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February 4, 1928 WINNETKA TALK 61 Pick Out Hardware and Give the Home an Exterior Charm After a house is planned and built | and completely furnished there are often little details that the harried home owner completely overlooks. Details which, while not necessary to the construction or architectural de- sign, give it an air of distinction that every home builder desires. Hardware is ever so important a feature of a house, but surprisingly few house owners pay any attention to it. They think if a door is on hinges and latches with the proper oiled ease, no further concern is nec- essary. But there are wider oppor- tunities for originality and good taste in household hardware today than most people realize. Any reputable electrical appliance or hardware dealer will inform you where designs mentioned herein may be bought. Forged iron hardware has a quaint- ness and substantiality that insures lasting charm. There are long hinge straps which extend more than half across the door, ending in a heart- shaped design. There is the Etruscan design with curved prongs at the hinge, finishing in a small double curve across the door. The tulip design is particularly at- tractive. The hinge strap finishes in a piece of forged iron shaped like a tulip, with three prong-like petals. For plain severity on a colonial door, the curly lock design is well suited. With each of these designs is a thumb latch, drop-ring handle, door knocker, lock and other accessories of forged iron to correspond and give a pleasing unity. Whether your home is of brick, stone, wood, stucco or other materials, there is forged iron to fit. There is forged ironware for interior doors, French doors, shutters, casement win- dows, cabinets, gates and garage doors. There are iron shutter dogs to hold the shutters back in place, curved chimney rods, foot scrapers, door- knobs, push plates and letter box plates. And then there are old-fashioned forged iron lanterns. One looks like the old swinging lamp that travelers carried to light their paths down dark English highways a century ago. An- other takes its design from the light Paul Revere ordered hung in the Old North church. Remodeled Old Home Gives an Appearance of Brand New Place With the movement toward building up-to-date homes sweeping the coun- try, the home owner who owns a home which is no longer modern, and yet cannot afford to build a new home, is apt to become very discon- tented and envious of his more fortu- nate neighbor. his is quite unnecessary, inasmuch as it is entirely possible, with com- paratively small expenditure, to en- tirely transform both the interior and exterior of a house. Within, parti- tions may be torn down, new floors may be laid, modern equipment may be installed and a score of changes made which will affect the beauty and convenience of the interior. But it is. perhaps, the exterior of the home in which alteration is more obvious. Homes built during the early part of the twentieth century are seldom noted for their beauty of design. They so often are of the prosaic box-like type, or else the ungraceful flat-roof variety. With the wide range of di- verse types which our modern archi- tecture affords, an unattractive home is not only conspicuous, but unneces- sary. Porches, doorways and bay win- dows may be added. Not Hard to Make Garage Appear a Bit Artistic Did you ever consider how your gar- age, whether it is attached to your house--or detached, can be made to take on a certain degree of artistry in its appearance with a little effort on your part? Decorative hardware for instance gives a pleasing look to a homely door. This hardware may be in the form of metal trimming, bolts, nail heads, or hinges. Window boxes along the side win- dows of a garage give a touch of at- tractiveness. If awnings are used on the house they can also appear on the garage. The newer garages are no longer boxlike affairs disfiguring the land- scape. And while one may not be able to have elaborate ones, any more than an elaborate house, they may be pleasing and appealing to the eye. Ii detached from the house, they may be an addition to the landscape rather than a blot upon it. NEW BASIS OF LEASING An interesting method of leasing has been worked out for the twenty stores in the newly completed building at the southeast corner of 75th and Exchange, Chicago, by the 75th-Ex- change Building corporation, owners of the structure. Leases will be made with low minimum rentals, the differ- ence being made up by a percentage of the gross receipts. The percentages will vary according to the type of busi- ness. This method, acording to Maur- ice Frank, agent for the building, makes the owners share with the tenants: the chances of success. LOW FIRE LOSS IN 1926 The lowest per capita fire loss in the last five years was in 1926, accord- ing to the latest annual report of the National Board of Fire Underwriters, which gives statistics as to the value of property destroyed by fire last year in 377 cities In these cities, which in- clude approximately one-half of the nation's total population, the actual reports received by the National Board of Fire Underwriters, covering both insured and uninsured losses, show a property damage of $178,178874, or a per capita loss of $3.35. Real Estate Market Becomes Stabilized A generally stabilized condition in real estate is indicated by a survey of the real estate market for the United States and Canada, which has just been completed by the Natonal Asso- ciation of Real Estate Boards. Of the 310 cities covered by the sur- vey 40 per cent report the market to be somewhat less active than last year, 35 per cent report it at the same level as last year and 25 per cent re- port a greater activity than last year. Selling prices are reported higher in 14 per cent of the cities, the same as those of last year in 57 per cent of the cities and lower in 19 per cent. - One hundred per cent of the cities having a population of 500,000 or more reported prices to be the same as last year. The total number of real estate transfers recorded for the country as a whole, as indicated in forty-one typi- cal cities, has been substantially equal to the number recorded in 1926, ac- cording to the tabulation of official re- ports of the number of transfers and conveyances recorded as made by the national association. While the trend of the monthly in- dex of real tstate market activity com- piled by the association from the offi- cal reports of transfers and convey- ances recorded in the forty-one typical cities has been downward since Feb- ruary, 1927, the total number of trans- fers represented by the index is prac- tically equal to any year on record. Stucco Used in Greece 4 Centuries Before Christ In the history of building, stone is naturally so old as to antedate civiliza- tion itself. But then stucco is not ex- actly youthful. We are told that the art of stucco work had reached its per- fection in Greece more than four cen- turies before Christ. And there are detailed instructions extant which tell how to make stucco, written by the great Roman architect Vitruvius, somewhere around 16 B. C. JOINS REALTY FIRM William M. Richards, until recently president of the Lake State bank, now the Old Dearborn State bank, has become associated with the firm of George S. Ballard & company, realtors, in the First National Bank building and will devote his time to the sale, leasing and financing of business prop- erty. Mr. Richards has been identified with the banking business in Chicago for over 25 years, having been connect- ed for several -years with the Ameri- can Trust & Savings bank, later going to the Chicago Savings Bank & Trust company from which institution he re- signed as cashier in 1919 and organized the Lake State bank. Building and Loan Association of Evanston (Incorporated) Under State Supervision 513 Davis St. Phone Greenleaf 1617 WILSHORE BoND pAES\Y (0) 1g A €T:N C128 BOJiNN on Improved Property at Attractive Rates LY, (0): 4 eT Ne) ol Ole) 1150 Wilmette Ave. Village T heatre Bldg. Ph. Wil. 2181 735 ELM STREET A Most Complete Assortment of BUILDER'S HARDWARE The Standard Make of Tools WINNETKA Builder's Hardware Eckart Hardware Co. PHONES 843-844