HOW TO FACE AND BACK A HOUSE 305 



the financial head of the house. Rooms must be carefully considered 

 in their relation to each other, to the points of compass, and use, and 

 glaring contrasts, such as Gothic interiors elbowing Colonial should 

 be avoided. 



A common mistake is that of making a small house a diminutive 

 copy of a large one. Possibly fine in the large conception, it is 

 usually pernickety in the small. Another error is in making an uplift- 

 ing, gem-site of rising ground stagger under the incubus of a house 

 with stiff citified outlines. 



It is a fine thing to live a long time with the plans before 

 beginning work. Comfort and convenience within are the first con- 

 sideration, then the exterior, not necessarily of grandiose architecture, 

 .but of graceful and impressive outlines. 



A square house is cheapest, roomiest, and homeliest, and requires 

 less wall to enclose a given space, and a plain pitch roof costs least, 

 but the slight additional expense of the gambrel often makes a 

 world of difference in beauty and livableness. 



A symmetrical roof has a uniform pitch in all its sections, usually 

 as four to sixteen, this gradient making a grand water shedder and 

 increasing the life of the roof. 



Square or rectangle the house if you will, but keep the propor- 

 tions correct, and break wall and roof line with bay, porte cochere, 

 wide overhang, porch room and eyebrow, lift, or Gothic dormer. 

 Chimney it plainly and strongly in the right places, window with 

 mullioned triplets, casements and transoms, use doors in good style 

 perhaps Dutch, or with side and over lights stain or paint 

 artistically and you have a thing of beauty. Success in designing an 

 attractive and practical house requires an axis, as well as strong and 

 effective motifs and material adapted to the site. Individualizing 

 even close to the line of criticism is desirable building and banishes 

 uninteresting stereotyped construction. 



Essentials of Comfortable Planning. 



Given a big hall and living room, wide stairs; a unique dining 

 room, one fine bedroom and boudoir suite, and your house is made, 

 even if economy requires a kitchenette and the hall bedrooms of the 

 summer hotel to keep the balance on the right side of the ledger. 

 A generous porch room connected with a cement, brick or a terrazzo- 

 paved terrace and a porte cochere make for comfort and appearance 

 out bf all proportion to their cost, and a front door just right is a 

 fine home greeter. 



Foundations. 



Foundations must be squared and plumbed, aside from the 

 entasis of an occasional buttress or exposed cellar wall, first treating 

 cellar bottom and interior walls as well as exterior underground walls 

 with tar to keep out ground air and dampness. At the foot of the 

 excavation in the ditch which parallels the wall outside the cellar, 

 lay a drain pipe covered with small stones to within two feet of the 



