HOUSE AND GARDEN 
January, 
1914 
arrangements with the architect as to payments. It was ad¬ 
vised that the payments be made in as few instalments as pos¬ 
sible, as an inspection fee is charged for each payment. 
The cost as agreed upon under the contract and payment 
thereon was as follows: 
The total cost when 
completed was $4,880. 
Payments were to be 
made in four instalments : 
1. When foundation wall 
was built, house framed 
and sheathed and roof 
on, $1. 333 - 33 - 2. When 
piazzas and outside trim 
were finished and inside 
studded, lathed and plas¬ 
tered complete, chimneys 
built and topped out, 
cesspool built and soil 
pipe in, $1,333.33. 3- 
When work was finished 
complete as per plans, 
$ I > 333 - 33 - 4 - Thirty 
days after completion, 
$880. 
Four copies of the con¬ 
tract had to be made, one 
for the owner, one for 
the contractor, one for the 
architect and one for the 
loan company. The 
work had not proceeded 
far when the architect’s 
bill for payments of three 
and one-half per cent on 
the total cost and their 
expenses to date was pre¬ 
sented, $173.70. Then 
small bills appeared fre¬ 
quently, bills for survey¬ 
ing, leading, etc. An aston¬ 
ishing number of “appli¬ 
cations” had to be made. 
This is here chronicled as 
worthy of note by those 
intending to build and who 
need not be uselessly 
alarmed at these things 
that, at first, seemed to 
be extra expenses thrust 
forward in quick succes¬ 
sion. These were now 
an application for water 
connection, then an appli¬ 
cation for gas supply; 
next one for sewer connection and so on. These, whether or 
not demanding a fee paid for them, startle the unprepared owner 
who expects that the contract will include all such matters and 
that the builders or architect will see to them. 
The contract itself itemizes carefully under the proper heads 
what has been agreed upon as the contractor’s part to do. The 
owner can, before signing this contract, stipulate for changes 
but may not do so after having signed except at increased cost 
to himself, or herself. The contract in question provides that 
all materials used are to be the best of their respective kinds and 
all work is to be done in the most thorough and workmanlike 
manner, according to the true intent and meaning, whether ex¬ 
pressed or implied, of these specifications and the drawings ac¬ 
companying them. 
All went well until just before the building was completed 
and when arrangements 
for moving in had all 
been made. Then in get¬ 
ting ready for the pay¬ 
ment of the last install¬ 
ment, the Building and 
Loan Company dis¬ 
covered that the num¬ 
ber of the lot as given by 
the surveyor did not cor¬ 
respond with the original 
map. The company’s 
men had blundered hor¬ 
ribly and the house had 
been built on the wrong 
lot. Had the company 
been reliable, had the 
owner of the lot been 
otherwise than a lawyer 
who had understood all 
along that the Jersey law 
“Whatever is built on a 
man’s lot is his,” would 
throw my house in his 
hands, all could have 
been settled without great 
delay or great expense. 
As it was the workmen 
had to be called off and 
lawyers employed. A 
hiatus comes here not 
pleasant to contemplate; 
but for the prospective 
builder, there is this word 
of cheer: Never before 
in the annals of home 
building in the United 
States had such a mistake 
occurred and that was 
on the Pacific Coast. 
After weeks of parley¬ 
ing, the substantial pay¬ 
ment demanded by the 
lawyer owner of the lot 
was paid, the lawyers’ 
fees were settled and 
building resumed. 
And now “The House 
of the Red Geraniums” 
is finished, and already 
the vines — honeysuckle, 
wistaria, ivies and morning glories — are creeping valiantly over 
it, the lawn is getting velvety, the pergola has a wee bit of shade 
with much more promised from the twelve choice grape vines 
set along either side and the elderberry bushes backing them. 
The vegetable garden has already demonstrated its raison d’etre 
in a plentiful supply of crimson tomatoes, radishes, tender 
lettuce and curly parsley, while the scarlet verbenas, the roses, 
the gay nasturtiums, the delicate cosmo?, and the overflowing 
window boxes filled with ivies and red geraniums, are doing their 
level best to make the new home cheery and attractive. 
In the “Friendship Garden” at the rear, and on the north 
The living-room opens directly from the dining-room, and though its decoration is different the 
treatment is agreeable. Wide panels add to the apparent size 
The fireplace is flanked by a built-in seat, balanced on the other side by a bookcase, both made 
possible by the deep chimney 
