The Farmer's and Mechanic's Practical Architect; And Guide in Rural Economy (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: ON THE EXPEDIENCY OF OWNING A HOUSE. Evert married - man who earns his living by the labor of his hands ought to be the occupant of his own house. No matter how small the tenement, though it be a mere hut, built at the cost of only two hundred dollars. It is only by becoming the owner of a house that one can render himself independent of landlords, or can hope by small earnings to accumulate property. He who lives in a hired tenement is liable to be removed at the end of his term, and he cannot know with certainty whether he shall be fortunate or unfortunate in his next move. He enjoys less liberty during his lease than if the house were his own property, and the improvements which he is obliged to make for his own temporary convenience are less valuable to him than if the house were his own. It is better, therefore, to occupy constantly a decent and comfortable hut, with only as many rooms as absolute necessity requires, than to be moving round from one house to another, with ' the chance of now and then obtaining one that is pleasant and commodious, but more frequently one that is disagreeable and inconvenient. According to an old saying, " three removes are equal to one fire"?that is, one who has removed his family from one hired house to another three different times, has suffered as much injury, when all circumstances are taken into account, as he would be likely to suffer from being once burned out of house and home. The injury to one's household furniture by removing it from place to place, the cost of freight and the labor attending the removal, and the loss of time which is consumed in adapting furniture to the new tenement, produce an aggregate of considerable expense. There still remains the additional cost of new articles of furniture which the new situation requ...