Planning the House 41 



your exterior, as you should be with your plan, and let the former be an honest 

 interpretation of the latter. Keep the roof simple; the more valleys the more 

 leaks. Keep the plan simple; the more angles the more costly, as the plan 

 naturally expresses itself in the exterior. Make your material count for that 

 material and no other; the slight suggestion is permissible, but the out-and-out 

 attempt to deceive is bad; the grained door and imitation stone and marble come 

 under this head. We may make a shingle roof to suggest the English thatch, or 

 treat our wooden siding in the form of stone, but the first gives the line only and 

 is so slight as not to deceive as to material, while the latter is not marbled. 



In conclusion, remember that the best design is that which shows no effort 

 to make itself interesting; the excess of ornament does not necessarily mean good 

 design (in fact quite the contrary), nor the absence of it an inferior thing; 

 and lastly, that it is the simple thing that wears and becomes less tiresome from 

 constant use and long association. 







House of Gen. Harrison Gray Otis, Los Angeles, Cal. An example of plaster mission work 



