Plan [No. 7] is of an eight-room house, and is fairly representative of the ideas expressed. The general form, it will be seen, is square. It is a two-story house with a reception-hall, parlor, dining-room, kitchen, china-closet, pantry, and stair-hall on the first floor; there are three chambers, the servant’s bedroom, the bath-room, and a communicating hall on the second floor. The first floor is ten feet six inches high, and the second, nine feet six inches. From the second floor there is a stairway going to the attic, which is large and roomy, and which may have various uses. The cellar is seven feet high, and is well lighted by having the joist set well up from the grade line. There may be a laundry here, and, separated from it by a door, we may have a coal-cellar and a furnace-room. As we approach the house, there is, first, a broad porch about eight feet in width, and fourteen feet in length. At a slight additional expense, say fifty dollars to sixty dollars, this porch might be extended across the entire front. Before reaching the front door, there is a small vestibule,—arranged with or without storm-doors, as may be thought desirable. It is the impression of the writer that storm-doors are seldom used. The distinctive feature of this house is the hall, which is large enough—thirteen feet six inches by fifteen feet—to be used as a sitting-room. In the front part of this hall, and at the right as we enter, are a window-seat and a broad window in front and immediately above it; this is slightly separated from the main room by the small pilasters or casings on each side. Immediately in front of the doorway, there are a grate and mantel set in one corner of the room. There are large doorways, five feet wide, leading into the stair-hall immediately back of this room, and into the parlor at the left as we enter. In this case there are merely door openings, portières or curtains taking the place of ordinary doors. Sliding-doors might be used in addition to the curtains, and thus have the advantage of both curtains and doors. From this room the outlines of the stair-hall and the stairway are visible or not, according to the arrangement of the portières. There is a side entrance into this hall, and from it one may go into the kitchen by passing through two doors. It is a good principle in planning a house always to have two doors between the kitchen and any other part of the house. One door could as well be used in this instance, but a second one is added to make the isolation more complete. In the plan here given, it may be noticed that there are cellar stairs passing under the main stairway in the hall.
The dining-room may be entered either from the front parlor or from the stair-hall. In each case doors are used. It is always desirable to have a dining-room so arranged that it may be closed from the other parts of the house. There is a grate in each of the two principal rooms, the hall, the parlor, and the dining-room, and all communicate with a single stack. This is much more economical than having three distinct stacks, which are so frequently used for accomplishing the same result. The only other chimney stack is in the kitchen. The two answer every purpose. The outside corners of the dining-room are cut off at an angle of forty-five degrees, so that the end of the dining-room presents the form of a large bay window. In the middle space at this end may be placed the sideboard, in which event a window will be placed over it,—that is, well toward the ceiling. The dining-room communicates with the kitchen through a large pantry, eight feet square, or through a slide in the back of the china-closet. In the kitchen there are broad windows on the two sides, and a door leading into the back yard.
In following the stairway to the second floor, it will be noticed that there is a broad landing something more than half-way up, and that there is a large window, slightly above it, which lights the hall below, and partially lights the one above. The advantages of having a stairway which lands approximately in the centre of the house, as does this one, is that no room is lost by having long halls which have to lead from the front to the rear of the house. All we need have is a short hall in the centre of the building, which will communicate with the rooms around it. Another convenience of this arrangement is that all of the front of the house is utilized for chambers. Where the stairway lands in the front of a house, there must either be a long hall, which is a waste of room, or one must pass through one or more chambers to get to others. In this plan the rooms are arranged around the hall, there being three large ones over the three principal rooms below. In each of these chambers there is abundant space for the usual bedroom furniture,—viz., a bed, dresser, wash-stand, and chairs. In these rooms there are closets, and at the end of the hall there is a store closet for bedding, etc. The servant’s room, as shown, is over the kitchen, as is also the bath-room.
It may be noticed that the fixtures in the bath-room—that is, the bath-tub and closet—are directly over the sink below, so that the pipes may have the most direct and the shortest runs possible, which is not only economical, but also safer from flooding in case of accident. The tank in the attic, which contains the soft or cistern water, is directly over the tub, and the laundry sink in the cellar is directly under the kitchen sink. Thus, from cellar to attic, all the plumbing fixtures are in line, and all pipes exactly vertical, excepting where it is desirable to take a short branch to connect the fixtures. Having the bath-room slightly separated, as it is, from the main hall, it is safer, from a sanitary point of view, than if it opened directly into the main hall. There is a closet for soiled linen next to the bath-room, which is accessible either from it or from the short hall leading to it. The stairs to the attic lead out of the hall, as shown. The attic is floored, but is otherwise unfinished. If found desirable, one or more rooms could be finished here, which would be quite as large and pleasant as any of the other rooms in the house. This house can be finished complete, including fences, sheds, walks, gas fixtures, plumbing, mantels, and furnace, for $2,900.
Fig. [No. 12] is an elevation.