calculated upon as interest on the home, for, unless he rebuilds the
house at ruinous expense, these will be annual charges.

The most satisfactory way, and the one leading to great enjoyment in
satisfying the "nest-building" instinct which possesses newly mated
people no less than birds, is for the owners themselves to plan and
superintend the building of the home. There is an infinite variety of
architectural plans spread before the homeseeker in books and magazines.
An examination of these will be of great value to him in clarifying his
hazy ideas, but he should not settle upon any one of them without expert
opinion. He should employ a local architect, or at least a builder with
practical architectural ideas, to examine every feature of the plan
selected as nearest the homeseeker's ideal, and revise it according
to local conditions, cost and availability of material, etc. Money is
always well spent that relieves one of responsibility, enabling him to
say thereafter, "Well, I did every thing I could to have the thing done
properly."

The woman's wish should be paramount in planning the building. The home
is her workshop, and she should have every convenience she requires to
do her work properly. Things that appear of minor importance to a man,
the architect and builder no less than her husband, are to her most
vital. What pockets are to a man or business woman in clothes, closets
and shelves are to a woman in her house, and yet she usually has to
fight for them with the architect as the business woman does for pockets
with her dressmaker. Unless she has worked out the practicability of her
ideas, however, she will be at a great disadvantage with the experts,
and therefore it is wise for her to make herself as familiar as possible
with the main principles of building and the special details of the
improvements she desires, especially as this knowledge will be of great