In the estimates subsequently given, the furnace is the only means considered for general heating. However, this does not indicate a prejudice in favor of that particular method. The furnace is considered and figured upon as the ordinary method of heating houses of moderate cost. It is the least expensive plant to be used for general heating. Indirect radiation from hot water or steam is to be preferred to a furnace. A combination of a hot-air furnace with hot water, or steam, is used with fair success. In this case, a hot-water coil is placed in an ordinary furnace, which connects with hot-water radiators in a conservatory or other room for the purpose of contributing a uniform degree of heat to that room. The water supply is a tank, located well above the level of the radiators, and connecting through an inlet pipe with the coil in the furnace. The proper means of supplying this tank with water is through a ball-cock or float-cock, the float of which opens the valve when the water gets low in the tank. Thus the supply is as constant as the source. A hot-water radiator of this kind may be used in connection with a device for warming dishes or keeping food warm. The heat is gentle, uniform, and constant. This is a general advantage of all hot-water heating.
Aside from the automatic arrangements for controlling the steam or water pressure in the heating apparatus, and thus measurably controlling the temperature in the building, other more positive automatic arrangements are provided which undertake to maintain any fixed temperature. These are proprietary devices, patented and advertised.
Complaints are made of the general inefficiency of everything under the sun: hence, furnaces and other heating apparatus come in for their share. An architect is sometimes asked how he would heat a certain building. He answers, “Hot water, steam, or furnace.”—“Oh, I wouldn’t have steam. My uncle had a steam plant in his house, and they nearly froze to death all last winter; and they burned over a ton of coal a week.” The same things are said, and truly, of every kind of heating apparatus made, when we consider them in general classes. General complaints of a similar nature are made of everything. In regard to the steam plant or hot-water apparatus, or anything else of which this thing may have been said, one may first acknowledge its truthfulness, and then consider what it all means. Something is at fault. It may be that the whole design of the apparatus is faulty. The design may be right, and the construction bad. Everything else may be right, but the apparatus too small; or there may be some little defect which has to do with the placing of the apparatus in the house. Sometimes, when everything is in good form, the apparatus does not receive proper attention: hence trouble.
It may be asked how one is to get a good heating apparatus for a dwelling-house. The first thing to be determined is, the particular kind to be used: whether hot-water, steam, or hot-air furnace. There are many manufacturers of the various apparatus, who are regularly in the business. To these may be submitted plans of the building, and a request for estimates and suggestions. It is the experience of an architect that one who is putting money regularly in the manufacture or production of anything will not waste his energies for a great length of time on a bad thing, if he knows it. The evidence that an establishment has been putting up good furnaces or other heating apparatus is long-continued business success. If the owner of a house writes to an old-established, wealthy concern, and sends his plans, he is as certain to get a reliable proposition as he can be of anything. A local agent of an establishment of this kind may misrepresent, unintentionally or otherwise. The surest way is to go to headquarters. The local agent does not always know exactly what should be done. A competent architect can settle all these matters for an owner. However, if an architect says there are only one or two furnaces or heating apparatus which are all right, he is either ignorant or dishonest. There are many different kinds which will give fair satisfaction.
The idea in this chapter is to take things as we find them, and suggest what may be done. The theories outlined in the previous chapter may be correct, but they do not amount to anything to a man who is building to-day. The only purpose of this chapter is to suggest to those who are building that they go to a first-class house, pay a fair price, and get the best possible apparatus regularly in the market.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE HOUSE AND ITS BEAUTY.—ARTISTIC SURROUNDINGS.—BEAUTY MORE A MATTER OF INTELLIGENCE THAN MONEY.—VESTIBULE DECORATIONS.—BEAUTY IN THE RECEPTION-HALL.—MANTELS AND GRATES.—FRET-WORK AND PORTIÈRES.—SPINDLE WORK.—SIMPLE FORMS OF GOOD DECORATION.—WOOD-CARVING.—DOOR AND WINDOW CASINGS.—A CONSERVATORY.—STAINED GLASS.—A CABINET ON THE MANTEL.—TINTED PLASTERING.—FRESCOING.—SAFETY IN THE SELECTION OF COLORS.—AN ATTRACTIVE SITTING-ROOM.—THE PARLOR.—A RECEPTION-ROOM.—PARLOR HISTORY.—THE IDEAL PARLOR.—THE LIBRARY.—A PLACE OF QUIET AND REST.—LIBRARY FURNISHINGS.—THE DINING-ROOM.—SOCIAL RELATIONS OF THE DINING-ROOM.—DINING-ROOM DECORATIONS.—CONSERVATORY AND DINING-ROOM.—A WOOD CEILING.—BEAUTY IN BEDROOMS.—QUIET AND LIGHT.
The journey through the house is hardly complete until we abandon the material view, and consider it from the standpoint of beauty. As is said in another connection, the architect does not do his full duty in making a house a model of convenience and utility. The housekeeper always looks toward a beautiful home, something that will be recognized for its beauty and elegance. A house that is beautiful and attractive gives pleasure to all who see it, as well as to the occupants. A beautiful, artistic house is a source of education to the occupants. A porch with clumsy columns, rude mouldings, heavy ceiling, coarse details of all kinds, cannot but affect one’s living. One that is fine in detail, generous in size, decorated in artistic spirit, must of necessity not alone contribute to the comfort of those who live in the house, but serve to lift them from that which is common and ordinary. People may be surrounded by that which is beautiful and artistic, and for a time fail to realize its true excellence, or they may be surrounded with that which is homely and crude without knowing the full measure of its ugliness. The time must come, however, when the truth will be realized to a certain extent. If it is in the direction of the appreciation of what is beautiful, it must necessarily bring about a higher state of mind. No man can walk across a front porch, time after time, and take hold of a beautiful door, without being affected by it. For this reason the vestibule, the front door, and all that belongs to it, should be designed in a thoughtful spirit, with the idea that it is the first of all things that will impress those who enter the house. There may not be much money to put into this door, but what there is may as well bring something beautiful as something ugly. The same money that will make an ugly detail will make a beautiful, artistic one. If the glass of this door must be inexpensive, let it be the ordinary cathedral glass. Instead of being brilliant in color, select a soft, mild tint,—a light amber or a straw color. If there are divisions in the door so that a number of sheets may be used, two tints at most are all that are necessary. It is best that they should be quiet in tone. If money is more abundant, and an elaborate stained-glass design may be had, put the work in the hands of an artist, one who is well known, and the result cannot but be satisfactory. As to the door itself, nothing can be nicer than natural wood, properly finished. The detail of the design should be refined; there should be an avoidance of all that is clumsy and heavy. The spirit of the interior may be stamped upon this door. Where one cannot encompass the expense of an artistically designed glass for the door or vestibule opening, a very pretty effect may be secured by the use of a plain sheet of plate-glass; or, if desired, a slight additional expense will give glass with bevelled edges. Sometimes this bevelled glass is in small squares, with leaded joints. This gives a very simple and rich effect from either side.