The servant’s room is not usually very large, seldom large enough. It should be provided with a closet, the same as other rooms. The window in that room should be set high enough from the floor so as to admit of the placing of a trunk under it, without interfering with the light or in other ways appearing uncomfortable.
The bath-room and general plumbing work are considered in detail in the following chapter. It is sufficient to say that there should be as little wood-work as possible in the bath-room. Water-proof plastering should be used, and when this becomes soiled it can be washed and painted.
There is nothing a housekeeper appreciates more than a good attic and an easy stairway leading to it. Often attics are not plastered; they should always be floored at the same time the house is built. Where it is not possible to make divisions by plastering, and other substantial material, light wooden partitions will serve the purpose of providing means of classifying that which is stored in the attic, and prevent it from being in a continual state of disorder. The rooms may be fitted with shelves, closets, etc.
Where it is possible so to do, the attic room should be plastered. It makes the rooms below appreciably cooler in summer. In most of the plans herein illustrated, the roof is high enough to provide space for good rooms, with ceilings as high and as square as those of the rooms below. It is cheaper to provide rooms in this way than to spread over more ground; and there is certainly no valid objection to their use by the boys of the family.
CHAPTER X.
PLUMBING.—IS PLUMBING ENTIRELY SAFE?—COMPLETENESS IN PLUMBING APPARATUS.—LABOR-SAVING PLUMBING APPARATUS.—SEWER CONNECTIONS.—SOIL PIPE.—A TRAP.—ACCIDENTS TO TRAPS.—FREQUENT USE OF PLUMBING APPARATUS DESIRABLE FOR SAFETY.—WATER-CLOSETS.—SIMPLICITY IN PLUMBING.—DRAIN CONNECTIONS.—TO KEEP PLUMBING APPARATUS FROM FREEZING.—CISTERN WATER SUPPLY.—GREASE SINK.—FLUSHING OF DRAIN.—BATH-TUB.
In considering the plumbing apparatus of a house, the question is often asked, “Are these things safe? Do they not endanger the health of the occupants of the house?” The answer is, The plumbing apparatus may be entirely safe. That it is not always so, we all know. We hear of many cases of typhoid fever, diphtheria, scarlet fever, and other diseases, which are traceable to, or aggravated by, defective plumbing. In some sections of the country so much trouble has been caused by poor plumbing, that the people, as a class, have come to be suspicious of all. The reason for this is the effort to cheapen the work. Suffering from bad work has led to safety. In larger cities this work is under the control of the city government. It may be said that it is possible so to arrange the fixtures and apparatus appertaining to plumbing that it is entirely safe. The question naturally follows, “How is this done?”
It may be said that good work is not a great deal more expensive than poor work. Again, good work is not always a question of money. It is one of knowledge or inclination on the part of the plumber.