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Show SSSeSSSE EDITOR not lost faith in humanity, out there are so many details, vital details, about the building of a house that not one of them can be overlooked with safety. Now, here is the design of a nouse that is a most pleasing one for b. young couple just starting out. U has four rooms and a bath. The width is twenty-four feet six inches and the length is thirty-six feet. It had the aspect of cosiness and neatness and appeals to the artistic sense. This house will cost very little and when it is completed com-pleted it will look so neat that all your friends will be talking about it. There is a little porch where you can sit out evenings and this opens directly into the dining room. The living room is in the front and immediately imme-diately back is the bedroom. This house should be built on a large lot and if it is so constructed there will be abundant opportunity for the display of shrubbery that will enhance en-hance the appearance of the place. Mr. William A. Radford will answer questions and give advice FREE OF COST on all subjects pertaining to the subject of building, for the readers of this paper. On account of his wide experience as Editor, Author and Manufacturer, he fs, without doubt, the highest authority on all these subjects. Address all inquiries to William A. Radford, No. 178 West Jackson boulevard, Chicago, Iil., and only enclose two-cent stamp for reply. The first important work in building is the excavations for the foundation walls. All complete plans specify that trenches should be left with natural nat-ural bottoms, level and smooth for the reception of walls, piers, etc. Not long ago a workman in digging a trench for a center wall in a large city block misread the directions and got the excavation a foot deeper than the specifications called for. The contractor con-tractor called the owner's attention to it, as an honest man should, and offered to build the wall from the bottom bot-tom up If the owner would pay the bare cost of the extra material, but this the owner refused to do. The contractor thereupon dumped in loose earth, the only thing he could do, and brought the bottom up to the depth required by the specifications. The building was completed and accepted by the owner. After a lapse of six months the center wall settled to crack the plaster on every wall in the house clear to the third story. It was a block of flats ocupied by six families. Three of the families moved out because they thought the building was unsafe to live in. This led to a lawsuit between the owner and the contractor. The contractor was able to prove that he went to the owner and offered to fill in from the : : " & jlV ir 3vi fi V bottom with masonry instead of dumping dump-ing in earth. The court decided in favor fa-vor of the contractor. This incident is mentioned merely to call attention to the importance of showing a little common sense in the different parts of the building, from the foundation to the roof. It is not always best to stick hard and fast to every provision of the contract, especially espe-cially when some accident arises that calls for the exercise of judgment. Of course a man does not want to be run over by anyone. Every one in business busi-ness finds out early In life that he must stand up for his rights or have them taken away from him. The old Bible admonition which Instructed every ev-ery man to accept a whack on both cheeks will not work in this country as society is organized at present. One thing the owner needs to have an eye on is the excavation for foundation foun-dation and drains. The workmen are not interested in the little details the Porch In Kitchen fl lo'O'XIO'O- I! Bath PT BtiD Rm. J I lJ O'X I5-0" gl T7 Living Rm. 1 10'OXSO rioor Plan game as the owner, and the health of the workmen and their families is not at stake afterward, as the escape of a little sewer gas here and there will not mean anything to them. You make a solid contract and the contractor con-tractor may live up to it, but you have no guarantee that he will do so, and you cannot get at the underground details de-tails after the trenches are filled. So the only way to know that a job is done right is to inspect it as the work goes along. Of course you can hire a man to do this, and you can usually usual-ly depend on such a man, especially if he is a stranger and does not know the contractor. I prefer to have an inspector who is a stranger in the neighborhood, a man who is personally not acquainted with any man on the Job. I am not a pessimist and have |