Small Houses of the Forties

Designed for the 1940s family with a "limited budget but unlimited good taste," this fascinating volume presents 56 floor plans and elevations of lovely small homes that originally cost less than $15,000 to build. Each home, bearing the honorable designation of House-of-the-Month by the era's Monthly Small House Club, Inc., was designed to give prospective homeowners an exceptionally well-planned house that was also a sound investment. From Cape Cods to Colonials, Small Houses of the Forties offers an eden of illustrations of cozy, charming domiciles, complete with color combinations, charts, and diagrams. This complete republication of a now-rare volume is also filled with vintage dollars-and-sense information for the postwar homebuyer, including mortgage guidance, amortization schedules, valuations, and construction costs of the times. A nostalgic flashback to a simpler American dream of white picket fences, this entertaining and valuable reference will delight architecture enthusiasts, plan collectors, restorers, and historians alike.