. We have said "pitted" for the 

 lamentable reason that these things are generally antagonistic. It has been the 

 common thing to consider the architect as one who wittingly lays himself out to 

 spend about twice as much as the stipulated cost of the structure, and the owner as 

 a confirmed crank who will antagonise any idea advanced by the architect and 

 stick like glue to a few petty and insignificant notions. Both are ot course 

 false, and yet there is a reason for these things, and when they are thoroughly sifted 

 the owner will be found all unconsciously responsible for the larger part of them. 

 If you have ever gone over the capitol building at Hartford, Connecticut, 

 you will undoubtedly have heard the guide remark in conclusion: "And the 

 most wonderful thing about it is that it was built within the appropriation,'* 

 just as if this fact were a novelty which it is. 



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