ut, when the house is used seven days a week, such condensation
is anything but practical. So the establishment must be enlarged. This
can be done with ease, especially if the original plans were drawn
with such a change in mind. That is, the original structure now
becomes the living room, while new wings and additions provide the
much needed space for service quarters and conventional bedrooms and
baths.

But the week-end place is not always built particularly for the
purpose. Many times it is a very small farmhouse acquired cheaply and
made usable at a minimum of time and money. When the decision is
reached to convert it into a home of larger proportions, whether one
realizes it or not, the plan of campaign follows the plan of no less a
person than George Washington. Mount Vernon was not always a mansion
but was the result of consistent enlargement. When Washington inherited
it from his half-brother, Lawrence, it was a story-and-a-half hunting
lodge of eight rooms. Then he married Martha Custis, richest widow in
the Virginia colony; and, to have a home suitable for her, he had the
roof raised and the house made full two stories.

Shortly before the outbreak of the American Revolution, he planned two
wings. The first was that at the south end with library on the ground
floor and master bedroom for Colonel and Mrs. Washington on the
second. As the revolt against the British crown progressed, the
construction of the north wing lagged somewhat but was worked on
intermittently. This, the banquet hall, when finished became one of
the noblest private residence rooms in America.

Washington, however, did not leave these steps in the enlargement and
renovation of his erstwhile hunting lodge entirely to professionals.
Whether away fighting in the French and Indian Wars or directing the
course of action of the Continental Army, he never forgot what was
happening at his country seat. His correspondence is full of minute
directions regarding the finishing of certain rooms or of such
injunctions as, "I beg of you to hasten Lamphire about the addition to
the north end of the house; otherwise you will have it open, I fear,
in the cold and wet weather." When the Revolution was fought and won,
the Washingtons returned, not to a Mount Vernon that was a stranger to
them, but to the country home they had so carefully planned. This
specific planning by the owner, now as then, has definite bearing on
whether the house will be yours or ju