IN THE BEGINNING 



me that architects, when they plan a house, think 

 first of all, and most of all, of how it is going to 

 look from the outside. Now the outside of a 

 house is, after all, mainly for the benefit of the 

 passer-by, while the owner lives on the inside, 

 and very rarely takes the trouble to go outside 

 to view his own building, and after a time 

 scarcely glances at it when he is outside. Nat- 

 urally we went to the other extreme, and never 

 thought of the outside at all, but planned the 

 inside so that it should be exactly suited to our 

 needs, and the outside had to fit itself to our 

 requirements. We planned each room separately, 

 and then moved them around until we got them 

 in just the place we wanted them. First of all 

 came the hall, which was to be twenty feet square ; 

 then came two bedrooms, each being eighteen feet 

 square ; then a dining-room, 1 6 X 20, a bathroom, 

 6 X 12, a pantry, 7x18, a kitchen, 16 X 18 ; 

 and these, with a laundry and woodshed, made 

 up the first floor. The walls were to be built 

 up but three feet above the second floor, and 

 for the rest followed the slope of the square 

 pitched roof. One thing we determined upon 

 from the outset: the ceilings should all be the 

 same height, so that if a picture was moved from 



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