The Project Gutenberg eBook, Convenient Houses, by Louis Henry Gibson

CONVENIENT HOUSES
WITH
Fifty Plans for the Housekeeper

ARCHITECT AND HOUSEWIFE—A JOURNEY THROUGH THE HOUSE—FIFTY CONVENIENT HOUSE PLANS—PRACTICAL HOUSE BUILDING FOR THE OWNER—BUSINESS POINTS IN BUILDING—HOW TO PAY FOR A HOME

BY
LOUIS H. GIBSON
ARCHITECT

NEW YORK:
THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO.

Copyright, 1889,
By Louis H. Gibson.

C. J. PETERS & SON,
Typographers and Electrotypers,
145 High Street, Boston.

PREFACE.

When the reader is familiar with the writer’s general purposes, it is easier to understand the details of his work. This book is intended to deal with houses in a housekeeping spirit. In doing this, the architect has in mind convenience, stability, and that ideal of housekeepers, beauty of surroundings.

In carrying out this idea, the relation of architecture to good and economical housekeeping is first considered. Following this division is “A Journey through the House.” It begins at the porch, moves through the different rooms, and stops to consider the various details. This brings about not only a consideration of the general arrangement of a house, but such details as kitchens and pantries, plumbing, laundry, and heating.

These first two sections of the book—“The Architect and the Housewife,” and “A Journey through the House”—are, in a measure, educational. After this, and in keeping with the general principles that have been set forth, plans of fifty convenient houses are illustrated and described. For the most part, they are houses that have been built.

The next section is devoted to practical house-building. It is constructed by taking a complete specification for everything which may concern a dwelling-house, and ridding it, as far as possible, of all technicalities; thus putting in form all practical house-building questions for the benefit of the owner.

Following this is the consideration of business points in building, which sets forth methods of letting contracts with the view of securing the best results without waste of money.

The closing section is devoted to the getting of a home,—how to arrange the monthly-payment schemes, building-association plans, and other methods for getting a house on easy instalments.

LOUIS H. GIBSON, Architect.

Indianapolis, Ind., September, 1889.

CONTENTS.

The Housekeeper and the Architect.—Floor-plans as related to Good Housekeeping.—Labor-saving Devices.—Economy and Good Construction.—Compact Houses not necessarily crowded.—Wood-work that is readily cleaned

[11-15]

Housekeeping Operations.—The Work of the Housekeeper.—The Average Housework of a Week.—The Architect’s Lesson therefrom

[16-20]

Modern Conveniences.—A Little History.—Plans that make Extra Work.—Modern Conveniences enumerated

[21-25]

Modern Architects and the Housekeeper.—Misplaced Houses.—Old Colonial Poverty in Modern Colonial Houses.—Affectation in Design.—Natural Development of American Architecture.—American Architecture and American Homes

[26-28]

Journey through the House.—Porch.—Vestibule.—Hall.—Long Halls and Square Halls.—The Hall that is a Room.—Reception-hall.—Parlor.—Sitting-room.—Dining-room

[31-38]

Kitchens.—The Kitchen a Workshop.—Work to be done in a Kitchen.—A Plan.—Fittings.—Dish-washing Conveniences.—Sink and Tables.—China-closet.—Pantry.—Combination Pantry.—Pantry Fittings.—Work in a Pantry.—A Dough-board.—Flour-bin.—Pantry Stores.—Cupboard.—Refrigerator Arrangements.—Pantry Utensils.—A Dry-box.—Soap-box.—Ventilation of Kitchen.—General Principles of Kitchen Planning

[39-50]

Cellar.—Fuel Departments.—Furnace Conveniences.—Coal-bins.—Cement Floors.—Light in the Cellar.—A Cellar-closet.—Outside Cellar-door

[51-53]

A Low-cost Laundry.—Blue Monday.—Basement Laundry.—Low-cost Conveniences.—Inexpensive Laundry Fittings.—Hot and Cold Water Arrangements.—A Labor-saving Laundry.—A Place to do Fruit-canning

[54-58]

The Second Floor.—Stairways.—The Combination Stairway.—Ideal Number of Bedrooms.—Large Closets and Plenty of Them.—A Linen Closet.—Placing of Gas-fixtures.—Servant’s Room.—Bath-room.—An Attic.—Attic Closets.—Attic Rooms

[59-63]

Plumbing.—Is Plumbing entirely Safe?—Completeness in Plumbing Apparatus.—Labor-saving Plumbing Apparatus.—Sewer Connections.—Soil Pipe.—A Trap.—Accidents to Traps.—Frequent use of Plumbing Apparatus Desirable for Safety.—Water-closets.—Simplicity in Plumbing.—Drain Connections.—To keep Plumbing Apparatus from Freezing.—Cistern Water Supply.—Grease Sink.—Flushing of Drain.—Bath-tub

[64-74]

Heat and Ventilation.—Common Heating Arrangements.—Present Methods generally Unsatisfactory.—Ideal Conditions.—Proper Amount of Moisture rarely attained.—A Furnace defined.—Methods of Reaching Best Results.—Supply of Proper Amount of Moisture.—Removal of Foul Air.—Supplying Fresh Air with Proper Moisture from Stoves.—Steam and Hot-water Heating.—Direct and Indirect Radiation.—Low-cost Heating Apparatus

[75-82]

Heating Devices as we find them.—Furnace Estimates.—Combination Hot Air and Hot Water.—Dish-warming Arrangements.—How to get a Good Heating Apparatus

[83-85]

The House and its Beauty.—Artistic Surroundings.—Beauty more a Matter of Intelligence than Money.—Vestibule Decorations.—Beauty in the Reception-hall.—Mantels and Grates.—Fret-work and Portières.—Spindle Work.—Simple Forms of Good Decoration.—Wood-carving.—Door and Window Casings.—A Conservatory.—Stained Glass.—A Cabinet on the Mantel.—Tinted Plastering.—Frescoing.—Safety in the Selection of Colors.—An Attractive Sitting-room.—The Parlor.—A Reception-room.—Parlor History.—The Ideal Parlor.—The Library.—A Place of Quiet and Rest.—Library Furnishings.—The Dining-room.—Social Relations of the Dining-room.—Dining-room Decorations.—Conservatory and Dining-room.—A Wood Ceiling.—Beauty in Bedrooms.—Quiet
and Light

[86-100]

External and Internal Design.—An Old Topic before the People.—The Architectural Student’s Dream.—A Beautiful Home the Housekeeper’s Ambition.—It costs no more to have a House Beautiful than Ugly.—Architectural Education.—Charles Eastlake’s Book.—Vulgar Architectural Revivals.—The Growth of the Artistic Idea.—Beauty a Matter of Refinement

[101-105]

Evolution of a House-plan.—Respectable Dimensions for a Moderate Price.—Six Plans.—Costs from $1,500 to $2,600

[109-117]

A Small Pocket-book and a Large Idea.—Ambition, Dollars, and a Good House.—The Growth of the Housekeeper’s Ideas.—Points about the House.—$2,900

[118-125]

“We know what we want.”—A Convenient Plan.—Meeting the Wants of People who build

[126-130]

Two Good Rooms in Front.—The Combination Pantry.—Too much Cellar a Burden.—$2,500

[131-134]

Sitting-room and Parlor in Front.—A Connecting Vestibule.—A Central Combination Stairway.—Good Rooms in the Attic

[135-138]

A Compact Plan.—An Isolated Reception-room.—Combination Stairway.—Description of the Floor-plan.—Cellar Arrangement.—Dining-room and Conservatory.—Another Plan

[139-144]

What can be done for $1,600?—The Closet in the Hall.—A Small, Convenient Kitchen.—Closets in the Bedrooms

[145-151]

Outgrowths of One Idea.—Everything counts as a Room.—One Chimney.—Conveniences of a Condensed House.—Cost from $1,600 to $2,800

[152-156]

One-story Plans.—Description of Floor-plans.—Bath-room next to Kitchen Flue.—Kitchen, Porch, and Pantry.—The Exterior.—Enlargements on this Plan.—Other One-story Houses

[157-163]

Side-hall Plans.—Plans with Bedroom on First Floor

[164-170]

Miscellaneous Collection.—Short Descriptions of Eleven House-plans.—Varying Costs.—Square Plans.—One-chimney Plans.—Rear and Side Hall

[171-181]

Eight Plans.—Each suited to Family Requirements.—Double Houses.—An Elaborate Floor-plan.—A Shingle House.—A Brick House

[182-193]

Practical Points.—Water.—Location of House on Lot.—Draining the Cellar.—Mason Work.—Foundations.—Walks.—Piers.—Flues.—Cisterns.—Damp Course

[197-200]

Brick Foundations.—Laying Brick.—Colored Mortars.—Colored Bricks.—Brick Veneering.—Hot-air Flues.—Details of Brick Construction.—Chimneys and Flues.—Hollow Walls.—Cellar.—Ash-pits.—Grates

[201-206]

Stone Masonry.—Cut Stone.—Terra Cotta.—Privy Vaults.—Cisterns.—Filters for Cisterns.—Brick Pavements.—Cement Pavements

[207-212]

Carpenter-work.—Framing.—Size of Timbers.—Height of Stories.—Joist.—Stud Walls.—Outside Sheathing.—Building-paper.—Roofs.—Outside Finish.—Outside Shingle Walls.—Outside Casings.—Windows with Box Frames.—Hinged or Pivoted Windows.—Outside Shutters.—Porches.—Lattice Porches

[213-221]

Inside Wood-work.—Floors.—Soft and Hard Wood Floors.—Tabulated Statement of Inside Finish.—Different Kinds of Wood.—Doors and Frames.—Fly Screens.—Inside Casings.—Wainscoting.—Inside Shutters.—Wood-work for Plumbing.—Kitchen Sink and Fittings.—Kitchen Tables.—Cellar-sink Fittings.—Wood-work for Bath-tub.—Water-closets.—Wash-stands.—Tank.—Picture Moulding.—Closet Fittings.—Broom-Rack.—Cedar-closet.—Dry-box.—Clock Shelf.—China-room Fittings.—Pantry Fittings.—Stairways

[222-235]

Plastering.—Gray Finish.—White Hard Finish.—Back Plastering.—Gas-piping.—Tin Work.—Gutters.—Valleys.—Down Spouts.—Galvanized Iron-work.—Hot-air Pipes.—Thimbles.—Painting.—Staining.—Oil Finishing.—Interior Staining.—Floor Finish.—Glazing.—Plate-glass.—Bevelled Glass.—Cathedral Glass.—Hardware

[236-246]

Practical Plumbing.—Wood-work for Plumber.—Excavating for Plumber.—Water Distribution.—Outside Fixtures.—Hydrants.—Street-washers.—Soft-water Supply.—Hot-Water Supply.—Soil Pipe.—Inside Fixtures.—Kitchen Sink.—Cellar Sink

[247-254]

Plumbing Work continued.—Bath-tubs.—Bath-sprinklers.—Foot-tubs.—Safes.—Water-closets.—Wash-stands.—Laundry Fittings.—Set Tubs.—Outside Drains.—Grease Sinks.—Nickel Fittings

[255-263]

Cost of a House.—Schedules of Costs.—What goes into a House.—Schedule “B.”—Cost Details

[264-269]

Varying Building Values.—Cost of Appurtenances.—Prices of Labor and Material on which Estimates are based.

[270-274]

Low-cost Houses.—Methods of making Contracts.—Architects’ Estimates.—Building by the Day.—The Safest Plan.—Guarding against Liens

[277-287]

Monthly Payments.—Calculations on a Long-time Plan.—Purchase on a Rental Basis.—How it may be worked out

[291-294]

Building Associations.—Why Dividends are Large and Interest Low.—Building Associations and Savings Banks.—Association Securities.—Building-association Methods.—Different Plans.—Borrowing from a Building Association.—A Building-association Report

[295-311]

Purchase of a Lot.—The Best the Cheapest.—A Good Lot as a Basis of Security.—The Basis of Value is the Rental

[312-316]

THE ARCHITECT AND THE HOUSEWIFE.

CONVENIENT HOUSES.

CHAPTER I.

THE HOUSEKEEPER AND THE ARCHITECT.—FLOOR-PLANS AS RELATED TO GOOD HOUSEKEEPING.—LABOR-SAVING DEVICES.—ECONOMY AND GOOD CONSTRUCTION.—COMPACT HOUSES NOT NECESSARILY CROWDED.—WOOD-WORK THAT IS READILY CLEANED.

There is a definite relation between the work of the housekeeper and that of the architect. This is the text of this book. It is a part of the business of the architect to do what he can to make housekeeping easy. He can do a great deal. He should understand the principles and practice of good housekeeping. This knowledge is something which cannot be derived from the architectural schools or offices; it must come from a home. The public press of the country has had a great deal to say about the artistic qualities of domestic architecture, a great deal to say about house decoration, and, altogether, has furnished much valuable matter. Little, however, has been said as to the relation of architecture to good housekeeping. The artistic element should not be neglected. There must also be considered the question of convenient arrangement, economy and ease, for the housekeeper.

Washing dishes is disagreeable work, but the architect can do his part toward making it easier. If we take a conglomerate mass of china, knives, forks, and spoons, pots, pans, and kettles, and bring them together on one small kitchen table, which has a dish-pan on one end and a wooden water-bucket at the back, with a scarcity of everything to facilitate the progress of the work, we have a condition quite different from that wherein there is a roomy sink with a table on each side of it, and plenty of hot and cold water above. An architect may plan a kitchen so that all of these conveniences are possible. He may plan it so they are impossible.

The floor-plan of a house has a definite relation to house keeping requirements, which is not fully appreciated. The difference between a good floor-plan and a poor one may make the difference of three or four tons of coal in the heating of a house during the winter. It may influence the keeping of a servant, the wages to be paid, or may control the necessity for one or more than one. It makes more difference to a man who lives in a house that costs two thousand dollars or three thousand dollars, as to whether he burns seven or ten tons of coal in warming it, than it does to the man who lives in a ten-thousand-dollar or twelve-thousand-dollar house as to whether he burns fourteen or twenty tons. The cost of fuel is of more importance to a man of moderate means than to one of wealth. Then in the matter of service: it is difficult to keep a good servant in a bad kitchen, or in a badly planned house where there is a vast amount of sweeping and other work to be done every day. Those who plan factories and mills arrange them with reference to the saving of labor. The idea in saving labor is to save money.

One can build a better house for a given sum of money at this time than ever before. The real reason for this is to be found outside the fact that material and labor are cheaper now than they have been in the past. It is because of the thought that is put into the planning and arranging of dwellings. It is the thought that saves the money. It adds external and internal attractiveness, convenience, labor-saving devices, and arrangements. Thought helps to make housekeeping easier.

Economical housekeeping can be most readily carried on in a compact house. To say that a house is compact does not necessarily imply that it is crowded, or that any of the conditions of comfort are neglected. If we avoid waste space, such as is frequently assigned to large halls and passages, we merely take away something that is not needed.

It frequently happens that a man and his wife go through life with the hope of building a better house "some day." They are economical; they live carefully; they live in a small house; they are crowded. At last, by dint of hard work and careful management, enough money is accumulated to build the new home. This is the great event which has been thought about for so many years.

The idea in building this house is invariably to get something as different from the old house as possible. It was square; the new building must be irregular. It had no front hall; the new house must have a large one. There were no grates in any of the rooms; in the new house there must be one in each. In the old building the rooms were very small; in the new house they must be very large. There was no porch before; now there must be one running across the front and along one side of the house. Altogether, the idea of the old house and that of the new are in direct opposition to each other. In one instance they were crowded; in the other they have plenty of room. There can be no doubt about the abundance of room.

The building is finished; they move into it. Almost the first person to leave it is the servant whom they had in the old house. She sees the amount of work which she will have to do. It was easy enough to sweep the old house, with its small, compact plan. Housekeeping was relatively a small matter; but with the habits of economy, which rendered the new home possible, they will not employ additional help. The work which is left over by the servant falls to the mistress. Strange as it may appear under such circumstances, it takes the mistress a long time to find the cause of the trouble. It is the house. It was planned with an entire disregard for the work which was to be done. It had not been thought of. The idea was merely to get something which was different from the disagreeable features of the old home. They thought that everything would be easier and pleasanter and more agreeable in every way. The only trouble with the old home was that they were too much crowded. In the new they are not, but have an impossible amount of work to do every day. The difference between what they wish to do and what is done, is represented by fretfulness in addition to the natural weariness at the end of the day.

What has this to do with architecture and economical house-building? Simply this. The house which is economically planned is economical as to money, carpets, sweeping, and strength. The architect may do a great deal for housekeepers by keeping this thought in mind.

To recur to the idea of economical house-building in a direct sense, it may be borne in mind that economy and good construction go hand in hand; that none of the conditions of permanency are sacrificed for the sake of cheapness. Of two houses which cost the same, one may be far more convenient and roomy by an avoidance of waste space and unnecessary material. Evidently one flue-stack will cost less than four. Therefore, if a house can be constructed which has only one flue-stack, it will cost less than one which has four; but the demands of the housekeeper, and those who live in the house, are that the one stack afford the conveniences of four. People do not like compromises in house-building, especially when they are building a home. The compromises come easier when one is planning property for rental. Evidently a house in which one-fifth of the floor space is given up to halls is more expensive than one which contains a smaller proportion of such space. According as one is able to diminish the amount of passage room, and yet meet all of the conditions of good and economical house-keeping, he can reduce the cost of the house as to its building, its furnishing, and the amount of labor required in caring for it. Thus economy in construction, and convenience and ease in general housekeeping movements, go hand in hand. Parallel illustrations might be carried forward, so as to include each detail of the house.

The architect may do a great deal for the housekeeper by making his mouldings and interior wood-work so that they will not catch dust, and can be readily cleaned. Some of our friends, who have studied the artistic qualities of house-building to the exclusion of all other considerations, will say that a regard for housekeeping requirements, in the matter of interior decorations and construction, is placing too great a limit upon their work. They will say that beauty and general artistic qualities are not always consonant with the means which will make easy housekeeping,—that they are limited by such considerations. This need not be so; it is simply a question of ingenuity and thoughtfulness. One may be careless of utility, and make very beautiful things. Another may be thoughtful and careful as to housekeeping requirements, and design something quite as beautiful and attractive as the former.

In the above statements will be found the guiding principles which affect all of the work of this book.

CHAPTER II.

HOUSEKEEPING OPERATIONS.—THE WORK OF THE HOUSEKEEPER.—THE AVERAGE HOUSEWORK OF A WEEK.—THE ARCHITECT’S LESSON THEREFROM.

With the architect a house has been too often considered as something to be looked at. No one is disposed to criticise an architect for making houses pretty and attractive. It is true, however, that many houses are nothing more than pretty; they are not convenient. They are not built with a regard to the requirements of housekeeping. A lady once said to the writer, that an architect would never live up to his opportunities until he had associated himself with a housekeeper, who would be strong enough, in her control over him, to see that the housekeeping conditions and conveniences were kept constantly in mind.

In order fully to reach the housekeeping idea, it will be convenient to consider in detail what is meant by housekeeping. Primarily, a house is a place in which to eat and sleep. The present requirements of comfort and luxury suggest that all should not eat and sleep in the same room. Originally this was the case. The primitive man needed only a hut or a cave, or the protection of a rude shed. Later on, he was satisfied with a hut with one or two rooms. If the weather was cold, the occupants would huddle around the fire, and eat and sleep without regard to other surroundings. A bath in cold weather was unnecessary. During the summer this was regarded more as a matter of recreation than of necessity. A neighboring stream served the purpose of more modern arrangements. Housekeeping operations under such conditions were light indeed.

There are many homes of this kind in America to-day. If we take the case of our Indians, we find that the squaws have time for much else than the absolute duties of camp-life and the care of children. There is much other labor which falls to their lot, house-work being regarded, as it is, insignificant. This is one extreme. There are various gradations which come with the instincts of a higher civilization. Education, and other conditions which go with it, increase housekeeping requirements, and thus far have not furnished to the majority compensating conditions in labor-saving devices. At the present time, the natural and affected requirements of housekeeping make the life of many a woman one of the extremest drudgery and hardship. Her condition is almost that of a slave; and this at a time when she is surrounded by many of the elements of a higher civilization. Her children and those around her frequently live under the shadow of her uncomfortable condition. The Indian’s home, in the rest and peace which it affords, is often preferable. This condition is brought about by the increasing requirements upon the housekeeper, without the presence of other compensating conditions.

Assuming that an architect may do something to make the care of a house lighter, it remains to call attention to the modern requirements of a housekeeper, with a view of simplifying her work. Let us watch her work for a week; we will begin on Monday morning during the month of January, and assume that there is one servant in the house to help,—bearing in mind, at the same time, that it often happens that the work which is here outlined is done by the housekeeper herself, with possibly only the help of a wash-woman. First, the house is to be warmed, the kitchen fire to be kindled, the living-rooms to be swept and dusted, the washing to be started, the children to be dressed, breakfast to be cooked and put on the table, and, in many cases, all of this done before seven o’clock. The serving of breakfast is no small task to the housekeeper. The coffee is to be poured, food prepared for the children, and many other things done which no man can specify. As soon as breakfast is over the men are out of the house, but not usually before making more than one demand upon the time of the housekeeper. Then the dishes are to be washed, and the children made ready and started to school. Next, the grocery and butcher supplies must be cared for. Possibly they are ordered from the boy who calls at the door. In some instances a trip for this purpose is required. Next, the dining-room must be arranged, the dishes put in place, the chamber-work attended to, beds made, children’s things put away, sweeping done, slops disposed of, fires looked after. Some time or in some way the clothes worn by the children on Sunday must be especially looked after, stitches taken, a little darn here and there, and then put away. During this time there may be the demands of one or more babies to be met. In this there is no compromise.

With the completion of other work dinner time is approaching, for, with the majority, this is a noon meal. The cooking must be done, and yet nothing else must be allowed to lag. The children in their confusion are home from school. Then dinner. Every one is in a hurry to get away. The children are sure they are going to be late. There is more work for them and the men, and then they are gone. Dinner dishes are washed, and the laundry work continues. The afternoon is little different from the morning; there is a little less rush and confusion, but a continuance of regular work. Before supper the evening supply of fuel must be provided. In the mean time the children are home from school with their demands. Now supper must be in mind. Where there are children in the house, this is one of the most trying times of the day. They are tired, hungry, and sleepy. Supper is over. The children go to bed at intervals during the evening. The men have a place by the fire. The housekeeper often feels it incumbent upon her to mend, darn, or sew, if no heavier work presents itself.

Tuesday morning calls for a repetition of the former day’s work, with ironing substituted for washing. There is the carrying-out of ashes and the bringing-in of coal, and the same routine during the day. On the part of the housekeeper regular sewing-work is taken up as opportunity presents, and possibly calls are made or received. Wednesday, the same. Thursday, the servant, if one is kept, is out for the afternoon. Other regular work must progress. Compromises are not thought of. Friday is general sweeping-day, in which everything is thoroughly gone over. The housekeeper must find time to go down street one or more times during the week, for the purpose of doing necessary shopping. Saturday brings its scrubbing and cleaning. During the week must come the window-washing, cleaning of silver, baking, and many things besides.

Sunday is often the hardest day of all; the children require especial care. There is church in the morning, Sunday school in the afternoon, and, in many cases, church at night. In the mean while the children are on hand all the time. Where is the man who will say that his business life is as exacting or as harassing as the work which is here outlined?

In the pages which follow it is the intention to bear the housekeeper and her requirements in mind, and to suggest what is properly due her in the way of labor-saving devices, with a view to facilitate the manifold operations of housekeeping.

CHAPTER III.

MODERN CONVENIENCES.—A LITTLE HISTORY.—PLANS THAT MAKE EXTRA WORK.—MODERN CONVENIENCES ENUMERATED.

Most of the conveniences of housekeeping are modern. It is only within the past few years that the demands of the housekeeper for helps or aids in making her work easier were thought worth considering. Even now we occasionally meet men who think that anything that was good enough for their mothers is good enough for their wives. We have in mind a farmer who, during fifteen years, purchased three large farms. He buried a wife for every farm. Their death was the result of more than slavish work. The disposition which leads in this direction often continues after the time when economy does not demand close living.

The man who moves west to a new country cannot pay for many of the modern conveniences. The demand for them is not great. Such a man usually builds a house of two or three rooms. The family cook and eat in the kitchen; they sit there between meals. The other rooms are for beds. There is not a great deal of house-work to be done in a house of this kind. The trouble comes when the pioneer becomes wealthier, and builds a large house "in town" or on the farm. Possibly his wife or daughters do the work as they did in the smaller house. If not, it is done by one servant. The work in this house is a great deal harder. There is a great deal more of it than there was in the two or three room house, which was built during their earlier life. In the former house, if they had coffee, it was poured from the pot in which it was made directly into the cups which were on the table. The meat was taken from the skillet in which it was cooked and put into the plates of those who ate it. If they had pancakes, the wife would sit with her back near the stove, where she could easily reach the griddle to grease it and turn the cakes while she was eating her meal. There was no formal dessert. The pie was eaten from the same plates as the rest of the food. There were no napkins; often, no tablecloth.

It did not take long to wash the dishes after a meal of this kind—there were not many of them. In from fifteen to twenty-five minutes after the meal was over, the wife could be seen sitting by the kitchen stove, sewing or knitting. The pans and the kettles were out of the way, and the kitchen was turned into a sitting-room. If the weather was cold, the door into the bedroom was open; the whole house was warm and comfortable. Wood was plenty and cheap.

This woman’s troubles began when her husband, by dint of hard work and close economy, found himself in a position to gratify his pride in his accumulated wealth by building a new house. It was a big white house with green blinds. The stories were twelve or thirteen feet high; a large hall ran through the centre; the kitchen had nothing in it but doors and windows and a stove-hole; there was no sink, no conveniences of any kind. They now had a separate dining and sitting room, and an awful parlor with brussels carpet on it, which had red and green flowers all over it. The bedrooms were upstairs. They were all large; wood-work painted white. In the winter they were cold. The old habits of economy which made this house possible had so fixed themselves upon the occupants that they would not build a fire in the bedrooms. They said that they “didn’t think it healthy to sleep in a warm room.”

People go to see Mrs. Green in her new house. They go through and look at it, and say, “Oh, how nice.” But they find a tired woman. She doesn’t sit down to sew or knit in a few minutes after the meal is over, as she used to. She is at work all the time. The children must have clothes to fit the house. There is more sweeping and dusting to do; there are more dishes to wash; there is more of everything to do. Still, she came into the new house expecting to find things different and easier than they were before.

The modern conveniences are those arrangements and appliances which make it possible for people to live comfortably in a larger house, without seriously increasing the cares which they had in a smaller one. In the old house of two or three rooms the mother would bathe the children once a week in a tub by the kitchen fire. The tub would be dragged out the door, which was not very high above the ground, and the water emptied into the yard. In the new house it is different. The water is carried from the pump in the back yard, and from the kitchen stove, upstairs into one of the rooms. Then it has to be carried down again, emptied into the alley or the yard. The living habits are all changed without the compensating conveniences which naturally belong to them. It is probable that Mrs. Green keeps a “girl,” but even then she has infinitely more work to do than ever belonged to the old home. She cannot understand it. She has a new house and a girl, and yet she is always tired.

Most of the houses in the newer cities and towns are, in a measure, similar to this. Nearly every one attempts to live up to the mark set by those who have all of the appliances of modern housekeeping. Coal and water have to be carried all over the house. Slops and ashes have to be carried downstairs and out of the building.

By attracting attention to the inconveniences of housekeeping, we may see and understand the full meaning of the term “modern conveniences.” There is a natural call for dish-washing arrangements to take the place of the square table, with the dish-pan, the tea-kettle, and the water-bucket. In its place, we have at one side of the kitchen, a sink, with cocks for hot and cold water immediately over it. The tables and drain-board are arranged to simplify the operations of dish-washing. The water, instead of being carried to the yard or alley, finds its way naturally into the drain through the sink. Modern laundry arrangements make it unnecessary to carry great tubs of water outside, or to delay wash-day on account of the weather, or to bring in the frozen clothes during the cold winter days. The bath-room, with the tub, the water-closet, and the wash-stand, is on the second floor. This saves a great deal of work. The water does not have to be carried upstairs nor the slops down. There is hot and cold water within easy reach of all the rooms. Often it happens that there are stationary wash-stands in the various bedrooms, though this is only usual in the most expensive houses.

The amount of work which a furnace saves is not readily estimated. It also saves money. Others of the modern conveniences are “places to put things;” large closets in the bedrooms, well supplied with drawers, shelves, and hooks; a general closet on the upper floor, which is accessible from all of the rooms, for bedding and other articles of common use; a ventilated closet in the bath-room, in which soiled linen may be put without contaminating the atmosphere. There should be a closet or place on the second floor for brooms, dust-pans, and dusters. Where there is no particular place for these articles, the housekeeper or the servant has to use time in searching, or in going up and down stairs. Anything which saves labor may be regarded as a modern convenience.

CHAPTER IV.

MODERN ARCHITECTS AND THE HOUSEKEEPER.—MISPLACED HOUSES.—OLD COLONIAL POVERTY IN MODERN COLONIAL HOUSES.—AFFECTATION IN DESIGN.—NATURAL DEVELOPMENT OF AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE.—AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE AND AMERICAN HOMES.

No one ever heard of the matter of house-planning being discussed in a convention of architects. Their reports will show that a great many subjects are handled, but none so near home as this. Sometimes there is an effort to discover that America has a style of architecture peculiar to itself. When such a thing becomes true, the effort to find it will not be necessary. An American architecture will have its growth in American necessities, and not through the blind copying of foreign styles and architecture. Nor to have an American style does it necessarily mean that we should ignore foreign precedent. It means that we should consider foreign architecture intelligently. Everything that is good should be adopted, no matter whence it comes. Those of us who see what is going on in the architectural world frequently notice English houses designed and built for those who live in the cold Northwest. In many of them the broad, English casement windows and general style of architecture, which is suited to the gloomy light and the mild temperature of Great Britain, is placed in the bright, cold climate of the Northwest. Nothing could be more out of place; it is an affectation, an exhibition of bad taste and poor sense. The cold Northwest, with its bright, clear atmosphere, presents its own architectural conditions. The work of blind copyists, those who have so strong a regard for precedent, is ridiculous. In one of the Eastern magazines there was an illustration showing what purported to be an old colonial cottage, situated possibly at Newport. The architect had copied the old colonial details, the old colonial forms, which were very nice, but he had also copied an idea which had its outgrowth in extreme poverty. He had placed a rain barrel at the side of the house, and had set it up on a rustic-looking bench or support, all of which was very ridiculous. This had been done in an old colonial house, and had its origin in old colonial poverty. Now, this architect, in his respect for that which was past, copied the faults, the inconveniences, and arrangements which belonged to those earlier times. A course of this kind, carried out to its fullest extent, would lead us to barbarism. In the same magazine was another house which was designed with great respect for precedent. In it was a front door which was divided about half-way up, so that the lower part might be shut and the upper part opened. Houses have been seen where something of this kind was reasonable, where it had its advantages. There are many places in this country where a door of this kind is almost a necessity; but it isn’t on the seashore. If one has a house in the country, or in a small country town, where the horses and pigs, geese, chickens, and other animals, are allowed to roam about in the front yards, a door of this kind has its uses. In the summer time the upper part can be thrown back and the lower part closed, so that the most a horse can do in the way of getting into the house is to stick his head over the top rail and look in. In the country mills doors of this kind have a very proper and apt name; they are called pig-doors. They keep the pigs off the mill floor, and, at the same time, allow the light and air to come from above. But there is no necessity for a pig-door at Newport or Long Branch, or other seaside resort. Their use is a silly affectation. There is no beauty in them. There is no convenience which would lead to their use.

It is performances such as the above which retard the natural development of American architecture. American architecture will be simply carrying out, in an architectural way, the requirements of the American people in their buildings. From their homes the march of progress will be through the kitchens, pantries, and dining-rooms. It will unite with the parlor and sitting-room ideas, which have been more clearly worked out. The exterior will be formed in a natural way by the requirements of the interior, and by the variations of climate, and it will be decorated in a rational, artistic manner. We will not hamper the interior by the adoption of doors and windows which possibly belonged in a cathedral of the twelfth or thirteenth century, or the richer details of the later time, which had their special uses and forms as the development of the necessity and requirements of that particular period. The doors and windows of the nineteenth century should have their own special forms and positions. They should be decorated with a true regard for precedent so long as precedent does not influence the arrangements suited to modern times. The American style of architecture will not be developed through grand public buildings and enormous cathedrals, or expensive dwellings.

In this country every one is imbued with the idea of having a home of his own, and he desires to have it nice, convenient, and attractive. The average home is in a small, inexpensive house. The proper construction of these buildings, their arrangement with reference to their housekeeping requirements, their tasteful external designs considered in a rational way, will develop American architecture. It will be the expression of American wants in a natural, artistic spirit.

A JOURNEY THROUGH THE HOUSE.

CHAPTER V.

JOURNEY THROUGH THE HOUSE.—PORCH.—VESTIBULE.—HALL.—LONG HALLS AND SQUARE HALLS.—THE HALL THAT IS A ROOM.—RECEPTION HALL.—PARLOR.—SITTING-ROOM.—DINING-ROOM.

In this section of the book we will make a journey through the house, stopping at various points of interest long enough to give general consideration to the details. From the principles herein derived, the plans subsequently given are constructed.

Every house should have a front porch. It should be wide,—if possible, eight feet, that one may sit at a distance from the railing and afford a space for others to pass behind. The porch is a protection to the front part of the house from the sun, wind, and, partially, from the cold. Nothing can be pleasanter than to sit on a shady porch during the warm part of the day or in the evening. It is an auxiliary to the vestibule.

The front door should be wide—three or three and a half feet. Double doors look very nice from the outside, but they are not as convenient or as easily handled as the single door. The door-bell should be at the right-hand side. The threshold should be elevated from three to six and a half inches above the porch floor.

VESTIBULE.

In the plans that are given, various arrangements of vestibules are shown. In a few instances, direct entrances into the hall and reception-room are indicated, but such an entrance is not as desirable as where there is a vestibule. The arrangement of a vestibule for hat-rack, umbrella-stand, and other conveniences, changes the hall into an available room. Take, for instance, plan [No. 16], page 153. At the right, as one enters, is a little closet; in it are hooks. At one side is an umbrella-stand; on the floor is a place for overshoes. Here one may arrange himself before going into the hall or reception-room. This is altogether better than having to pass across to one side of the hall or room, in order to find a place to deposit overshoes, wraps, umbrellas, etc. It saves work. If this vestibule have a hard-wood floor, and on it is placed a rug, one may stand there and divest himself of that which he would not carry into the house, and go into the room in good order, leaving the muddy overshoes, and the possible dampness of his umbrella and overcoat, behind him. This arrangement saves work; mud is not carried into the room. It is a very simple matter to care for the vestibule; the rug on the floor may be taken to the outside, and the deposit of mud and dust readily removed. It is well to have a small mirror at the side, or in the rack. The plan mentioned is merely suggestive, and does not apply to all houses. By looking through the plans given, various arrangements may be seen. In some of them there is no vestibule. Not all housekeepers want the same arrangement. Again, others do not care to pay for a vestibule. In other instances, the hall is too small to admit of one. As said before, a good vestibule changes the hall into a room. It makes a reception-hall tolerable, because it is not necessary to deposit there many things which should have another location. A vestibule does not properly serve its purpose where there is no room or arrangement for depositing wraps, etc. The closet part of the vestibule, shown in the cut, can, perhaps, be omitted, and hooks arranged around the wall sides. A curtain could be hung across the space occupied by the closet door: however, all these details are matters of taste and disposition. In the opening between the hall and vestibule may be placed tapestry curtains; these are sufficient storm protectors from the outside door, especially if the hall register is placed near it. No one who has not tried it, can realize the amount of protection from the weather that is afforded by a heavy curtain. It is not necessary or desirable that a door be placed in the opening from the vestibule to the hall.

HALL.

This part of the house may be hall, reception-hall, or room. It is a hall or passage frequently, and not provided with a vestibule. It may be a hall from its shape; it may be a room for the same reason. It may be of no use as a room, if the stairway is improperly placed. The house arranged with a long, narrow hall, having the stairway at the side, is essentially wasteful of room. Such hall space is usually dark and gloomy as well as crowded. A hall eight feet wide and twenty feet long, contains one hundred and sixty square feet of floor-surface, though only a limited portion of it is available, on account of the shape of the space which remains after the stairway is placed. A hall twelve by thirteen feet contains one hundred and fifty-six square feet, but a great deal more available room. The space not occupied by the stairway is in better shape. A hall of this shape partakes of the nature of a room, and may be used as such. In the plan referred to a window-seat is shown. This window-seat may be used as a seat in warm weather, and, if the front is in the proper direction, as a conservatory in the winter. There are many such arrangements as this shown in the book.

The hall, in most of the plans, is a key to the whole arrangement. It has been a common, objectionable practice during the past few years to build houses of moderate cost, so that the hall is along one side with its entrance to the front, and the parlor next to it; back of the parlor is the sitting-room, and the hall opens into the dining-room; back of the dining-room is the kitchen, and so on to the extreme rear with summer-kitchen, pantry, etc. This makes a long house with only one room in front on the first floor, and one chamber and alcove facing the street on the second. Thus the hall serves only as a passage-way. The living-room has no front view. To obviate this, the halls in the plans, that are considered with most favor, are arranged to be used as rooms, and the vestibules are built so that such a thing is possible. If the hall is to be used as a vestibule, the hat-rack and other arrangements for hanging wraps, and the umbrella-stand, etc., are placed as near the front as possible. Where this is not done there must necessarily be a track from the front to the back, as a mark of travel.

The stairway may start at one side, and should lead towards the centre of the house. The nearer it can be started to the rear of the hall, the better; this gives more room in front. Sometimes the stairway is started immediately in the rear of the reception-hall, or from an alcove space at one side; these are good arrangements, depending, of course, upon other conditions. Upon one side, or in the rear, should be placed a grate. Nothing can be pleasanter when coming in from a disagreeable outside than an open-grate fire; this needs no argument. Under the stairway, or in some convenient nook, it is well to have a lavatory. The hall should be arranged as a centre from which to pass to the parlor, living-room, and dining-room. It is important to consider in this connection that the hall, and the stairway in it, should be placed so that the stair-landing above is in the centre of the house. Thus we have in the centre of the building only a small hall as a starting-point; hence less waste room. When the stairway lands near the front wall on the second floor, a passage must be provided to the rear of the house. Where the landing is in the centre, we have only to pass into rooms without extra steps through long halls. For example, see plan No. 1, page 110.

Not every one cares to use the front hall as a reception-room. There is certainly no objection to naming and using it otherwise.

RECEPTION-HALL, PARLOR, AND SITTING-ROOM.

During recent years there is more of a disposition to live all over the house; one reason for this is the improved heating arrangements. The terms sitting-room, parlor, reception-room, mean less in a distinctive sense, and are used largely for the purpose of classification. We will consider the parlor and the sitting-room in the same connection. The parlor has lost the awful stiffness of times past. It is now a reception-room.

In a house where there is a reception-hall in front, and the sitting-room to one side, both having a distinct front view, as is shown in many of the plans, a lady may occupy the front room and have her children and work around her, if desirable. A caller may be received in the reception-room; these, however, are matters of individual preference. The vestibule may be planned so that it will have an entrance to both reception-room and sitting-room.

In some instances the arrangement of sitting-room and reception-hall are reversed. The hall is the sitting-room, and the other room the parlor. If doors are used between hall and sitting-room, they should be sliding; the effect is better, and the separation of the rooms as complete as necessary. Such doors should always be hung from the top. The sitting-room should certainly be as good a room as any in the house; as well located. There should be a closet on the first floor, and, if possible, it should communicate with this room; if not that, with the dining-room or reception-hall next to it. Certainly the sitting-room should always be provided with a grate.

A window-seat in the hall, parlor, reception, or other room, is really a great addition in more ways than one. It is not only attractive, but it adds to the availability of a room. Where there is space for three or four people to sit, in case of necessity, it is like seating that number of people outside of the room. They are comfortable, and the room has that much added to its seating capacity. A bay window arranged in this way is pleasant indeed.

Wall space is of great importance in these rooms. In planning a house, the piano, pictures, lounges, book-shelves, book-cases, bric-à-brac, etc., should be in mind. In a house of moderate size, it is, ordinarily, not necessary that the reception-hall, parlor, or sitting-room should be wider than thirteen and a half feet, and from fifteen to eighteen feet in length. However, this is not wide enough for those who entertain largely. A room thirteen and a half feet, with much furniture in it, is not wide enough for dancing.

A house arranged with a reception-hall, parlor, sitting-room, dining-room, etc., is used when it is desired to entertain a great deal; but for those who are living economically, whose means are limited, one of these rooms may be omitted. In many of the modern houses the number of rooms on the first floor has been decreased and their size increased. Oftentimes there is a reception-hall, a small library, and a dining-room only, as belonging to the living part of the house on the first floor. An arrangement of this kind belongs more particularly to a house which is occupied during only a part of the year; say as summer cottages in the North, and winter houses in the South. Modern ways of living make a larger number of rooms less desirable.

When it is possible, it is pleasant to have a little room off from the library as a study, or for a doctor as a reception-room or office. Where one does work at home, it is advantageous to have a private room that insures isolation, be it never so small. Often the library, so called in an ordinary sense, is not a library at all. There may be a few books in it, but it is used as a sitting-room or passage, and has no distinct necessity or use.

Additional rooms require more work than the same amount of floor space in a less number of rooms. The addition of rooms multiplies corners, windows, doors, etc., and adds more cost and labor, than does mere additional space. The availability of a room is not always dependent upon its size. A good deal depends upon the arrangement of wall space. A room may be large and still have no room for the furniture that is to go into it. It may be small and still have room enough.

DINING-ROOM.

A good width for a dining-room is thirteen feet. Where one can afford it, it should be from fifteen to twenty feet in length; larger than this is a luxury. Its location, for the most part, is back of the sitting-room or hall. A grate in the dining-room is not altogether desirable; it is always at somebody’s back. Again, a grate does not heat a room uniformly. It is very common to provide sliding-doors to connect the dining-room with other parts of the house, even with the parlor; but they are not the best kind to use. Sound and the odors of the food are more readily communicated through sliding-doors than others. For that reason they should not be used. A large, single door, three and a half feet wide, is preferable, though it does not always give the desired opening. Generally speaking, it is easier to provide wall space when planning a dining-room than in any of the other rooms in the house. A large number of windows is not necessary, and one of them can be placed high, and thus afford space for a sideboard. This sideboard should be placed at the end of the room nearest the entrance to the kitchen and china-closet, where such is used. The sideboard has various uses, according to the plans of the housekeeper. In some cases it is merely a place to display dainty china and other table furniture. Below are places for linen and table cutlery. In other cases, the sideboard is used as a buffet; as a place from which to serve the food. Sometimes this is carried to the extremest degree, and includes the carving, and the serving of that which goes with the meats.

It was very common in times past to use a slide connecting kitchen and dining-room. A passage is much better. The slide is worse than a door in communicating sounds and odors. In some of the plans in this book, doors are shown opening directly into the kitchen. This is done under protest; the owner of the house would have it so. The sideboard may be built as a part of the house. This is well enough when the question of cost is not important.

From the dining-room we will pass to the kitchen.

CHAPTER VI.

KITCHENS.—THE KITCHEN A WORKSHOP.—WORK TO BE DONE IN A KITCHEN.—A PLAN.—FITTINGS.—DISH-WASHING CONVENIENCES.—SINK AND TABLES.—CHINA-CLOSET.—PANTRY.—COMBINATION PANTRY.—PANTRY FITTINGS.—WORK IN A PANTRY.—A DOUGH-BOARD.—FLOUR-BIN.—PANTRY STORES.—CUPBOARD.—REFRIGERATOR ARRANGEMENTS.—PANTRY UTENSILS.—A DRY-BOX.—SOAP-BOX.—VENTILATION OF KITCHEN.—GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF KITCHEN PLANNING.

The kitchen existed in its state of greatest cleanliness and order a good many years ago in New England, where it was largely used as a sitting and dining room. As people became more prosperous, they moved out of the kitchen; they had a separate sitting-room. It was then that the kitchen began to decline. After this it was often literally as well as figuratively separated from the living part of the house.

The public has not suffered through lack of information on cookery and general housekeeping topics. Little has been said, however, about the house itself, with regard to its arrangements for facilitating the manifold operations of housekeeping. The subject is a broad one, and may be treated with some respect to detail. As the heart of the house, the kitchen may be given serious consideration.

In the modern house the kitchen is merely the place where the food is prepared for the table. The controlling idea and its arrangements should be to afford facilities for doing the work with as little labor as possible.

The kitchen is the workshop of the house. It should be arranged and planned according to the same general principles as any other workshop. A manufacturer arranges his foundry, his mill, or his printing-house, with reference to the saving of labor, for the purpose of saving money. When we save labor in a kitchen, we save the energy of the housekeeper, and, possibly, money.

An article on this subject was probably never written that did not pretend to describe the “model kitchen.” It is safe to say that no such kitchen was regarded as “model” by all readers. A model kitchen is something which is out of reason. No two housekeepers have the same requirements. Housekeeping practice varies greatly. Again, the kitchen that can be built to one floor-plan cannot be built to another. In describing a kitchen, it is in mind to set forth certain general principles for the benefit of those interested.

There is little difference between the requirements of a kitchen for a house of moderate cost and an expensive house. Work of the same general character is done in every kitchen. The conveniences are more a matter of thought than of money. Elaborate details add much to the cost, but little to the convenience. There is little or no difference between the cost of a well-planned kitchen and one which is poorly planned.

To state the case broadly, a kitchen should be arranged solely with reference to the work which is to be done in it: the cooking, dish-washing, the care of the kitchen itself, and possibly the laundry work. This latter work should be removed from the kitchen—in any event, the washing should be done elsewhere—when it is at all possible. The steam and odor from the washing, which not only fill the kitchen but permeate the house, are enough to render whatever food there is in the kitchen unfit for use. It is altogether possible to arrange in the cellar of any house that is being built, and in many that are already built, at a trifling cost, a laundry in which the washing and ironing may be comfortably done. Of course this does not contemplate set tubs; but set tubs are not found in houses where the washing and ironing are done in the kitchen, and it is possible to do this work both well and easily without their use. There is little or no objection to doing the ironing in a well-ventilated kitchen. It is clean work, and while doing it the servant may attend to any cooking which is necessary, and see that the other work of the house moves forward.

The kitchen the plan of which is here given ([Fig. 2]) has been in use for three years under the varying conditions of one or two servants, and at times none at all. These are the conditions under which most housekeepers operate. There have been no emergencies in which the kitchen and pantries have not proven themselves ample, and none in which the housekeeper thought that they were too large and complicated. It is as necessary in houses where the means for maintenance is simply moderate, that a kitchen should not be too large as that it should afford ample facilities for accomplishing any work which may be done.

The kitchen itself is thirteen and one-half by fourteen and one-half feet. In it are placed the range, tables, sink, drain-board, etc., and the kitchen safe. The room has been found large enough for the work which is to be done there, and not so large that the tables, range, and safe are so far apart that time and strength are wasted moving from one to another. The kitchen has one large window in it, which is three feet from the floor. This permits the placing of a table, ironing-board, or chair under it, and thus gives additional wall space. There are two windows in the pantry, and a draught is secured through them, the kitchen window, and the transom over the door. The door is glazed.

The most disagreeable work of a kitchen, and that which takes much time, is the dish-washing. It is possible to make this work lighter and pleasanter than is usual. The necessary conditions are plenty of water, hot and cold, a place where the dishes will drain themselves, an abundance of table room for them both before and after washing. In the kitchen given the sink is placed next the kitchen flue. This gives a place for the pipe duct next the warm bricks, which prevent freezing even in severe cold weather. During the three years in which this kitchen has been in use they have never frozen, even when the temperature was twenty degrees below zero. The exact construction of this kitchen pipe-duct and other kitchen wood-work is given elsewhere. The range, which is usually next the flue, is, in this instance, placed at some distance from it. There is no reason why this should not be done, as it has been in many instances, with no disagreeable results.

The sink is not enclosed, but stands upon legs. Enclosed sinks are places which cannot be kept clean even with the utmost vigilance. The brushes, scrub-rags, and buckets, which are usually kept there, are in this kitchen provided a place elsewhere.

At the left of the sink is a table; at the right, a drain-board, which is inclined toward the sink, and provided with grooves. At the right of this is a swing-table on the same level. The soiled dishes are placed on the table at the left, washed in the sink, which is provided with cocks for hot and cold water, drained on the drain-board, and, when wiped, placed on the table at the right. A glance at the plan will show that they are then beside the door which leads to the china-closet, and may be quickly placed where they belong.

It may be well to say a few words about the china-closet. The shelves are placed in a passage which leads from the kitchen to the dining-room, and are separated from the passage by doors. This passage is lighted by a window, and has two doors leading into it—one from the dining-room, and one from the kitchen ([Fig. 2]). These doors are swung on double swinging hinges, so that they may be opened by merely pushing against them, and will then swing back noiselessly into a closed position. One may pass through doors of this kind with a tray full of dishes without touching them with the hand. This arrangement dispenses with the necessity for a slide, and also does away with the noises and odors from the kitchen, which so readily find their way to the rest of the house where a slide is used. However, if a slide is really desired, it can be placed over either the table at the left of the sink or over the swing-table at the right, and be convenient from both kitchen and dining-room.

The china-pantry could be readily enlarged into a butler’s pantry, by extending it across the end of the dining-room, and placing the end window of this room on one side, thus bringing two windows on the same wall. There is a movable shelf under one of the permanent shelves in this china-closet, which can be drawn out in order to place a tray of dishes on it while they are being put away, and which can be pushed out of the way when not in use. This shelf is also of service as a place upon which to arrange the different dishes needed for the several courses of a meal, and in this way facilitates the table service.

In [Fig. 4], the combination idea is carried out in pantry and china-closet. The pantry-cupboard projects into the room in a way to form a partition between the pantry and china-closet, and, at the same time, admits of a passage between the kitchen and dining-room with a separation of two doors.

[Fig. 5] indicates an approved form of construction of china-closet and pantry, such as may be used in most of the pantries and china-rooms which are in this book.

The work which takes the most time is the preparation of food, and every well-planned kitchen has its arrangements for lightening this burden. The first consideration is the location of the utensils, and the table and sink where the meats and vegetables are prepared. All should be near enough to the range so that there are no unnecessary steps to be taken. The number that are taken where the sink is in one corner of the kitchen, the table in another, and the range removed from both, is innumerable. In this kitchen the table proper and the sink are together, and they are but a step from the range.

There is a small swing-table attached to the wall at one side of the range. This provides a place for utensils, such as spoons, and forks, and dishes, such as those holding pancake batter, which are in constant use during cooking, and which cannot be held in the hand while the cooking is in progress. This alone saves many steps. The drain-board is a good place for draining vegetables, and to place utensils which are used in the preparation of food. Above the sink are hooks, etc., upon which to keep small utensils. In localities where there is much dust coming in from the outside these utensils must be kept elsewhere, behind closed doors.

For the preparation of bread, cake, pastries, etc., the pantry is provided. In it are places for everything which can be used for such preparation. One can go out of the heat and noise of the kitchen into a little room which holds everything that can possibly be needed, and there prepare those articles of food which take the most time and careful attention. In [Fig. 2] are two windows; under one is the dough-board. This is a table fastened to the wall at a convenient height for moulding and general work of this character. On one end is a piece of marble, twelve inches wide by sixteen long, which is used for moulding purposes. The advantages of such a piece of marble are numerous. It is as easily cleaned as a dish and requires no scouring, and, as dough does not readily stick to it, moulding can be done without the trouble which comes from the use of a board. This piece of marble is not fastened to the dough-board, as is sometimes done. Where it is set into the board there will always be creases in which dough will lodge, and it can only be cleaned with the greatest trouble. Where it is free, it can be raised from the board occasionally, and everything thoroughly cleaned.

At the right of the board is the flour-bin, which contains places for various kinds of flour and meal. Next to it is the refrigerator. Over the refrigerator is a window which opens on the porch, and through which the ice may be placed without the iceman going through the kitchen with his wet feet and dripping load.

At the left of the dough-board are shelves for keeping stores. The lower shelves are enclosed by doors and provided with a lock, so that extra stores may be placed there for safe keeping, where this is found desirable. The upper shelves are exposed. On them are kept sugar, tea, coffee, baking-powder, and kindred stores, which are in every-day use, and can be reached easier if there are no doors to be opened and closed. They should be kept in air-tight cans, which prevent their exposure to dust, insects, and air. Back of the door opening into the kitchen are hooks for the utensils which more properly belong in the pantry than the kitchen.

Many housekeepers prefer to keep the refrigerator in the cellar, on account of the waste in the ice. This waste, to the mind of the writer, is a small matter. The time spent by either housekeeper or servant in going into the cellar could much better be occupied in doing something else which would save more than does keeping the refrigerator below. Then, again, when it is kept in the pantry it can readily be provided with a zinc drain to the outside, which saves some little labor. In the cellar such a drain would only be possible where sand could be reached. A refrigerator should never, under any circumstances, be drained into the sewer, as is sometimes done.

The utensils which properly belong to the kitchen are kept in an old-fashioned kitchen safe, rather than in a closet opening out from the kitchen. A safe is more readily cleaned than a closet, and the perforated metal doors render the upper part of it an excellent place for storing cold food, which it is not desirable to keep in the refrigerator. Then if, as may happen in any kitchen which is left to the care of servants, vermin should take possession, the safe can be moved from the room, and trouble from this source avoided.

The entrance to the cellar is near the table, as marked. At the head of the cellar are placed brooms, mops, and dust-pans, and above these, well away from the head when going below, is a shelf upon which two buckets can be placed.

Back of the range is a small wooden box, thirty inches long by twenty-two inches wide and twelve inches deep, which is provided with a door and shelves. These shelves, as well as the top and bottom, have holes bored through them in order to allow the passage of hot air. In this box scrubbing-rags and brushes dry at once, and never have a bad odor. The box is of the same wood as the other kitchen finish, and looks as if it were a part of it.

A soap-box, with construction similar to the above, may be provided. It should have a tin-pipe connection with flue or other ventilating apparatus. It will dry the soap and render its use less wasteful.

The ventilation of the kitchen is an important matter. The ideal kitchen has no rooms over it, and has ventilators in the ceiling. But this is not possible in most houses, and a substitute must be provided. An inverted sheet-iron hopper placed over the range, with an opening into either the flue or the outside of the house, will carry out the odors from cooking. An opening into the pipe-duct which holds the plumbing pipes will keep them from freezing in cold weather at the same time that it helps ventilate.

An important consideration in a kitchen is to build it so that it will not readily accumulate dirt, and can be easily cleaned. A large amount of time is spent in every well-kept house in cleaning the kitchen. The floor should be of oak, maple, or other hard wood, oiled, waxed, or finished with regular floor-finishing. The casings and doors are, of course, kept in better condition, with less labor, when of hard wood. Where this is not attainable, poplar, or other similar wood, finished with a varnish which will stand warm water, will prove a very good substitute. The tables should be either of oak, which requires little scrubbing, or poplar, which is so easily scrubbed that it is always white enough to delight the heart of the most particular housekeeper. A kitchen finished in this way is much less care than when the floor is of soft wood, and the finish a soft wood painted.

All kitchens in this book are planned according to the principles here set forth. They do not pretend to be exactly like this one, but the same general principle runs through all.

There are very good reasons why wainscoting should not be used in a kitchen, and no compensating advantages. The bead-joints and extra wood-work thereof make labor in the impossible task of keeping it clean. The less wood-work there is in a kitchen, the better. There are various kind of water-proof proprietary plaster finishes which may be used in finishing the walls and ceiling of a kitchen. Where they are not used, a white skim coat should be put on and painted after about a year’s use.

CHAPTER VII.

CELLAR.—FUEL DEPARTMENTS.—FURNACE CONVENIENCES.—COAL-BINS.—CEMENT FLOORS.—LIGHT IN THE CELLAR.—A CELLAR-CLOSET.—OUTSIDE CELLAR-DOOR.

The cellar was originally a hole in the ground. In the modern house, that is arranged to please the house-keeper, it is well lighted; provided with a smooth cement floor that is easily cleaned; is not open as one room, but has apartments—one for a laundry, another for fuel and furnace, and still others for fruits and general stores. In the matter of fuel there is no reason why the entire winter supply should not be in the basement. It is certainly a great deal worse to go outside of the house in winter time from a hot, steaming kitchen, than it is to go into the basement for the fuel. However, there is some objection to storing wood in the cellar, for the reason that it brings bugs, ants, and vermin into the house.

Coal-bins should be constructed with hopper bottoms,—with bottom and sides slanting from level of outside grade-line to cellar floor,—where the location will admit of it. When there is not a cellar under all of the house, it is generally possible to arrange the coal-bin under the part without cellar, and slanting down to the part so used. This is illustrated in plan [No. 11], Chapter XX. There the coal is put through the windows into the bins, and slides down to the opening in cellar. For each shovelful of coal taken away from the lower opening, another will take its place. This is particularly true with crushed coke, or anthracite coal, or nut and egg sizes of other fuel. The lump sizes require a larger opening than the usual twenty-inch-square opening for the coal mentioned. These bins should be lined on the bottom preferably with bricks laid in cement. If this is not used, two-inch oak boards will do. Partitions of the same material should be used to separate the various bins. With an arrangement of this kind a large amount of storage capacity can be provided. Under some circumstances this plan cannot be adopted. In such a case the ordinary bins may be used.

As houses are now planned, the first tier of joists are placed from twenty to twenty-four inches above the grade-line. Where it is not possible to secure that height for cellar-windows, areas may be built of brick or stone, and additional light provided. Light is the enemy of disorder and uncleanliness; where there is exposure there will be less disorder.

It is not necessary to have the cellar under the whole house, for reasons as mentioned, and on account of the cost. It is sometimes important that savings of all kinds be made. The furnace may be set in a pit with its face directed to the cellar. It is best that the opening from the hoppered coal-bins, above described, be close to the furnace. If it can be opened at the side, so that one can stand in the pit and throw coal in the fire-box, it is better than any other arrangement.

The ordinary cellar is seven feet in the clear, and, for this reason, it is nearly always necessary to pit the furnace. This is done by digging an extra depth, and lining the area and opening with brick.

Near enough to the furnace to be warm, should be a closet for canned fruit, made of flooring-boards, if not of more substantial material, and provided with a door and lock. It should be shelved with board about seven inches apart. Other winter stores, like potatoes, cabbage, etc., should be kept in a dark cellar with an earth floor. It is the opinion of farmers and others that vegetables keep best when lying next the ground. The cellar-involving arrangements here outlined may be seen in plan [No. 11]. The outside door, which leads into the cellar, should bolt on the inside, and the upper cellar door on the outside. There should be doors provided to separate the different rooms. Where cost is an item, they may be made of two thicknesses of flooring. Cellar-windows should be hung on hinges, and provided with bolt fastenings; catches are not secure.

CHAPTER VIII.

A LOW-COST LAUNDRY.—BLUE MONDAY.—BASEMENT LAUNDRY.—LOW-COST CONVENIENCES.—INEXPENSIVE LAUNDRY FITTINGS.—HOT AND COLD WATER ARRANGEMENTS.—A LABOR-SAVING LAUNDRY.—A PLACE TO DO FRUIT-CANNING.

The term “Blue Monday” probably originated on account of its being general wash-day, and a day in which everybody about the house undertook to do an impossible amount of work with limited resources.

Most of the washings in this country are done in the kitchen. The wash-boiler is on the stove, and the servant or mistress of the house, or both, attempt to wash and do their cooking without seriously disturbing the routine of meals. There is a fussiness about everything pertaining to that day, which creates an atmosphere of blueness which is proverbial. The steamy, crowded kitchen, the almost inevitable wetness or slipperiness, the great physical exertion required, the carrying of water, the lifting of tubs, are all uncomfortable, and the work is done at a great disadvantage. In an expensive house, where there is plenty of money, Monday is not so blue. Immunity is purchased. Possibly the clothes are sent from the house to be washed in somebody else’s kitchen; maybe to be worn by some one else before they are returned, and often to be injured or destroyed by the strong washing-mixtures and soaps, which are made to save rubbing. This kind of immunity is expensive. It is too expensive for the large majority of people. It is annoying to all alike.

Laundry work will sometime be done at a cost which will admit of people of moderate means having this work done at a public laundry. At present, the general laundry work of an ordinary household cannot be done in this way, on account of the expense.

The general public laundry, where arrangements are made to do the entire family washing at a low cost, is a complete solution of the Blue-Monday problem; but until the laundry is an accomplished fact, such work will be done at home, and a family laundry must be considered in house-building. It would be a very easy matter to arrange a laundry which would meet all the desired conditions, if we were to operate independent of cost, but the large majority of people are not independent in this way. If it were not a matter of cost, we would have an independent room for the laundry work, with porcelain tubs, and hot and cold water running into all of them; we could have a steam-drier, and many other things, which it is useless to mention here. It is the laundry of the moderate-cost house which interests the largest number of people.

We must have a place to do laundry work which is a compromise between the foggy kitchen and the laundry with porcelain tubs.

As houses are now built, the first floor is usually from two and a half to three feet above the grade. This affords abundant opportunity of getting a well-lighted basement. If the basement is dark, put more windows in it, and whitewash the walls and ceilings. Cement the floor. Put in a slop sink, and give it a trapped connection with the vault or sewer. Provide a pump over this sink to connect with the cistern. If the city water is soft, this will be used and no pump will be required. Then a laundry stove is to be provided. Thus we have everything ready for use without much labor, and certainly at a very low cost.

The basement should be light under any circumstances. The floor should be cemented, the joists should be whitewashed, so that the only additions necessary to make the laundry work easy are a laundry stove, a place to throw waste water, and a supply of hot and cold water. If one does not care to heat the water in the ordinary boiler, there is a very simple device for heating water which may be placed in any laundry. An open tank, which will hold two or three barrels of water, can be placed over the stove and next to the joist. From it a connection can be made with the laundry stove by means of lead and iron pipe. This pipe should start from the bottom of the tank and connect with an iron pipe which enters the stove, and passes around the inside of the fire-pot, then to the outside and connects with another lead pipe, which empties into the tank again on a level above the first opening. Thus the cold water would come from the bottom of the tank, through the stove where it would be heated, thence upward and into the tank. This would give a hot-water circulating connection, and in this way provide hot water for use in the laundry. This arrangement would require a low-cost force-pump to force the water to the tank. There are many kinds of these pumps, which are substantial and can be secured at a low cost. The pipe from the stove could be supplied with a compression cock from which the water could be drawn into the tubs. The better way would be to have an independent tank connection. Lead pipe was mentioned as being the pipe to use in making the connection with the iron pipe in the laundry stove. Galvanized iron pipe would answer every purpose and cost a little less. Where set tubs are not used, the water could be readily distributed by means of a hose pipe. If the above arrangement is too expensive, the stove only can be used for heating water.

Set tubs might be used instead of the ordinary wooden ones which were contemplated, and would save a good deal of labor, but the cost is something which all cannot afford. The arrangement described here can be reached by nearly every one of moderate means. It provides a place to throw slop water, and brings hot and cold water close at hand. It isolates the washing from the cooking, and the smell of washing from the whole house. It is very different from the conditions in most houses, where the water has to be carried from the backyard into the house, lifted to the stove, poured into the tubs, and afterward carried out, a bucket at a time, and emptied over the back fence, if the tub is not dragged out and emptied into the yard.

It is well in building a new house to have an outside cellar-way to facilitate the use of the laundry below. In such a case the clothes can be carried into the yard without being taken through the kitchen. There will be times when the weather will not permit taking the clothes outdoors. In very cold weather it should never be done. It is murderous for a woman to have to carry clothes from a hot, steamy laundry or kitchen at eighty degrees to the cold, dry air of the outside. There is no woman so strong that she can stand this. All the clothes can be readily dried in the basement. Here is presented another argument in favor of the laundry below. The washing can always be done at the appointed time in spite of the weather. When one goes into a large attic he is apt to say, “What a splendid place to dry clothes.” People who dry clothes in the attic usually do the washing in the kitchen.

A basement laundry is a cool place in summer and a warm one in winter. There is no better place for ironing in warm weather, for even with a fire the basement is always cool. Nor can there be a better place for canning fruit. The conveniences of plenty of water, a fire, and yet a cool place for doing this extremely laborious work, will be readily appreciated.

CHAPTER IX.

THE SECOND FLOOR.—STAIRWAYS.—THE COMBINATION STAIRWAY.—IDEAL NUMBER OF BEDROOMS.—LARGE CLOSETS AND PLENTY OF THEM.—A LINEN-CLOSET.—PLACING OF GAS-FIXTURES.—SERVANT’S ROOM.—BATH-ROOM.—AN ATTIC.—ATTIC CLOSETS.—ATTIC ROOMS.

In many houses a combination stairway is used. By this is meant one in which the front and rear stairways run together in a common landing. In this case, there should be doors separating the rear from the front stairway, one at the beginning, and one at the end of the rear part. The combination stairway is a compromise. Oftentimes, however, one can secure other things which are desirable by its use. There are other compromises more objectionable than the combination stairway.

A stairway of this kind is not used as the most desirable thing, but as the least objectionable of other compromises; for instance, if one can secure, for a given cost, an additional room or two by using a combination stairway, the room is frequently preferable. No one can doubt but that a front stairway, entirely separated from the one in the rear, is the best thing to have; however, it is easy to understand that a combination stairway may be used for reasons above stated. In some of the plans a stairway is shown, starting from a stair-hall in the rear of reception-hall or room. Under such circumstances, a combination is not necessary. One can come from the kitchen and go upstairs without being observed from the other parts of the house. Again, combinations are sometimes used so that they apply to the servant’s room as a continuous stairway, and as a combination to the other parts of the house. This is true of several plans given.

It is almost superfluous to say that a stairway should be easy, still it is known that not all are so. The one in the front part of the building should always be made without winders; that in the rear, the same way if possible. Landings are preferable, and make a staircase beautiful. Stairways may be considered from a hygienic standpoint. This, however, is not necessary in this connection. Where there is only one stairway, it is not uncommon to have it start from the dining-room, and, if one stops to think about it, this is not a bad arrangement. The dining-room is centrally located, and the stairway may be used by the servants when this room is not otherwise in use. Certainly it is less objectionable than placing it in a hall through which all have to pass, or where it is necessary to pass through other rooms to reach the second floor from the rear. A combination stairway, or one that starts up from the dining-room, is less objectionable in a house where there is a bath-room on the second floor than it would otherwise be. Where the bath-room is so placed, it is not necessary that the slops be carried down or the water carried up stairs; and, in other respects, it is less necessary to use the stairway in a disagreeable way.

The rear stairway should be connected with the front part of the house by means of a hall on the second floor. It is generally found desirable to have a girl’s room near the rear stairway, and to cut off that part of the house from the front by means of a door. There should be means of lighting, artificial and otherwise, at the beginning and landings of all stairways.

In a young and growing family, five is the ideal number of rooms for the second floor. This number may be increased or decreased according to the size and development of the family. Where there are five rooms it affords, first, a family room in front, built over the parlor or sitting-room; next to that is a room in front for the very young children, and afterwards for the girls; then the room in the rear of the family room may be for the boys; the fourth room for guests, and the fifth for the servant. The guest-room view is to the side and the rear. There are cases where one must accommodate a large number of people with a smaller number of rooms, and, again, a larger number of rooms is thought indispensable. In connection with the size of bedrooms, we may say what was said before,—that their availability does not depend entirely upon their size. A room may be large and still not contain a place for a bed or other furniture. It may be moderately small and yet have space for all.

The more we think about the arrangement of houses, the larger appear the number of indispensables. It used to be thought unnecessary to have a closet in every bedroom; one was certainly enough in the family room. Now it is almost a necessity that there be two closets in the family room—one for the lady, and a smaller one for the gentleman. There should certainly be one closet in every bedroom, and, in addition to that, one which opens from the hall, to be used for bed-linen and general bedroom supplies. A suitable place for brooms and dust-pans is the attic stairway when a special closet is not provided.

In lighting bedrooms there should be at least one window for each outside exposure. Where the size will admit, there should be two windows placed so that the dressing-case can be set between them, either in the corner or otherwise. Most bedrooms are lighted artificially by bracket lights instead of the centre light. There should be one bracket on each side of the dressing-case; if not, a pendent light immediately over it. Centre connections for gas-fixture are usually provided, but in practice many houses are not supplied with the fixture.

Grates on the second floor make work: carrying of fuel and ashes is always disagreeable in the extremest degree. The placing of ash-pits in the cellar may make it unnecessary to carry the ashes, but still grates make work. At the same time it is very pleasant to have a grate in the bedroom; they are the best means of ventilation known.

The servant’s room is not usually very large, seldom large enough. It should be provided with a closet, the same as other rooms. The window in that room should be set high enough from the floor so as to admit of the placing of a trunk under it, without interfering with the light or in other ways appearing uncomfortable.

The bath-room and general plumbing work are considered in detail in the following chapter. It is sufficient to say that there should be as little wood-work as possible in the bath-room. Water-proof plastering should be used, and when this becomes soiled it can be washed and painted.

There is nothing a housekeeper appreciates more than a good attic and an easy stairway leading to it. Often attics are not plastered; they should always be floored at the same time the house is built. Where it is not possible to make divisions by plastering, and other substantial material, light wooden partitions will serve the purpose of providing means of classifying that which is stored in the attic, and prevent it from being in a continual state of disorder. The rooms may be fitted with shelves, closets, etc.

Where it is possible so to do, the attic room should be plastered. It makes the rooms below appreciably cooler in summer. In most of the plans herein illustrated, the roof is high enough to provide space for good rooms, with ceilings as high and as square as those of the rooms below. It is cheaper to provide rooms in this way than to spread over more ground; and there is certainly no valid objection to their use by the boys of the family.

CHAPTER X.

PLUMBING.—IS PLUMBING ENTIRELY SAFE?—COMPLETENESS IN PLUMBING APPARATUS.—LABOR-SAVING PLUMBING APPARATUS.—SEWER CONNECTIONS.—SOIL PIPE.—A TRAP.—ACCIDENTS TO TRAPS.—FREQUENT USE OF PLUMBING APPARATUS DESIRABLE FOR SAFETY.—WATER-CLOSETS.—SIMPLICITY IN PLUMBING.—DRAIN CONNECTIONS.—TO KEEP PLUMBING APPARATUS FROM FREEZING.—CISTERN WATER SUPPLY.—GREASE SINK.—FLUSHING OF DRAIN.—BATH-TUB.

In considering the plumbing apparatus of a house, the question is often asked, “Are these things safe? Do they not endanger the health of the occupants of the house?” The answer is, The plumbing apparatus may be entirely safe. That it is not always so, we all know. We hear of many cases of typhoid fever, diphtheria, scarlet fever, and other diseases, which are traceable to, or aggravated by, defective plumbing. In some sections of the country so much trouble has been caused by poor plumbing, that the people, as a class, have come to be suspicious of all. The reason for this is the effort to cheapen the work. Suffering from bad work has led to safety. In larger cities this work is under the control of the city government. It may be said that it is possible so to arrange the fixtures and apparatus appertaining to plumbing that it is entirely safe. The question naturally follows, “How is this done?”

It may be said that good work is not a great deal more expensive than poor work. Again, good work is not always a question of money. It is one of knowledge or inclination on the part of the plumber.

One in moderate circumstances, who builds a house to cost from twenty-five hundred to four thousand dollars, should have well water or city water, and hot and cold cistern water in the sink in the kitchen. There should be at least a slop-hopper in the laundry. In the bath-room a water-closet, a tub, and generally a wash-stand. This latter feature is not absolutely necessary, as will be explained later. In the attic there should be a tank to hold the cistern water, which is connected with the fixtures using soft water below. A force-pump, or water-motor, may be located in the kitchen or basement to lift the water to tank. In more elaborate houses a completer plumbing apparatus may be used. There may be an especial sink in the china-closet. There may be wash-stands in the various chambers, and one on the first floor.

There may be, also, an additional water-closet on the first floor, or in the cellar, located where it is accessible to the members of the family. There are many ways of expending money in plumbing fixtures; but, with those first mentioned, one may be entirely comfortable, and derive all of the housekeeping benefits which may be expected from such conveniences. Unless the house be large, an increase in the number of fixtures would increase the amount of work done in keeping them clean, rather than save labor.

In the matter of safety, another question, which sometimes arises, is as to the danger from the plumbing apparatus where there is no sewer connection, or where it has to be made with a vault. The protection against sewer-gas is not from the sewer itself or the vault. It is entirely through protective apparatus in the house, and the manner of the connection with the vault or sewer.

One may consider the conditions of safety in plumbing apparatus under two general heads. First, as to the workmanship; second, as to design or plan of the apparatus. Nothing need be said as to the workmanship, excepting that the execution of the design, or the benefits to be derived from it, maybe entirely lost by defective workmanship. If the work is not properly executed, the design need not be considered. The result will be bad irrespective of the plan.

In considering the design of the apparatus, we will take into account the arrangement of the connections and fixtures. By the latter expression is meant the tub, the water-closet, the wash-bowl, and the sink, pump, etc. The connections which have to do with the safety of the apparatus are the traps and the waste pipes, or pipes which connect with the vault or sewer.

The main waste pipe inside the house is called the soil pipe. The smaller waste pipes from the fixtures connect with it. The soil pipe is of cast-iron, and usually four inches in diameter on the inside. It connects, full size, with the water-closet. Most other wastes are of lead, and are usually an inch and a half in diameter. In the soil and waste pipes there will naturally be the odors from the vaults and sewer, or from the foul matter which is in or passing through the pipes. Therefore, there must be means in each waste pipe, which connects a fixture with the main soil pipe, of preventing the passage of gas or air from it into the house. This is done by means of what is called a trap. The “S” trap is the commonest form; this name is given it from its shape, and illustrates its construction. If we take a letter S and turn it sideways we will get the form of such a trap. The right side or end would continue directly down toward the drain or soil pipe, and the left side would continue upward and connect with the fixture (see [Fig. 6]). The water from the fixture comes down and is forced upward through the bend by the pressure of water above, and from thence runs into the soil pipe or drain. Thus it will be seen that there is always a seal of water in the trap. There is always water in the trap as indicated by the depth of the bend of the S. There are hundreds of different forms of traps, but they are all constructed on the same principle; the idea being that the gas or air from the pipe would have to pass through the water in order to get into the house. The water in the trap is called the seal; it seals the passage of air as stated.

There are many conditions under which a trap may fail to do its full duty. It may be foul in itself, or it may be rendered foul by the bad air in the drain. The trap may be siphoned by a heavy flow of water through the main drain, or it may be siphoned by a string or a rag which may readily find its way into the trap, and hang over the bend so that all of the water will run out. Again, the water in the trap may evaporate. All these dangers may be guarded against. In the first place, there should be means which allow fresh air to pass through all that portion of the main drain or soil pipe which is in or close to the house. The means of accomplishing this are various.

The soil pipe is ventilated by continuing up through and well above the roof with a full opening at the top. The smaller drains should be ventilated in the same way when far removed from main soil pipe or other connection. The traps should be ventilated by 1½-inch or two-inch connections with the outer air, as shown by cut.

Frequent use of plumbing fixtures contributes to safety. It causes a large volume of water to pass through the pipes. The flushing of the pipes and drains in this way makes them cleaner and thus safer. It is frequently said by those who have plumbing fixtures in their houses that they use them as little as possible, because they are afraid of them. Nothing worse could be done. The water in the traps evaporates or becomes foul, and thus the gas has a free entrance to the house. A water-closet helps greatly to cleanse the soil pipe and outside drain. It discharges a large volume of water into it suddenly, in a way to keep it clean. It is not a bad plan to use the closet at least once a day, solely for the purpose of flushing the drain. In houses where there are a number of wash-stands distributed through the various chambers and halls there is danger from neglect in using them. The water seal in the traps may evaporate, and thus give direct sewer-air connection with the house. Particularly is this so in the guest’s room. A wash-stand is a more dangerous fixture for this reason than any other in the house.

The water-closet problem has received a great deal of attention. A few years ago they were quite complicated, there being levers and pipes, pans, springs and weights, to a degree of complexity which caused a great deal of trouble. There has since been a return to first principles and great simplicity. The water-closet of to-day is nothing more or less than a large bowl connected by means of an “S” trap four inches in diameter with the soil pipe, and provided with means of flushing with large volumes of water. Such a closet is known as the “washout closet.” In other closets there is an intermediate plunger-valve separating the hopper from the trap. The plunger-valve is defined by its name. It is a large stopper which plunges into and closes up the opening to the trap by means of its own weight when released. That which makes one closet different from another has to do more with means of flushing than anything else. By flushing is meant the pouring into and distribution of water in the hopper. The most popular closets, those which have given the most satisfaction, are “washout” closets, made entirely of white earthenware, not alone the bowl, but the trap and connecting neck. Closets are best flushed from an independent tank, which is placed about seven feet above the closet and connects with it by means of 1¼-inch pipe. The height gives it a strong flush of water, which cleanses it thoroughly.

In the past it has been usual to conceal the earthenware or iron body of the closet. It is best to leave it entirely open around the sides, that the entire apparatus may be exposed. Sometimes it is necessary to support the flap and seat by legs, though the modern closets are arranged so that all of the woodwork may be secured to the upper part of the hopper or the wall. There should be the solid flap covering to the wooden seat with the opening in it, both of which should be hinged, so as to allow them to be thrown back. It is convenient to use the water-closet as a slop hopper. In order to do this the seat should be hinged, so that it may be thrown back out of the way.

One frequently hears it said by those who exercise their authority over household matters that they do not allow anything to be put into the water-closet except that which is naturally intended for it; meaning that they do not allow the slop water to be put into it. There is no reason in this. The closet that cannot be used for this purpose cannot, with safety, be allowed in the house. The use of the water-closet as a slop sink is not only legitimate but desirable. It flushes the drain.

There is a movement toward simplicity in general plumbing apparatus. At the time the water-closets were in the complicated state mentioned, everything pertaining to plumbing was in the same general condition. It was thought necessary to fill a house with a wilderness of pipes and traps to have it safe or satisfactory. The very complexity of the arrangement made it not only unsafe but expensive to maintain.

We have all heard a great deal about the expense of maintaining a plumbing plant, if it may be so called. There is no reason why there should be constant repairs and expense. It is pleasant to know that additional expense is not necessary to secure immunity from trouble. The idea of simplicity in arrangement, general excellence in the fixtures, material, and labor, which go to form the completed work, has to be borne in mind. The arrangement of the plumbing apparatus has to be planned with the same care and thoughtfulness as the other parts of the house.

It should be remembered that if the pipes are placed in a position where the temperature is liable to fall below thirty-two degrees the water in the pipes will freeze. Thus it is suggested that all pipes should be on an inside wall,—if possible, next to the kitchen flue,—and that there be here arranged an especial pipe duct of wood to ventilate the kitchen, and, at the same time, keep the pipes from freezing by means of the warm air which will pass through it. This duct should be covered on the face with a wide board, which can be readily removed by taking out a few screws. Thus the pipes may be exposed at any time desirable.

If the hot-water boiler in the kitchen is surrounded by an enclosure which has an opening in the bottom, and which connects from above with the pipe duct previously described, there will be a current of warm air passing upward through the pipe duct as long as there is warm water in the boiler. The water in the boiler will be warm long after everything else is cold. This will insure safety from freezing when other helps fail.

The cistern water is supplied to the bath-room, and to the hot-water reservoir, by means of a tank placed in the attic, or at least above the highest fixture. It sometimes happens that the supply pipe from the tank above the attic floor freezes. All this may be prevented by enclosing the tank, and the pipe which connects with it, with a large box or canvas covering which is six or eight inches larger than the tank. This confines the warm air from the duct mentioned, so that as long as there is heat it will always be in this enclosure.

The outside drain, which connects with the vault or sewer, is, in some instances, trapped previous to its entrance to the sewer or vault. In such cases, this trap should have a connection with the outer air, and on the side of the trap towards the house. Sometimes this outer-air connection is made into the water spout from the roof; but this is not proper, for the reason that the sewer gas, or the gas from the vault, is almost certain to destroy the spout. Again, this spout may come out near a dormer, or may pass near a window, and in either case may contaminate the air in the house. It is better that this ventilating connection should be in the yard, at some distance from the house, or, better yet, that there should be a long iron pipe extending well above the ground. It should be understood that this vent has no direct connection with the sewer, but merely with the soil pipe and drain back of the trap; with that part of it which is nearest to, and in, the house.

Sometimes it is necessary to run the down spouts into the sewer connection; in such a case one should be certain that the down-spout openings are not near the dormers, and that they have no connection whatever with the cistern. It is common to have a switch or cut-off in the down spout, so that the latter may be connected either with the cistern or sewer. This is very bad practice. While it is connected with the sewer or with the drain pipe, the down spout is contaminated with all the foulness of the air of the drain. On its being connected with the cistern, the water is poisoned.

Immunity from sewer gas in the house is largely dependent upon the flushing and ventilation of the drain and the soil pipe. In the case of a drain which is trapped as described, there is an air connection through the vent before the trap; then the soil pipe which is in the house should continue upward through the roof. Thus there is a fresh air inlet through the drain, and upward through the soil pipe of the house. Such a connection prevents the possibility of siphoning the traps, as it gives an outward air connection. The water passing through the drain or soil pipe can draw its supply of air from the upward soil vent, rather than through the traps which contain water. When there is no upward vent of the soil or drain, the water in the traps which connect therewith will be drawn out by the passage of water through the drain where fixtures are used.

There are those who maintain that there should be no trap in the yard or adjacent to the house, but that there should be a straight run from the soil pipe to the sewer or vault, and upward through the roof and above the house. It is good practice to use the trap as described for sewer connections, but not for open vault connections.

A grease sink is frequently placed in the drain to intercept the passage of grease into the vault. It is so placed and connected that only the water from the kitchen sink, or other fixtures where the water contains grease, may enter it. It is made of brick, and is usually of six or eight barrels capacity. A four-inch pipe connects it with the kitchen waste, and if the grease sink is placed adjacent to the main drain, there can be a similar connection between it and the main drain. It should be a siphon connection, so that the sink will become nearly full before it discharges. When it discharges through the siphon the water will go out with a rush and leave the grease in the sink. This makes an intermittent discharge into the main drain, which flushes or cleanses it thoroughly and is much better than a constant small flow of water. This grease sink must be cleaned from time to time. Small cast-iron grease sinks are sometimes placed under kitchen sinks in very large dwellings or hotels.

Nothing particular need be said in regard to wash-stands more than has been said, excepting, possibly, that the drain should be trapped, ventilated, and connected with the soil pipe; also that there should be a lead safe or safety pan on the floor under the wash-stand when they are enclosed; it is preferable that they should remain unenclosed. It has been common to connect this safe with the soil pipe. It is only intended that it should be useful in cases of accidental overflow; but, notwithstanding the fact that there be a trap in the safe waste or drain, it would be empty most of the time, because of the evaporation of the water. It is proper to make direct connection with the cellar or kitchen sink.

The bath-tub should have the same-sized drain connection as the wash-stand; that is, one and one-half inch in diameter, trapped. The overflows from both the wash-stand and tub should be flushed with hot water quite frequently, to avoid the soap smells which are so common to bath-rooms. It often happens that those who have bath-rooms in their houses imagine that they smell sewer gas, when it is nothing more or less than the smell of rancid soap.

CHAPTER XI.

HEAT AND VENTILATION.—COMMON HEATING ARRANGEMENTS.—PRESENT METHODS GENERALLY UNSATISFACTORY.—IDEAL CONDITIONS.—PROPER AMOUNT OF MOISTURE RARELY ATTAINED.—A FURNACE DEFINED.—METHODS OF REACHING BEST RESULTS.—SUPPLY OF PROPER AMOUNT OF MOISTURE.—REMOVAL OF FOUL AIR.—SUPPLYING FRESH AIR WITH PROPER MOISTURE FROM STOVES.—STEAM AND HOT WATER HEATING.—DIRECT AND INDIRECT RADIATION.—LOW-COST HEATING APPARATUS.

It is only within a short time that the heating and ventilation of buildings of any kind have been in any measure satisfactory. This applies only to the largest buildings; the heating and ventilating of smaller structures are still in an unsatisfactory condition. Most dwelling-houses are heated with stoves, which, as now arranged, are not successful. The same air is heated over and over again. Fresh air in the proper quantities or from the proper source is not supplied to the interior of the building. Grates are very well in their way in that they take large quantities of air from the room. Thus far they ventilate. The supply of air is necessarily irregular, unless special means are provided.

Furnaces are used for heating a very large number of houses. While they are satisfactory in some respects, they are deficient in others. The same thing may be said of steam, hot-water, or other heating apparatus.

As the statement has been made that heating systems in general, as applied to dwelling-houses, are unsatisfactory, it may be well to state the fault, and what is to be desired. It is not the purpose to consider this question chemically, or from a highly scientific standpoint; there is no occasion for it. It is well to bear in mind that we are considering the heating and ventilating of a house during cold weather, and not its ventilation during the summer, when natural means are to be relied upon. Then it may be asked, What is to be done? Primarily the air should be at the proper temperature at all times; it should be in its pure state, as found on the outside of the building, and not contaminated with any of the gases of combustion. It should be supplied with its proper equivalent of moisture at the temperature at which we find it in the room. As it becomes impure from natural causes, there should be some means of effecting its withdrawal.

These are the ideal conditions. How far do they exist in practice? The temperature is ordinarily high enough. The air of the room is apt to be contaminated by the gases of combustion, and vitiated by breathing and otherwise. Rarely indeed does it contain its proper equivalent of moisture; it is dry and parched. Now that we know the conditions in their ideal state and as they exist in fact, we will consider in detail what may be done to bring about more satisfactory results. If the heating apparatus be a furnace, it should be constructed of steel or wrought-iron plate, the joints thoroughly riveted and calked; or, if of other material, it should certainly be gas-tight. Every precaution should be taken to prevent the passage of the air of combustion from the furnace to the warm-air chambers and from thence to the rooms above. The furnace is nothing more or less than a large stove with various radiating arrangements, surrounded by an iron or brick enclosure, with a supply of fresh air from the outside, and with connecting tin pipes to the rooms above. It is important that the inner parts, the fire-pot, the radiating surface, etc., be thoroughly well built and gas-tight, to prevent the heated air from becoming contaminated by the gases of combustion. The supply of outer air should be ample. It should be so arranged that it can never be entirely cut off. The furnace should be of sufficient capacity so that means of reducing the outer air supply should not be necessary. However, if such arrangements are made, they should be limited.

The proper equivalent of moisture should be given to the air at the temperature at which it reaches the room. It may be said that there is a water-pan connected with every furnace, that will do everything necessary in supplying moisture. This is a mistake. So far as I know, the furnace or other heating apparatus for dwellings has not been constructed which is provided with a proper evaporating apparatus. The pan is set in the side of the furnace, with an opening to the outside into which water may be poured. It is small, and has very little evaporating surface on the inside. Oftentimes the joints at the outside are so poorly made that the cold air from the cellar may be drawn in over the water in the pan, and in that way prevent its proper evaporation. Winter air heated to a summer temperature is dry and parched, whereas natural summer air contains the proper amount of moisture. The outer air during the winter time has its proper equivalent of moisture for the winter temperature, which is a much smaller amount than would belong to it at a higher temperature. Therefore when we take winter air into the furnace or other heating apparatus, raise it to a summer temperature, and carry it into a room, we have a very dry air, which seeks its equivalent of moisture from the occupants of the room, from the furniture, carpets, walls, ceiling, and everything in it. The air will not take additional moisture unless that moisture be supplied after it has reached a higher temperature. For instance, if a spray or a series of wet blankets be arranged in the cold-air duct, before the air gets to the furnace, the air will not take the moisture from that spray or from the damp blankets. The moisture must be supplied after the air is heated. Where the water-pan is set on the side of the furnace, and where there is a supply of air through the pan from the cellar, as there frequently is, evaporation is naturally retarded by the cold air, as indicated. Again, if this pan be never so well protected, it is small, the proper amount of evaporating surface is not presented. An evaporating pan or other device should be placed above the fire-pot and should occupy a large proportion of the area of the heating chamber. The supply of water should not be dependent upon some one’s attention. It should be constant by means of a ball-cock or otherwise. It should run into or drip into a shallow pan, or should be supplied to sheets of felt or blanket so that the air will come in contact with the moist surfaces, at the temperature at which it is to go into the room. Thus it has the proper amount of moisture which belongs to it at that temperature. In this way we have winter air from the outside going into the room at a summer temperature and with a summer equivalent of moisture; that is, we have summer air in the winter time. People sometimes undertake to get around this by putting water-pans in the registers, but they are rarely ample. They are neglected, or they interfere with the supply of warm air, and are abandoned.

Where a furnace is already in a house, or where it is not possible to make elaborate arrangements for providing the air with moisture, there is a very simple makeshift which is quite effective. It consists in suspending in the registers in the floor small water receptacles—a quart bucket answers every purpose—in which is placed a broad strip of linen. This cloth should go to the bottom of the receptacle and be long enough to hang over and below it for several inches. When the bucket is filled with water this piece of cloth acts as a siphon, and carries the water, a drop at a time, into the furnace-pipe, where it is converted into steam. A piece of old table-linen is the best material to use, for the reason that it carries the water fast enough, that the heat from the furnace does not dry it out before it can drop into the pipe; otherwise the cloth becomes dry at the end, and the siphonage ceases. For the same reason it should be broad,—about twelve inches. Where a moderate heat is carried through the furnace-pipe, three quarts of water may be evaporated in this way in twenty-four hours from each bucket. A bucket of the size mentioned does not in any way interfere with the passage of heat.

The next point for consideration is the means of getting the foul, contaminated air to the outside. One way is through the use of grates. Another is by means of ducts in the wall, opening near the floor, which draw the foul air from the room to the outside. These should consist of heated flues, with connecting registers in the ceiling and floor, which may be open when necessary. Under any circumstances, the grate is best. Sometimes the flue may be heated by a supply of warm air from the furnace, or by a steam-pipe in case steam is used for heating the house. In natural-gas regions, the supply of additional heat in a flue from a furnace or by a jet would be a small matter.

We have mentioned heating by stoves, grates, and furnaces. The same principles which apply to the furnishing of fresh air to a furnace may be applied to a stove. The fact is, they never have been. A stove should be made, and will be made some day, that is surrounded on the outside by a second jacket, the space between being connected with the outer air by means of a tin tube to the under side of the stove. The supply of cold air could be so arranged as to be shut off when there was no heat in the stove. The warm air would pass out at the top of the jacket. On top of the stove could be placed an evaporating pan, and the supply of moisture come therefrom. In connection with the stove-pipe, which should be jacketed, a second ventilating flue, starting from the floor and having an opening both above and below, could be arranged, and in that way the supply of fresh air and withdrawal of impure air could be accomplished.

Next we may speak of steam and hot-water heating. So far as a change of air and the ventilation of the room are concerned, heating by direct radiation, that is, by radiators placed in the room, is no better than stove heating. It may be that the air is not so severely parched by the extreme heat, also the escape of steam may contribute somewhat to the moisture of the air; but the escape of steam is not agreeable, and is not allowed to exist to any great extent;—its odor is not always pleasant. Certainly the addition of moisture to the air by this means would be a mere makeshift and unsatisfactory.

Hot-water coils act the same as steam radiators in that they heat the same air over and over again, and are no better than stoves, so far as the provision for fresh air, at proper temperature and humidity, is concerned.

A steam or hot-water apparatus, with indirect radiation, is superior to furnace heat as ordinarily provided. The means of supplying moisture to an indirect steam apparatus, as ordinarily constructed, are not convenient. There is a radiator for each hot-air connection above, that is, a radiator for each register, with a distinct and direct supply of outer air thereto. Sometimes there are two registers connecting with a single radiator. But under any circumstances the radiators are somewhat separated, having steam or water connection with the boiler at the proper point. Steam apparatus for public buildings has been constructed where the radiators have been bunched, that is, put into a single chamber, the air passing through the chamber containing the radiators, where it is heated to the proper temperature, and the moisture afterwards supplied before it enters the room. Where this arrangement is used, there must be conductors, tin or otherwise, from the chamber to the register, as in the case of a furnace. Again, it will be found that the supply of air will not be uniform through all of the openings; for instance, the register that is farthest removed from the warm-air chamber may fail to act. In this event, auxiliary radiators may be placed under that register, and the operation of the heating apparatus greatly facilitated thereby. This plan is superior to a furnace, and can be applied to hot-water or steam apparatus in dwellings. The reason that it is superior to a furnace is that the supply of heat is more uniform. It does not require the constant firing or attention that is necessary in the case of a hot-air furnace. It may be known that the temperature does not change with the pressure of steam or in the same proportion.

There are inexpensive automatic arrangements in connection with furnaces and steam apparatus, which control the dampers and keep the steam pressure measurably uniform, as long as there is fuel of sufficient quantity in the fire-pot. The hot-water apparatus is more uniform in its operation than steam, and for that reason more satisfactory.

A furnace plant is the most inexpensive apparatus that may be used for general heating; the steam apparatus is next higher as to first cost, though no more expensive in amount of fuel used. The hot-water apparatus costs more than steam, and is somewhat more economical in the cost of maintenance. It is probable that a house of moderate size can be warmed all over at a less cost, as far as fuel is concerned, by a furnace or a steam or hot-water heating apparatus than by stoves and grates. However, grates are generally used in addition to these for the purpose of comfort and appearance, and for ventilating. Under such circumstances, they consume very little fuel.

CHAPTER XII.

HEATING DEVICES AS WE FIND THEM.—FURNACE ESTIMATES.—COMBINATION HOT AIR AND HOT WATER.—DISH-WARMING ARRANGEMENTS.—HOW TO GET A GOOD HEATING APPARATUS.

For the present, people who build must take things as they find them, and use heating and ventilating apparatus as regularly manufactured. Experiments are uncertain. The theory of the proper heating and ventilating of a house as set forth in previous chapter is correct. The fulfilment of the ideas in dwelling-house heating remains to be practically worked out. It is not the business of the architect, or the housewife, or the owner of the house, to work out these mechanical details. It will be done in time by competent mechanical experts.

In the estimates subsequently given, the furnace is the only means considered for general heating. However, this does not indicate a prejudice in favor of that particular method. The furnace is considered and figured upon as the ordinary method of heating houses of moderate cost. It is the least expensive plant to be used for general heating. Indirect radiation from hot water or steam is to be preferred to a furnace. A combination of a hot-air furnace with hot water, or steam, is used with fair success. In this case, a hot-water coil is placed in an ordinary furnace, which connects with hot-water radiators in a conservatory or other room for the purpose of contributing a uniform degree of heat to that room. The water supply is a tank, located well above the level of the radiators, and connecting through an inlet pipe with the coil in the furnace. The proper means of supplying this tank with water is through a ball-cock or float-cock, the float of which opens the valve when the water gets low in the tank. Thus the supply is as constant as the source. A hot-water radiator of this kind may be used in connection with a device for warming dishes or keeping food warm. The heat is gentle, uniform, and constant. This is a general advantage of all hot-water heating.

Aside from the automatic arrangements for controlling the steam or water pressure in the heating apparatus, and thus measurably controlling the temperature in the building, other more positive automatic arrangements are provided which undertake to maintain any fixed temperature. These are proprietary devices, patented and advertised.

Complaints are made of the general inefficiency of everything under the sun: hence, furnaces and other heating apparatus come in for their share. An architect is sometimes asked how he would heat a certain building. He answers, “Hot water, steam, or furnace.”—“Oh, I wouldn’t have steam. My uncle had a steam plant in his house, and they nearly froze to death all last winter; and they burned over a ton of coal a week.” The same things are said, and truly, of every kind of heating apparatus made, when we consider them in general classes. General complaints of a similar nature are made of everything. In regard to the steam plant or hot-water apparatus, or anything else of which this thing may have been said, one may first acknowledge its truthfulness, and then consider what it all means. Something is at fault. It may be that the whole design of the apparatus is faulty. The design may be right, and the construction bad. Everything else may be right, but the apparatus too small; or there may be some little defect which has to do with the placing of the apparatus in the house. Sometimes, when everything is in good form, the apparatus does not receive proper attention: hence trouble.

It may be asked how one is to get a good heating apparatus for a dwelling-house. The first thing to be determined is, the particular kind to be used: whether hot-water, steam, or hot-air furnace. There are many manufacturers of the various apparatus, who are regularly in the business. To these may be submitted plans of the building, and a request for estimates and suggestions. It is the experience of an architect that one who is putting money regularly in the manufacture or production of anything will not waste his energies for a great length of time on a bad thing, if he knows it. The evidence that an establishment has been putting up good furnaces or other heating apparatus is long-continued business success. If the owner of a house writes to an old-established, wealthy concern, and sends his plans, he is as certain to get a reliable proposition as he can be of anything. A local agent of an establishment of this kind may misrepresent, unintentionally or otherwise. The surest way is to go to headquarters. The local agent does not always know exactly what should be done. A competent architect can settle all these matters for an owner. However, if an architect says there are only one or two furnaces or heating apparatus which are all right, he is either ignorant or dishonest. There are many different kinds which will give fair satisfaction.

The idea in this chapter is to take things as we find them, and suggest what may be done. The theories outlined in the previous chapter may be correct, but they do not amount to anything to a man who is building to-day. The only purpose of this chapter is to suggest to those who are building that they go to a first-class house, pay a fair price, and get the best possible apparatus regularly in the market.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE HOUSE AND ITS BEAUTY.—ARTISTIC SURROUNDINGS.—BEAUTY MORE A MATTER OF INTELLIGENCE THAN MONEY.—VESTIBULE DECORATIONS.—BEAUTY IN THE RECEPTION-HALL.—MANTELS AND GRATES.—FRET-WORK AND PORTIÈRES.—SPINDLE WORK.—SIMPLE FORMS OF GOOD DECORATION.—WOOD-CARVING.—DOOR AND WINDOW CASINGS.—A CONSERVATORY.—STAINED GLASS.—A CABINET ON THE MANTEL.—TINTED PLASTERING.—FRESCOING.—SAFETY IN THE SELECTION OF COLORS.—AN ATTRACTIVE SITTING-ROOM.—THE PARLOR.—A RECEPTION-ROOM.—PARLOR HISTORY.—THE IDEAL PARLOR.—THE LIBRARY.—A PLACE OF QUIET AND REST.—LIBRARY FURNISHINGS.—THE DINING-ROOM.—SOCIAL RELATIONS OF THE DINING-ROOM.—DINING-ROOM DECORATIONS.—CONSERVATORY AND DINING-ROOM.—A WOOD CEILING.—BEAUTY IN BEDROOMS.—QUIET AND LIGHT.

The journey through the house is hardly complete until we abandon the material view, and consider it from the standpoint of beauty. As is said in another connection, the architect does not do his full duty in making a house a model of convenience and utility. The housekeeper always looks toward a beautiful home, something that will be recognized for its beauty and elegance. A house that is beautiful and attractive gives pleasure to all who see it, as well as to the occupants. A beautiful, artistic house is a source of education to the occupants. A porch with clumsy columns, rude mouldings, heavy ceiling, coarse details of all kinds, cannot but affect one’s living. One that is fine in detail, generous in size, decorated in artistic spirit, must of necessity not alone contribute to the comfort of those who live in the house, but serve to lift them from that which is common and ordinary. People may be surrounded by that which is beautiful and artistic, and for a time fail to realize its true excellence, or they may be surrounded with that which is homely and crude without knowing the full measure of its ugliness. The time must come, however, when the truth will be realized to a certain extent. If it is in the direction of the appreciation of what is beautiful, it must necessarily bring about a higher state of mind. No man can walk across a front porch, time after time, and take hold of a beautiful door, without being affected by it. For this reason the vestibule, the front door, and all that belongs to it, should be designed in a thoughtful spirit, with the idea that it is the first of all things that will impress those who enter the house. There may not be much money to put into this door, but what there is may as well bring something beautiful as something ugly. The same money that will make an ugly detail will make a beautiful, artistic one. If the glass of this door must be inexpensive, let it be the ordinary cathedral glass. Instead of being brilliant in color, select a soft, mild tint,—a light amber or a straw color. If there are divisions in the door so that a number of sheets may be used, two tints at most are all that are necessary. It is best that they should be quiet in tone. If money is more abundant, and an elaborate stained-glass design may be had, put the work in the hands of an artist, one who is well known, and the result cannot but be satisfactory. As to the door itself, nothing can be nicer than natural wood, properly finished. The detail of the design should be refined; there should be an avoidance of all that is clumsy and heavy. The spirit of the interior may be stamped upon this door. Where one cannot encompass the expense of an artistically designed glass for the door or vestibule opening, a very pretty effect may be secured by the use of a plain sheet of plate-glass; or, if desired, a slight additional expense will give glass with bevelled edges. Sometimes this bevelled glass is in small squares, with leaded joints. This gives a very simple and rich effect from either side.