Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1906-06-09
HOUSE THAT FOLDS UP.
Family Finds How to Maintain Two
Homes at Small Cost.

An enterprising family of narrow in
come have discovered a means of owning
two summer homes at the cost of one--a
lodge III the mountains and a villa by
the sea. They bought a portable house
and erected il near a lake where the
weather during May and June was all
that could be desired. July. however,
brought heat and mosquitoes. and one
and all they pinned for sea breeZes and
ocean bathing. The father Of the fam
lily and his oldest son, after consultation,
announced TO the rest Of the family that
if they would HE them 10 a seaside
boarding house where previous summers
had been spent. for four days, they two
would meanwhile provide them with
home near by. The mother and four
children went on. whereupon the father
and son, with screwdriver and wrench,
folded up their humble cottage and piled
il on the family wagon, behind the fam
lily horse. and started after them. The
drive Of sixty miles took two days and q
half. and the reconstruction of the home
among the dunes took a day. The un-
packing of the few trunks was short
work. The fourth day found them all
rejoicing in the breath of Neptune under
their own rooftree.
Another family, with less gypsylike
habits, put up a portable house close TO
the site of a handsome home in the
course of construction, wherein 10 shell
ter their lares and penates until the more
permanent edifce should be finished.
A builders strike delayed the process of
erection and for three summers and three
winters they were sheltered there. They
started with a three-room house, adding
section at time as occasion demand
ed. During their sojoGrn a son came
home from college and two daughters
finishing boarding school needed shelter.
10 meet this increase in the size OF the
family three rooms were annexed,
doubling the original size of the house.
A guest chamber, provided for emer-
gencies, was kept folded up neatly be-
side the woodpile when not in use.
These wonderful houses that one folds
up and unfolds much as he would a jack
knife or a telescope, may be purchased
for very reasonable sums. The prices
range from $35 to S400. according to the
number of rooms, porches, windows etc.
4 hunters cabin of one fair-sized room
costs $50. All the walls come in Sec
tons ~ feet high by 49, wide, and car
be put together with q scPewdriver anG
wrench. The plain sections and those
with doors and windows are inter
changeable, so that one can shift a win
dow about from side to side TO follow
the sun or avoid it. The door can face
north one month and south the next.
with no more trouble than moving a
piece OF furniture from one room To an
other.
These houses need not be taken down
for the winter, even if not in use: they
withstand snow and storms as if they
were built with hammer and nails \
house may be added to from time TO
time, not only by increasing the number
of rooms but by putting in separate out
houses for servants quarters or summer
kitchens. Porches and awnings, screens
and windows can be hitched on. taken
off or shifted about at any time. The
rooms vary in size from 9l2x5l5 to 121ax
91a. so that ordinary cottage furniture is
perfectly suitable in size and character.
Bedrooms. if small, may be furnished
with folding hunks that are screwed TO
the walls and let down as night; these
also may he had in double tiers one
above the other TO accommodate two peo-
pie. Such structures are used great
deal as stables, garages and lighthouses.
For this they seem particularly adapted.
as they can be made of exactly the right
dimensions when put Up and yet can be
increased il size very easily. Small boat
houses can be folded up and put into
the boat itself and moved from one place
to another.-New York Times.