The Livable House 



of those story-book English courtyards will serve to illustrate the 

 spirit of the thing. 



Regarded from a strictly utilitarian point of view, the court- 

 yard may be removed to the side or back of the house, and there 

 used as a combination service and garage yard and turn-around. 

 A car can back and turn in a space about forty feet square, which 

 may be planted out so as to be practically invisible from the house. 

 This arrangement, with a drive which runs alongside the house, 

 probably cuts the grounds up the least, and entails the smallest 

 amount of drive construction. It means, however, that no car 

 has an exit without proceeding to the yard and turning, or 

 else adopting the somewhat inconvenient expedient of backing 

 out. 



If the drive happens to be narrow, the grass borders and the 

 owner's temper suffer correspondingly. A ten-foot road, widened 

 to twelve or fourteen feet on the turns, is enough for one car to 

 proceed comfortably. If the road be a long one this width is 

 apt to look narrow, and should be broadened to twelve feet for 

 appearance's sake. A twelve-foot road, however, is not wide 

 enough for two cars to pass, and if this necessity is going to arise, 

 the drive should be increased to fifteen feet. 



The commonest material, and probably the most satisfactory, for 

 drive construction on private grounds is crushed stone. 'VVHiere 

 stone is very plentiful locallv, the foundation may be made of 

 coarse stone uith the finer layers on top, but in regions where stone 

 must be shipped in, cinders may be used as a base. A crushed 

 stone foundation sometimes obviates the necessity of subsurface 



[i8] 



