September 1956

1956 Home Improvement Contest

THIS CONTEST covers any improvement to your home and surrounding property. And you have 128 chances to win in the four divisions-- Exteriors, Interiors, Additions, and Kitchen-Utility areas-- explained in detail further on. You are officially entered in the contest when we receive a Preliminary Entry Form from you. Besides one printed below and elsewhere in this issue, there'll be others in following issues, as well as at retail stores and financial institutions cooperating as contest headquarters.

Accessories five a room personality

Save steps with a sliding table

How They live on $10,000 a year

.Douglas F. and his wife Norma keep no budget. Nor do they scrimp. Their home in a Los Angeles suburb is handsome and well kept. They eat steaks and roasts every week; invite guests in for dinner three or four times a month. Their two children receive elaborate medical care. Doug plays golf and poker without counting the cost particularly, and recently Norma bought an $85 camera "on an impulse," she said.

Work magic with a mural

A flat-bottom boat you can build

They call it a carporch!

HERE'S YOUR Decorating preview

Bed and couch frames have a new, low look. Casters or glides fasten directly to the metal frame without leg extensions. This puts the bottom of the box spring as low as 3 inches from the floor and brings the whole couch down to a more comfortable sitting level. To keep a couch from slipping away from the wall, rubber glides are used. New, nylon-base glides let the frame move easily for bedmaking without marring the floor.

Latest Garden News

Time-honored ideas about growing tuberous begonias will have to be altered somewhat, as a result of experiments conducted by testers of the Men's Garden Clubs of America.

A houseful of ideas!

Built-ins for a small bathroom

HOW-TO for the handyman

A shot that stops aching backs

The best news yet for backache victims is a remarkably simple new treatment that promises to clear up about 90 percent of all the low back pains in the world-- and that's a lot of misery.

Beautiful silver that's practical

It's NEWS to me!

The IDEA HOME of the Year

As you make your way from the entrance of our Idea Home of the Year, you'll discover three areas of living... all well defined in purpose by location and convenience... and each enjoying its own companion outdoor living area.

It might as well be spring!

Are we getting our money's worth in our schools?

Americans pay more taxes for public education than any other function of government except national defense. Per capita, every American is paying about $70 this year in taxes for education. A family of four, on this basis, may be paying close to one month's wages out of every 12.

Here's equipment with double purpose

Kitchen eating areas--all sizes and shapes

Money for your recipes

Plum-good desserts

Here's the scoop on ice cream fix-ups

Stir up our best blueberry muffins

Family room to laundry--in two minutes!

Draperies can be a wall

It's done with mirrors!

Decorative trimming adds distinction

How to put a fence to work

lust look what wallpaper can do!

Every wall has good ideas

Where to put the TV set

Have you heard about Home Fashion Time?

Solved: five "old house" problems

Pressure is off the rest of the house with A basement room for the younger set

First aid for ailing tools

Remodel: one way to get the lot you like

Music and your child

In the full and happy world that every parent wants to make for his child, music is now playing its biggest role. Through helping your child to like music, you are laying a foundation for peace, relaxation, and spiritual values which will last for the rest of his life.

From porch to family room--in one easy remodeling

How to Refinish hardwood floors

Talking birds are good company

A 1956 report: The ABC's of heating today's house

The most expensive single appliance you own next to your car is the machinery that warms your house. This equipment costs from 5 to 10 percent of the price of your house itself. You may well pay the cost of a new television set every year just to keep it running.

Wiring modernization begins in the kitchen

In the past several years the kitchen has shrunk in physical size, but it has grown electrically. It's almost predictable if your house is over 10 years old that your kitchen is not properly wired for today's equipment. Out own failing is that many new houses are underwired.

Same space but bigger living

How to dig and store glads

It's time to revive tour lawn

FENCES--from post to rail to screen

SEPTEMBER GARDEN REMINDERS

Lawns: Patch bare spots in established lawns and plant new lawns as soon as possible. Use a seed mixture containing a high percentage of bluegrasses for sunny areas, and fescue grass for sun and shade areas. Keep newly seeded areas constantly dark with moisture until seedlings are up.... Feed established lawns.

Ideas to help yon decorate your home in Better Homes & Gardens Decorating Book Exhibit

The diary of a Plain dirt gardener

Sept. 1 If you had gone by here a little after sunup, you could have seen me out south of the house, peering down at the grass. This was where I had peppered some crabgrass with a new killer in dust form.

THE MAN NEXT DOOR

Youngish Loren Pedrick, five times a grandfather, took his pretty wife Pauline out for an all-day picnic recently, just the two of them, first time since their courtship days. It was most unfortunate. Pauline has spread the word so enthusiastically that every woman in town is now "dinging" at us men to know why we aren't romantic and thoughtful that way.