Evening star., 1933-10-13
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

II this depth is aided by several we'll
placed trees, comparatively close to
the house. with appropriate foundation
planting, a house has all the setting 1t
can command, short of an estate.
Even the house painters, we under
stand have admitted that the founda-
tion planting has come to stay. They
must tolerate the mixed evergreens and
shrubs. That these handicap the
honest painter must be admitted. The
painter does them no good, either.
With the best will In the world. he
must bend evergreens back out Of his
way. To keep them pulled back for
several weeks at q time is not helpful
imical ingredient in the paint fumes
which is harmful.
The architecturally- minded pedes-
trian gets great deal of amusement
cut of coupling his reading and his
looking. That is. he always keeps as
up-tO-dat as possible OH reading about
houses. because they interest him; then
he keeps this information in mind.
when he. does his daily walk
In this way he manages TO keep fully
abreast. not only of housing In theory.
but also OF housing as an accomplished
! fact.
,, He can tell you about the place of
the Dutch Colonial type in America.
also he can point out to you several
good examples Of the type IL his neigh
bOrhood, or perhaps in your own neigh
borhood
He can point out features. In the
working out OF this design, which have
not resulted as well as they might. He
would like to satisfy his own mind, for
instance, that an ugly, unpainted pole,
used 10 support wire. is in keeping
With the type. He knows that 1t is not.
but If the owner insists upon 1t. for
his radio. what can be done about it.?
X x 4
One OF the greatest economic wastes
in America our pedestrian is convinced,
occurs in the failure to build Just a
little bit better. Here Is a house which
would have been all that any one could
have demanded Of 1t, If the builder had
been willing to spend just a little more
money in the first place Ask him about
it. no doubt he would have many and
to him good reasons why that money
could not be spent at the time. but the
fact remains that II he had spent it,
the result would have been right, in
every way. whereas now the result can
only measure up to IS per cent, and
practically nothing can ever be done
TO put the remaining IS per cent into
| the ensemble. There are some things
that can never be done afterward. or
which never will be done afterward. 1t
makes no difference which way you
put it. the result. or rather lack Of re-
suit, Is the same
| Sometimes the observer will think
that the big thing about any house
ought to be the look that it is lived In.
hut second thought shows that this.
while eminently desirable. is not all
there is to it. A place may look very
honey" and still present q rundown
appearance.
| A certain amount Of real architec-
ture. then, is an essential. More and
more thi. is coming to be yealized by
even the most uneducated persons.
What holds back the complete realiza- :
ton of this idesl is the unacceptable
fact that it Is the same with a house
as with most other purchases, a buyer
must take what he can buy, in many
Instances. rather than what he would
like to have. This is situation which
cannot be helped or changed. 1t has
both human nature and economics
in 1t.
The American home. especially the
detached home. has been getting back
to fundamentals during the past five
years, with the result that, small and
large. there is more real architecture
going into building Of this type This
Is hopeful. Good taste often costs no
more than poor taste, or half-taste. If
1t is not in the plan in the beginning
1t Is difficult. If not impossible. to put
II in afterWard