224 HOW TO MAKE A COUNTRY PLACE 



The refrigerator room served also as a cold storage room, with 

 packed sawdust doors as well as sides, and we had our own hygeia 

 ice plant. One cake of ice would answer all the year though renew- 

 als are desirable, but in the event of needing ice it was delivered 

 directly into the built-in refrigerator through a door opening from 

 a small side porch. Drainage pipe whose end connected with a 

 cement surface gutter was screened with copper wire. Pipe was left 

 six inches above ground. A small alcove cupboard on side porch 

 served for use of milkman and grocer. 



Vermin-proof Store Room. 



This cold storage room was made rat and vermin-proof by gal- 

 vanized one-quarter inch mesh laid over floors, side walls, and ceiling, 

 and set in the cement. 



Basement Rooms. 



As the house was side-hilled, laundry, servants' dining room 

 and servants' hall were above ground, avoiding a dark unhealthy 

 basement. Laundry equipment included porcelain washtubs with 

 non-projecting faucets, electric washers, mangles, etc., and a drying 

 machine in an adjoining room. 



Wire screens shielding both laundry and some kitchen windows 

 were the impossible old-fashioned slate colored landscape design. 



Servants' dining room was separated from laundry by columns 

 and grilles, and a wooden floor laid over the cement foundation with 

 the help of enamel and spar varnish finish wood work made the word 

 "basement" a misnomer. 



Cellar. 



The cellar was tarred and cemented to exclude ground air and 

 dampness, walls murescoed, separate rooms brick partitioned and 

 provided with thorough ventilation, and the entire floor drained to 

 a water-sealed manhole. All corners were concaved to the ceiling 

 line with cement. Ceiling was wire lathed and plastered and covered 

 with metal to reduce noise, dust, and fire risk. Footings were rough 

 stone, capped with flat blue stone, brick if soft often deteriorating 

 under ground. 



Here was also a housekeeping closet with broad windows and 

 a set of old fashioned hanging shelves of non-rusting enameled steel, 

 and a dark cool preserve closet with spring lock, on the north. 



Coal bins, brick partitioned, with cement floors and sides, had 

 automatic chute delivery, a shovel of coal taking the place of the one 

 removed. Bins were next to boiler, and the scuttle entrance so 

 arranged that coal delivery did not injure the lawn. 



A fireproof brick vault brick being our best fire resister with 

 metal shelf partitions and pigeon holes encased in asbestos was built 

 in a corner of the cellar to protect papers hardly valuable enough to 



