CHAPTER XVIII.
TWO GOOD ROOMS IN FRONT.—THE COMBINATION PANTRY.—TOO MUCH CELLAR A BURDEN.—$2,500.
In Plan [No. 9], the reception-room contains the front stairway. This stairway lands near the front of the house on the second floor, for which reason we are enabled to have in the front part of the house the two rooms which are most used on each floor. We have the two chambers above, and the reception-room and the sitting-room below. If we had a long, narrow stair hall constructed in the usual way, we should have the sitting-room towards the rear, and only a little alcove bedroom over the hall in front.
The dining-room, which is a large room, is connected with the front part of the house by sliding-doors. It has a grate in one corner of it. On general principles, a grate has no business in the dining-room. It is nearly always at some one’s back, and makes him uncomfortable at meal time. Being in the corner of the room, it is farther from any one than it would be if located on a side wall: hence it may be allowed. There is a porch in the rear of the dining-room, and between the door leading to it and the door to the china-closet there is a space for a side-board. There are two windows at the end of this dining-room. The door which passes into the pantry should be on double spring-hinges, so that it will swing both ways. One can push against it and open from either side, and when it is released it will take its natural position.
The pantry is a large one. Pantries, in general, may be regarded as a kitchen annex—a store-room and preparing-room. This pantry is on the combination plan. It connects with the china-closet by means of a slide. Aside from this china-closet, which projects into it, there is a cupboard with double doors at one end, a flour-bin at the side, a pastry table next to it, and a refrigerator by the window. One reason for placing this refrigerator near the window is, that a flight of steps and a platform might be arranged on the outside, so that the iceman could put in the ice without going through the kitchen. We go down cellar from this pantry.
There is a cellar under about half of this house—the kitchen and the dining-room. It should have a cemented floor, and numerous windows for lighting it. The part under the kitchen could be used for a laundry, that under the dining-room for coal storage and furnace. There could be an excavation under a part of the sitting-room for vegetable storage. “Why not put a cellar under the whole house? It would cost but little more,” has been asked many times. It is the little things, the smaller economies, in a building of this kind which makes the difference between an expensive house and a house of moderate cost. Every foot of cellar space beyond what is needed for actual use is a burden to the housekeeper. The arrangement has more to do with the number of apartments than with the amount of space. We have a laundry-room, a place for furnace and fuel, and a room for vegetables, which is about all that can be used. From the cellar we can go up the stairway and into the kitchen, from the kitchen to the second floor, and from the second floor to the attic.
It is a large attic, a place for large rooms if one should need them. Under any circumstances this attic should be floored. There could be no better place for general storage, and at times for drying clothes.
It seldom happens that two houses from exactly the same plan are built. While this plan has pleased many people, there are others who would not be attracted by it; who would not care to build this house as their home. The universal floor plan has never been made, and never will be. There are general principles running through all plans which are valuable, and if rightly understood will contribute to the improvement of the homes of the people.
[Fig. 13] is an elevation.
Cost, without appurtenances, $2,500, as per schedule “B.”