THE LABOUR-SAVING HOUSE AS IT MIGHT BE
I
The other day I was re-reading that delightful story of a simple soul,
_Kipps_, and was struck anew by the truth of the difficulties which
beset Artie and Ann when they went house-hunting.
"'They build these 'ouses,' said Ann, 'as though girls wasn't 'uman
beings.... There's kitchen stairs to go up, Artie.... Some poor girl's
got to go up and down, up and down, and be tired out, jest because they
haven't the sense to leave enough space to give their steps a proper
rise; and no water upstairs anywhere--every drop got to be carried!
It's 'ouses like this wear girls out.
"'It's 'aving 'ouses built by men, I believe, makes all the work and
trouble....'
"The Kipps, you see, thought they were looking for a reasonably simple
little contemporary house, but indeed they were looking either for
dreamland or 1975 A.D., or thereabouts, and it hadn't come."
The House that Jack Built.
I am inclined to agree with Ann in thinking that having houses built
by men makes at least a great part of all the work and trouble, for
my own experiences--somewhat limited, I admit--of architects point to
the fact that they are concerned to provide you with a house which
looks charming and which may be stoutly built, but that such details
as the make of the bath, the size of the service lift, the position
of the kitchen range, and the arrangements for cupboards, housemaid's
pantries, and so forth, concern them not at all.
When rebuilding a house for ourselves it was left to me to suggest a
service lift, and I was only by a happy chance in time to prevent it
being of such an absurd size that no good-sized joint on a dish to
correspond, or a coal scuttle, could have been put into it!
I also had to point out that to arrange for all the hot-water pipes to
pass through the larder seemed scarcely advisable, and that a box-room
in which all the boxes were to be stacked one upon the other was not
quite as labour-saving as one fitted with strong, cheap slatted shelves
on which the boxes could stand in tiers and be removed one at a time as
required with ease and dispatch.
Men, as a general rule, do not have to keep house, neither do they have
to do housework, thus it is not surprising that such details as these
escape their notice.
[Illustration:
_PLATE VI_
THE "BROWNIE" IS THE IDEAL COOKER.
For use where space is limited, or where the requirements of the family
are small. The oven is fitted with one grid and one browning shelf.]
[Illustration:
_PLATE VIa_
THE "WALDICK" COOKER
Combines a cooker, gas fire, and water boiler. All parts of the stove
are under separate control. Where hot water is available by other means
the "Waldick" can be supplied without the side boiler. The gas fire in
the oven door is always supplied with this cooker, as shown above. This
stove is specially designed for use in flats, and other places where
there is limited space. (Wilson)]
Women Architects.
For that reason every architect, if he be a man, should number a
clever, resourceful, and experienced woman amongst his staff. Or why
should not the architect be a woman?
Before discoursing of the labour-saving house as it might be, it is
well to state that I am well aware that one man's meat is another
man's poison, also that, owing to the fact that gas and electricity
are not always available in the country, the labour-saving house must,
more often than not, be in a town or a suburb. Still, much may be done
with the country house, even the small country house, and after all we
move quickly nowadays, and soon it may be possible to obtain gas and
electric current everywhere.
[Illustration:
_PLATE VII_
A DINING-ROOM WITH A GAS FIRE AND GAS "CANDLE" BRACKETS]
A Hot and Cold Water Service.
Another point which strikes me when coming to consider my labour-saving
house is this. Why do not the Water Companies supply us with a Hot
Water Service on much the same terms as they now supply us with a Cold
Water Service?
Let us try and realise what this would mean to the householder. His
home would be fitted with radiators and warmed by hot water. He would
turn the radiators on and off as he needed them. He would turn a tap
and hot water would be at his command at any hour, day and night, for
baths, washing-up, and cooking. He would turn another tap and cold
water would gush forth.
Imagine the economy of such an arrangement! Instead of millions of
stoves heating water, there would be a few large furnaces doing the
work. Imagine, too, the difference in the atmosphere when you eliminate
coal from all dwelling-houses. The house is heated and provided with
hot and cold water on every floor, in every room if you like, with no
more trouble to yourself than turning a tap and paying the bill. When
you do not have to cook water in addition to food you need far less
fuel, and for this purpose electricity or gas are at your disposal. If
you feel lonely when sitting in a room warmed by a radiator, you may
have a small wood fire, and this, I admit, labour-saving faddist that I
am, I should desire in one or two sitting-rooms.
When by turning a tap or a switch, water, gas, and electricity become
our servants, we shall have done much to solve the Servant Problem.
[Illustration:
_PLATE VIII_
A WELL-KNOWN LONDON DRAWING-ROOM SHOWING A GAS-HEATED "LOG FIRE"]
II
But in the ideal labour-saving house (ideal, mark you, from a
labour-saving point of view), there are no fires, no chimneys, no
grates, no coal-devouring, dirt-making range, always requiring coal and
yet more coal and returning you evil for good in the shape of soot and
dirt.
Have you ever watched a sweep at work? Have you ever cleaned the flues
of a coal range?
In our dream-house we have no such horrors. We save the cost of
chimneys, sweeps, grates, fenders, fireirons, coal-boxes. We need not
provide coal cellars, in which a cold, cross, sleepy girl must grovel
in the early morn before the house can be warmed and the breakfast
cooked.
Make a mental picture of all the heavy coal-boxes which are dragged up
steep stairs in this country of ours.
Ann was right when she said, "It's 'ouses like this wears girls out."
[Illustration:
_PLATE IX_
A GAS FIRE IN THE ENTRANCE HALL OF A SMALL TOWN HOUSE]
Save a Third of the Work in the House.
Eliminate coal and you save quite a third of the work in your home.
Think this out and you will see that it is so. Coal must be delivered.
In a town it is shot through a hole into the basement cellar or
cellars. This causes a cloud of black dirt, and the front of your house
suffers. Then coal must be shovelled up into scuttles; often it is
necessary to break up the large lumps. The scuttles are then carried
about the house, coals up, ashes down; grates are cleaned and the room
is powdered with dust in the process. Grates, fenders, fireirons,
and coal-boxes must be cleaned, and fashion ordains that they are
generally made, wholly or partly, of polished metal. The weather is
cold and a servant is rung for and more coal is demanded. One day the
wind blows and the fire will not light. It takes some fifteen minutes
of bellows-blowing and two bundles of wood to set it going, and then
the wind blows harder and it smokes! Alas for the poor housemaid! The
kitchen fire won't draw and the water is not hot. The sweep must be
sent for, and all the while the air is being fouled from the smoke from
our own chimneys, and when we open our windows the coal we burn returns
to us in the shape of smuts and grime.
Oh, the washing bill, the cleaner's bill! The bill for labour which
might be saved!
So in our ideal home we do away with all this pother, and wash and
warm ourselves by means of hot water which comes from the main and the
supply of which we regulate by turning taps. We light our house and
cook our food by means of electricity or gas, which we also regulate by
turning switches or taps. Thus we obtain heat and artificial light.
When Labour was cheap and plentiful, the Labour-Making House caused
but little inconvenience except to those who had to do the work, and
their point of view was seldom considered.
Now that Labour is scarce and dear, the matter assumes a different
complexion.
III
But our house must be well supplied with natural light, for without
light and air we cannot live.
Away, then, with basements. There must be ample space between the rows
of houses so that every room may be light, that the sun may penetrate
into it, and therefore the windows must be large.
Kitchens and Offices.
These, too, must be light and airy. The kitchen should not be used as
a sitting-room; it is the place in which food is prepared, and should
be a place which can be kept exquisitely clean. It should have tiled
walls and ceiling, a cemented floor on a slight slant with a gutter, so
that it may be washed down with a hose. The larder and pantry should be
arranged in a like fashion. The larder must be cool, well ventilated,
and the food stored in it protected from dust and dirt. In our ideal
home, both cook and mistress know something of the work of dust and
flies as disease carriers.
In this kitchen the cooker is placed in a good light and is mounted
at a convenient height. Only the cook knows the fatigue occasioned
by stooping to lift heavy weights out of low-set ovens, the worry of
cooking in a bad light.
The sink, too, shall be set at a reasonable height. There shall not be
a scullery--why should there be a scullery? It is merely one more place
to clean.
Then we will not condemn any girl or woman to stand for hours washing
up. The electrically worked washing-up machine does such work well and
quickly, and our pots and pans when electricity or even gas is used do
not become black and sooty on the outside.
In the ideal kitchen we will have as few utensils as possible, and
these shall have their proper keeping places.
A Service-room.
In addition to kitchen and larder we will have a "service-room,"
fitted with cupboards for linen, blankets, pillows, etc., for boxes,
for china and glass. Here flowers may be done, clothes brushed, and
half a hundred domestic jobs performed. Here there may be a hot-airing
cupboard, a place in which to wash and iron.
Tiled walls and ceiling, varnished wood, linoleum-covered floor, tables
covered with American cloth nailed tight or faced with zinc are quickly
and easily cleaned.
In addition there must be a maids' sitting-room, light, bright,
sparsely but comfortably furnished, with linoleum-covered floor and
small, light rugs which may be shaken easily.
And in a convenient place, so that it may be fed from kitchen and
pantry, there must be the service lift.
Here we have such domestic premises as are suitable in a house where
three or more servants will be employed.
The large household will need a housekeeper's room, a sitting-room
for the housemaids, a dining-hall, but in this book such households
cannot be considered. On the other hand, the one or two-servant house
or flat may be differently planned. Here pantry, sitting-room, and
service-room might be combined, and this suggestion is dealt with in
another chapter; while in the no-servant home, or that in which some of
the work is done by the visiting domestic worker, a sitting-room is not
needed, and kitchen and pantry may be combined. A small service-room,
however, I would not omit in a house where there are spare bedding,
china, linen, boxes, and so forth to be stowed away; and a house in
which there is no place to do odd jobs cannot be an ideal home.
[Illustration:
_PLATE X_
A CHARMING TWO-LIGHT GAS CANDLE BRACKET IN WROUGHT IRON (EVERED)]
Furniture and Decoration.
The furnishing and decoration of a house must be left to individual
taste: one person revels in colouring which would make another ill,
but when we consider the matter from a labour-saving point of view,
we should forbid painted woodwork. Natural wood should be used and
mouldings forbidden. Who does not know the lines of dirt which form
on the mouldings in which the builder delights? The wainscots, the
window-frames, the doors, all are trimmed with mouldings. Fitted
carpets, or, indeed, any heavy carpets, should be taboo. Parquet
floors are delightful, but in most places linoleum must be the floor
covering because it keeps out draughts, is easily kept clean, and is
comparatively cheap.
Furniture which cannot be moved without difficulty or swept under
is objectionable: double beds are tiring for one person to make,
and washhandstands can be omitted if there are a suitable number of
washing-rooms. These are preferable, I think, to fitted washstands
in the bedrooms. In the average house three washing-rooms would be
required, one for husband and wife, one for the children, and one
for the servants. When spare rooms are required each bedroom and
dressing-room should have its washing-room.
You may say that so many bathrooms absorb much space and cost so much
more.
[Illustration:
_PLATE XI_
A MODERN INDIRECT GAS LIGHTING "BOWL" PENDANT. (EVERED)]
A Clever Idea for a Bedroom and Dressing-room Bath.
This idea has been carried out in a small country house known to me.
Here the spare bedroom and dressing-room are 16 feet wide. Where the
dividing wall would come a fitted washstand has been arranged in either
room, back to back. The washstands jut out 1 foot 8 inches into either
room, and are 3 feet long, leaving, if you draw a straight line to
either side wall, and allowing for a partition wall, a space 3 feet 8
inches wide and 10 feet long. This space is enclosed on either side by
sliding doors, fitted with bolts, and inside it a porcelain enamel bath
is fitted. There is a ventilating window at the outer wall, and that
piece of wall is tiled as is the floor.
A large-sized bath measures some 30 inches across the widest end, and
is 6 feet long. A small bath measures some 28 inches by 5 feet, so if
the rooms were small and a small bath chosen a lesser space would be
necessary for the bathroom, and part of the length might be used for
wardrobe cupboards.
In this house the water and the radiators are heated by a coke furnace,
the house is lighted by acetylene gas, and the cooking is done by coal,
and the cooker is so arranged that it heats servants' hall as well as
kitchen.
In a labour-saving house all rooms should be under rather than over
furnished, and free of heavy, stuffy draperies. There should be a gas
ring or electric heater in each room or on each floor, so that in the
case of illness food can be prepared. Hot water there will always be,
day and night.
What are the domestic tasks which women most dislike?
Getting coals out of the coal cellar.
Cleaning grates and flues.
Carrying heavy trays, cans, and coal-boxes up and down stairs.
Cleaning doorsteps.
Doing washstand work.
Then why continue to perform them?
[Illustration:
_PLATE XII_
A THREE-LIGHT GAS FITTING, WITH INVERTED BURNERS AND SHADES SUCH AS
ENSURE A PLEASING LIGHT
The switch systems, now readily adaptable to gas lighting, enable
the burners to be lighted and extinguished by the mere pressing of a
button. (Evered)]
IV
Of polished metal there should be a minimum, and glass rather than
silver should be chosen for table use. Stainless steel knives take the
place of those which need cleaning. The meals should be simplified as
much as possible. Earthenware casseroles in which the food is cooked
and served save washing up. Rotary brushes by which boot and other
cleaning may be carried out are worked by electricity. Linoleum with
rubber treads is substituted for stair carpets whenever possible, in
order to save carpet beating and the cost of stair-rods. The use of a
suction cleaner, Bissel carpet sweeper, long-handled scrubbing brushes
and mops, telephone bells, an electric "not at home" indicator on the
front door, a polished dining-table, glass tops to sideboard, side, and
dressing-tables will all reduce the labour bill. It is also important
that each person in the house should refrain from making unnecessary
work for the others, for to tidy up after an untidy person absorbs far
more time than is often realised.
But, alas! such a home as I have described is not within the reach of
many people. Like the Kipps, we are looking for Dreamland or 1975, and
it has not come. Still, there are people who build houses and there are
more people who rebuild houses, and large numbers who do up houses,
and if one cannot do all one would like, it is generally possible to
achieve some of one's ambitions.
It is not the work but the spirit in which it is done that degrades.
[Illustration:
_PLATE XIII_
COMPOSITE GAS COOKER (3 INDEPENDENT OVENS AND HOT PLATE). SUITABLE FOR
A LARGE HOUSEHOLD WHERE THE AMOUNT OF COOKING VARIES VERY MUCH]