The front door from the veranda of the house opens into a hall, 18x8
feet, and 11 feet high, amply lighted by sash windows on the sides, and
over the door. From the rear of this hall runs a flight of easy stairs,
into the upper or chamber hall. On one side of the lower hall, a door
leads into a parlor, 18 feet square, and 11 feet high, lighted by three
windows, and warmed by an open stove, or fireplace, the pipe passing
into a chimney flue in the rear. A door passes from this parlor into a
rear passage, or entry, thus giving it access to the kitchen and rear
apartments. At the back end of the front hall, a door leads into the
rear passage and kitchen; and on the side opposite the parlor, a door
opens into the sitting or family room, 18x16 feet in area, having an
open fireplace, and three windows. On the hall side of this room, a door
passes into the kitchen, 22x16 feet, and which may, in case the
requirements of the family demand it, be made the chief family or living
room, and the last one described converted into a library. In this
kitchen, which is lighted by two windows, is a liberal open fireplace,
with an ample oven by its side, and a sink in the outer corner. A flight
of stairs, also, leads to the rear chambers above; and a corresponding
flight, under them, to the cellar below. A door at each end of these
stairs, leads into the back entry of the house, and thus to the other
interior rooms, or through the rear outer door to the back porch. This
back entry is lighted by a single sash window over the outside door
leading to the porch. Another door, opposite that leading down cellar,
opens into the passage through the wing. From the rear hall, which is
16x5 feet, the innermost passage leads into a family bedroom, or
nursery, 16x14 feet, lighted by a window in each outside wall, and
warmed by an open fireplace, or stove, at pleasure. Attached to this
bedroom is a clothes-closet, 8x4 feet, with shelves, and drawers. Next
the outer door, in rear end of the hall, is a small closet opening from
it, 6x4 feet in dimensions, convertible to any use which the mistress of
the house may direct.
[Illustration: CHAMBER PLAN.]
Opening into the wing from the kitchen, first, is a large closet and
pantry, supplied with a table, drawers, and shelves, in which are stored
the dishes, table furniture, and edibles necessary to be kept at a
moment's access. This room is 14x8 feet, and well lighted by a window of
convenient size. If necessary, this room may have a partition, shutting
off a part from the everyday uses which the family requires. In this
room, so near to the kitchen, to the sink, to hot-water, and the other
little domestic accessories which good housewives know so well how to
arrange and appreciate, all the nice little table-comforts can be got
up, and perfected, and stored away, under lock and key, in drawer, tub,
or jar, at their discretion, and still their eyes not be away from their
subordinates in the other departments. Next to this, and connected by a
door, is the dairy, or milk-room, also 14x8 feet; which, if necessary,
may be sunk three or four feet into the ground, for additional coolness
in the summer season, and the floor reached by steps. In this are ample
shelves for the milkpans, conveniences of churning, &c., &c. But, if the
dairy be a prominent object of the farm, a separate establishment will
be required, and the excavation may not be necessary for ordinary
household uses. Out of this milk-room, a door leads into a wash-room,
18x14 feet. A passage from the kitchen also leads into this. The
wash-room is lighted by two windows in rear, and one in front. A sink is
between the two rear windows, with conductor leading outside, and a
closet beneath it, for the iron ware. In the chimney, at the end, are
boilers, and a fireplace, an oven, or anything else required, and a door
leading to a platform in the wood-house, and so into the yard. On the
other side of the chimney, a door leads into a bathing-room, 7x6 feet,
into which hot water is drawn from one of the boilers adjoining, and
cold water may be introduced, by a hand-pump, through a pipe leading
into the well or cistern.
As no more convenient opportunity may present itself, a word or two will
be suggested as to the location of the bath-room in a country house. In
city houses, or country houses designed for the summer occupancy of city
dwellers, the bathing-rooms are usually placed in the second or chamber
story, and the water for their supply is drawn from cisterns still above
_them_. This arrangement, in city houses, is made chiefly from the want
of room on the ground floor; and, also, thus arranged in the
city-country houses, _because_ they are so constructed in the city. In
the farm house, or in the country house proper, occupied by whom it may
be, such arrangement is unnecessary, expensive, and inconvenient.
Unnecessary, because there is no want of room on the ground; expensive,
because an upper cistern is always liable to leakages, and a consequent
wastage of water, wetting, and rotting out the floors, and all the
slopping and dripping which such accidents occasion; and inconvenient,
from the continual up-and-down-stair labor of those who occupy the bath,
to say nothing of the piercing the walls of the house, for the admission
of pipes to lead in and let out the water, and the thousand-and-one
vexations, by way of plumbers' bills, and expense of getting to and from
the house itself, always a distance of some miles from the mechanic.
The only defence for such location of the bath-room and cisterns is, the
convenience and privacy of access to them, by the females of the family.
This counts but little, if anything, over the place appropriated in
this, and the succeeding designs of this work. The access is almost, if
not quite as private as the other, and, in case of ill-health, as easily
approachable to invalids. And on the score of economy in construction,
repair, or accident, the plan here adopted is altogether preferable. In
this plan, the water is drawn from the boiler by the turning of a cock;
that from the cistern, by a minute's labor with the hand-pump. It is let
off by the drawing of a plug, and discharges, by a short pipe, into the
adjoining garden, or grassplat, to moisten and invigorate the trees and
plants which require it, and the whole affair is clean and sweet again.
A screen for the window gives all the privacy required, and the most
fastidious, shrinking female is as retired as in the shadiest nook of
her dressing-room.
So with water-closets. A fashion prevails of thrusting these noisome
things into the midst of sleeping chambers and living rooms--pandering
to effeminacy, and, at times, surcharging the house--for they cannot,
at _all_ times, and under _all_ circumstances, be kept perfectly
close--with their offensive odor. _Out_ of the house they belong; and if
they, by any means, find their way within its walls proper, the fault
will not be laid at our door.
To get back to our description. This bathing-room occupies a corner of
the wood-house.
A raised platform passes from the wash-room in, past the bath-room, to a
water-closet, which may be divided into two apartments, if desirable.
The vaults are accessible from the rear, for cleaning out, or
introducing lime, gypsum, powdered charcoal, or other deodorizing
material. At the extreme corner of the wood-house, a door opens into a
feed and swill-room, 20x8 feet, which is reached by steps, and stands
quite eighteen inches above the ground level, on a stone under-pinning,
or with a stone cellar beneath, for the storage of roots in winter. In
one corner of this is a boiler and chimney, for cooking food for the
pigs and chickens. A door leads from this room into the piggery, 20x12
feet, where half-a-dozen swine may be kept. A door leads from this pen
into a yard, in the rear, where they will be less offensive than if
confined within. If necessary, a flight of steps, leading to the loft
overhead, may be built, where corn can be stored for their feeding.
Next to this is the workshop and tool-house, 18x14 feet; and, in rear, a
snug, warm house for the family chickens, 18x6 feet. These chickens may
also have the run of the yard in rear, with the pigs, and apartments in
the loft overhead for roosting.
Adjoining the workshop is the carriage house, 18x18 feet, with a flight
of stairs to the hayloft above, in which is, also, a dovecote; and,
leading out of the carriage floor, is the stable, 18x12 feet, with
stalls for two or four horses, and a passage of four feet wide, from the
carriage-house into it; thus completing, and drawing under one
continuous roof, and at less exposure than if separated, the chief
every-day requirements of living, to a well-arranged and
highly-respectable family.
The chamber plan of the dwelling will be readily understood by reference
to its arrangement. There are a sufficiency of closets for all purposes,
and the whole are accessible from either flight of stairs. The rooms
over the wing, of course, should be devoted to the male domestics of the
family, work-people, &c.