346 APPENDIX 



strips. Preparation before laying the double floor to combat ground 

 air and moisture must include thorough draining, cementing, tarring 

 and air spacing. The chimney breast, built in line with west 

 porch-room fireplace, can be faced with burnished copper. Inset in 

 over-mantel a cleverly executed burnt wood tracing. The somewhat 

 radical plan of this road-level-floor is made possible by the lay of 

 the land which slopes sharply to the west as well as the south. The 

 entire first story of thirty by forty feet is to be treated as one large 

 gala room spaced to include stairs and chimney, alcoved to allow a 

 stop-draught entrance vestibule from the porte cochere end, and ample 

 room for library and reception corners. Good planning will make 

 the three steps to a landing five feet wide, whose side can be pro- 

 tected by a firmly fastened standing lion of cement used as a balus- 

 trade and fronted by a settle, the end of the platform resting against, 

 not in the chimney. Stairs trail upward back of the chimney to 

 a mid-height landing, s.unned by a golden-hued, opalescent, leaded 

 glass window facing due north, hand rail of three-inch cotton 

 rope covered with red velvet, not as hygienic as metal but in appear- 

 ance less commercial, and fastened by brass sockets against the side 

 wall. For the service portion of the house use the half-back-stair, 

 and reach this landing behind the chimney, it can form part of 

 a servants' porch and roof their summer dining room ; here will be 

 an opening to deliver ice to the ice box, and in the house wall an 

 alcove for milk bottles. This porch abuts against the rear 

 and is roofed at the same gradient as the main house, which is 

 carried down to cover the "outshot" projection. The chimney ten 

 feet wide built of Harvard brick, with six-foot fire opening, will 

 have over the inset stone shelf, seven feet from the floor, an iron 

 grille-fronted-flambeau-fireplace where on festal occasions pitch pine 

 knots flare, sputter, and fitfully brighten the entire room, metal rings 

 pendant from a trolley iron that supports its front, a crane hung 

 with trammels set in the brick work, and andirons and fire irons 

 six feet high. An arched forward back, a narrow flue opening of 

 six feet, a smoke shelf, and a flue lined with round tile tightly 

 cemented at each collar, are forms of construction that effectually 

 checkmate a smoking chimney and forever bar an ugly help-draw- 

 cowl swivel-chimney-pot. The fireplace may have an iron reredos 

 embossed with coat of arms, and a wide deep hearth of cement, and 

 the six foot log burner can be changed to a grotto of ferns in summer, 

 centred with a rose-lipped shell from the Orient. 



Our big 30 x 40 gala room will surely be wainscoted seven feet 

 high with chestnut boarding set upright, capped with plate rack, and 

 stained by acid to that shade seen in some storm tossed, sand and sun 

 bleached bit of wreckage, and the twelve-foot ceiling inexpensively 

 divided lengthwise by three heavy made-up beams cross-sectioned 

 twice. Two plate glass mirrors five feet wide carried through base- 



