SITTING-ROOM AND PARLOR IN FRONT.--A CONNECTING VESTIBULE.--A
CENTRAL COMBINATION STAIRWAY.--GOOD ROOMS IN THE ATTIC.
When we say that the sitting-room should be in the front part of the
house, it does not necessarily imply that the parlor should be
disturbed. As shown in Plan No. 10, they may both be in front. The
vestibule, which is large enough for a hat-rack, and for the occupants
of the house to stand while putting on their overshoes and wraps, is in
front of both parlor and reception-room, but yet in a way so as not to
disturb the view to the street from either of these rooms. We cannot
have all of the rooms in front. The kitchen we do not want there. The
dining-room is convenient if placed immediately in the rear of the
sitting-room. Thus we have two rooms in front and two in the rear. This
is practically a square house. The old habit has been to place the
stairway along one side of the parlor in the hall which served as a
passageway from the front to the rooms immediately in the rear. This
distribution of halls is what has thrown the sitting-room back of the
parlor. In the plan here given the change has been made so that the hall
has relatively the same position that did the sitting-room in the past,
though it is by no means as large. It is essentially a stair-hall, and
incidentally a passage. As placed, we may enter it from the parlor,
sitting-room, dining-room, or kitchen. Its position is central. There
are two doors between this stair-hall and the kitchen. The central
position of the stairway has other advantages than those just stated.
It makes long halls on the second floor entirely unnecessary. As will be
seen by looking at the floor plan, it gives two good bedrooms in front.
[Illustration: Plan No 10.]
The dining-room is immediately in the rear of the sitting-room. There
may be sliding doors connecting these two rooms. One door, three and a
half feet wide, usually makes a sufficiently large opening for the
dining-room connection. There are sliding doors between the parlor and
sitting-room, and dining-room and sitting-room, as shown. The kitchen
has the advantage of a certain amount of isolation from the rest of the
house, for the reason that there are two doors between it and any other
room. The pantries are arranged with reference to their most convenient
use. In the kitchen-pantry there are places for a refrigerator,
flour-bin, bread-board, and cupboard. The dining-room pantry is a
china-closet, with glass doors above and closed doors below. The doors
connecting the dining-room pantry or passage should be hung on
double-spring hinges.
In the plan of this house it is shown how we may go from the kitchen to
the same landing that is used for the main stairway, and thus avoid the
necessity for a distinctively back hall and back stairway. However, if
it is so desired, it is easy to place a stairway in the rear, and thus
have them entirely independent. In that event a room may be placed over
the pantry, and be used by the servant. This part of the house could be
cut off from the front rooms and the bath-room on the second floor by a
door. But to take the house as it is, we have a combination stairway,
there being two doors separating the kitchen approach from the common
landing in the main stair-hall.
On the second floor there is a hall about fourteen feet long from which
we pass to two bedrooms in front, two in the rear, the bath-room and the
store-closet. Each room is independent. They may be connected one with
the other as family necessities suggest. The store-closet is accessible
from the hall, as such a closet should be. This makes it available from
any of the rooms. The bath-room is directly over the kitchen.
In each bedroom there is a place for a bed, a dressing-case, and a
wash-stand, which is not always the case in bedrooms. If there is a
place for these things, if the dressing-case bears its proper relation
to the sources of light, if it is so placed that the light from the
window or from the gas shines in the face of the user, if the wash-stand
is conveniently disposed, and there is room at the side of it for a
slop-jar, if there is a large closet, then the architect has done his
full duty in the arrangement of the bedroom. The room that is called
the family room should be especially well cared for in the matter of
closets.
A hundred dollars would lath and plaster the entire attic of this house,
and provide a room in the front part which could be used by the boys or
the servant. There is no objection to this except in the necessity for
climbing an extra pair of stairs. The mere mention of a bedroom in the
attic is distasteful to many people. It arouses memories of hot, dusty,
and uncomfortable places in which they have passed the night. All this
depends on the attic. The roof in this house is pitched at an angle of
forty-five degrees. The house at the narrowest point is 29. feet wide.
This would make the attic at the highest point 14-1/2 feet. We can stud
down from this and have a nine-foot story and at the same time a large
room, one which would have none of the disadvantages of a half-story
room, and which would have all the advantages of a well-ventilated,
comfortable bedroom, for summer or winter. The plastering of the attic
suggests neatness. Having it well lighted by dormers exposes all
disorder. Cost, as per schedule "B," $2,600.