As we pass by one of the pockets into which the sliding-doors roll we feel a draft coming out of it, and we question the owner whether the house is cold in winter, and he admits it is worse than we suspect. He informs us that it is especially cold on the second floor in those rooms where the floors project over the porch. We ask him whether he has noticed any drafts coming in through the cracks around the base-boards and trim, and he points to these cracks, showing us bits of cotton which he has plugged into them. We suspect that what is the trouble is the omission of sheathing-boards over the studs between the roof of the porch and the ceiling-joists where this roof intersects with the house wall, and also the failure to fill with cinders the space between the floor-joists of the projecting part of the room which extends over the porch. That this is true the owner admits, for he had noticed it while repairing a few shingles on the roof of the porch. The contractor had saved a little money by this trick, and no one could tell that he had done it by merely looking at the exterior. [Illustration: Where The Cold Air Gets In] This same line of inquiry leads us to ask the owner about the heating-plant, and we find that the house cannot be properly heated. We therefore suspect that the radiation is too small, so we calculate the required size of a radiator for one room, and find that the one actually installed is too small. Yet, as the owner says: “When he bought the house, how was he to know that there was not a large enough heating-plant?” We inquire then whether he has any trouble with the fireplace, which we presume he must use to help out on cold days. He admits he cannot keep it from smoking badly. So we go over to it and run our hand up into the throat to feel around, and find that there is no smoke-chamber, and, what is more, the flue is only about 4 inches by 8 inches, and is not even lined with terra-cotta flue tile. We inform him that he will never have a good fireplace draft until that chimney is rebuilt, and that the size of the flue looks more like the vent for a gas-log than anything else. We then went through the house noting as many defects as we could, which were beginning to make their appearance. For example, we find that all the doors are badly sagging, showing that the blocking has been omitted from the back of the jambs where the butts are screwed on. The putty in the windows is crumbling out, as though it were clay. All the thresholds are of soft wood and are wearing badly. The trim in many places was springing and twisting, due to the use of cheap and poorly seasoned wood and the omission of enough nails. Some of the door-stiles are made of two pieces which have opened up at the joints and left ugly cracks. All the stairs squeak badly, indicating that they had been poorly built. Some of the balusters have worked loose and rattle in their mortises, and the hand-rail shakes when it is grasped.