CHAPTER II 



REMODELLING AND IMPROVING OLD BUILDINGS 



THE owner of a small farm will find that whether 

 he has occupied it a long time or has just pur- 

 chased it and is about to make a new depart- 

 ure in his business, more or less changing, repairing and 

 improving will be needed. If one is not familiar with 

 this kind of work an expert should be consulted. 

 Fig. 4a shows a house before remodelling. Fig. 46 the 

 same after changes are completed. 



Utilize all Old Material. 



With the high price of lumber, which is rapidly in- 

 creasing, every one should make the most of what good 

 material there may be in old buildings upon the place 

 before building new ones. There are a great many old 

 buildings which may be repaired for much less than new 

 ones would cost, and when these are not worth repair- 

 ing much of the lumber may be used in other buildings. 

 This may be rough and more or less full of nails, and 

 carpenters do not like to work it over with nice tools, 

 but with the ordinary tools that one should keep for 

 such work it may be sorted out and cleaned up at odd 

 times so as not to cost as much as new lumber. It is on 

 the ground, no money need be paid for it, there is so 

 much good material saved to the world, and perhaps 

 best of all, an unsightly object is obliterated or changed 

 into something of utility and possibly of beauty. The 

 frames of most old buildings are very heavy, many of 



31 



