CHAPTER XXII.
OUTGROWTHS OF ONE IDEA.—EVERYTHING COUNTS AS A ROOM.—ONE CHIMNEY.—CONVENIENCES OF A CONDENSED HOUSE.—COST FROM $1,600 TO $2,800.
Plans [Nos. 16], [17], and [18] are all outgrowths of the same idea. It is the most economical general scheme for a house that is represented in this collection. In [No. 16] there is not more than forty-eight square feet of hall space in the entire house. This is on the second floor. This plan was devised under an extraordinary pressure for a roomy house for a relatively small sum of money. Everything is made to count for a room. Twelve sets of plans of this general kind were made for as many different owners of houses during one season. This statement is made for the purpose of indicating its popularity. We will look through [No. 16] with some respect to detail.
It is a one-chimney plan. There are three grates with independent flues in the three principal rooms on the first floor, and two grates with their flues on the second floor. One among other points of economy is the stairway arrangement. It is a combination, front, rear, and cellar all in compact form. There are two doors between the kitchen and the landing of the main stairway. In this respect it is like other combination stairways which have been described. The front and rear stairway come to the same landing, and from thence to the second floor. The front stairway is provided with a railing, baluster, etc., and the one from the kitchen is within an enclosure. There may be portières between the landing and the reception-hall. Thus one may pass from the kitchen to the second floor without coming into view from this room. The cellar stairway goes down under the main stairway. The combination idea is carried out again in the pantry and china-closet. This pantry and its arrangement in detail are fully described in [Chapter VI.], and illustrated in [Fig. 4]. The vestibule next to the reception-hall is the one referred to in [Chapter V].
On the second floor are four bedrooms and a bath-room, which is immediately over the kitchen. There is a straight run of pipe in a pipe duct on the inside wall.
[Fig. 17] is a photographic view of the exterior. It is an ultra shingle design.
Figure 17
[Fig. 18] is an elevation of Plan [No. 17]. [Fig. 19] of Plan [No. 18].
[No. 17] is the house in which the general plan was first worked out, and, in some respects, it shows that the idea was then in an experimental stage. However, it indicates a house of moderate size on this plan, whereas No. 16 is a large house. No. 18 is the small size of the same plan. It has been built many times as a rental house. With the furnace it is under lease, in one instance, for five hundred dollars a year. In other cases, without a furnace but including plumbing with the use of city water only, the rent is thirty-five dollars a month. Any of these plans can be worked into a double house by putting the bathroom on the outside, and adding to the amount of window space front and rear. The following is a list of costs, without appurtenances, as per schedule “B”:—
No. 16, as a shingle house, $2,800; No. 17, $2,200; No. 18, $1,600.
The latter figure includes soft-wood finish throughout. Other sizes of this house have been built where the general construction aggregated $2,400.