June 2, 1983

''IT'S changed my life,'' said Mary Emmerling, who waited two years for a rental apartment to become available in the same building as her shop, the American Country Store on Lexington Avenue near 70th Street. ''Not only do I save an hour a day in commuting time, but if I need an extra chair for the apartment, I simply run downstairs and borrow one from the store.'' Few New Yorkers can make such claims, and those who can are among the handful of people still carrying on the tradition of living over the store. For them subway strikes, train delays and traffic jams are no excuse for coming in late; after all, the job is only a flight of stairs away. Such arrangements, however, don't happen overnight. They almost always involve patience, planning and usually a surprise or two along the way. But according to three owners who run such diverse businesses as an antiques and gift shop, a restaurant and an art gallery, the rewards of such a setup for them and their families have far outweighed the initial trials.

Senator Bob Dole, Republican of Kansas and chairman of the Finance Committee, threatened today to bottle up revenue legislation this year if the House-Senate conferees on the Congressional budget resolution called for ''huge tax increases'' and ''little or no spending reduction.'' The conferees will hold an initial meeting next week to try to resolve wide differences on spending and revenue-raising in the budget resolutions passed by a Democratic majority in the House and by a bipartisan, predominantly Democratic majority in the Senate. Senator Dole's threat was a further indication that he would work hard, publicly and behind the scenes, to encourage the Senate conferees to resist a resolution that requires more added revenues for 1984-85 than the Senate approved. Small Increases Urged In fact, both resolutions call for far more revenue than Senator Dole wants to legislate this year, aides have said. The Senator said again today that increases for the fiscal years 1984 and 1985 should be small, coming from measures to strengthen taxpayer compliance and to broaden the revenue base by shrinking deductions.

Beneath northern Alberta lies an oilman's dream: three times more oil than the Middle East has - and not a chance of drilling a dry hole. This is Canada's oil sands, and some companies are inching ahead in an attempt to exploit the resource despite the plunging energy prices and inflation that resulted in the cancellation or postponement of many big oil sands projects. At a time when conventional oil reserves are being steadily drained, the potential of Alberta's oil sands - containing more than 1,000 billion 42-gallon barrels of oil - has barely been scratched. ''This is the future of the oil industry,'' said Randall G. Gossen, production manager here at the oil sands pilot project of Imperial Oil Ltd.

Orders to factories for new manufactured goods rose 2.1 percent in April, the fifth increase in the last six months, the Commerce Department reported today. The report also said inventories rose for the first time since February 1982. Both increases were encouraging signs for economic recovery, economists said. ''If business companies are now easing their inventory reductions and are going to resume building of stocks, that means that they are going to continue to step up production -and employment,'' said Robert Ortner, the department's chief economist.

Senator Bob Dole threatened to bottle up revenue legislation this year if budget conferees call for big tax increases and small spending cuts. A House-Senate group will meet for the first time next week in an effort to resolve wide differences between the two houses' budget resolutions. (Page D1.) New factory orders rose 2.1 percent in April, to a seasonally adjusted $166.1 billion, the fifth increase in the past sixth months, the Commerce Department reported. (D1.)