The parlor is thirteen and one-half by seventeen feet in size. It is connected with a hall by wide sliding doors, so that about one-half of this side of the room may be open. The grate opposite the sliding doors in the parlor would present a very beautiful view from the hall and stairway. The sliding doors between the parlor and dining-room are placed there more in deference to custom than through any personal sense of their fitness. Sliding doors do not have the quality of excluding sound or odors that is desirable. The ordinary hinged door is better in this respect. This room which would commonly be called a parlor would really be used as a living-room, excepting by those who use the dining-room or one of the second-floor chambers for that purpose.
Our dining-room has an independent connection with the front hall, so that we do not have to go through the parlor or the sitting-room to reach it. A little extra money, say seventy dollars, would place a conservatory at one side, at one corner, or at the end of this dining-room. Fifty dollars would give a bay window. As it is, we have two windows of the ordinary kind at one side of the room, and none at the end. A very good arrangement, when bay or conservatory is not used, would be to take one of these windows at the side and place it at the rear end, though near the outside corner of the room. This would give space between the windows and the china-closet door for a sideboard. The window at the side of the dining-room, if the other were moved to the end, should be in the middle of the wall space; that is, opposite the centre of the flue.
From the dining-room we go into the kitchen through the china-pantry, which is marked “passage.” This china-pantry has a little window at one side, and at the end a separate apartment for chinaware, which is closed from the passage by means of glass doors. The doors leading from the passage into the dining-room and kitchen should be hung on double-swinging hinges.
There are those who would say that there should be no door from the kitchen into the passage leading from the dining-room to the front hall. It would probably be well to retain this door in this position, and have a bolt on the side of the door toward the hall. Thus the mistress of the house can close it, and keep it closed at will. Another thing that might be done would be to place a strong spring on this door which would always keep it closed. The windows in this kitchen should be placed about three feet from the floor, so that tables may be placed under them. There is a place for a gas-stove between the two windows, or even under them if desirable. The porch at the rear of the kitchen may be enclosed with lattice work, or, what is better, coarse louvered slats, like those of a shutter. In either event, it could be covered with screen wire, and made a part of the kitchen in summer. In the plan, however, nothing of this kind is indicated. The door which leads from the porch into the pantry is a small one, placed above the ice-chest, and is for the use of the ice-man.
The arrangement of rooms upstairs will be readily understood. Leading out of the hall is a store closet for bedding, etc. It is located so as to be accessible from all rooms. From the front end of the hall a door leads into the stair passage to the attic.
Plan [No. 12] is the outgrowth of Plan [No. 11]. In it there is a lift running from cellar to attic, as shown. The only important difference between it and No. 11 is in the size of the library. Cost, as per schedule “B,” $2,600. [Fig. 14] is an elevation: see page 147.