Evening star., 1946-07-24

To me, that is the true beauty of
renting. You live in the place as
it Is and don't spend half your wax
ing hours patching, touching up,
adding to, and changing everything
around. You live with what is fur
nished you, and leave it alone.
1t seems to me that we never come
home from a trip that my wife
hasn't picked up ideas from a
friends home, or a living room ar
rangement or furniture display in
a store window. 1t never fails. When
we get close to home she plays the
same old record.
Chest of Drawers Factor.
"I can hardly wait" she always
says, "to get at that house. You
know that old chest of drawers in
the guest room? Well, I am going
to do 1t over just like the one I
saw in Sloanes window. And 1 am
going to paint the floor gray the
way Betty has hers, and If you'll
cut the headboards off the beds, 1
am going to make the cutest new
bedspreads, like the ones I saw that
cost $50. I can do the whole room
over for practically nothing"
She forgets that the last time we
did over that room for practically
nothing" we ended up by having
bills from plasterers, carpenters,
painters and electricians, not to
mention the cost of all the tools we
had to buy for me to work with.
Nothing will ever convince her that
I am not, and never will be, handy
around the house. For me to touch
a piece of furniture is to destroy 1t.
She now has me saving off the
legs of all the coffee tables in the
house. She says they are too high
to be stylish They barely clear
the nap of the rugs now, and
nave suggested to her that instead
of cutting them any lower. we Just
draw chalk squares on the floor
and mark them coffee tables I
don't know for sure what is the
stylish way to have coffee these
days, but I don't think it is very
attractive to see roomful of pee pie
all bent over as If suffering from
severe cramps while slipping coffee,
or reaching for cigarette.
Government Help Needed.
What is the best color for living
room? I urge that the Government
appoint a fact-finding committee
to determine the color, and then
make 1t a national law that all liv-
ing rooms be painted that color,
and kept that color. Our living
room is now being done in a soft
shade Of yellow, which means that
every one in the house, including the
dog, is soft shade of yellow. I
trust the painters are not going to
charge us for the paint they have
put on us. If they are, I am going
to demand that I get a blue trim.
Solid yellow doesn't suit my type
Of good looks.
One OF the most dangerous men
now at large in the United States,
insofar as the peace and happiness
Of husbands is concerned, Is a chap
named Peter Something or Other
who Is the author of book explain
ing how any reasonably sane man
or woman can do almost anything
to a house and its equipment. One
reading of it is guaranteed to make
even a slightly lazy man i'll. There
isn't even one chapter devoted to
such subjects as how to slip away
for 18 holes of golf, or the value of
day off a week for fishing, or the
benefits to be derived from rocking
on the front porch. 1t is packed
with suggestions on how to keep
busy "a hours q day, and keep the
house in an uproar from morning
till night.
Oh, for the peaceful days In the
Army, when a mans tent was his
home.
DISTRIBUTED by McNaught Syndicate, me-