CHAPTER XX.
A COMPACT PLAN.—AN ISOLATED RECEPTION-ROOM.—COMBINATION STAIRWAY.—DESCRIPTION OF THE FLOOR PLAN.—CELLAR ARRANGEMENT.—DINING-ROOM AND CONSERVATORY.—ANOTHER PLAN.
The floor plans in [No. 11] are of a house of small area, 30 × 34½ feet, for body of the structure. There is a porch in front, a circular bay window at one side, and a pantry and china-closet projecting at the rear. In the house there are eight available rooms besides the bath-room and the attic. In the attic, rooms quite as liberal as any in the house could be constructed at a small expense.
On the first floor, as we enter, there is the reception or sitting hall, which is so common in the more modern arrangements of dwellings. This reception hall or room has a certain amount of isolation from the passage which leads from the vestibule to the stairway and the rear portion of the house. It may be separated therefrom by curtains or portières. It would be entirely possible to separate the two by means of sliding doors, in which event the opening from the room into the passage would have to be a little narrower than shown in the drawings. This room could be used as the office of a physician, or of a gentleman who did more or less business at home. By making the front vestibule about six inches deeper, a separate entrance to this room could be provided. In this event, a door from the room into the passage leading to the living part of the house would be a necessity. The circular bay end of this room would present an attractive feature. The windows in this part of the room could be placed about four feet from the floor, in which event book-shelves could be arranged below them. The window in front goes to within seventeen inches of the floor. Under the stairway, and leading from this room, may be placed a very liberal closet, in which there should be a small window.
Leading from the passage is the stairway, and two closets. The little passage in which one closet is placed is separated from the hall by a door. There is another door opening from this passage into the kitchen. Thus there are two doors between the kitchen and the front part of the house. This arrangement has in mind the isolation of the kitchen from the other rooms in a way to prevent the passage of the usual kitchen odors.
The stairways in this house are of the class known as combination stairways; while they are convenient and easy of construction, there is a certain amount of complication in their arrangement which makes them difficult of description so as to be understood by those not accustomed to examining floor plans. There is the stairway from the front hall to the floor above, and one from the kitchen to the landing of the front stairway. The landing of the front stairway and that from the kitchen stairway is in common; that is, it is the same. For the purpose of making this understood, it may be well to say that one may go up the stairway from the front hall to the landing, some eight steps, and from thence down into the kitchen, or he can turn right face and go to the landing on the second floor. This part of the stairs is used coming up from the kitchen as well as from the front hall. However, the kitchen stairway is separated from the landing by a door. There is another door at the foot of this kitchen stairway. In coming downstairs, one may turn to the right, open a door, and go down into the kitchen; or, he may turn to the left, and go down the front stairway into the hall. Thus it will be seen that the combination stairway is a front and rear stairway together, with separate entrance from both parts of the house,—one from the kitchen, and one from the front hall. It must be confessed that there is a certain amount of compromise in an arrangement of this kind, but it is a saving of both space and money, and is tolerable on this account. By this plan everything is concentrated, and without the serious drawback which extra cost, or a smaller number of rooms, would imply to those who have only a little over two thousand dollars to spend for a house, without appurtenances. The head room for the stairway, coming up from the kitchen, is secured under the bath-tub in the bath-room immediately above.
The cellar stairway is clearly indicated as going down parallel to the kitchen stairs and under the front stairs. The cellar in this house should be under the kitchen, stairways, and the reception-hall; that is, it would occupy all of one side of the house. In this cellar plan the principles set forth in the previous chapter on cellars are carried out.
The parlor is thirteen and one-half by seventeen feet in size. It is connected with a hall by wide sliding doors, so that about one-half of this side of the room may be open. The grate opposite the sliding doors in the parlor would present a very beautiful view from the hall and stairway. The sliding doors between the parlor and dining-room are placed there more in deference to custom than through any personal sense of their fitness. Sliding doors do not have the quality of excluding sound or odors that is desirable. The ordinary hinged door is better in this respect. This room which would commonly be called a parlor would really be used as a living-room, excepting by those who use the dining-room or one of the second-floor chambers for that purpose.
Our dining-room has an independent connection with the front hall, so that we do not have to go through the parlor or the sitting-room to reach it. A little extra money, say seventy dollars, would place a conservatory at one side, at one corner, or at the end of this dining-room. Fifty dollars would give a bay window. As it is, we have two windows of the ordinary kind at one side of the room, and none at the end. A very good arrangement, when bay or conservatory is not used, would be to take one of these windows at the side and place it at the rear end, though near the outside corner of the room. This would give space between the windows and the china-closet door for a sideboard. The window at the side of the dining-room, if the other were moved to the end, should be in the middle of the wall space; that is, opposite the centre of the flue.
From the dining-room we go into the kitchen through the china-pantry, which is marked “passage.” This china-pantry has a little window at one side, and at the end a separate apartment for chinaware, which is closed from the passage by means of glass doors. The doors leading from the passage into the dining-room and kitchen should be hung on double-swinging hinges.
There are those who would say that there should be no door from the kitchen into the passage leading from the dining-room to the front hall. It would probably be well to retain this door in this position, and have a bolt on the side of the door toward the hall. Thus the mistress of the house can close it, and keep it closed at will. Another thing that might be done would be to place a strong spring on this door which would always keep it closed. The windows in this kitchen should be placed about three feet from the floor, so that tables may be placed under them. There is a place for a gas-stove between the two windows, or even under them if desirable. The porch at the rear of the kitchen may be enclosed with lattice work, or, what is better, coarse louvered slats, like those of a shutter. In either event, it could be covered with screen wire, and made a part of the kitchen in summer. In the plan, however, nothing of this kind is indicated. The door which leads from the porch into the pantry is a small one, placed above the ice-chest, and is for the use of the ice-man.
The arrangement of rooms upstairs will be readily understood. Leading out of the hall is a store closet for bedding, etc. It is located so as to be accessible from all rooms. From the front end of the hall a door leads into the stair passage to the attic.
Plan [No. 12] is the outgrowth of Plan [No. 11]. In it there is a lift running from cellar to attic, as shown. The only important difference between it and No. 11 is in the size of the library. Cost, as per schedule “B,” $2,600. [Fig. 14] is an elevation: see page 147.