The Construction of the Small House / A Simple and Useful Source of Information of the Methods of Building Small American Homes, for Anyone Planning to Build

A SIMPLE AND USEFUL SOURCE OF INFORMATION ON THE METHODS OF BUILDING SMALL AMERICAN HOMES, FOR ANYONE PLANNING TO BUILD
BY H. VANDERVOORT WALSH
INSTRUCTOR OF CONSTRUCTION IN THE SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE AUTHOR
NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS 1923
Copyright, 1923, by CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS
Printed in the United States of America
Published February, 1923

CONSTRUCTION OF THE SMALL HOUSE
Immediately after the war the housing shortage made itself very evident, because the landlords discovered that it existed, and realized that they had it within their power to exact extortionate rents. Statisticians got busy and put their heads together and informed the public that within the next five years there would have to be built some 3,300,000 new homes to properly house the people. The building magazines likewise were predicting great things in construction, and all in the building industry were looking for fat years of prosperity, for here was the need and there was the pressure of the high rents. Why should not the thousands of families that had waited build now, when they saw their money going to waste in high rents? All kinds of advertisements were sent out to urge the public to build, and own-your-own-home shows sprang up in every large city, and one could find plenty of builders who would say that one should build immediately, before prices went higher.
And seeing the poor, unprotected home-builder, the greed of human nature seized all in the building industry as it had entangled all other business lines, and the price of materials leaped into the air, and the cost of labor became swollen, and all had that bloated and enlarged look which comes over the face of him who is sure of his meal.