Reconnoitering for a Building Site. 
WHAT SQUATTING IN A TENT CAN DO TO MAKE ONE FAMILIAR WITH HIS BUILDING SITE- 
THE WAY A MAN AND HIS WIFE SOLVED SEVERAL PHASES OF THE BUILDING PROBLEM 
W HEN our love of 
the country and 
weariness of town de¬ 
cided for us the location 
of a home, I started a 
card-indexed hie, in which 
was placed every bit of 
information that could be 
found. It was culled 
from publications devoted 
to country life, either 
copied on hie cards or 
ill the shape of clippings; 
and this plan I can cor¬ 
dially recommend to any 
one planning a country 
home. For months we 
pored over all sorts of 
reading matter and illus¬ 
trations of country houses 
and grounds and their 
practical accessories, and 
found that when we be¬ 
gan the actual search for 
a place suited to our ideas 
and purse, we were able 
to gauge far more intelligently 
the possibilities of the various 
The days were spent in exploring the beautiful woods near at hand 
p. Y M ROOT Richards 
were potential farmers! 
The demands of busi¬ 
ness upon the time of the 
head of the house made it 
impossible for him to 
commute that summer, so 
the question of building at 
once was regretfully put 
by; but our bit of land 
drew us like a magnet, and 
one Sunday while walk¬ 
ing' through the woods, 
the Great Inspiration 
came. Why not put up a 
tent and spend our week¬ 
ends there? 
Before the next Sunday 
came, a department store 
had delivered, transporta¬ 
tion free, to the town near 
which the land lay; 
19x12 tent, with 
fly, costing.$13-50 
2 army cots. 4.00 
2 camp stools.50 
I folding table. . 
pillows (floss filled). . 
quilts. 
1-25 
1.00 
2.00 
properties shown us. Therefore, after scrambling over picturesque 2 cotton blankets, double. 2.00 
landscapes so rocky that, as the driver whimsically remarked. Mosquito netting for two. 1.50 
one would have to follow a hen about with a 
pillow to save the eggs; bumping our heads on 
We bought also- 
the ceiling of old farmhouses appealing to be 
“made over," and steeling our hearts against 
the charms of wonderful old Colonials — too 
wonderful, alas! for the family purse—the pa¬ 
tient real estate agent took us up a quiet road 
and stopped in front of what seemed at first 
glance to be a rather run-down meadow, ex¬ 
tending up a slope to a tangle of undergrowth, 
and flanked on one side by dense woods. By 
the time we had gone half way up the slope, the 
charming country view 
unfolded; when we 
reached the top, there was 
added to it a sparkling- 
stretch of blue Sound, 
with Long Island beyond, 
and we stopped, delighted, 
Tiny cedars flourished 
everywhere, with occa¬ 
sional well-grown oaks, 
while along the top of the 
ridge, as we walked back, 
were the woods, which 
ran thence down to the 
road. 
After spending twenty 
minutes on the place, we 
saw it had many possibili¬ 
ties, and in a week the 
sale was completed. We 
2 army blankets. 7-00 
2 folding bars for the mosquito nets. .. 2.00 
Locally we purchased — 
At a five-and-ten-cent store agate ware 
dishes for table and cooking, galvan¬ 
ized tub and pails. 4-00 
Lumber . i 3 -°o 
Sheet iron for cooking purposes; tools, 
nails, spikes, wire netting, a coffee mill 
for wall. 8.00 
Roofing paper. 1.25 
An ordinary canvas tent was stretched over the framework shown above and a 
raised floor constructed. In this the entire summer was comfortably spent 
$61.00 
Just inside the woods 
on the crown of the ridge 
there is a natural clear¬ 
ing which lo o k s out 
upon the beautiful coun- 
trv; and here the tent was 
stretched on a framework 
of 2x4 inch scantlings; 
the floor, made of rough 
boards, being about two 
feet off the ground, the 
sides boarded up for about 
three feet above the floor. 
The framework was built 
so that the tent, when 
stretched oh it, just over¬ 
lapped the board sides. 
