ur building problems into the hands of such an incompetent
man.

The need of an architect where a new house is to be built or an old
one completely remodeled is obvious. We are convinced that the same
holds true where only minor changes, replacements and the introduction
of modern conveniences are the program. Our own little country home is
an example. The necessary alterations were so simple that it seemed
ridiculous to ask architectural advice. There was nothing to the job
but to install plumbing, move one partition, patch the plastering, and
close chimney and other pipe openings cut in the days when stoves,
rather than fireplaces, furnished heat.

We engaged a good local man who, with his crew of four or five
helpers, was accustomed to doing everything from carpentry to
plumbing. His labor charges were on a per diem basis and considerably
under the union scale that then prevailed. Nothing was left
indefinite. We understood exactly how the work was to be done and what
materials we were to supply. In due time it was finished and we moved
in. Two or three years later, we discovered some serious shortcomings.
For instance, the kitchen sink was hung in the wrong place and,
because it was easier, all of the water pipes were placed on outside
walls. This made no difference when the house was occupied only during
the summer months but during the first winter we became experts in
thawing pipes that "caught" whenever the temperature dropped to zero.

There was another economy that proved quite the opposite even before
the work was finished. We had agreed that wherever the old lath and
plaster were in bad condition, they were to be removed and replaced
with a paper wall board then being widely advertised as an inexpensive
substitute. But we had reckoned without the idiosyncrasies of an 18th
century house. When the old lath and plaster had been cleared away,
our handyman contractor discovered that the old beams and uprights
were spaced at eighteen-inch intervals, while our new wall board came
in widths conforming to the sixteen-inch spacing that has been
standard with American house construction for a century. It was too
late to return the wall board so new nailing strips, sixteen inches
apart, had to be installed. This took time and when the so-called
inexpensive substitute was finally in place, the total cost actually
exceeded that of the more satisfactory lath and plaster.

Further, because nobody was at hand to prevent i