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YOU CAN LIVE IN AN APARTMENT- DOROTHY DUNCAN This is a reproduction of a book from the McGill University Library collection. Title: You can live in an apartment Author: Duncan, Dorothy Publisher, year: New York ; Toronto : Farrar & Rinehart, c1939 The pages were digitized as they were. The original book may have contained pages with poor print. Marks, notations, and other marginalia present in the original volume may also appear. For wider or heavier books, a slight curvature to the text on the inside of pages may be noticeable. ISBN of reproduction: 978-1-77096-107-4 This reproduction is intended for personal use only, and may not be reproduced, re-published, or re-distributed commercially. For further information on permission regarding the use of this reproduction contact McGill University Library. McGill University Library www.mcgill.ca/library YOU CAN LIVE IN AN APARTMENT LZJ I i i .i ' j i i t~ YOU CAN LIVE IN AN APARTMENT YOU CAN LIVE IN AN APARTMENT YOU (AN LIVE IN AN APARTMENT YOU (AN LIVE IN AN APARTMENT YOU (AN LIVE IN AN APARTMENT YOU (AN LIVE IN AN APARTMENT ' . » ,—i ,—i . i , J r-L- '.• i'i: • ivi' ' ; //DOROTHY DUNCAN r -T-^-r^n—i—r I II i Dacriratiohs hfr Dniglas Milliter | 1 ' FARRAR & RINEHARTlnc. NEW YORK TORONTO COPYRIGHT, 1939, BY DOROTHY DUNCAN MAC LENNAN PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BY J. J. LITTLE AND IVES COMPANY, NEW YORK ALL RIGHTS RESERVED CONTENTS A WORD ASIDE, FIRST vii I. THE HUNTING SEASON . two expo­ sures, with a view 3 II. MOVING DAY .... from here to here 41 III. FUNDAMENTALS OF DECORATION ... is that all there is to it? 60 IV. FURNITURE and stuff 84 V. BUDGET FOR FUN hold your ears 111 VI. ORGANIZED HOUSEWORK . pinning them back so they'll stay 122 VII. THE SERVANT PROBLEM SETTLED ... to somebody's satisfaction 141 VIII. APARTMENT COOKERY . the modern way is through his eyes 159 IX. GRACEFUL ENTERTAINMENT . it's your turn now 176 X. GADGETRY . death to din and dither 194 XI. HOLIDAYS AND CHANGE OF SEASONS . this is where we came in 211 A LAST WORD 231 BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES 235 INDEX 239 A Word Aside, First This began as another how-to-do-it book, but almost from the first it became interwoven with the personal irrelevancies of Michael and me and how we learned to live in apartments with the least unpleasantness and the most fun. So, it has been allowed to stay. During the last six years we have lived in a lot of so-called apartments in Halifax, Hollywood, Oxford, Chicago, Freiburg in Germany, London, Princeton, and Montreal. We choose to live in one building under the same roof with tens or hundreds of other individuals for approximately the same reasons that you do. Sometimes we think it has advantages; always we know we are allowed little choice in the matter. People who try consciously to make a pattern of their living, it occurs to me, are either imitators or adventurers. You and Michael and I are of the second lot. Whatever our particular variation of four rooms and kitchenette may be, we find the occupation of learning how to live gracefully, and as completely as possible, a constant challenge. This seems to me important. When a large section of the population of the vii viii A WORD ASIDE, FIRST world takes to living in apartments, that fact is more important than the rise of dictatorships or the fall of markets. In fact, the reasons why we continue to live in apartments are the causes of world-shaking changes, but I promise not to go into that. Instead, when the noise of our neighbor's radio comes blaring through the wall, it alleviates our annoyance to think that after all he is a social portent. And his taste in programs may improve in time. D.D. Montreal April 1939 YOU CAN LIVE IN AN APARTMENT / THE HUNTING SEASON . two exposures, with a view There is a suspicion of change in the air the morn­ ing you decide it is time to see about a new apart­ ment. The process of moving your pillow and bean pot from one place to another is slightly more expensive than buying a new hat, but the impulse for both actions springs from the same source. While a few rugged men are stalking moose through the autumn woods of Maine and Quebec, millions of housewives, gratifying the same instinct, are climbing apartment stairs with 3 4 You CAN LIVE IN AN APARTMENT stealthy or defiant motions, or being moved up­ ward more scientifically in elevators. Before you do anything else, even to scanning the want ads in the Sunday paper, buy yourself the new hat under which to sally forth to meet the world with freshened morale. No adventure should start without one. With this support you are ready to find the process of looking through other people's homes rather amusing. By the end of the first day the muscles in your legs may give evidence that climbing stairs and getting in and out of cars and elevators isn't your usual occupa­ tion, but neither heart-breaking nor leg-breaking fatigue can offset the spiritual lift obtained by occasional glances at yourself in other people's mirrors. Agents There is an inevitable sense of adven­ ture attached to the inspection of the piece of paper handed out by rental agents in re­ sponse to your request for a listing of available apartments in different sections of the city. Any one of those addresses may prove to be the ideal place you've been looking for during the past how-many years. You have specified that you want three or four rooms; five or six rooms; a twenty-room pent- THE HUNTING SEASON 5 house. Somewhere down the list your mind says stop when the figure in the right-hand column is the amount you can afford to pay, but your eye travels on. There just might be something so much better for the money, it would be worth a sacrifice. Better go back to the price range that fits your contemplated expenditure and save the heels of your stockings as well as consequent dis­ appointment. There are always better things to buy if you have more money, but why waste time and emotion sighing over them, when the same amount of energy could so well be spent in think­ ing of the best possible ways to use what you already have or can afford? Advertisements I don't know the approximate percentage of apartments rented through advertisements or by agents. I have asked several real-estate men and their opinions differ with their localities. Mr. J. P. Roberts of Van­ couver tells me that probably thirty-five percent of apartment space is rented through agents, and the balance through newspaper advertising and direct calls at the various buildings displaying "vacancy" signs. Most of the agents themselves use classified newspaper advertisements for gen­ eral and specific rental advertising. Mr. D. A. Kimbark of the Chicago Real Estate Board says 6 You CAN LIVE IN AN APARTMENT that most apartments in his city are obtained through renting men managing the properties. If you have your own means of transportation, nothing in the manner of a possibility is to be overlooked, and classified advertising is as good reading as can be found elsewhere in the news- sheets. You may find it amusing to go out on your own to ring doorbells and arouse janitors from midday slumber, particularly if you know the city well and are familiar with the peculiarities of its various sections. On the other hand, if you don't have a car for your own use, it is equally pleasant to be taxied by a rental agent, who will mutter things under his breath to the janitors and charge his company for the gas and oil you've helped him use. Conversation sometimes lags on the ride be­ tween addresses, but he's doubtless as agreeable to the silence as you are. Friends These helps will divide themselves into two groups: those who want you to find something near them and will give you good tips on the neighborhood, and those who advise you to stay out of the city and hunt in the suburbs because they are sick of the noise and dirt. The first are invaluable, and to the latter you can only appear stubborn, and determined to have your bright lights and museums and theaters and crowds, in spite of their good intentions. THE HUNTING SEASON 7 Stranger in Town This refers to you, not to pos­ sible outside assistance. For all its nuisance, there are still many ways in which you are at a distinct advantage in looking for an apartment if you are strange to the city. You will not necessarily move during one of the two main renting seasons, and so you will not find yourself elbowing others in the same pursuit, nor being trampled by people equally eager to see how you live and whether they'd like to try your four rooms themselves for the coming year. You will be free of leases and obligations and you will have the opportunity of looking at left­ over apartments out of season. It is then that agents and owners are most eager to press upon you the concession of extra decorating or a couple of weeks rent-free. These are compensations for having to go through one apartment after another that other people have turned down.

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