HOUSES AND GARDENS 



so the Englishman's house has become an indiscriminate collection of objects 

 which he has been insistently told that he wants. It is a compound or the 

 cabinet-maker's shop and the picture-dealer's gallery, and as such is surely the 

 strangest medley which, since the world began, has ever been chosen as a setting 

 for human life. 



In this country it is not usual for the average man to contemplate the 

 idea of building a house for himself. He is deterred by various considera- 

 tions. He has been told that building is an expensive luxury, and that the 

 cost of a house invariably exceeds initial estimates, while he fears that if it 

 may become necessary for him to sell or let his house he may not realise his 

 expenditure. His informants are generally those who have built houses, and 

 whose experience in the matter he therefore values. Speaking from my own 

 experience, I may say that I have designed houses which have been finished 

 within the expenditure originally proposed, and others in which the initial 

 estimates have been more than doubled ; and I believe I am but stating the 

 experience of architects in general when I say that the additional cost has always 

 been incurred by the client's express demands. It has never occurred in houses 

 designed for people whose means were limited, because they, knowing they 

 could not afford to indulge in extras, were content to exercise a necessary 

 restraint. 



Generally speaking, the richer the client the more unchecked the tendency 

 becomes to add to the original price, and this seems a very reasonable position 

 of affairs for the man who in his daily life is accustomed to deny himself 

 nothing ; and, when the accounts have to be paid, it is perhaps merely human 

 to cast the burden on builder or architect, and afterwards to nurse the con- 

 viction that this accumulative and unforeseen expenditure is an inherent part 

 of the business of house-building. 



To avoid such an experience it is necessary at the outset to determine 

 once for all what is actually required and how much may be spent, and to 

 allow a reasonable margin for unforeseen contingencies, and by keeping strictly 

 to the original programme, or by departing from it only with the calculated 

 knowledge of the cost involved in each case, there is no more reason why a 

 man should spend more than he intends in building a house than in making a 

 purchase in a shop. 



If we assume the case of a man for whom it is necessary that economy 

 should be studied, and who has no large sum to invest, and if we suppose that 

 the rental he is prepared to pay allows of the expenditure of ^1000 on the 

 house, it will be necessary for him to allow a certain sum for the formation of 

 the garden and its enclosure, as well as for furniture and perhaps decoration, 

 and in order to be quite on the safe side it will be well for him to think of 

 the total sum as ,900 instead of ioco, so as to leave an ample margin for 

 contingencies. The sketch-plans for the house having been prepared, unless 

 the architect has had experience or special knowledge of the price of building 

 in the particular district, it will be wise to get a preliminary estimate at this 

 stage by submitting the sketch-plans, with a rough specification, to a local 

 builder. 



