y
the arrangement of rooms. Good management is of the greatest importance,
not only as a matter of economy, but as securing the best class of
workmanship, and the most judicious use of materials. Good or bad
management produces the same results in building operations as in war or
any other pursuit.

One takes up a capital work on rural architecture, written perhaps ten
or fifteen years ago, before the general introduction of furnaces, steam
pipes, gas, baths, marble basins, etc.; they find a house that suits
them, which the book says will cost $6,000, and that is just the amount,
by close figuring, that can be raised for building. The house is
ordered, put in the hands of the best mechanic to finish all complete,
and he goes ahead; he is unrestricted except by the book, and the author
of it is a man of reputation. In the way of details perhaps nothing has
been said; they are therefore extravagant in the use of materials, and
elaborate in workmanship; as it is not considered good policy for a
workman who has a good order, to make suggestions calculated to decrease
the amount of work. When the bills to the amount of $6,000 have been
settled, the house is found to be half finished, and an additional
$6,000 is necessary to complete it; less that one year's interest of
which would have amply sufficed to secure the services of one who has
spent the best years of his life to learn how to design and to manage
work to cost a specified price.

When an architect says a house can be built for a certain price, it is
to be understood that materials delivered on the ground shall not exceed
an average cost, that the payments made are to be in cash, and that he
manages the work. To hold an architect responsible or blame him for
blunders in the cost of work that he designed and did not superintend,
is manifestly unjust, yet it is a frequent occurrence. The cost of work
is a question easily answered, when one is fully acquainted with all its
bearings and has it under his control, but no one can say at what price
a novice in building operations can execute it.

DESIGN No. 17.

[Illustration: FIG. 53.--_Stable._]

[Illustration: FIG. 54.--_Stable Plan._ (_Reversed._)]

Fig. 53 is a design for a cottage stable, with stalls for two horses,
and the necessary carriage room and other conveniences. This design, in
its exterior, presents as great a degree of variety in the combinations
of form and shadow as the price will admit of.