496 



Reading-Course for Farmers. 



importance of these various additional rooms being a matter to be de- 

 termined in each case by the people for whom the house is being,planned. 



There is at the present time a decided tendency to condemn the re- 

 ception room or parlor as an altogether useless adjunct to the ordinary 

 small house, those who take this attitude contending for the large informal 

 family living room where " company " and family may gather on equal 

 terms at all times. While there may be difference of opinion relative to 

 the reception room, there can hardly be any with reference to the necessity 

 of separate dining room, kitchen and pantry. All of these should be care- 

 fully defined in any modern house that is to be used for anything but 

 temporary purposes. 



There must, of course, be stairs leading to the second floor, and the 

 stairs would very naturally go up from an open hall, although some mod- 



FiG. 306. — A rambling, indirect and usually inefficient form of house. Try to con- 

 struct a convenient floor plan for this house. 



ern houses combine the hall and living room and run an open stair up from, 

 one side or end of the common room, which now becomes a living hall 

 rather than a mere hall or living room. Where the main stairs are so 

 arranged it is necessary also to have a back stair so that those who are 

 doing the work of the house may be able to go to the second story without 

 passing through the living room. On the whole, this arrangement of com- 

 bined hall and living room in a house to be occupied the year around is 

 not one to be commended except with considerable reservation. 



It is of fundamental importance in any house arranged with regard to 

 convenience and privacy that every room in the house should be accessible 

 from some sort of hall or thoroughfare without going through any other 

 room ; the only exception to this rule, under ordinary circumstances, being 



