ore apt to be out of repair and for the same reasons.

If door and window frames are so loose that they can be lifted out of
the side walls, the situation is serious. Putty and paint are of no
avail. Rebuilding them is essential. It is extravagant business trying
to heat a house with wind whistling in around doors and windows.

If the fabric of the side walls is of shingle, clapboard, or other
types of wood, is the material sound enough to warrant repainting or
must it be renewed? The object of paint is to close the small cracks
and preserve the wood. An old house that has gone many years without
painting will absorb much more than a new one, but it is surprising
what can be accomplished with two or three coats of paint on siding so
weathered as to seem worthless. Besides, a new exterior robs an old
house of some of its charm, so preserve the old if possible,
architects, carpenters, and contractors to the contrary.

Where walls are of stone or brick, the mortar of the joints has
probably so disintegrated under wind and rain that repointing is
indicated. Also, frosts may have heaved individual stones or
disintegrated bricks so they must be reset. Expect this in places
where down-spouts have leaked for years. If the walls have settled
badly, lintels or sills of doors and window openings may be cracked
and need renewing. Sometimes an old house has exterior walls of
plaster. These are both picturesque and rare. Patch cracks and spots
where it has come loose from the lath. Old plaster has a texture and
patina that modern stucco cannot simulate, so preserve it if possible.

Indoors, there are many things to be observed and appraised but
fireplaces come first. A country home without facilities for open
fires is as uninviting as one without trees and flowers. Expect to
find the fireplaces disused and closed with fireboards or bricks.
Sometimes the mantels have been removed and new flooring laid over the
hearthstones. Some detective work around the logical locations will
tell whether fireplaces have been torn out or just concealed. If
mantels are missing, look for them in the attic or on the rafters of a
shed. More than one fine old mantel has been rescued from such a
hiding place. We know of one fireplace complete with crane and iron
cooking utensils that reposed for fifty years or more behind an
unsuspected opening covered with lath and plaster.

Where original fireplaces have been torn out and chimneys intended
only to s