312 Our Farming. 



The cellar also has a cement floor. Now for the plan of second 

 story. In front is our sitting room and bedroom, wife and I, and 

 my office. We have a fire in here, of course. We now burn 

 wood, but are thinking of changing to anthracite coal. Notice the 

 four large windows. The glass above are 26x34. To lk right, 

 attention should be paid to proportions ; 26 x 40 for parlor windows, 

 26x36 for rest below, and 26x34 for up stairs seem to us perfect 

 for a house of this style. Passing back you see a hall with one 

 bedroom (B R) on east side and two on the west side. In each, 

 as well as in our room, there is a closet (C). There is a register in 

 this hall over the' big stove below. By keeping this open in cold 

 weather and giving the stove full draft, we can \varm up stairs 

 sufficiently for sleeping rooms. There are transoms over the 

 doors into these three smaller bedrooms to allow of a free circulation 

 of air when doors are shut. The rear room over the kitchen and 

 wood shed is not full height. We had no use for this room only 

 as a store room, and it would be rather warm in summer anyway, so 

 we built this part only story and a half high. The lower part of 

 main house is nearly ten feet in the clear, and nearly nine above. 

 The kitchen is something over eight feet in the clear, so we get a 

 pretty good room above. By the arrows you will see (at end of 

 hall above) that we pass into store room after going down two steps 

 from' the hall. In bad weather in the winter we hang clothes in 

 this store room to dry. Notice the bath tub (BT). We keep 

 our year's supply of flour, soap, beans, coffee, tea, etc., in this 

 room. We have a stove to warm it when we wish to use bath 

 tub in the winter. A small window lets light into the stairway. 

 There is not a single change we would make in our house up 

 stairs. 



The house complete, including bath tub, cistern and pumps, 

 thorough painting and inside finishing, paper hanging, etc., cost 

 fully $2,500. It might, of course, be built much plainer and 

 cheaper. We have outside blinds all around ; rather prefer them 

 to inside ones. The roof of main part is half pitch. I will try 

 and get you a picture of one kitchen porch, and also of the 

 shaded and almost concealed earth closet. This latter cannot be 

 seen at all by anyone going by in the road or in the fields or from 

 any point except from the rear of the house. It only costs a 

 little to make such shaded retreats, a few cents for shrubs and 

 trees and a little care. The rear yard is entirely sheltered by a 

 solid wall of evergreens from cold winds. This includes the walk 

 to earth closet and the place where clothes are hung out on gal- 

 vanized iron lines that are never taken down. As carefully as 

 our earth closet is managed it might safely be right against the 

 house with an entrance from the porch or wood shed, but a nat- 

 ural fitness of things would suggest that a shady nook a little 

 ways off from the kitchen was more appropriate. And a little 

 fresh air will do even the women no harm, with proper precau- 



