Some people wonder about two-story houses.

When are they advisable?

If your land is too restricted to get all the space you want on one floor, then the logical thing is to build on more than one floor, but if it isn't necessary, why climb steps all your life? It takes valuable energy, steps take up room, and they cost money, more in proportion than almost any other part of the house.

Of course, some builders say that since the same roof and foundation will serve two stories as well as one, therefore the two-story house is cheaper.

It isn't necessarily so the framing has to be heavier to support the second floor, and the joists have to be larger to span the large rooms on the first floor.

It costs more to work higher up, with scaffolding and all, so there is not much, if any, economy in building two stories if one would serve your purpose better. Although, if you prefer two stories, go ahead and build that way.

The cost is about the same. Ordinarily, housekeeping is simpler and easier in a house all on one level. Great efficiency is usually found in the one-story house.

Basements

What about a basement? In sections where basements are considered a part of every complete house, the thing to do is to keep in step with the locality. In sections where basements are considered entirely unnecessary, the thing to do is to keep in step?but in either case, if you have good reason to be different from your neighbors, why not go ahead and do as you please?

A small basement makes a good air raid shelter, and a shelter from atomic fallout that we hear so much about nowadays. In fact, it might be a good idea to build a partial basement just for this purpose. You could also find other uses for it too, as a recreation room, a den, a boy's hobby room, etc. You will usually find use for any room that you have.

Although the latest fads do not have to be followed, a person should be careful not to make the house look as if it had been built twenty-five years ago.

The new houses are more straightforward, not having so much that is put on just for decoration. The decoration has also taken a different form; instead of fancy gables we have "used" brick, instead of "gingerbread," "sugar frosting."

The days of imitation are also about gone. Time was when wood siding was cut and notched to imitate stone.

(Even Washington's home in Mount Vernon did not escape this subterfuge.) Painters used to use a background color and graining to make pine look like walnut, mahogany, or gum wood. It is now just as inexpensive to use the kind of wood you want as it is to try to make one kind of wood imitate some other kind.

It is good idea to use a mortgage calculator when you purchase land or property to save yourself money over the long term.