328 HOW TO MAKE A COUNTRY PLACE 



ing a dollar, the exact bearing a part has to the whole and all view 

 points within and without can be thoroughly grasped. 



By the following plan, an amateur can tell in still closer detail, 

 providing he gives the necessary time to studying results, just how the 

 new house will work out, even to the smallest item, before the cellar 

 has been dug. This is something that neither architect nor builder, 

 with a lifetime of experience, ever really knows in its entirety before 

 completion ; much less can he explain it to another if the house is 

 elaborate. 



As the builder of an ocean liner turns out from his model room 

 a miniature vessel before its keel is laid, so let the housebuilder lay 

 out his home. 



The one hundred or more dollars it might cost would be off- 

 set by the prevention of even one glaring error. A cabinet maker 

 or journeyman can readily be found who will work overtime if 

 necessary, modeling from plans of the architect a complete archetype 

 of a miniature house in plaster or wood, preferably the latter, on 

 account of durability and light weight, or the entire house can first 

 be worked out in cardboard. An l /& scale conveys the best idea of 

 proportion. 



It might be built in sections, so that each detail can be closely 

 scrutinized or may only be skeletonized to attain a fairly satisfactory 

 result. It could be set on library table and taken to pieces and put 

 together again as readily as one dissects a wooden puzzle. In this 

 way details of general construction, number, size and location of 

 rooms, position and number of doors and windows ; relative height 

 of ceilings, vistas both in and out of doors even the most convenient 

 side to hang a door, a minor, but often important detail, can be 

 settled, and the front door in design and coloring is well worth exact 

 duplication. (The entrance door of feudal England was a narrow 

 one-at-a-time door, contrasting sharply with our wide doors of the 

 present day, every line of which should express hospitality. Prior 

 to the Sixteenth Century a paneled door was unknown. The earliest 

 were pivoted at the centre.) Even the number and style of stairways 

 can all be studied and re-studied, and when this miniature house has 

 served its mission it can be riveted together and handed down as a toy 

 house to gladden the hearts of children of more than one generation, 

 and photographs of a completed property shown before the lifting of 

 a pick-axe. 



How to Partition a House in One Day. 



Closely allied to the above plan, and of so little cost that it 

 should be tried, even in the least expensive dwelling, is the follow- 

 ing method that I have used to get acquainted with the nooks and 

 corners of a house before it is much more than framed and enclosed, 

 therefore in ample time to make any changes desired, and make 

 them in the most economical manner. After the house has been 



