February 1951

We solved the riddle of family happiness

Sometimes it's hard to believe that we're the same family we were six months ago. It seems ages past that there were fights over every bedtime for the children, morning scoldings about dressing and getting off to school, and fusses over eating that ruined everybody's meal. It seems a long time since my wife and I wondered if we were a couple of incompetent neurotics raising two antisocial youngsters.

Perimeter heating new and practical

If you went outdoors on a zero day with fleece-lined boots, a fur-lined flying jacket, but only a pair of shorts to cover your legs, you wouldn't be warm long. While your feet and torso would stay warm, heat loss from your legs would be so great that they would soon be frostbitten.

How much is your home worth?

If you ever sell your home-- and chances are good you will, sometime-- you'll then find yourself smack up against the federal income tax laws. That could hurt, too. But it needn't.

What's wrong with this family?

What's right. It's right and normal for Bobby to want to dress like the other kids. What are passing fads to you are genuine fashions to 10-year-olds. At his age, Bobby is just beginning to feel that he is part of the gang, rather than his parents' little boy.

Here are three ideas for Storage-unit entrance halls

Spacesaving bedroom ideas

Two rooms--One television set

Have you heard the Latest Garden News?

Newest of fruits is Amber, a red raspberry that isn't red, but a beautiful golden orange. I tasted this luscious fruit at the New York State Experiment Station last year, and it has all the quality of a high-grade red raspberry except for color.

How-to for the handyman

The best side trip we ever took

We hadn't planned it that way. It all happened because of a road sign near Springfield, Illinois. The sign read "Lincoln's Tomb."

The only sure way to get the home you want

Despite the wide variety of materials and colors available today, there is a certain deadly similarity in the furnishings and decoration of many American homes.

One story--and two

ROSES-what they can do for you

You have some deeply satisfying thrills ahead whenever you decide to grow roses. It won't be just the blooms, lovely as they are, that will reward you.

Fine details mean a fine house

The Pacific Northwest

"Looks like our family's completely deadlocked on where to take a vacation this year," my young neighbor said the other day. "I swore I was going to get in a little fishing this year-- some place uncrowded and unspoiled. And I'd like to get a good long look at the ocean while I'm there.

How to pull your home together

We are still decorating and furnishing and even building small homes as though they were large ones. We just cannot emancipate our thinking from the big-house psychology. A big house has many big rooms and because they are big, and because they are only used one at a time and not seen simultaneously too often, the rooms of a big house have a different scheme for each room.

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A house you can expand yourself

We're going to build an expansible house-- one we can add onto later." This idea is a good one; the trouble is that "later" rarely comes.

Furniture periods . . . and the part they play

Your home is yours to furnish as you like. So let it express your own tastes and suit your way' of life. First step is to find the furniture period you like best.

How to plan a home workshop

Do you have a really adequate space set aside for making home repairs and improvements? Or does some makeshift arrangement take all of the pleasure out of your handyman projects?

We really worked wonders--with a simple terrace and flowers

Tiny space your problem? Like to soften the stark look of a new home with plantings that are easy to put in, easy to keep up?

Ways to use one flower

Get the most from your vacuum cleaner

Chances are you get out your vacuum cleaner each time you plan to clean house. But do you let it take over its fair share of the load?

Quick way to make white sauce

Fresh charm from simple changes

Double the size of small bedrooms

How-to Helps

Well-dressed Windows-- it's all in the material and how you hang it. Sounds simple, and it is with the guidance of Better Homes & Gardens home-furnishings experts. Learn how to choose the best for your home in this 25c booklet.

A cedar chest that's at home in any room

They switched to TV and a new kitchen

Take the heat off your kids!

You have high hopes for your children? Naturally you do. And just as naturally, you worry when they don't seem to be living up to your hopes.

See what's what on wood saws

Whether you're replacing a shaky railing on your basement stairs or turning out a set of built-in bookshelves for your living room, good handsaws will help you do a better job, faster, with a lot less work.

The overwhelming trend--show more oak

How to remodel

Sure, you can lay linoleum

Mechanics, proud of their skill, usually scoff at the idea that a novice can do a tradesman's job. But the men who lay linoleum say anyone can do it.

How to use enamel

If you do any handyman painting around your home, you probably have tried enamel. Were you satisfied with the results?

ART--good for four kids and fun, too

Joey had finished a painting of a deer and brought it with modest pride to show his mother and father. "What kind of creature is that?" his mother asked. "Red body, blue antlers. Nobody ever saw a deer like that."

Build on the bias. . . .

Your home doesn't have to stand shoulder to shoulder in a military formation with other houses in your block.

Your dog and mine

The hair on my Cocker Spaniel's ears gets terribly matted. Can this be avoided?-- F. L., Michigan.

More living in less space

Garden clinic

How to keep big shrubs in bounds

The diary of a plain dirt gardener

Feb. 1 Our morning newspaper is delivered on our suburban road by a truck driver who throws a wrapped copy into our drive. If you had seen me in the gray dawning as I came out and picked it up this a.m., you might have been a bit puzzled.

How to plant on a budget

The cost of putting in the kind of plants you want around your home can be much less than you thought possible. That is, if you start with small plants.

Boots get wet on the inside, too

Winter or summer, snow or rain, children get their boots and overshoes wet on the inside as well as the outside. How to dry them quickly is a problem.

The MAN NEXT DOOR

My wife likes to chide me because I waited until our third meeting before asking her for a date. But then I hadn't seen her at her best-- getting my breakfast over a kitchen range with an apron around her and her nose a little bit shiny.