The laying of the floors should be the last carpenter work done in the new house. All this implies that a rough, cheap floor has been laid when the frame was constructed. The rough, diagonally laid sub-floor will cost something extra, but it results in so many benefits that it should never be dispensed with.
Fig. 82. A plain base board.
Fig. 83. A complex base board.
Windows and door frames must have inside casings, and baseboards, kitchen wainscoting and picture moldings cannot well be dispensed with. All these should be of the simplest and plainest construction. [Fig. 82] shows a cross section of a plain baseboard, and [Fig. 83] one of complex construction. Two styles of facings are shown in [Fig. 84]. The one style forms lodging places for dirt; the other reduces dust catching to the minimum. I notice that some of the newer passenger coaches, though most elegant, are built with smooth inside finish. With the exception of the window sills there are no lodging places for dust and cinders. The old-fashioned doors with thin panels, and numerous moldings have been discarded, and those as plain and uniform in thickness as a pane of window glass, substituted for them. The picture molding, as shown in [Fig. 85], may serve to support the picture and catch dirt as well. The other illustration ([Fig. 86]) shows one which may serve quite as well for the purpose desired without forming a dust shelf. If the window sashes are made with plain bevels and not molded, and all other window fixtures, as stops and the like, are constructed in the same way, the labor of keeping the house clean will be greatly reduced.
Fig. 84. Two styles of facing.
Fig. 85. The common but faulty picture moulding.