These little structures are good models for boys' first attempts at house-building, in that they are simple, modest, and unpretentious, and have a homelike air which does not pertain to many more elaborate and pretentious houses. The visitor is attracted by their neat, trim, inviting appearance, and wishes to enter.
Houses of this character can easily be made by two or more boys working together; and by the united forces of a number of boys a very attractive little village can be built (and much simple carpentry be learned at the same time), in which many pleasant hours can be spent.
Such houses as these can be framed and put together without difficulty by the methods already shown. It will not add very much to the expense to have the parts of the frame which show on the inside of the house planed by machine, and this will much improve the appearance of the interior. Shingling the roofs, putting casing around the windows and doors and at the corners of the houses, and clapboarding or shingling the sides, adds much to the attractiveness of such small structures, as you can see from the illustrations.
Fig. 390a.
The windows and casings you can buy ready-made, or the latter you can make yourself. The doors and casings you can also buy, or make. The door-casings and window-casings should be nailed in place before the sides are clapboarded. The tops of these casings should always be protected by strips of sheet lead, the upper edges of which are slipped up under the clapboarding (Fig. 390a), thus covering the crack where the casing joins the side of the building and shedding the water—on the same principle as shown in Figs. 384 and 385. This is important, as the rain will drive through such cracks, even though they seem very tight. Tonguing and grooving can be used in such cases, but flashing with lead is a simpler process. The same precaution should always be taken where roofs or attachments join a building in such a way as to expose a crack through which the water can leak. Zinc, or even tin, can be used, but are inferior to lead. The corner-boards and the water-table (the horizontal board at the bottom of the house) should also be nailed in place. The latter should have the top edge slightly bevelled, to shed the water. All these pieces having been carefully nailed in place, the clapboarding or shingling of the sides can be done.
It will cost but little to sheath the outside with sheathing-paper, and the house will be much tighter and dryer. This should be put on under the casings, corner-boards, etc., so as to avoid a crack where these boards and the clapboards or shingles meet.
Laying clapboards, unlike shingling, is begun at the top. Lay the upper row by a line, as in shingling, keeping the clapboards in place by a few nails in the upper part only. Then slip the clapboards for the next row up from underneath under the first row until only the desired amount of the clapboards is exposed. The first row can then be firmly nailed near the lower edge with clapboard nails. This will hold the next row in position while the third row is put in place, and so on. The thin edge of the upper row can be finally covered with a strip of board or moulding. The clapboarding can be continued to the very bottom of the house. If, however, a water-table is used at the bottom, the lower edge of the bottom row of clapboards should be slightly bevelled to fit closely down on the slanting upper edge of the water-table. Be careful to lay the clapboards in line and at equal distances apart, as variations in the alignment are quite noticeable. Examine the clapboards of any house on which they are used. In arranging them break joints at the ends, that is, do not have the joints of one row directly under, or very near, those of the rows above and below. Do not saw the ends by eye. Mark them accurately with the try-square and knife and saw them carefully with a fine saw, trying to make as close joints as possible.