1935-02-15 — Page 15

"I Can't Stop Selling My Home"

MOVING AS A HOBBY

By J. T. B.

drawback to the old country cot- tage is the lack of ventilation and: light Evidently they didn't think much about it in the old days. In many of my temporary homes,. I have overcome this by building little'' windows-in? tho"ingle-nook. I found that this was very attrac- tiva. By the eareful planning of now windows, however small, a vast amount of difference can bo mado to the reconditioned, cot- tage. But the cost had to be vigorously controlled.

It is easy to spend much too much money on reconditioning cottagra. and houses for reaale. The many things that one would

has perhaps visualised them In the first place.

One little cottage

which I

I have changed my home twenty-eight times. In each case I have sold my house at a profit and moved into one I liked bought for one hundred and sixty mach or more than the previous pounds. I re-sold a few months later for Tour hundred-and-sixty- And all I had spent was sixty pounds lu adding to its charm and emphasising its characteristics.

Ön

one

Yet I assure you, I am not a hard business woman or one who dislikon home ties. I am not the discontented type of person who can never sit down or keep still

chased two semi-detached cottages.

another occasion I pur

changed, the doorways Into win- dowa and a contral window into

It just happens that the act of choosing delightful house, build- ing it into an enviable home, and doorway! Pulling down a wall then selling it to a keen purchaser inside, I made a lovely squaro has become a kind of hobby. And entrance hall. I had the doorway I haven't finished doing it yet.

painted green with black fittings, Twenty years ago I started it. matching two waterbutts, similar- Although my children were young,ly painted, placed at each end of Interior decoration and house con- the cottage to catch the rainwater, struction appealed to me. We

My profit, after the recondition.

my

fifty pounds.

had to live near London for eering, amounted to two hundred and tain reasons and therefore activitice were confined to such districts as Wimbledon and Barnes, Hampton, Tonbridge, Mid- hurst, and Petersfield, Tedding ton, Surbiton, Whitehaven, and Shoreham.

It was purely the commercial side of hours buying and resell ing that Interested me when I began, during the war. Наився were at a premium. I obtained one, lived in it for six weeks, and then accepted 100 guineas for my lease.

And so we began.

OLD COTTAGES

My family thought I began changing houses because I couldn't settle down. The truth of the matter was that we couldn't settle

ула

Qa occasions I have been very lucky. Quietly, and discreetly I once ran a paying guest house to augment my Income. This within one hundred miles of Wim- bledon Common. It didn't pay. So I sold it. Furniture and every- thing. The sum I received gave me one hundred pounds more than

had paid for the house and the furniture I had bought for it.

Every achievement has its draw- backs, of course. We had plenty of packing and unpacking! I don't know which was the lesser evil. So long as the van with our things in, arrived before wo did, it was all-right, but once or twice we were stranded without a thing.

Our greatest shock was at B up! Money had to be obtained to litile house near Midhurst. It carry on and I found that by was not until I was installed that thoughtful buying and selling of dlacovered there was no water! house property our income could The well, which appeared perfect- be Increased.

It did not take mo long to find ly good when I took the place on, the pleasant way of doing it, contained only surface water.

A WATER DIVINER ENLISTED

concentrated on old cottages. I mean really old cottages, of which

There was nothing to be done there are beautiful examples ali over the country. I had no need but send for a water diviner. Ho to go far afleid. A few years ago found water for us after touring there were quite a number of de- the grounds with all of us an lightful old cottages which were xiously tralling behind him, but simply waiting for my kind of at Afty yards from the house!

And let me warn you. When development.

water has been thus found, there

FEBRUARY

Here is a charming study of H.R.II, the Duchess of York and T. R. H. Princess Elizabeth and Prin

cess Margaret Rose as they attended a concert at Royal Albert Hall, London.' Princess Margaret Ross

AMERICA'S WATERWAYS

GUARDING NATION'S

RESOURCES. ·

Washington, Feb. 10. Development of American water- ways for greater public service and to minimize their threat of dea- tructive floods is recommended by the National Resources Board.

The committee recommended harnessing of 15 major streams to supply navigation, Irrigation and pover, and federal projects to eliminate floods, sell erosion and pollution,

The most important waterway being studied now is the Mississippi Valley region.

Practically the same thing has is the expense of digging for it, to be done in each old cottage, I have found. In the first place which amounts to approximately, there is the celling to be scraped a pound per foot judging from my bill. And when you find the of all its old plaster. When, this la done, besides revealing great water, you have to send a sample oak beams, the dank, musty smell of it away to be analysed. It is that frequently permeates the un-not always good water!

Furnishing cach new home has

The board also recommended enred-for_cottage, dlanppears.

Then off comes the wallpaper. not been such a problem-as-you development of the North Atlantic. might Imagine. Certain furniture South Atlantic and Eastern Gulf. There are sometimes thirty or is common to all of the old type the Great Lakes and Red River of forly thicknesses of it and somo of houses and cottages. The only the north basing; the Upper of the designs are ghastly!

The next important thing is an furnishings that I have hat to buy Mississippi, Missouri and Ohio the fireplace. are carpets and curtains. They Basins; the outh-west and lower One leak at the average cottage are everything to a house. They Mississippi regions. the Western fireplace and out It comes, and give each room its individuality. Gulf and Colorado basins, and the Apart from alterations, such AB south Pacific and great basin and with it the new brick work and rubble, which may be, and prob- adding a bathroom or throwing North Pacific districts. ably le, hiding an old beam run-in window, rediscovering ingle ning across the top. At the sides nooka, old Artplaces beams, and one finds perhaps an ingle-nook or ceilings, these are the only ox-

examination of

bren hidden away for years.

PROBLEMS OF LIGHTING AND VENTILATION

on 000,000

The report said Army engineers estimated they could spend $8,000,- waterways. Public a bread oven, which may have penses that I have had to indulge works figures show. reclamation, I

in, generally speaking,

But it has been worth it, for in rivers and harbours and flood con- Buch case I have made money, trol wore allotted $305,122,000 up to Not enormous

sums, but usefulDecember 1 this year. Require But there is frequently the vex-amounts. And I have had the ments for 1936 would be $197,000,- ing problem of light and ventila-pleasure of indulging in a career 000 and for completion approxi- tion to be

The one of discovery and adventure.

overcome.

mately $853,000,000,

The board, in recommending establishment of a permanent water planning committee, said: "In plan-.. ning for water, the country must take a long view and think in terms i

fa nemrum interim.

of conservation as well as of current usc.".

Development of water power, the report intimated, would lead to lower rates and make for more central use of electricity.

Hydro-electric power, the group said, presents a tangled problem which interests all citizens from Definite recommendations regard- the domestic user of electricity to ing hydro-electric power develop- the coal miner, the owner of pubilement were held up pending a report utility bonds, the industrialist look from the power palley committee, ag for cheap energy, and the headed by Secretary of Interior advocate of subsistence homesteads, Harold L. Ickes.-United Prose,

Another generation of soldiers vanewed the friendly aillance 'that was cemented in Flanders mud during the World War, when British soldiers en route to pollen the Saav buain during the plebiscite made the acquaintance of French troops at Calais, where they landed.

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