ONE-STORY PLANS.--DESCRIPTION OF FLOOR PLANS.--BATH-ROOM NEXT TO
KITCHEN FLUE.--KITCHEN, PORCH, AND PANTRY.--THE
EXTERIOR.--ENLARGEMENTS ON THIS PLAN.--OTHER ONE-STORY HOUSES.
This house--Plan No. 19--has been built for $1,400. It is a one-story
cottage, containing five rooms, a bath-room, and a pantry. Such a house
is suited to young people of moderate means, or possibly to older ones,
where there are no children, or where the housekeeper does her own work.
It will be seen that it gives more of the conveniences of a larger house
than are usually found in a cottage of this size.
From the porch we pass into a little vestibule, which might be made
larger by throwing into it the closet which opens from the sitting-room.
From the vestibule we go either into the parlor or the sitting-room.
This parlor could be used as the living-room of the house, and the
sitting-room as the dining-room, and still meet all the conditions of
good housekeeping. Off from the sitting-room is a projection, which
could be very comfortably arranged as a window-seat. It could be used as
such during warm weather, and as a place for plants in winter. In the
corner of this room is a closet, which may be connected with the kitchen
by a slide. There are sliding doors between the sitting-room and the
bedroom. In the front part of the bedroom is a large closet. It is
possible that many would prefer to have a window at this point, and have
a smaller closet elsewhere; say, in the corner next to the sliding-door
partition. The placing of a closet next to the rear wall would leave no
place for a bed as the rooms are now arranged. If the door from the
parlor to the bedroom were omitted the head of the bed might be placed
against the sliding-door partition, and the closet cut out from the rear
bedroom, with an opening leading into the front bedroom.
[Illustration: Plan No. 19]
[Illustration: Plan No. 20.]
From the sitting-room, or from the front bedroom, we pass into a little
hall; and from the hall into the kitchen, the bathroom, or the rear
bedroom. Over each of the five doors leading into this hall there should
be a transom; thus it would be well lighted. The placing of the hall in
this way makes all of the rooms surrounding it independently accessible.
The rear bedroom has a place for a bed, a large closet, and a wall
space for necessary furniture. The availability of a bedroom is not
always dependent upon its size. A room may be large, and yet not contain
wall space for the furniture. A large bedroom may have a small closet.
This bedroom has a large one.
The bath-room comes next to the kitchen flue. This is important when we
consider that the kitchen flue is frequently the last one in the house
to get cool. As here arranged, the pipe connections with the bath-tub
would all be short; they would all be near this flue, and on the inside
wall. Hence the conditions would be against freezing. There is a hollow
thimble in the pipe connections between the kitchen flue and the
bedroom. The bath-room might connect with the same flue or flue-stack.
Connecting with the bath-room there is a large linen-closet, which is
about the proper size and form for folded bed-clothes. It is near the
bath-room window, so that when the closet-door is open the contents will
be plainly in view.
There is a large window in one side of the kitchen, which should be
placed three feet from the floor, so as to admit of a table being set
under it. If the kitchen stove were placed next the wall separating the
kitchen and sitting-room, it could be piped across to the kitchen flue,
and in that way leave the wall space adjacent to that flue and near the
bath-tub for the kitchen sink. This would bring all the plumbing work
together. At one side of this sink could be placed a well-pump, and a
cistern-pump at the other.
In the rear of the kitchen are a porch and a pantry. We go down cellar
directly from the kitchen. Over the headway of the cellar stairs could
be placed a closet for various stores, such as canned fruit. This
closet, of course, would be connected with the pantry, as shown. The
necessity for head room in going into the cellar would make it
necessary to place the floor of this closet three or four feet above the
pantry floor.
On the side of the pantry opposite this closet are two cup-boards, with
doors and shelves above and below. There is a place for a flour-bin or
flour-barrel under the dough-board, and space for an ice-box next to it.
This box should have a drain connecting with the outside. It is intended
to have the cellar under the kitchen and bath-room, though it might be
extended under the sitting-room also. This part of the cellar might be
used as a fuel-room, and thus dispense with wood and coal sheds. With
the fuel and water in the house, the housekeeper would be saved much
work. Where a kitchen sink is provided, it would be unnecessary even to
carry out the dish-water.
[Illustration: Fig. 20. FRONT ELEVATION.]
There are two flue-stacks in this building. A base-burner would warm the
sitting-room and bedroom and temper the air of the parlor. A grate fire
in the parlor would complete the work of heating that room.
The cut of the exterior, Fig. 20, tells its own story. The porch has
turned columns, and a frieze decorated with scroll-work. The window seat
may have a window at each end, as shown in the floor-plan, or panels, as
indicated in the elevation. There is a gable at the side and over the
window seat, which extends the full width of the sitting-room.
Plan No. 20 is a development of Plan No. 19. Without appurtenances it
cost $1,200.
[Illustration: Plan No. 21]
[Illustration: Plan No. 22]
Plan No. 21 is an enlargement of No. 19. The pantry and china-room are
arranged differently. The doors leading into the china-room are glazed
in their upper panels with cathedral glass. This obscures the view, and
gives sufficient light. These doors were hung on double-spring hinges,
so frequently mentioned. Over the dining-room and chamber are two
finished bedrooms. They are arranged in the high part of the roof, and,
with dormers, would have only a small part of the upper corners clipped.
There are two grates more than shown in Plan No. 19. The stairway
arrangement may be reversed, so that one goes to the second floor from
the hall rather than from the kitchen. This house cost, with two
finished rooms on the second floor, without appurtenances, as per
schedule "B," $1,700.
Plan No. 22 can be built and finished for $800. The gable arrangement
would be about the same as in Fig. No. 20.
Plan No. 23 was built, including everything that went on to the lot, for
$1,600.
[Illustration: Plan No. 23]
[Illustration: Plan No. 24]
Plan No. 24, as per schedule "B," cost $1,100.
Plan No. 25, without appurtenances, cost $1,400.
One-story houses cost more for the accommodations which they afford than
two-story buildings, for the reason that it takes the same foundation
and roof for a one-story house that it does for one of two stories of
the same area on the first floor. In fact, it usually takes more
foundation and roof for a one-story house than it does for a two-story,
for the reason that it covers more ground space than would be required
for the same or a larger number of rooms in the two floors.
[Illustration: Plan No. 25.]
[Illustration: Plan No. 26.]
No. 26. This is a peculiar type of a one-story house. There is a
servants room over the kitchen. It is a very comfortable arrangement.
The bath-room stands between the two bedrooms. There is a grate in each
of the rooms on the lower floor. The kitchen-sink arrangements are not
altogether satisfactory. It is a plan which will never be very popular.
It is designed to be finished with shingles for the outside wall. The
structure will cost about two thousand dollars, as per schedule "B."