214 HOW TO MAKE A COUNTRY PLACE 



side walls, back halls and servants' quarters anywhere and every- 

 where that rough usage could mar, as well as in curves and molded 

 ornaments, buttresses hollowed for plant receptacles, cement window- 

 sill boxes, steps, seats and columns. Cement flooring was especially 

 treated to prevent crumbling under friction, as a common cement 

 floor is never clean. Under conditions where wood covered cement 

 or brick there was ventilation. 



Marble dust cement was used, efflorescent stains if present were 

 removed with a one-tenth solution of muriatic acid. Capillary 

 attraction fought with anti-damp, thick, pasty, water-proof paint, 

 made our walls practically moisture-proof, as even the foundation 

 stones were separately coated on sides and back with tar and 

 wooden pegged between the joints for air spaced plastering. In all 

 cement flooring was used a core of galvanized 1-2 inch wire mesh. 

 Corners of the brick bay of the conservatory were of sheep-nose 

 molded brick, avoiding the usual dirt collecting angle formed in a 

 bay. The water table, of ogee bricks based with cut stone, threw 

 water well away from foundations. 



Outbuildings not roofed with fireproof tile or asbestos and 

 cement manufactured shingles were covered with red cedar shingles, 

 which often outwear white, the latter splitting more easily and causing 

 many an exasperating leak. 



No shingles over six inches wide were used ; they were split that 

 width when necessary, and laid with four and one-half instead of 

 the usual five and one-half inch weatherage. Pantiles roofed some 

 of the more important buildings. 



Valleys were flashed with copper to a width of eighteen inches, 

 and a wide open valley left to delay as long as might be the inevitable 

 rotting of shingles through moisture, always a formidable enemy. 



Construction was closely watched, with an eye to circumventing 

 the fire fiend, and the carpenter who led stringers and rammed slid- 

 ing doors into or against the chimney, as well as the plumber or 

 plasterer who left fires unguarded, or used defective salamanders, 

 received his Saturday night pay in a blue envelope. 



The Window Problem. 



Our aim was to combine comfort, convenience and luxury. One 

 often enters an imposing dwelling with eager enthusiasm for a pro- 

 spective architectural feast, but leaves with a keen sense of dis- 

 appointment because of a window set too high or a staircase that had 

 to be searched for and when found was dark and narrow, bringing 

 up in a windowless hall. A generous forecourt, esplanade and belve- 

 dere once decided upon, attention was turned to the windows. 

 It took time to settle whether they should be big and staring or unob- 

 trusive and picturesque, to decide upon the merits of glaring plate 

 glass over against the time honored leaded oriel pane. Outlook 

 sometimes tires of manorial diamond panes, as does the housemaid 



