Husband of Edna
Published in the Mid York Weekly, August 12, 1965
Walter Klem: "If you Want a Job Done Right…"
By Walt Splain
Hamilton---Any number of do-it-yourselfers could tell you how to put a house together from the ground up but very few home handymen could handle the job.
Walt Klem could. But, then, Walt Klem has been a do-it-yourselfer for the 40 years since he first arrived in Hamilton.
The ruddy-faced housebuilder has been busy leaving a mark on the village exceeded by few if any in the history of Hamilton. He forgets just how many houses he has built, shrugged it off with "Well, it's more than 25, more even than 30, but I've just lost count, I guess."
His [resent projects (others included the first low-cost house in Hamilton during the depression) is creating what amounts to a model village (he dislikes the term "development") on the West Lake Road.
The group of homes along the foot of Johnny Cake Hill that bear the unmistakeable Klem stamp has grown to 10 since 1957 and he is presently working on yet another one set in a picturesque grove of pines.
Unlike the village blacksmith, another do-it-yourselfer and fellow rugged individualist, Walt works in more than one medium. In fact, there is nothing in the housebuilder's trade that he is not proficient in and that he does not include in each house he completes.
This takes in a lot of territory, and spells a lot of hard work. Neither makes the one-man construction crew back water. His work schedule pays little or not attention to the day of the week of the time of day. Sub-zero winter days, he warms his nails in a pail on a stove or adds a little something to the concrete or plaster to keep it from freezing, then plows ahead.
You name it and he can do it. From the poured floor of the foundation (Cossitt does the mixing these days), to putting the cap on the chimney, Klem can and has done it all. Maybe not all anymore ("I wired some of the houses myself," he says, "But I don't particularly care for the work so I hire it done, now.") The same goes for setting tile.
Masonry—the bricklaying and stonecutting—could be called the favorite among his pastimes. Every house carries some touch of the trowel, whether in-brick siding or decorative stonework or a patio or flagstone sidewalk.
The Klem Hallmark is the fireplace. Walt doesn't think any house is complete without a fireplace; he goes even further and usually equips each house with two. "Makes them seem more like a home," he explains. "I never build a house I wouldn't live in and the house I live in has to have a fireplace.
The fact of the matter is that Klem puts so much of himself into a house, from drafting the plans to the final sale, that he bears each one a great deal of affection. Watching him, one gets the impression that nightime actually interferes with his desire to get this thing up and done, that each house is an expression of the natural desire to create.
The basic creation is an accumulative thing for Walt. He eyes a lot, figures what kind of house should be put there and then shakes out a hatful of ideas he has collected in traveling, looking and imagining. When he is ready to sketch out his plans, anything will do for a blueprint, even the back of a paper bag for a starter.
"I know pretty much what people want for a house," he says. "I try to make them attractive to look at and comfortable to live in. You have to keep the price within the reach of the people around here, too, so I try to guess what the buyer will want and to keep it within and to keep it within what he'll want to pay."
He generally builds on speculation, which gives him freedom to put up the house as he thinks it should be (no two of his houses look alike). And generally he sells when the house is about two-thirds complete, allowing the buyer to plan along with him on the final work of the interior.
Now in his sixties, Walt thought of retiring while hammering away on a house a couple of years ago. "I thought maybe it was getting on toward time to take things a little easier," he explained. "More time to hunt and fish, travel, things like that seemed awfully attractive. But then my wife became ill and there were other things that had me mostly sitting around and waiting and thinking and I began to realize that I wasn't cut out to take things easy. I craved to get back to work."
Retirement still is a possibility, but there is this house he has going up in the pine grove out that way and there are plans for another one in the grove and a set of plans for another house nearby and something he saw recently has Walt thinking of another kind of house. And that is the way it goes, and how a community grows.
Written exactly like it was in the local paper with no corrections made to fix errors.
Published in the Mid York Weekly, August 12, 1965
Walter Klem: "If you Want a Job Done Right…"
By Walt Splain
Hamilton---Any number of do-it-yourselfers could tell you how to put a house together from the ground up but very few home handymen could handle the job.
Walt Klem could. But, then, Walt Klem has been a do-it-yourselfer for the 40 years since he first arrived in Hamilton.
The ruddy-faced housebuilder has been busy leaving a mark on the village exceeded by few if any in the history of Hamilton. He forgets just how many houses he has built, shrugged it off with "Well, it's more than 25, more even than 30, but I've just lost count, I guess."
His [resent projects (others included the first low-cost house in Hamilton during the depression) is creating what amounts to a model village (he dislikes the term "development") on the West Lake Road.
The group of homes along the foot of Johnny Cake Hill that bear the unmistakeable Klem stamp has grown to 10 since 1957 and he is presently working on yet another one set in a picturesque grove of pines.
Unlike the village blacksmith, another do-it-yourselfer and fellow rugged individualist, Walt works in more than one medium. In fact, there is nothing in the housebuilder's trade that he is not proficient in and that he does not include in each house he completes.
This takes in a lot of territory, and spells a lot of hard work. Neither makes the one-man construction crew back water. His work schedule pays little or not attention to the day of the week of the time of day. Sub-zero winter days, he warms his nails in a pail on a stove or adds a little something to the concrete or plaster to keep it from freezing, then plows ahead.
You name it and he can do it. From the poured floor of the foundation (Cossitt does the mixing these days), to putting the cap on the chimney, Klem can and has done it all. Maybe not all anymore ("I wired some of the houses myself," he says, "But I don't particularly care for the work so I hire it done, now.") The same goes for setting tile.
Masonry—the bricklaying and stonecutting—could be called the favorite among his pastimes. Every house carries some touch of the trowel, whether in-brick siding or decorative stonework or a patio or flagstone sidewalk.
The Klem Hallmark is the fireplace. Walt doesn't think any house is complete without a fireplace; he goes even further and usually equips each house with two. "Makes them seem more like a home," he explains. "I never build a house I wouldn't live in and the house I live in has to have a fireplace.
The fact of the matter is that Klem puts so much of himself into a house, from drafting the plans to the final sale, that he bears each one a great deal of affection. Watching him, one gets the impression that nightime actually interferes with his desire to get this thing up and done, that each house is an expression of the natural desire to create.
The basic creation is an accumulative thing for Walt. He eyes a lot, figures what kind of house should be put there and then shakes out a hatful of ideas he has collected in traveling, looking and imagining. When he is ready to sketch out his plans, anything will do for a blueprint, even the back of a paper bag for a starter.
"I know pretty much what people want for a house," he says. "I try to make them attractive to look at and comfortable to live in. You have to keep the price within the reach of the people around here, too, so I try to guess what the buyer will want and to keep it within and to keep it within what he'll want to pay."
He generally builds on speculation, which gives him freedom to put up the house as he thinks it should be (no two of his houses look alike). And generally he sells when the house is about two-thirds complete, allowing the buyer to plan along with him on the final work of the interior.
Now in his sixties, Walt thought of retiring while hammering away on a house a couple of years ago. "I thought maybe it was getting on toward time to take things a little easier," he explained. "More time to hunt and fish, travel, things like that seemed awfully attractive. But then my wife became ill and there were other things that had me mostly sitting around and waiting and thinking and I began to realize that I wasn't cut out to take things easy. I craved to get back to work."
Retirement still is a possibility, but there is this house he has going up in the pine grove out that way and there are plans for another one in the grove and a set of plans for another house nearby and something he saw recently has Walt thinking of another kind of house. And that is the way it goes, and how a community grows.
Written exactly like it was in the local paper with no corrections made to fix errors.
Husband of Edna
Published in the Mid York Weekly, August 12, 1965
Walter Klem: "If you Want a Job Done Right…"
By Walt Splain
Hamilton---Any number of do-it-yourselfers could tell you how to put a house together from the ground up but very few home handymen could handle the job.
Walt Klem could. But, then, Walt Klem has been a do-it-yourselfer for the 40 years since he first arrived in Hamilton.
The ruddy-faced housebuilder has been busy leaving a mark on the village exceeded by few if any in the history of Hamilton. He forgets just how many houses he has built, shrugged it off with "Well, it's more than 25, more even than 30, but I've just lost count, I guess."
His [resent projects (others included the first low-cost house in Hamilton during the depression) is creating what amounts to a model village (he dislikes the term "development") on the West Lake Road.
The group of homes along the foot of Johnny Cake Hill that bear the unmistakeable Klem stamp has grown to 10 since 1957 and he is presently working on yet another one set in a picturesque grove of pines.
Unlike the village blacksmith, another do-it-yourselfer and fellow rugged individualist, Walt works in more than one medium. In fact, there is nothing in the housebuilder's trade that he is not proficient in and that he does not include in each house he completes.
This takes in a lot of territory, and spells a lot of hard work. Neither makes the one-man construction crew back water. His work schedule pays little or not attention to the day of the week of the time of day. Sub-zero winter days, he warms his nails in a pail on a stove or adds a little something to the concrete or plaster to keep it from freezing, then plows ahead.
You name it and he can do it. From the poured floor of the foundation (Cossitt does the mixing these days), to putting the cap on the chimney, Klem can and has done it all. Maybe not all anymore ("I wired some of the houses myself," he says, "But I don't particularly care for the work so I hire it done, now.") The same goes for setting tile.
Masonry—the bricklaying and stonecutting—could be called the favorite among his pastimes. Every house carries some touch of the trowel, whether in-brick siding or decorative stonework or a patio or flagstone sidewalk.
The Klem Hallmark is the fireplace. Walt doesn't think any house is complete without a fireplace; he goes even further and usually equips each house with two. "Makes them seem more like a home," he explains. "I never build a house I wouldn't live in and the house I live in has to have a fireplace.
The fact of the matter is that Klem puts so much of himself into a house, from drafting the plans to the final sale, that he bears each one a great deal of affection. Watching him, one gets the impression that nightime actually interferes with his desire to get this thing up and done, that each house is an expression of the natural desire to create.
The basic creation is an accumulative thing for Walt. He eyes a lot, figures what kind of house should be put there and then shakes out a hatful of ideas he has collected in traveling, looking and imagining. When he is ready to sketch out his plans, anything will do for a blueprint, even the back of a paper bag for a starter.
"I know pretty much what people want for a house," he says. "I try to make them attractive to look at and comfortable to live in. You have to keep the price within the reach of the people around here, too, so I try to guess what the buyer will want and to keep it within and to keep it within what he'll want to pay."
He generally builds on speculation, which gives him freedom to put up the house as he thinks it should be (no two of his houses look alike). And generally he sells when the house is about two-thirds complete, allowing the buyer to plan along with him on the final work of the interior.
Now in his sixties, Walt thought of retiring while hammering away on a house a couple of years ago. "I thought maybe it was getting on toward time to take things a little easier," he explained. "More time to hunt and fish, travel, things like that seemed awfully attractive. But then my wife became ill and there were other things that had me mostly sitting around and waiting and thinking and I began to realize that I wasn't cut out to take things easy. I craved to get back to work."
Retirement still is a possibility, but there is this house he has going up in the pine grove out that way and there are plans for another one in the grove and a set of plans for another house nearby and something he saw recently has Walt thinking of another kind of house. And that is the way it goes, and how a community grows.
Written exactly like it was in the local paper with no corrections made to fix errors.
Published in the Mid York Weekly, August 12, 1965
Walter Klem: "If you Want a Job Done Right…"
By Walt Splain
Hamilton---Any number of do-it-yourselfers could tell you how to put a house together from the ground up but very few home handymen could handle the job.
Walt Klem could. But, then, Walt Klem has been a do-it-yourselfer for the 40 years since he first arrived in Hamilton.
The ruddy-faced housebuilder has been busy leaving a mark on the village exceeded by few if any in the history of Hamilton. He forgets just how many houses he has built, shrugged it off with "Well, it's more than 25, more even than 30, but I've just lost count, I guess."
His [resent projects (others included the first low-cost house in Hamilton during the depression) is creating what amounts to a model village (he dislikes the term "development") on the West Lake Road.
The group of homes along the foot of Johnny Cake Hill that bear the unmistakeable Klem stamp has grown to 10 since 1957 and he is presently working on yet another one set in a picturesque grove of pines.
Unlike the village blacksmith, another do-it-yourselfer and fellow rugged individualist, Walt works in more than one medium. In fact, there is nothing in the housebuilder's trade that he is not proficient in and that he does not include in each house he completes.
This takes in a lot of territory, and spells a lot of hard work. Neither makes the one-man construction crew back water. His work schedule pays little or not attention to the day of the week of the time of day. Sub-zero winter days, he warms his nails in a pail on a stove or adds a little something to the concrete or plaster to keep it from freezing, then plows ahead.
You name it and he can do it. From the poured floor of the foundation (Cossitt does the mixing these days), to putting the cap on the chimney, Klem can and has done it all. Maybe not all anymore ("I wired some of the houses myself," he says, "But I don't particularly care for the work so I hire it done, now.") The same goes for setting tile.
Masonry—the bricklaying and stonecutting—could be called the favorite among his pastimes. Every house carries some touch of the trowel, whether in-brick siding or decorative stonework or a patio or flagstone sidewalk.
The Klem Hallmark is the fireplace. Walt doesn't think any house is complete without a fireplace; he goes even further and usually equips each house with two. "Makes them seem more like a home," he explains. "I never build a house I wouldn't live in and the house I live in has to have a fireplace.
The fact of the matter is that Klem puts so much of himself into a house, from drafting the plans to the final sale, that he bears each one a great deal of affection. Watching him, one gets the impression that nightime actually interferes with his desire to get this thing up and done, that each house is an expression of the natural desire to create.
The basic creation is an accumulative thing for Walt. He eyes a lot, figures what kind of house should be put there and then shakes out a hatful of ideas he has collected in traveling, looking and imagining. When he is ready to sketch out his plans, anything will do for a blueprint, even the back of a paper bag for a starter.
"I know pretty much what people want for a house," he says. "I try to make them attractive to look at and comfortable to live in. You have to keep the price within the reach of the people around here, too, so I try to guess what the buyer will want and to keep it within and to keep it within what he'll want to pay."
He generally builds on speculation, which gives him freedom to put up the house as he thinks it should be (no two of his houses look alike). And generally he sells when the house is about two-thirds complete, allowing the buyer to plan along with him on the final work of the interior.
Now in his sixties, Walt thought of retiring while hammering away on a house a couple of years ago. "I thought maybe it was getting on toward time to take things a little easier," he explained. "More time to hunt and fish, travel, things like that seemed awfully attractive. But then my wife became ill and there were other things that had me mostly sitting around and waiting and thinking and I began to realize that I wasn't cut out to take things easy. I craved to get back to work."
Retirement still is a possibility, but there is this house he has going up in the pine grove out that way and there are plans for another one in the grove and a set of plans for another house nearby and something he saw recently has Walt thinking of another kind of house. And that is the way it goes, and how a community grows.
Written exactly like it was in the local paper with no corrections made to fix errors.
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