Convenient Houses, With Fifty Plans for the Housekeeper

by Louis H. Gibson

CHAPTER XXIII.

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.

This house—Plan [No. 19]—has been built for $1,400. It is a one-story cottage, containing five rooms, a bath-room, and a pantry. Such a house is suited to young people of moderate means, or possibly to older ones, where there are no children, or where the housekeeper does her own work. It will be seen that it gives more of the conveniences of a larger house than are usually found in a cottage of this size.

From the porch we pass into a little vestibule, which might be made larger by throwing into it the closet which opens from the sitting-room. From the vestibule we go either into the parlor or the sitting-room. This parlor could be used as the living-room of the house, and the sitting-room as the dining-room, and still meet all the conditions of good housekeeping. Off from the sitting-room is a projection, which could be very comfortably arranged as a window-seat. It could be used as such during warm weather, and as a place for plants in winter. In the corner of this room is a closet, which may be connected with the kitchen by a slide. There are sliding doors between the sitting-room and the bedroom. In the front part of the bedroom is a large closet. It is possible that many would prefer to have a window at this point, and have a smaller closet elsewhere; say, in the corner next to the sliding-door partition. The placing of a closet next to the rear wall would leave no place for a bed as the rooms are now arranged. If the door from the parlor to the bedroom were omitted the head of the bed might be placed against the sliding-door partition, and the closet cut out from the rear bedroom, with an opening leading into the front bedroom.

From the sitting-room, or from the front bedroom, we pass into a little hall; and from the hall into the kitchen, the bathroom, or the rear bedroom. Over each of the five doors leading into this hall there should be a transom; thus it would be well lighted. The placing of the hall in this way makes all of the rooms surrounding it independently accessible. The rear bedroom has a place for a bed, a large closet, and a wall space for necessary furniture. The availability of a bedroom is not always dependent upon its size. A room may be large, and yet not contain wall space for the furniture. A large bedroom may have a small closet. This bedroom has a large one.

The bath-room comes next to the kitchen flue. This is important when we consider that the kitchen flue is frequently the last one in the house to get cool. As here arranged, the pipe connections with the bath-tub would all be short; they would all be near this flue, and on the inside wall. Hence the conditions would be against freezing. There is a hollow thimble in the pipe connections between the kitchen flue and the bedroom. The bath-room might connect with the same flue or flue-stack. Connecting with the bath-room there is a large linen-closet, which is about the proper size and form for folded bed-clothes. It is near the bath-room window, so that when the closet-door is open the contents will be plainly in view.

There is a large window in one side of the kitchen, which should be placed three feet from the floor, so as to admit of a table being set under it. If the kitchen stove were placed next the wall separating the kitchen and sitting-room, it could be piped across to the kitchen flue, and in that way leave the wall space adjacent to that flue and near the bath-tub for the kitchen sink. This would bring all the plumbing work together. At one side of this sink could be placed a well-pump, and a cistern-pump at the other.

In the rear of the kitchen are a porch and a pantry. We go down cellar directly from the kitchen. Over the headway of the cellar stairs could be placed a closet for various stores, such as canned fruit. This closet, of course, would be connected with the pantry, as shown. The necessity for head room in going into the cellar would make it necessary to place the floor of this closet three or four feet above the pantry floor.

On the side of the pantry opposite this closet are two cup-boards, with doors and shelves above and below. There is a place for a flour-bin or flour-barrel under the dough-board, and space for an ice-box next to it. This box should have a drain connecting with the outside. It is intended to have the cellar under the kitchen and bath-room, though it might be extended under the sitting-room also. This part of the cellar might be used as a fuel-room, and thus dispense with wood and coal sheds. With the fuel and water in the house, the housekeeper would be saved much work. Where a kitchen sink is provided, it would be unnecessary even to carry out the dish-water.

There are two flue-stacks in this building. A base-burner would warm the sitting-room and bedroom and temper the air of the parlor. A grate fire in the parlor would complete the work of heating that room.

The cut of the exterior, [Fig. 20], tells its own story. The porch has turned columns, and a frieze decorated with scroll-work. The window seat may have a window at each end, as shown in the floor-plan, or panels, as indicated in the elevation. There is a gable at the side and over the window seat, which extends the full width of the sitting-room.

Plan [No. 20] is a development of Plan [No. 19]. Without appurtenances it cost $1,200.

Plan [No. 21] is an enlargement of [No. 19]. The pantry and china-room are arranged differently. The doors leading into the china-room are glazed in their upper panels with cathedral glass. This obscures the view, and gives sufficient light. These doors were hung on double-spring hinges, so frequently mentioned. Over the dining-room and chamber are two finished bedrooms. They are arranged in the high part of the roof, and, with dormers, would have only a small part of the upper corners clipped. There are two grates more than shown in Plan [No. 19]. The stairway arrangement may be reversed, so that one goes to the second floor from the hall rather than from the kitchen. This house cost, with two finished rooms on the second floor, without appurtenances, as per schedule “B,” $1,700.

Plan [No. 22] can be built and finished for $800. The gable arrangement would be about the same as in Fig. [No. 20].

Plan [No. 23] was built, including everything that went on to the lot, for $1,600.

Plan [No. 24], as per schedule “B,” cost $1,100.

Plan [No. 25], without appurtenances, cost $1,400.

One-story houses cost more for the accommodations which they afford than two-story buildings, for the reason that it takes the same foundation and roof for a one-story house that it does for one of two stories of the same area on the first floor. In fact, it usually takes more foundation and roof for a one-story house than it does for a two-story, for the reason that it covers more ground space than would be required for the same or a larger number of rooms in the two floors.

[No. 26]. This is a peculiar type of a one-story house. There is a servants room over the kitchen. It is a very comfortable arrangement. The bath-room stands between the two bedrooms. There is a grate in each of the rooms on the lower floor. The kitchen-sink arrangements are not altogether satisfactory. It is a plan which will never be very popular. It is designed to be finished with shingles for the outside wall. The structure will cost about two thousand dollars, as per schedule “B.”

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