Show W Was as A Mansion By Br FLORENCE FLORENCE BITTNER When we moved into this house twenty years ago come April it was a mansion spacious spacious spacious spa spa- cious gracious modern and new We were three Mr B. B five year old Carol and myself myself myself my my- self and we had an extra bedroom bedroom bedroom bed bed- room room closets and cupboards to spare and a yard like a country estate NOW WE are six Long ago the basement was made into living space crammed jammed and utilized My modern kitchen has become an uninhabitable anachronism but the one lack which I J have become unable to abide is the want of a dining room So during the summer past pastI I made the rounds of real estate agents watched the Homes for Sale column in inthe inthe inthe the papers and visited all the new home projects I found some lovely homes but in each there was some little convenience convenience conven conven- Ence wanting which we N e b built lt into our h interest H L rates were the wall waIl over which we could not see and then when I found a house which I could have made into our home Mr B B. B had the final sayI sayI sayI say I AM not going to move All the before beCore mentioned objections objections objections ob ob- ob- ob I could overcome but the one thing I could not find in in any other house was twenty years of living we have invested invested in in- vested in this house Of our children only Carol has known another home and she hardly remembers any other Nearly every house for blocks around has a family name and we remember who lived there before before be be- fore the present family WE CAME here a young married couple and we have become middle aged fixtures One thing has not become inadequate over the years The yard on which this house sits has remained more estate than I could well manage to take care of so we took advantage of some of the real estate we own and called Ralph whose father built the house hotle and we huddled huddled huddled hud hud- over blueprints and estimates esti esti- mates REMODELING IS a mess and it doesn't matter how often oCten I vacuum the carpets there is is still plaster under under- foot We have lived this past month like goldfish and I have often been glad we have nothing to hide in our family life I didn't know men in the construction construction construction con con- business are such specialists They remind me of oC the doctor who was called in to the emergency room of the hospital to treat the man who had fallen and sprained his right eyebrow on the pave pave- m ment ent SORRY SAID the doc doc- tor I only treat left eye eye- brows There are plumbers and carpenters and electricians There are stone men and brick men and sheet rock men And there are spackle men and plaster men and glass men AND ONLY the kind Providence Providence Providence Provi Provi- dence and Ralph know when they are going to show up and sometimes Ralph guesses wrong The neighbors say the new addition has gone up fast but butto butto butto to us counting each brick it has taken an interminable time especially to the boys who have drawn lots for the privilege of building the first e e. e Jn t the e new eV fireplace I HA HAVE VE stayed stayed- home most days to be available to answer questions and to exercise my prerogative of changing my mind It has been difficult not to get in the way and watch There is a fascination in able use of tools of which I never tire As one who cant can't hammer a nail or measure a window quite the same twice I marvel how it all comes out even The carpenter can take out his steel tape then measure and mark a piece of wood and it fits THE STONE man lays a apiece apiece apiece piece of flat rock over a sledge sledgehammer sledgehammer sledgehammer hammer and with another hammer hammer hammer ham ham- mer he chips away until it is the size he wants and it fits I admit he can fudge a little by making the mortar mortara a little wider here and there but the brick man cant can't do that He has to come out even The one I really liked to watch was the sheet rock man and then the spackle man who came after with his stilts and his tray with the handle on the bottom Ive I've tried spackling and I end Up with a creation that only lacks candles to look like a birthday cake but his walls are satin smooth and ready for painting ITS IT'S ONLY a matter of days now till I move furniture in and once again my house is spacious gracious and modern And Mr B. B didn't have to move |