Evening star., 1924-03-01

We did not have to disturb the old
foundations at all.
Fireplace Not vital.
"Another thing you can omit to
cut down expense Is the fireplace.
Now I know 1 have started trouble,
for anybody who has the real senti-
ment Of home about him thinks of
wood fire and sitting around 1T with
his famtly-a fine place to sit in the
cool evenings of fall and spring, a
fine affair to supplement the heating
plant when winter temperatures are
way down low. When you have
friends in. it is the cheeriest place
ting around that fireplace can easily
be over 5000. The point / wish to
make Is that you do not positively
have to have q fireplace at first. You
can add 1t at any time.
The home I spoke of in which my
family lived so comfortably had no
| fireplace. In fact. 1t had no built-in
features Of any Lind. In the kitchen,
for example. there was kind of a
makeshift cupboard. but we did not
have drawers. bins or shelves. We
did not have a kitchen cabinet of
the modern sort, or Il modern refrig-
orator with outside icing. Later on
when we built another house and
put all these things In We learned
what we had missed. But the point
Is we got along without them for
some years and were perfectly happy
about it.
Kitchen Costs High.
IT have seen kitchens equipped
with every known mechanical de-
vice and piece of furniture to tighten
thef burden and heart Of the mod
ern Observation-Disclosures that cost
$1,000 or more to equip. Amy
normal man wants that kind of a
thing for his wife. but it is a plain
fact that you can get along with a
stove. a refrigerator. some shelves.
sink and a table. and these cost a
whole lot less than $1,000. If you
do not have money for kitchen cab
met work. china closets, book
shelves. open stairways, you Simply
cannot spend 1t. and if you are doing
without q house on account Of the
cost of these things and porches and
full Easements and extra plumbing
fixtures you are missing one of the
joys of life.
"I want to put emphasis on the fact
that these items i have mentioned
are only few of the many that there
are, and they are all of the kind that
can be added later on when YOU have
money enough to finance them. l
cannot possibly in the short space Of
this story give you all of the many
ways to reduce quantities.
81 wonder If 1t is generally known
that the American of average or
small means demands n home with
accommodations only paralleled by
the homes of the rich in France and
England. The home of the average
man in those countries is an elemen-
tary affair from our point of view. 1t
does not have a basement or a GEN.
trail heating plant. often 1t does not
have a plumbing system. a porch is
a purely American invention.
Foreign Standard Unwise.
II know we do not want to adopt
the foreign standard here. 1t is said
that the European does not know
what 1t Is to be thoroughly warm in
the winter time. We are obliged to
have an adequate device to keep
warm, certainly we want plumbing.
but the other things they have work
ed out We could we'll take advantage
of and in so doing have all the things
that reasonable living comfort re-
quires.
Now as to the other ways of re-
ducing costs. This matter Of quail
ties. Let me say first that I do not
believe 1t wise to cut down the quail
ity Of anything that goes into a house
to a point where durability Is sacri-
feed or even mildly threatened. There
are, however, certain sacrifices that
can be made withip the limits of good