The Honeywood Settlement
by H.B. Creswell
© 2007 Academy Chicago Publishers
Published in 2007 by
Academy Chicago Publishers
363 West Erie Street, 4W
Chicago, Illinois 60654
First published in 1930
Printed and bound in the U.S.A.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form
without the express written permission of the publisher.
Library of Congress data on file with publisher.
eBook ISBN: 978-0-89733-662-8
TO
P.H.K-K.
P.B., M.T, E.C.
PREFACE
The Honeywood File described the building of a house, and the present volume carries the history to conclusion ten months later when the last defect has been remedied, the last dispute settled, and the last account paid.
The aspirant to architectural practice—unlike the general reader—is more interested in building houses than in occupying them; but the proof of a pudding is in the eating, and by showing the consequences that flowed from events recorded in the earlier book, The Honeywood Settlement completes the lesson of The Honeywood File.
H.B.C.
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS
The matter before us purports to be a correspondence file from the office of James Spinlove, a young London architect. The file is concerned with the building of a country house for a certain Sir Leslie Brash, and consists of a folder within which are clipped, in order of date, letters received and carbon copies of those dispatched. The colours of the picture presented are necessarily somewhat brighter than life; the characters are also entirely imaginary and the episodes inventions; yet, since the whole of the didactic value of the book and much of its interest depends upon the reader’s acceptance of the picture as true to life, it has been the author’s particular concern to make it so by enhancing verisimilitude. The detachment of the commentator is, however, no such elaborate affectation as appears; for the commentary has been provoked by the reaction of characters to the events, and new events have had birth in those reactions so that the author is, in general, identified with the commentator in not knowing, from one page to the next, what is going to happen.
The file we are about to open is the second and last of those covering the history of the building of Honeywood Grange. In the closing commentary of The Honeywood File it was mentioned that somewhere in the architect’s office there must be a second Honeywood File, for the first file ended when the folder would hold no more papers, and the circumstance that the last letter coincided with the completion of the house was merely an example of Author’s luck, for if the business of building a house ended when the workmen left it, this world would be a happier place than it is for owners, architects, and builders.
There is the vexed question of defects which, in a greater or lesser degree, manifest themselves in all new buildings, and which, so far as they appear within a certain time and are due to improper workmanship or materials, the builder has to make good under the terms of his contract; or, so far as they are due to negligence on the part of the architect, the architect is responsible for under his. Then, the builder’s final Statement of Account has to be dealt with. This is likely to include charges for extras and to raise questions of fact long gone out of memory. When these disputes have been settled it devolves on the architect to reconcile his client to those extra charges that are due to his interferences, and to those others imposed on him by the oversights or afterthoughts of his architect. Lastly, there is the architect’s account for balance of fees due. As this account includes items for expenses and disbursements, and special charges for services—additional to those directly involved by the contract work; and as, besides, these expenses and charges are based on the architect’s status and style of living and the cost to him in time and trouble, and are to be justified only by their reasonableness, it sometimes happens that owner and architect discover, perhaps for the first and only time, that their ideas of reasonableness differ.
It is such matters as these that make the existence of a second file inevitable; but the bulk of that before us is exceptional and is not explained by Spinlove’s habit of writing unnecessary letters which provoke unnecessary replies. Every reader of The Honeywood File will, however, recall that Spinlove is involved in more ways than he is aware of. He has, for instance, given his client light-hearted estimates, some of which have been wildly astray; and, although the contract lays down that no extras shall rank unless the claim be made and accepted at the time the work is done, Spinlove was not particular in enforcing the builder’s observance of this rule. Spinlove is also unconscious that he has fallen into a trap set for him by the persons who supplied the facing bricks, and who have thereby established a claim for extra payment.
Spinlove warned his client not to give orders direct to the builder’s people, and laid stress on the dangers of the extras that would attend any interferences with the work; but Brash’s attention to this excellent advice wandered, and when her Leslie was gunning in Scotland Lady Brash began pulling down work that afterwards had to be restored—one of the least economical ways of building known to the trade.
Trouble is also promised by Brash’s insistence on the interior of the house being decorated with a new, untried, patent paint called Riddoppo, against his architect’s advice and in spite of the builder’s objections. Riddoppo is advertised in tube lifts as a New Novelty Super-Paint, fire and acid resisting, proof against assaults of boiling water and super-heated steam, and capable of receiving a high polish; but these rare merits have not prevented it from showing such a marked tendency to “creep” or flow downwards, that Grigblay, in a private letter to Spinlove—in which his incorrigible, ironic humour veils a natural annoyance—describes “Riddoppo Super” as getting ready to crawl out of the front door and off home.
Sir Leslie Brash, his wife Maude, and his daughter Phyllis—who prefers to be known as “Pud”—occupied Honeywood Grange on 10th February 1926. The house backs upon a spinney through which the entrance drive passes to the adjoining highway, and looks out over a terrace upon a fine prospect to the south, east, and west, marred only by a pump-house chimney two miles away which reacts unfavourably on the nerve-centres that serve Lady Brash for brains. It is a brick gabled house, with leaded lights in iron casements set in solid oak frames; and the design has affinity to Tudor architecture. The oak floors and staircases and the oak panelling and open brick hearths and fireplace surrounds to the reception rooms, are in sympathy with the same tradition. Brash, however, allowed a friend, who was a director of the paint company, to persuade him to paint each bedroom out in a different colour, thus turning the upper part of the house, as Spinlove complained, into a colour-cure asylum for lunatics.
Sir Leslie Brash, the building owner, is a man in advanced middle-age. He is an accountant and financial expert of some importance whose native generosity of heart is veiled by pomposity and irascibility. His architect, James Spinlove, is about thirty: he is well qualified and is painstaking and conscientious, but temperamental; and he lacks experience of life and of affairs, so that he is apt to turn for guidance when in difficulties to the builder, John Grigblay. Grigblay is a provincial builder of good standing and repute, and high integrity.
The last sheet in the first file was a copy of a letter of Spinlove’s acknowledging a warm message of appreciation and thanks from Brash, who had just gone to live in the house. This letter was dated 14th February 1926, and when we open the second folder we find the following:
SIGNS OF DAMP
JAMES SPINLOVE, A.R.I.B.A., TO JOHN GRIGBLAY, BUILDER
Dear Sir, 23.2.26.
Yours faithfully,
It is a pity Spinlove—like the rest of us—does not get his desserts, or he would receive by return a postcard bearing the words “Say Please,” and obtain great benefit from the hint. He is on the best of terms with Grigblay who has taken great trouble to make the house a success and whose friendly help and advice he has acknowledged on several occasions and been indebted to on many more, so that his gracelessness is merely a habit with Spinlove in addressing those under his direction. It is a bad habit, and one that has already got him into difficulties he might otherwise have avoided.
SIR LESLIE BRASH TO SPINLOVE
Dear Mr. Spinlove, 28.2.26.
I very much regret to have to intimate that my anticipations anent the windows at Honeywood appear to be now eventuating. You will recall that I previously communicated to you, on behalf of Lady Brash and myself, our strong preference for big sheets of thick glass in place of little thin sheets all jointed together with narrow strips; but you persuaded us to adhere to the present device. The consequent results are precisely what I anticipated. The rain percolates freely through the glass, which is very thin, cheap glass; and also, I apprehend, through the joints where it is connected by the little strips which are so weak that iron bars have in some cases been found necessary to fortify their strength. Every morning the maids have to remove the accumulated wet that collects on the new oak window-boards, which are exhibiting stains in consequence, and the water even runs over the edge on to our new carpets! The situation of Honeywood Grange is excessively exposed to the weather, and it is clearly obvious that large continuous sheets of thick glass is the appropriate desideratum, as—if you will permit me to remind you—I previously prognosticated.
We continue to be delighted with the house and to appreciate the anticipatory forethought of its architect. We notice no sips of damp other than that above intimated except in the boxroom, the outer wall of which was lately found to be streaming with water; and the domestic staff complain of wet marks near the ceiling over the fireplaces of their domain on the uppermost story.
I desire that you will intimate to Mr. Grigblay that these matters require immediate attention. There should be no difficulty in cutting the glass to appropriate sizes and effecting substitution of one pane at a time so as to avoid unnecessarily exposing us to the weather.
Yours sincerely,
Brash certainly takes these disasters in an accommodating spirit. He is evidently well satisfied with the house.
SPINLOVE TO BRASH
Dear Sir Leslie Brash, 1.3.26.
It is not possible, I assure you, for rain to beat through the glass quarries, which are not, as you suppose, unduly thin. Iron saddle-bars are essential to leaded lights. Large sheets are made thick for purposes of strength only. It is certainly possible for heavy driving rain to find its way in through the joints with the leadings, but this cannot be the case with your windows. Messrs. Watkins, who did the work, are most reliable people; and it happens that, knowing the house was exposed on the South and West, I spoke to their man on this particular point and found that he was already jointing the quarries to the cames, or leads, with a mastic stopping—a precaution not in ordinary found necessary.
I have no doubt whatever that what you describe is merely condensation. In a quite new house the moisture in the walls, due to the large amount of water used in bricklaying, is continually being evaporated, and the warm air becomes charged with steam which condenses on the cold surface of the glass. If the windows are left a little open the trouble will diminish, and it will entirely disappear for good and all with the summer.
The wet surface of the boxroom. wall is due to the same cause. This is a solid wall, and the plaster was finished with an ordinary steel-faced float and so left. The window and door should be kept open for the next few weeks.
With kind regards,
Yours sincerely,
P.S.—You will find, that wet will collect on the windows irrespective of rain, and on the boxroom wall only when mild, humid weather immediately follows cold.
Spinlove is evidently informed by experience or he could scarcely write with the assurance he exhibits—which, however, does not extend to explaining the cause of the damp in chimney-breasts. It will be noticed he says nothing of this. The reasons he gives, and the advice he offers, are sound- but we may suppose that Brash has raised a great shout over a very small matter, for the conditions at Honeywood Grange are such as least favour condensation. The brickwork was built during the summer months and the outer walls are formed of a 41-in. inner and a 9-in. outer wall, with a 2-in. space between, so that evaporation must be relatively small. In houses that specially favour condensation such as those built in the winter and stuccoed or rough-cast on the outside as well as plastered within, so that water is bottled up in the walls—the evaporation induced by the warmth of the occupied house is so considerable as to produce most disquieting conditions of damp. Water collects in puddles on window-boards and runs down walls to form pools on the floor below, and under such conditions of weather as that described in Spinlove’s postscript, wallpapers covering outside walls may become soaked with water. Brash’s boxroom is a mild instance of this phenomenon; and when Spinlove speaks of “steam,” and mentions that this particular wall is built solid and its plastered face left as finished with a steel float, he gives the explanation of it, though Brash may not know what he is talking about for he probably recognizes steam only as the vapour from boiling water (which is not stewn), and has no idea that steam is invisible, or that atmospheric air is charged with steam which comes into evidence as vapour, or “condensation,” only when pressure is reduced or temperature lowered.
The inner 4 1/2-in. lining of a hollow wall speedily dries out and acquires a temperature approximating to that of the room, so that condensation cannot take place upon it. A solid brick wall, on the other hand, tends to retain its moisture and is therefore a better conductor of heat than a dry one, and, as there is no hollow space providing an insulating blanket of air, the warmth of the room is dispersed into and through the wall which, in consequence, remains cold and invites condensation. If this boxroom wall had been papered—and in the degree that the paper was thick and porous—condensation would have been discouraged and for the reason that explains Spinlove’s reference to a steel float. A steel float which gives a compact, smooth, polished finish to plaster, promotes condensation by the abrupt transition of temperature presented at its surface; but a float faced with felt leaves an open grain behind it so that the air invades the interstices of the plaster surface, there is a gradual transition from the temperature of the room to the temperature of the wall, and condensation will not then take place wider any conditions likely to arise in a house. Incidentally, distemper lies well on a felt-floated wall: it looks “solid,” as a house painter would say—a result that can be otherwise got only by papering before applying distemper. In using the ordinary method of finishing with a steel float in the boxroom and other back quarters, Spinlove was observing a right principle of economy.
GRIGBLAY TO SPINLOVE
Dear Sir, 2.3.26.
As proposed to you by Mr. Grigblay, we held off with metalling the entrance drive until the owner had got his furniture in, and our foreman tells us that the heavy lorries have done a lot of damage to the bottoming. Mr. Grigblay looked in yesterday and thinks you ought to see what has been done, as we must make a claim for restoring and Mr. Grigblay thinks the best thing will be to put a 5-ton roller over the 9-in. pitching and then level up with 4-in. chalk rubble before laying the 3 ins. of metalling, as the present bottoming is rather light.
Bloggs will be on the site till middle of next week finishing the paths, etc., and clearing up. We have an expert ganger who will look after the road.
Bloggs says there are various little jobs her Ladyship wants done in the house, and we are attending to them. We propose to put these in a separate
account.
Yours faithfully,
Heavy motor lorries are a great tax on private roads, which require better foundations than were formerly necessary. Spinlove is indebted to Grigblay for having warned him to postpone the finishing of the road. it would otherwise have been badly broken up. The additional layer of rubble was in any case desirable.
It will be noticed that Grigblay says nothing of Spinlove’s demand for the Statement of Account. In point of fact, the reason Spinlove wants the account at once is a good reason why Grigblay should wish to hold it back. However exact Spinlove’s methods may be—and we have no evidence that they are particularly exact—they will fall far short of the orderly, detailed records which are a necessary part of the daily routine of a builders’ office, so that Spinlove will have to depend in great part on his memory in determining that certain charges are justified and in fortifying himself to disallow others. Thus, if a builder delays rendering his account, the architect is at a disadvantage in fulfilling his duties as arbiter of what is just and unjust, and is more or less at the builder’s mercy. There is also a psychological reason favouring delay in making claims, of which everyone is conscious and which seems to depend upon repugnance to reopening old disputes or returning to forgotten battlefields. When an owner is in bland enjoyment of his accomplished ambition, and his architect immersed in fresh activities (and anxieties), neither has much appetite for renewal of controversy. In addition to this, a builder is obviously in a bad position if he renders his account before he knows what may be required of him in the matter of making good defects; for if he is to be met by exacting and crotchety demands he will be inclined to reimburse himself by claims for doubtful extras which he otherwise might prefer not to raise, or if, by some misfortune, he is involved in a demand for costly restitutions that become the cause of an action for damages, he will wish, as an offset to the claim against him, to be free to inflate his account to the full limits that plausibility and legal ingenuity can effect. Thus there are good reasons why a builder should delay sending in his account till the time within which he is under contract to make good defects—usually nine months—has expired, or is on the point of expiring; and this no doubt explains why protracted delay in rendering the final statement of account is common. It must be remembered, however, that a builder does not make out his statement of account until he has brought up to date his prime cost account which shows what the actual value of material and labour is; and as some invoices reach him only months after the materials have been delivered, an early rendering of the Statement of Account would dislocate his organization.
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