of course you could fix up that old house. you can fix up any structure that's still standing. the sills and floors couldn't be worse, i grant you, and i guess you'd have to jack up that west corner at least three feet to make it level. need new chimney. new roof. complete new plumbing. too bad you didn't buy it ten years ago. could have fixed it up in jig time then, and it would have made some sense.
fact is, before you're through, it would be less expensive to tear the old place down and build a new one, same size.
it certainly wouldn't cost any more.
well, i imagine the type of house you'd want would be something in quiet good taste, two story, frame and brick veneer construction -- modern, but of course fitting in with the architectural traditions of the countryside.
perhaps you'd like to see a basic floor plan -- -- something like this.
first floor. living room, study, dining room, kitchen, service porch, maid's room -- upstairs three family bedrooms with two adjoining baths.
yes, of course.
we-ll.  let's just see what we have here. in the first place --
by extending this breakfast room you've eliminated the possibility of any stairs going to the second floor.
and, mrs. blandings, on that sewing room, the way you have it now, the chimney stack would come up right through the middle of the room, leaving you with something in the shape of a square doughnut. which, of course, might be very warm in winter, but otherwise of doubtful utility.
we-ll.  look, i think i know just about what you two have in mind. why don't i go ahead with some preliminary plans and --
that, i can tell you right now, is impossible. even with a considerable trimming of the things you've indicated, i don't see how we can bring it in for less than twelve or twelve-five.
and -- uh -- have you any notions about how you'd like the old place taken down?
there's a good local house wrecker. i'll have him contact you.
well -- we'll try.
mrs. blandings, i've already explained. it's not only the size of the rooms so much as it is the number. you see, our primary problem is one of cubage --
now is it absolutely essential for each of your daughters to have her own room with two closets and a separate bath?
i hadn't realized they were approaching it quite so fast. perhaps what you need is not so much a house as a series of little bungalows.
if i may interrupt, i'd like to suggest that none of these are really major eliminations. now if we could do with one less bathroom on the second floor --
mrs. blandings, a simple bathroom, eight by ten by eight with grade a fixtures will cost around thirteen hundred dollars.
look, perhaps the most practical thing would be --
i'm afraid i don't understand.
reconstruction was unsound and totally impractical.
i assumed as much.
certainly. but since you were his lawyer, i naturally assumed --
perhaps we'd better let the plans go for the time being and --
very well. you'll hear from me as soon as possible. good night.
well -- here are the estimates. before you look at them, i think i'd better explain --
now obviously these bids are way out of line, that is, all except john retch and son at twenty-one thousand.
and with some judicious cutting, i think we can pare that down to eighteen.
frankly, with all the extras you two have --
it'll have to be diverted before retch here can lay his cement.
i'm afraid there's a little slip-up. these windows seem to belong to a mr. landings in fishkill, new york. i talked to mr. landings this morning.
no, he seems to have some windows that belong to a mr. blandsworth of peekskill.
as near as we can figure out they've either been sent to a mr. benton in evanston, illinois, or a mr. bamberger of phoenix, arizona.
it'll just be a matter of a few days.
i'm afraid i authorized that, mr. blandings -- to save your boiler and water pipes.
rust. the plumbing man assures us the water from your well is the most corrosive in his entire experience in the trade.
just dropped by to check the blueprints. some extras came in from retch this morning and there're a couple of things i thought we ought to go over together.
well, let's see. few little things here, all right, i guess. "mortising five butts -- a dollar sixty-eight."
extra nails and screws -- three dollars, eighty-nine cents.
now there's one here i frankly don't understand. ah, here we are. "changes in closet, twelve hundred and forty-seven dollars." did you authorize that?
forty-seven dollars. changes in closet.
far as i remember, that would be something in the back of the house. let's just take a look.
ah, here we are. it isn't a closet at all. it's off the back pantry.  mrs. blandings' little flower sink.
you didn't authorize any changes, did you?
did you by any chance authorize a drain?
all right, i think i can tell you what happened. first, the carpenters had to rip up the flooring that was already laid. those planks run under the whole width of the pantry, so retch had to knock the bottom out of the pantry wall to get at them.
well, the main soil pipe runs under there on wall brackets, so retch had to get his plumbing man back to take out a section so he could get that cradle set. i guess that meant he had to change the pitch of the soil pipe from one end of the house to the other. 'morning, mr. cole.
and then, of course, there are hot and cold water pipes hooked to the joists right under that pantry. they go up to the wing bathroom on the second floor, and i'll bet my bottom dollar he had to relocate them.
well, that's about the size of it --
-- except that retch had to repair the pantry wall and that meant getting a plasterer back. and of course, he couldn't have broken through that wall --
i'll admit it's a little steep. but i'll try to get retch to knock a hundred dollars off the bill. if i can't get that, i'll certainly try for seventy-five.
if he doesn't go for seventy-five, i'll take a stab at fifty.
anyway, i'm almost sure we can get twenty-five.
well. good day.