This is the plan of a house and out-buildings based chiefly on one which
we built of wood some years since on a farm of our own, and which, in
its occupation, has proved to be one of exceeding convenience to the
purposes intended. As a farm _business_ house, we have not known it
excelled; nor in the ease and facility of doing up the house-work within
it, do we know a better. It has a subdued, quiet, unpretending look; yet
will accommodate a family of a dozen workmen, besides the females
engaged in the household work, with perfect convenience; or if occupied
by a farmer with but his own family around him, ample room is afforded
them for a most comfortable mode of life, and sufficient for the
requirements of a farm of two, to three or four hundred acres.
[Illustration: FARM HOUSE. Pages 85-86]
This house is, in the main body, 36x22 feet, one and a half stories
high, with a projection on the rear 34x16 feet, for the kitchen and its
offices; and a still further addition to that, of 26x18 feet, for
wash-room. The main body of the house is 14 feet high to the plates; the
lower rooms are 9 feet high; the roof has a pitch of 35deg from a
horizontal line, giving partially-upright chambers in the main building,
and _roof_ lodging rooms in the rear. The rear, or kitchen part, is one
story high, with 10 feet posts, and such pitch of roof (which last runs
at right angles to the main body, and laps on to the main roof,) as will
carry the peak up to the same air line. This addition should retreat 6
inches from the line of the main building, on the side given in the
design, and 18 inches on the rear. The rooms on this kitchen floor are 8
feet high, leaving one foot above the upper floor, under the roof, as a
chamber garret, or lumber-room, as may be required. Beyond this, in the
rear, is the other extension spoken of, with posts 9 feet high, for a
buttery, closet, or dairy, or all three combined, and a wash-room; the
floor of which is on a level with the last, and the roof running in the
same direction, and of the same pitch. In front of this wash-room, where
not covered by the wood-house, is an open porch, 8 feet wide and 10 feet
long, the roof of which runs out at a less angle than the others--say
30deg from a horizontal line. Attached to this is the wood-house,
running off by way of L, at right angles, 36x16 feet, of same height
as the wash-room.
Adjoining the wood-house, on the same front line, is a building 50x20
feet, with 12 feet posts, occupied as a workshop, wagon-house, stable,
and store-room, with a lean-to on the last of 15x10 feet, for a piggery.
The several rooms in this building are 8 feet high, affording a good
lumber room over the workshop, and hay storage over the wagon-house and
stable. Over the wagon-house is a gable, with a blind window swinging on
hinges, for receiving hay, thus relieving the long, uniform line of
roof, and affording ample accommodation on each side to a pigeon-house
or dovecote, if required.
The style of this establishment is of plain Italian, or bracketed, and
may be equally applied to stone, brick, or wood. The roofs are broad,
and protect the walls by their full projection over them, 2-1/2 feet.
The small gable in the front roof of the main dwelling relieves it of
its otherwise straight uniformity, and affords a high door-window
opening on to the deck of the veranda, which latter should be 8 or 10
feet in width. The shallow windows, also, over the wings of the veranda
give it a more cheerful expression. The lower _end_ windows of this part
of the house are hooded, or sheltered by a cheap roof, which gives them
a snug and most comfortable appearance. The veranda may appear more
ornamental than the plain character of the house requires; but any
superfluous work upon it may be omitted, and the style of finish
conformed to the other. The veranda roof is flatter than that of the
house, but it may be made perfectly tight by closer shingling, and
paint; while the deck or platform in the centre may be roofed with zinc,
or tin, and a coat of sanded paint laid upon it. The front chimney is
plain, yet in keeping with the general style of the house, and may be
made of ordinary bricks. The two parts of the chimney, as they appear in
the front rooms, are drawn together as they pass through the chamber
above, and become one at the roof. The kitchen chimneys pass up through
the peaks of their respective roofs, and should be in like character
with the other.
[Illustration: CHAMBER PLAN. GROUND PLAN.]