HOUSING: Finish It Yourself

With only $1,000, borrowed on his car, young (27), hustling Leslie B. Nelson started building houses in Santa Barbara, Calif. after the war. With another loan, of $17,500, he built more than $4,500,000 worth of medium-priced houses, but he wasn’t satisfied. He thought house prices too high. “No business,” he complained, “has progressed slower than building.”

In time, Nelson found a way to speed it up. Last July he began building a new house with three bedrooms and an attached garage that sells for $7,950 (a two-bedroom version costs $7,295), or about $2,500 less than similar-sized houses in the area. House-hungry buyers snapped them up so fast that last week Nelson was making ten a day.

The secret of Nelson’s low price is that he applied the techniques of mass production (i.e., a standard design and precut parts) to his houses plus a liberal use of the new “do it yourself” idea (TIME, June 30 et seq.). His men grade the site and lay a concrete slab foundation, which is left to dry for a week. Then a truck dumps off floor beams, wall sections and other parts of a house. In 27 minutes two men bolt the frames together, throw up the walls and hoist the roof in place. Insulating material, then three coats of stucco are put on the walls, while other crews put in wiring and plumbing; before leaving, the workmen lay bathroom and kitchen tiling and an asphalt driveway. Though there is nothing inside but bare studding, the house is ready for the buyer. It is up to him to finish it off with the kit of materials Nelson provides—everything from precut wallboard to paint brushes and hardware. A man & wife can finish the house in about three weeks. After the liberal quantities of “sweat equity” have been poured in, Nelson claims, the house is worth $12,000.