March 1962

Better Homes and Gardens home improvement contest Everybody wins!

Whether or not you carry off part of the $30,000, you'll get hundreds of pages of inspiring help-- and a better home.

It's NEWS to me!

How 17 families got what they wanted ...

Getting what you want in your home is more than a matter of just wanting. It also takes some doing-- planning, budgeting, hard work, plenty of determination, and going without a number of short-term pleasures. On the following pages, we present a lot of nice people who can say: "It took some doing, but it was worth it."

50 men and women put their heads together to design this wonderful house!

Better Homes & Gardens has a lively interest in helping people get more for their housing dollars. One way we help is through Housing Forums which we sponsor with a successful, forward-looking local builder and the Housing Market Research company. So far, Better Homes & Gardens has conducted 27 Forums in 22 cities. These Forums are designed to get better development housing for you.

How neighborly should neighbors be?

During the course of the last dozen years, ever since I became a domestic philosopher, I have solved most of the problems that beset the average American in his search for equilibrium and good sense in his day-by-day living. It is now time that I glance over the bothersome matter of neighbors and neighborliness. We have reached a high degree of technological civilization, but knots are still being raised on noggins because a dog runs loose in the night or a lady makes outrageous statements about another lady's daytime visitors or an apple falls off a limb and lands on the property next door.

PAPER CUTTING CAPER

How many times have you looked at a piece of art work in a museum or enjoyed a child's painting, and said you could do as well? Forget the fact that your version of a bunny rabbit didn't coincide with that of your kindergarten teacher. There are all sorts of bunnies, and hers probably didn't please you either. Discard any thoughts that you can't be creative, for we want to introduce you to a world of magic-- by the fascinating tension-easers known as CRAFTS. Willing?

Flowering branches by a master

Have we changed our tune?

No, we haven't. The tune's still the same, but we're singing different words now. When I read over some of the statements we made as the young parents of two babies, I must confess to a wince and the hope that no copies of Better Homes for April, 1953, will ever show up to haunt us.

HANDYMAN'S BOOK

Liquid plastic and fiberglass in its various forms are strange materials to work with, but they let you make things easily that you just couldn't make any other way. The liquid plastic most commonly used is called polyester resin (A), a sirupy liquid that hardens to a clear plastic. The liquid resin will not harden, or "cure," unless a catalyst is added. Most resin sold commercially contains wax to make it harden at the surface. However, for covering boats or for any project that requires several coats of resin, use the type without wax. It remains tacky between coats, making a better bond. Polyester resin has a strong odor, so you must work in a well-ventilated place. Glass mat (B), similar to felt, is sometimes used to build up thickness between laminations.

Ten ways to OVERPAY the Internal Revenuers--and how to make sure you don't

Income taxes have become the average family's third largest living expense-- bigger than any item except food and housing. That's why Better Homes & Gardens has frequently devoted space to helping you pay your just due, and no more. Our past articles on income taxes have brought in many letters inquiring about special problems that weren't covered or that have somehow brought a family into conflict with the Internal Revenue Service.

PLANNING SERIES No. 9

An addition or a new house --which? If everything is right for your family-- neighborhood, churches, schools-- everything except the house, then you'll want to stay where you are. But can you afford to add the needed space?

HANDYMAN HOW-TO

A review on glue-- how to bring off a stick up

Toughen up your TURF

SHOPPING BY MAIL with Better Homes & Gardens

The man next door

As I look with awe at America's unprecedented prosperity and at how some people are receiving it, I realize anew that the greatest calamity a person can face is to have no struggle-- to get everything he wants with negligible effort. Perhaps for every one of us, a long period without "hard times" is no blessing, after all.