March 1951

How good an amateur architect are you?

Planning a house looks fairly simple, doesn't it? If you have enough money to pay for amateur planning mistakes, that is.

You don't have to be big-hearted with your INCOME TAX

Looking for a "legal loophole" to hold your income tax down as low as possible? By all odds, your best bet is to make sure you're not one of the 15 million Americans who will pay Uncle Sam more then he has coming.

Better Homes & Gardens announces the WINNERS

It is with pride that Better Homes & Gardens announces the winners in the fifth More Beautiful America Competition which closed November 1, 1950.

A "new" house for $3,800

To buy and remodel can be an outrageously expensive way to get a house. But not if you: Buy a house old and inexpensive enough to leave a healthy remodeling budget for necessary changes.

How to get two beds in half the space

Have you heard the Latest Garden News?

Carrot- and tomato-seed germination has been increased as much as 40 percent by treatment with highfrequency radio waves, according to Dr. Herbert Jones of the University of California.

Table with a double life

Home with a future

You can't trade in a house every 2 or 3 or even 10 years, like a car. You get too attached to the house itself, to its site, to your neighbors. When you plan a house, you have to foresee the future and build toward it.

How to find More space on your lot

Finding more room starts with looking over what you have with a stranger's eye. Try it for 20 minutes. To get full benefit, question everything you have, everything you've done, foot by foot, piece by piece.

Seven days you'll never forget

Is it worthwhile to take a family trip to Southern California if you have only a short time-- as little as seven days-- to spend there? Is it too expensive? Can a family have a good time without working too hard at having fun to really enjoy it? Is Southern California overrated?

You can use one color all through the house

This month's Five Star home proves that you can make a Compromise with tradition

Our Five Star home for March, No. 2103, is a compromise-- and a happy one. Avoiding the triteness of some Traditional as well as the starkness of some Modern, it emerges as a house with a fresh, pleasing style of its own.

Our contemporary home is As intimate as an old friend

Make all your steps important

Your money's worth in furniture

Furniture is a long-term investment. Most of you hope that the chairs and tables you buy today will outlast your lifetime, perhaps become heirlooms. So you'll want the best possible furniture for your money.

Beautiful centerpieces for your table

Growing your own pays off

No yard is hopeless--with a plan of action

We live in an old house. We thought our narrow city lot in Morristown, New Jersey, was a permanent problem, and the only solution was to move. But finally we recognized its possibilities and acted on them.

This kitchen works--with charm

Write us before you move

$250 for your one-dish meals

Do you plan a one-dish meal on a shopping day when you know you'll arrive home just before the family? Bake a special casserole to take along to the club luncheon or serve friends you have in Saturday night? Have a thrifty dish that stretches the food budget toward the end of the week?

What a family room can mean to you

We lived in Shangri-La on $75 a month!

You too can live on considerably less than $100 a month! We did, for a memorable half year.

Cabinet space at your finger tips

Planned by a man who knows his kitchens

Here's how you can Save by raising your own plants

What should you do about allowances?

Should your boy or girl have an allowance? When shall it start? Shall it be monthly or weekly? How much shall it be? Should your child "work" for his allowance, or shall it be given without regard to chores done around the house? Should you interfere if you feel that your child is spending his allowance foolishly?

ELJER CO.

How to expand your home workshop

One of the greatest thrills that can come to a home handyman lies in watching a workshop develop through the years. Sound, careful planning is all-important. Start making your master plan as soon as you become familiar with the basic hand tools.

Here's an easy way . . .

Rough materials, but a smooth-working house

The ranch house isn't a new style. It's as old as the branding iron, and as graceful as the long brown grass of the range. It was developed to meet the demands of a climate far less harsh and variable than that which colonial homes had to withstand, and has a tradition and texture and beauty all its own.

Good grooming for your slipcovers

Must kids fight?

Are your youngsters easy to get along with? Or are they too full of fight and fire to suit you? Young Tim's folks found him much too aggressive for their comfort.

Article

How to get better table arrangements

The Boileaus figured out Built-ins by the dozen

How to buy and take care of glassware

New chests with many uses

Here are two new chests and a cupboard in natural cherry that are as good looking as they are practical for any room in your house. These pieces are a wonderful solution if you move often-- or if you can afford to buy only a few pieces of quality furniture.

How to make a bedspread

You can dress up your bed with a spread that's tailor-made for it. Choosing a fabric is the first important step. Be sure you get one that launders well and won't wrinkle readily. Cottons are usually most satisfactory. The new metallic, nontarnishable threads now add a touch of glamour to plain materials. Give your spread a professional look with a fringe that will wash as safely as the spread itself.

Sewing centers that disappear

If it's a low-cost house you want . . . 1 Eliminate expensive trimmings

If it's low-cost house you want . . . 2-Use inexpensive materials

If it's a low-cost house you want . . . 3-Make little space more efficient

Have you tried rolling paint on!

How-to Helps

Swing-up Garage Door-- spring means repairs, and if your garage door took a beating this winter, why not rebuild it yourself? This swing-up door is easy to make and handy to use. Just order Easi-Bild pattern 3.486-- only 50c.

We got 150 feet of Living space from a useless porch

How to be happy with The girl you married

You probably know someone like Jim Blake. Married to a charming woman, he's deeply in love with her and has been through 10 years of marriage.

Pretty place mats

Handsome furniture you can build

Your dog and mine

By all odds, the first item in dog training is housebreaking. A new pup's just got to learn decent manners. That's all there is to it.

1950 Better Homes & Gardens Editorial and Authors Index

MARCH GARDEN GUIDE

Sow vegetable seeds and set out plants. To avoid disease, don't plant tomatoes in the same spot each year. Prevent sunscald on newly transplanted trees.

Easy does it around the yard

The diary of a plain dirt gardener

March 1 Winds blew chill and cold. Flakes of snow in the air this morn. Scratch, the dog, has been running away, and so ere David left for his classes, he tied him up with the long chain that is fastened to the Siberian elm-- or Chinese if you prefer-- at the northeast corner of the house.

The right grass for your lawn

If your lawn fails to provide the thick, attractive turf you want around your home, don't let another season slip by without making sure the grass you are trying to grow is right for your "oil, climate, sun, and shade.

Article

BIG TREES Sooner than you think

If you're typical, you have prejudices-- likely including the one that big trees, the majestic giants of the forest, grow too slowly to be practical for the homeowner who needs shade and beauty in a hurry.

Grace

Through the Shops with Better Homes & Gardens

The MAN NEXT DOOR

These March days remind me of a driver who pulls into the middle of the street, points to the left, and then makes a right turn.