PARTITIONING A HOUSE IN ONE DAY 329 



raised, roofed, sided and roughly floored, and the main carrying 

 partitions placed, procure a quantity of plasterers' grounds say % x 

 % stuff that will readily bend. These long, straight, slender 

 wooden sticks some sixteen or eighteen feet in length are flexible 

 and so light in weight that half a dozen can easily be clasped in the 

 hand, and set up, lined and spaced two or three feet apart and lightly 

 tacked at floor and ceiling line. In this way can be shown experi- 

 mentally changes of all kinds, and how they would affect the arrange- 

 ment of furniture, radiators, or electric fixtures, settle the location 

 of a possible closet, an extra semi-partition carried to the frieze line 

 of an inglenook, or outline the radical shifting of side walls in some 

 room showing squared ugliness when it should be nooked or cosy- 

 cornered. These slender pieces of wood can be bent to outline arches, 

 place balconies, curve overhead openings, mark out a flying arch 

 under stair soffit, segment the ceiling of a dining room or barrel that 

 of a long hall and bathroom, groin a vaulted roof, locate columns, 

 pilasters, and spandrels, steal an extra bathroom from some barn- 

 like room, or arrange alcoves or ambrys at either end ; line a stair- 

 w T indow-seat on a landing, widen a stair opening, lower a ceiling 

 even change and rearrange the layout of an entire floor, and prove 

 beyond peradventure whether the billiard room is not a trifle too 

 narrow, a common error. If a partition is to be moved, it can be 

 tried out in this simple way, to least interfere with door or window. 

 This method will boudoir a bedroom, corner-cove or ceiling-cove a 

 drawing room (or, as it was originally called, a withdrawing room), 

 change an opening or an entrance, show different effects and settle 

 one's preference for a round or square column, a square headed 

 opening or a Roman, Tudor, or Gothic arch, for there is nothing 

 so convincing as ocular demonstration. It will locate to an inch the 

 ceiling beams in connection with window and door openings some- 

 times a difficult proposition, though it looks simple enough to the 

 novice. Faulty construction is always an annoyance if realized, and 

 if once known will be realized for life. By the use of these sticks it 

 may be prevented and features kept in proper balance. In like 

 manner each mantel in the house can be laid out, deciding whether 

 it shall be high, low, or hooded; with square or rounded edges, built 

 half way or to the ceiling or cabinet-lockered. Proper height and 

 width of plate shelf, whether best lined with door and window trim 

 or above or below it, and other numberless details can be more easily 

 settled in this way, and sticks left in place as long as necessary to 

 arrive at final conclusions. The house that in the morning had but 

 a roof, four sides and a few carrying partitions, by night can be ready 

 for inspection, so far as division of rooms and general effect are con- 

 cerned. 



These same slender strips of wood also aid in the inexpensive 

 laying out of extra verandas, bays, and projections, avoiding encroach- 



