144 
House & Garden 
JStcoND Floor, Plan 
THE HOME 
you want to build is in this book 
Volume 1 of “The Books of a Thousand Homes” is now ready. 
It contains plans, perspective and detail drawings and cost 
estimates of 500 inexpensive 4- to 8-room homes designed by 
architects of the highest standing. The coupon below brings 
it to you by return mail. 
W HEN are you going to build 
your own home? This year? 
Some time indefinitely in the future? 
If you have any intention of build¬ 
ing at all, here is something to do 
right now: Get Volume 1, “The Books 
of a Thousand Homes”. 
It is a book of small home plans 
that is entirely different from any¬ 
thing of the sort ever published 
before. It contains floor plans, per¬ 
spective drawings, detail sketches and 
cost estimates for not twenty or fifty 
or a hundred but five hundred homes 
which can he economically built. 
And for every plan in the book, 
there are working drawings, blue 
prints and architects' specifications 
easily available. These you can turn 
over to your local contractor and let 
him go ahead. He cannot make a 
mistake. 
In other words, this book offers 
you the services of more than 100 
architects of the highest standing for 
the price of a doormat—$3! 
The architects whose work this book 
contains are the best in America, men 
who could not undertake an individ¬ 
ual commission for less than $500. 
They have given their services, in this 
instance, for the sake of the builders 
of small homes who want the best of 
everything at minimum cost. The 
name of the Editor—Henry Atter- 
bury Smith, the famous architect—is 
in itself a guarantee of excellence. 
Among the plans there is an al¬ 
most infinite variety. There are 
homes of stucco, brick, frame, cement 
block, hollow tile and stone; and each 
is designed by a man who is a master 
in the field. 
Even as a book, it is worth owning 
for it is a beautiful example of plan¬ 
ning and printing and binding, a dec¬ 
oration on any living-room table and 
an inspiration to its owner. 
This is an opportunity not to be 
overlooked. The limited first edition 
is much in demand and is rapidly 
becoming exhausted. Unless you want 
to wait for your copy of this practi¬ 
cal book, you must act now. The 
coupon below—with no money—brings 
the book to you by return mail. 
Send this coupon for the book that will save 
you months of planning and hundreds of dollars! 
Home Owners Service Institute, Inc. 
35-37 West 39th Street 
New York City 
Send me Volume 1, “The Books of a Thou¬ 
sand Homes” by parcel post collect. 
( ) My check (or money order) for $3 
is enclosed. 
( ) When I receive the book I will give 
the postman $3 (plus a few cents 
postage) in full payment. 
Name . 
Address .. 
01—BTHD 
ARE THESE YOUR PROBLEMS? 
(Continued from page 142) 
but can give them to you if necessary. 
I plan to run up to New Hampshire 
shortly to look over the entire layout 
and if you can make some suggestions 
I could keep my eye open with a view 
of including them in our plans. If 
you have any pictures of barns that 
have been converted, interior and ex¬ 
terior, we would be pleased to have 
them as we know they will assist us 
a great deal in making our “summer 
habitat” attractive and cosy. 
Answer: We felt sure that the re¬ 
modeled barn in the March issue would 
interest a good many of our readers 
and yours is one of several letters 
justifying this belief. 
Of course, it is practically impossible 
to make any suggestions without see¬ 
ing the place which you have taken 
over and I should suggest that when 
you go to look over the property you 
take a number of Kodak pictures. 
Unless some members of your organi¬ 
zation have a certain amount of ar¬ 
chitectural imagination and ingenuity, 
it would be well for you to have an 
architect sooner or later, preferably 
sooner. 
You will have noticed that even in 
the home-made transformation of 
“Three Barns” an architect had a 
hand. We have no other barn photo¬ 
graphs, but will be very glad to have 
you keep in touch with us as your 
development progresses, and when it is 
all happily concluded, we would like 
to publish it if it comes out as well as 
the “Three Bams” adventure. 
Question: Kindly advise me concern¬ 
ing the following questions and let me 
know what the advice fee is to be: 
I wish to build very soon a two 
story brick house: 
1. Is tapestry brick a fad or will it 
be in good taste for years? 
2. Shall there be a front porch, a 
covered entrance with terrace or a for¬ 
mal entrance? 
3. With what shall the walls and 
woodwork be finished ? 
4. Shall the upper and lower sash 
of a sliding window be divided into 
small squares or just the upper sash? 
Answer: It is a pleasure to answer 
the questions in your recent letter and 
for this service there is no fee. 
Tapestry brick is not a fad and 
houses built of this material will always 
be in good taste. Brick of any kind 
is one of the best and most permanent 
of building materials as regards both 
endurance and style. 
Your second question is of a kind 
impossible to answer without some 
idea of the type of house you have in 
mind, whether Georgian Colonial, 
modern English or of the modern Mid¬ 
dle West type. In many types of 
house the kind of entrance you have 
is entirely a matter of taste and pref¬ 
erence, while with other styles historic 
precedent influences the design. 
Your third question probably refers 
to the interior though it might apply 
to the exterior as well. The answer 
again would depend a good deal on 
what kind of house you have in mind. 
Tinted plaster wall finishes in various 
textures are very popular but, at the 
same time, it is a mistake for anyone 
to suppose that wall paper has gone 
out of date. There was never a greater 
variety of beautiful and interesting de¬ 
signs of wall paper than there is today. 
The finishing of woodwork is a very 
extensive question and would depend a 
great deal on what kind of woodwork 
you mean to have. Perhaps it would 
be well for you to write us about this 
specially a little later when your plans 
are more definitely formed. 
Your fourth question is easy to an¬ 
swer. You have probably seen a good 
many windows in which the lower 
sashes are of clear glass and the upper 
sashes divided into small panes but the 
best design is that in which both upper 
and lower sashes are divided into small 
panes. 
Question: In your November number 
on page 51 is an article called “Evolv¬ 
ing a House Plan” with pictures and 
plans of houses. I would like to 
know how much it would cost to build 
the Dutch Colonial house. 
I have been a subscriber to your 
magazine for years. 
Answer: In answer to your inquiry 
of recent date, we are obliged to give 
you the same answer which we have 
to give all similar inquiries. We 
would only mislead and not help our 
readers by quoting approximate costs 
of houses in the present day of fluctu¬ 
ating prices in the labor and material 
market. 
Building costs vary sharply from 
month to month, from one locality to 
another, and the only way in which 
you can safely get an approximate 
estimate is to find out from local con¬ 
tractors the cost of similar houses re¬ 
cently built in your locality, or to 
take an illustration of the type of 
house you have in mind to a local con¬ 
tractor and ask him what it would cost 
to build it. 
Actual figures on a house built in 
Westchester County, New York, might 
prove high or low for the same house 
built in New Jersey or Connecticut, 
and, further, the figure you might get 
today is likely to prove high or low 
six months from now. 
It was once possible to quote ap¬ 
proximate costs of building for certain 
types of construction, but that was 
before the war. 
I hope you will communicate with 
us further as your building project pro¬ 
gresses. 
Question: I see in House & Garden 
that you maintain an Information Ser¬ 
vice and I am very anxious for some 
help in my decorating problems. I 
am sending a sketch of my living room 
and dining room which I hope will 
help you to understand the situation. 
I would like suggestions for every¬ 
thing, walls, woodwork, furniture and 
drapery, and I shall carry out your 
suggestions to the last detail. 
In the living room I already have 
a piano and two good old mahogany 
chairs. I have no furniture for the 
dining room but should like to use 
mahogany there also if you would 
advise it. I had thought of gray wood¬ 
work and lighter gray walls but will 
leave that to you. 
I shall appreciate very much any 
suggestions you can give me. 
Answer: I think you are wise to 
want mahogany furniture in the din¬ 
ing room as this room opens off the 
living room where there are already 
some good old pieces in mahogany. 
Get genuine old pieces if you can 
find them. If not, some good re¬ 
productions of authentic design. Cream 
colored walls, either papered or painted 
and woodwork enameled a deeper tone 
make a warmer, more effective back¬ 
ground for this wood than gray and 
I think it would be wise to keep the 
(Continued on page 146) 
