Rather than adopt the ordinary procedure of chopping out the existing trees to accommodate cut leaf maple, birch and copper beech, they set the 
house in among the old apple trees, which made it look as though it had always been there 
The Handicraft House 
A HOUSE IN AN APPLE ORCHARD THAT WAS DESIGNED TO FIT THE FAMILY FURNITURE- 
BUILT-IN CONVENIENCES THAT SAVED SPACE — WHAT HAND WORK ACCOMPLISHED 
by Louise Shrimpton 
Photographs by Geo. E. Doust 
A NEW cottage was a necessity. 
Peter and Ruth Ann accepted 
that as inevitable and set out in search 
of a place to build. And at last, one 
day in February, they discovered the 
site of their cottage, a place passed 
many times without their perceiving 
it. It was an old apple orchard on a 
side street of the village, with woods 
and fields stretching out behind it, 
and away in the distance a line of blue 
hills. The snow was lying on the 
wide spread branches, and was a foot 
thick on the ground, but the future 
land owners explored the place, saw 
its possibilities and succeeded in pur¬ 
chasing it. 
In early spring excavation for the 
cellar was begun, well back from the 
street, behind the apple trees. Only 
two had to be sacrificed. The ordi¬ 
nary village procedure, copied from 
the nearest town, would have been: 
First, to cut down all the apple trees, 
in order to make sure of having plenty 
The sideboard had prepared for it an oak-lined alcove, 
which set off its design and carving 
of room; then to build the cottage as 
near the street as possible, so as to miss 
none of the passing show; and finally 
to set out an ornamental birch, a cut 
leaf maple, and a painted beech, in 
the tiny front yard, to wait patiently 
fifteen years for results. Peter and 
Ruth Ann expect to wait patiently, 
too, for many things in their garden, 
but they believe that an apple tree in 
hand is worthy twenty so-called orna¬ 
mental trees in the distant future. 
They designed their cottage to har¬ 
monize with the low-spreading lines 
of apple tree boughs. They expect 
to have apples; more and more every 
year with proper care of the trees, for 
apples are an asset by no means 
despised by people who have spent ten 
cents apiece for them at city fruit 
stands. 
The lot is sixty-five feet wide and 
two hundred and forty feet deep, so 
that Ruth Ann has plenty of space 
to develop her garden plan, already 
(81) 
