20 
House & Garden 
The Italian style can be applied to the 
small house if the owner accepts simple 
plaster surfaces and a design unencum¬ 
bered with attempts at elaborate deco¬ 
ration. The home of John Charles 
Thomas, Great Neck, L. I. 
that it is the type of home that will 
provide you with satisfaction.” 
The prospective home builder can 
choose between two methods—accepting 
a commonplace plan which offers noth¬ 
ing to individualize his home; or well- 
designed, professionally prepared plans 
that produce a house of architectural 
merit which will prove a constant as¬ 
set and afford continued satisfaction. 
Free plans, plans thrown in by the car¬ 
penter or contractor, are always a bad 
investment. If the house is worth 
building at all, it justifies an initial in¬ 
vestment for good plans. 
L pon these plans will very much de- 
The austerity of this entrance to the 
small Italian house of Gene Buck, at 
Great Neck, has been relieved by the 
plaster frieze over the door, the brick 
platform and the two cedars. Chester 
Patterson, architect 
Gillies 
Gillies 
An entrance with an arbored portico can be 
a delightful feature of a small house where 
such a portico suits the type of house. But 
it should not be used promiscuously 
pend the ultimate cost of the house. The ma¬ 
jority of waste is not found in the construction 
of essentials, but in the cheap frills and un¬ 
necessary architectural details. Of course, per¬ 
sonal taste will govern expenditures, but it is 
better to start with a simple small house as a 
foundation, use standardized materials and 
follow the adopted plans through without ex¬ 
pensive changes, which always cost extra. 
Whether a contractor is given the job or day 
labor is employed, the labor should be figured 
to cost 50% the sum total of the house. In 
most cases it is best to let a single contract 
covering all details and phases of the con¬ 
struction. This is likely to speed up the 
building and relieve you of worry over 
details. 
Having visualized the sort of house you 
desire inside, the adaptation of the type 
of architecture follows in logical course. 
This, too, has many determining factors 
—the climate, exposure, sectional loca¬ 
tion of your property and the features of 
its site and the styles of houses in its im¬ 
mediate proximity. The notion that the 
bungalow solves all small house prob¬ 
lems is a false one. The bungalow be¬ 
longs naturally to warm and mild cli¬ 
mates and to build it on an exposed New 
England hillside—except when it is to 
serve as a summer camp—is inadvisable. 
Equally popular are the Dutch Colonial, 
Italian, Southern Colonial, Georgian, 
Spanish and English cottage types of 
houses, but each likewise was originally 
the architectural product of a certain type 
of climate and, generally, one can only 
adapt the general feeling and traditions 
of the style rather than the complete style 
in all its details. Each of these styles 
can be fitted, to a greater or less degree, 
to one-story and the story-and-a-half 
plans. 
Moreover, the bungalow or one-story 
oniies 
