Where concrete is used for the base, a more rigid walk will result, and in such types it is customary to use mortar to fill the joints. A thin 1:3 grout can be brushed into these joints and the little that is smeared over the surface can be washed off with scrubbing-brush, water, and 5-per-cent muriatic acid. A better method is to pour grout into the joints, wiping the brick clean before the mortar sets. There are a number of different types of stone walks that can be used, depending upon the character of the stone in the neighborhood. Flat flagstone walks are usually rather uninteresting, and many prefer the picturesque effect which is produced by stepping stones. These ought to be placed about 22 inches apart to make walking easy on them. A very interesting and much-used walk is made by setting flat stones of different shapes together, like the pieces of a cut-out puzzle, but leaving a small space between each stone in which grass or moss can be grown. XXII FINANCING THE CONSTRUCTION WORK The problem of financing the small house is a part of the problem of building, and to some extent is a very personal affair, and every prospective owner has his own difficulties and personal solutions. Those who have saved for a number of years enough money to invest in this adventure of home-building are quite simply fixed, and all that they need consider is how large a house they can have for the money saved. A method was shown in an early chapter by which the approximate cost of a house could be determined when the plans were in the rough. This consisted of studying the houses built in the neighborhood where the new home was to be erected, calculating their cubical contents and dividing this into their total cost, so that their cost per cubic foot could be known. By comparing this result with the figures which the local builders had offered, a fair idea could be obtained of how much per cubic foot the new house would run. A few figures were given for the different types of construction, but nothing certain can be predicted from them, for, as was pointed out, the cost is definitely related to the locality and the time. Once, however, having arrived at a reasonably correct cost figure for the cubic foot, the question of how big a house is to be had for the money is quickly determined. Divide this cost per cubic foot into the total sum of money which is to be used for building the house, and the allowable number of cubic feet in the new house will be found. If now the average height of the new house, from the cellar to the average height of the roof, is divided into this allowable cubic contents, the allowable ground area for the plan will be known.