& FLAHERTY

Unired Stqtes Plywood Lqunches Notionwide l/lerchondising Plon

The most comprehensive merchandising program of its kind ever presented to retail lumber dealers is being launched by the Sales Promotion department of United States Plywood. Called "The Weldwood Vacation-Time Projects Program," it is projected as a nationwide sales event to occupy the entire month of May.

The plans call for United States Plywood to give total advertising and promotion backing to dealers who offer their customers, in a package, vacation-time projects-in which the many Weldwood products would be featuredsucn as:

Addition of a room or a dormer; construction of a garage, patio, breezeway or family room; re-siding a housd or building a boat; any number of outdoor handicraft projects such as lawn furniture. Dealers who participate will be listed in the May 2 issue of Life Magazine in a double-page advertisement, and in Better Homes and Gardens.

The highlight of the promotion, and featured in the ad, will be a nationwide drawing for a $10,000 vacation cottage -erected and ready to live in, on land for which a $3,000 allowance is included. Entries, although without obligation t9 buy, will be made only in the showrooms of participating dealers.

Sqnfq Glqrq Hoo-Hoo Donce Morch | 2

The historic and newly remodeled Lvndon hotel in Los Gatos has been selected is the site of tie Santa Clara Valley Hoo-Hoo club's annual Dinner-Dance, slated for Saturday evening, March 12. A Saint Patrick's theme has been set for the affair, according to chairman Don Fitzgerald, of The Woodworkers in Los Gatos, and starting time will be 7:29 p.m.

tttholesale T I M B E n S aeetng

o Dougfqs Fir in sizes 24' x24" o Plqner copocity for surfocing lo 24" x 24" i==t. Remnqnt fqcilities for resowing lo 34" x 34" we can'r find it we'll moke ft

GTIDEMASTER

Pocket Sliding Door Frames

Model 100A-$7.70

Model 4208-$8.50

Dependoble Service - Low Competitive Prices

Speciolizing in [umber Yord Orders

INTRODUCING -

The LABOR-SAVER Window Unit

Completely Assembled-Reody to Operote

-lnclude+

Window FrqmeWindowsSqsh BqloncesSqsh Lock

Window StopFull Bound Aluminum Screen

Double-Hung Units-Sliding Units (Slidin9 Sqsh Removoble)

BIG Bt|\| $ash & Door Co.

t 959 Consfruction Confrcrcls Set New All.time High

Mqnufqclured in All Sizes

0wner: Mr. Slater

Sharp gains in contracts for housing and for industrial and commercial buildings in 1959 sent construction to a new all-time high for the 13th year in a row according to a year-end review of construction contracts just published in Building Business, monthly bulletin of F. W. Dodge Corporation.

Total construction contracts in the United States (excluding Alaska and Hawaii) in 1959 amounted to $36,269,000,000, a gain of.3/o over 1958.

The review, written by Dodge associate economist Edwin W. Magee, Jr., notes the Residential contracts were at record levels and accounted for the bulk of the increase in total construction contracts. Apartment buildings continued to play a large role, making up 17/o of the dwelling units represented by the Residential contracts.

Releasing details of Dodge construction contract figures not ordinarily made public, the review pointed out that the 1959 gains were wholly accounted for by a shafp upsurge in the private sector of construction. Private-ownership projects rose 16/o above the 1958 level, while public projects were actually d,own l8/o:

Contracts for residential buildings in 1959 totaled $17,150,000,000, up 17/o over the 1958 level. Undoubtedly, this was the largest dollar volume of residential construction contracts ever recorded, and it provided the bulk of the gain in total contracts last year.

Several features are worth noting in the residential sector. First of all, single-family homes led the way, rising 20/o above the year-earlier level. The momentum gathered in late 1958 continued on through most of 1959 but began to taper off somewhat in the final months of last year as housing ran head on into its old adversary-tight money. However, the effects of high-interest rates on homebuilding in 1959 were mitigated to some extent by the fact that a very large number of the 1959 starts were conventionally financed. In addition, due to increases permitted in maximum rates on FHA and VA mortgages, even this sector of the residential market was less affected by tightmoney conditions than it has been in the past. If this trend should continue, the anticipated drop in residential construction this year may well be less severe than most analysts now expect.