4 September 1881 • Elmira, N.Y. (MS: NPV, UCCL 02026)
All right—go ahead & make the contract. It is satisfactory—entirely so. Am only sorry you didn’t do it without referring to me—that is, if there is any danger of further delay & bother over it.
Never mind Thorp. Let Garvie build that kitchen verandah according to his own design, which was a very good one.
We haven’t the slightest desire to gouge Garvie. What I wanted was a limit Ⓐemendation. When a thing grows from $2,500 up to $6,000, one doesn’t know where it is going to stop.
Those hearths must be changed. I have written to N. Y. for specimens of tiles to be sent to us here.
Now get Dr. Hooker’s bill & let me know what it is.
I enclose check for $3000. $2,500. Pay part of Ahern’s bill with it & give the rest to Garvie. I judge we want to keep both men ourselves considerably in debt to both men until they are done & out of the house—don’t you think so?
You have had a troublesome job, but you have come through it well.
1 or 2 lines torn away, leaving behind two letters: ie
Jean Webster McKinney Family Papers, Special Collections, NPV.
MicroPUL, reel 2.
See McKinney Family Papers in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.