The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1911-06-07
C|T|CUS TELLS
Of IDEAL HOME
AFTfTfS MUCH WORRY, HE FIN
ALLY ACCOMPIISHEs HIS
MODEST DESIRE.

Said Mr, Cit!cus. who hes Just gone
through the homo building era:
Altar We had spent some time
in findtng the place where we wanted
to huild--it had 70 be on a good
committing line--we were amazed
that thai so far from New York could
be thought to be worth SO much.
After lot OF looking around. we de-
cided that We might get reduction
In price oy recomffrfg' 'gise 1Tss' settlers
on a tract that was just about to
be divided up. and we did. In some
places not far from here We could
have got l0a-acre farm for the
n. oney our land cost US but We want
ca 70 build at this particular placa
We spent about d year investtgat-
ing the building question and having
plans drawn. My wife knew a lot
or women VINO had taken part In the
building Of homes, and she really did
the greater part OF tho planning and
arranging our first step was to
subscribe for some .slagsxsnas tina.
tel all about houses and give plans
ana after about two months my wife
round an Elfzahethan design that she
thought could lie adapted 10 our pur-
poses,
Now ! was in favor Of getting
Some bright young architect to whom
ission on such a house would
De an object l figured out that the
less business he had the more time
ne would have to attend to our work
but some friends who cannot see
anything smaller than 500 bin
told us of a big firm which had built
100000 mansion for them, and
'hey insisted on Introducing U.s. A
mem Der Of the firm said he would
give small job the same attention
as Dig one, and the Result was that
Tic was asked TO draw up the plans.
With Modest Stable.
We had figured ii out that a cot
tPge 10 meet our requirements ought
not 10 cost. with modest sta BILE, over
$1,000, and that Is what we asked the
architect To aim at. When the bids
came In the first opened was fer
$4,000 tor the house alone. This
was almost enough TO scare us OF
entirely.
The conferences with the archi-
rect had taken three or four months.
ana When my wife, who IL practical.
stnaiea over the arrangements she
round mat the kitchen and the but
iers pantry we're so arranged that
all the doors emanatinr from fhs for
mer would go all through the house,
and she made the architect go over
the drawings and showed him how
TO turn The buffers pantry around
ana now to get two good-sised closets
out OF the waste space he had left
under the main stairs.
ss kina1ly shts. contract s,e,tst
L regret TO say that the contract price
meant nothing, except base To com
pute from. We had a contractor who
believe is absolutely honest. But he
believed in his rights. and they cost
ns lot Of money. Much of this ex-
ira expense we felt was the fault of
the architect for carelessness in
drawing up the specifications. We
would mention things we wished and
he would make notes and would say
he would put them in the specifca-
tons. but when q showdown came
they were missing.
The contractor. after the building
started seemed to be In a state OF
perpetual warfare with the architect.
whom ne regarded as impractical,
and he was always complaining that
the architect did not come out often
enough to pass on the work. so that