AMERICANS A NATOION OF HOME BUILDERS. Americans are a nation of home-builders. A man's standing in any community is based largely on the kind of house he lives in. If it is his own home, he enjoys an importance that does not attach to the man who pays rent.
In glancing over the brick house designs illustrated in this volume, one may wonder at the marvelous advances made in home architecture in recent years. It is not a difficult stretch of imagination from the makeshift habitations of the early days to the beautiful homes of comfort and luxury shown in these pages; yet it has been a development slow and sure, keeping pace with the advancement of the race along all lines.
Two of the most important factors in this development have been the steady diminution of the country's lumber supply and the public realization of economic losses through fire. Confronted by glaring head-lines telling of fire losses beyond those of any other civilized nation, the American citizen scrutinizes more carefully than ever the building materials offered him.
Of these, during the last ten years, brick has appealed to him with daily increasing force. Born of the fire, brick successfully resists attack from external and internal fire where other building materials would crack, spall, disintegrate, or fuse.
Every brick reflects in a distinctive way the human life which caused it to be. From its digging as clay at the point of the shovel, to its emplacement in the wall at the point of the trowel, in all steps of its manufacture, brick unites man's greatest knowledge and skill in mechanics, physics, and chemistry.
The purpose of this book is to place within the immediate reach of the prospective house-owner, the contractor, the builder, the dealer, and the architect, a cyclopedic review of brick, its history, its classification, its qualities, and its many applications contributive to human safety and comfort. The more this material is studied, the more confidence it receives.
In its cheapest and commonest form, brick adapts itself to the construeive needs of the humblest cottage. The arrangement of the brick in the wall, and a judicious choice of color, will result in artistic effects equal in charm to those obtained in residences built of other, materials, though palatial in size, ornate in structure, and ten times as costly.
The plans presented will enable the home-builder in rural communities, in small towns, and in cities, to select a design exactly suited to his domestic requirements and local conditions. In selecting the design of a house, there are a number of factors that should be taken into consideration. The size of the lot, the possible slope of the ground, and the surrounding buildings have much to do with the appropriateness of any design. In other words, the artistic sense will direct the selection of a design that will be in harmony with the surroundings. These are things that should be considered at the outset, for the selection of the design is indeed the most important feature of the problem. Select a design that assures plenty of room for the needs of the family—present as well as future. It will not be necessary to consider the
matter of convenience of interior arrangement, for the architects have solved that problem in every case. Every house is planned from the inside, and not from the outside; that is to say, convenience of arrangement has been the first consideration, and this fact will be appreciated by the wives and daughters.
The location of the house is another important feature. It should not be placed in the middle of the lot. To provide lawn room and a place for shrubbery and flower-beds, the house should be at one side or well back, so that when the lawn decorations are placed the picture will be artistic and the grounds contribute to the unity and harmony of the entire design.
A man who builds a home owes a duty not alone to his family and himself; he is under a moral obligation to the community as well. No man has a moral right to build a house which will be unworthy of the community in which he lives, or which, by its inappropriateness or utter lack of style, will tend to depreciate the value of property in the neighborhood. In house building, as in all other things in which men engage, the purpose should be improvement and betterment. So we advocate only a house built from accurately drawn plans—a house with "style." As the house may be the habitation of the family for life, no greater calamity in a material way can befall the owner than to discover, when the house is complete, that it is faulty in arrangement or in appearance. This is apt to be the case with a house built without plans. On the other hand, it is a source of constant joy and satisfaction to live in a house which is built from accurately drawn plans, and which is worthy of the neighborhood.
Let us impress upon your mind one vital thing. NEVER build a house without plans to work from. It is hardly necessary to tell you that no more foolish thing is ever clone by a .man than to try to build without plans, or— which is just as bad—from rough pencil sketches. We could show you in our files thousands of letters from persons who have ordered plans after failing miserably in their efforts to build without accurate drawings. Here are sore of the things that happen to the man who tries to build without plans: His house lacks style, that peculiarly pleasing aspect that is possible only in a house built from an accurate design. He wastes materials. He wastes the time of his workmen. He wastes nervous energy in worry over mistakes; and, when the house is done, if it ever be, he has a monstrosity that people laugh at as they go along the street. This window will not be square; that floor will not be level; and—worst of an—the owner himself will be dissatisfied with the structure.
Every design in this book is drawn with a faithful regard for mathematical accuracy, and there is no error to bother the builder. It is safe to say that the saving in materials that will result from building after any of these plans, will more than pay the price asked for them.