286 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



August, 1 9 13 



pinning put beneath its aston- 

 ished walls. The venerable 

 beams under its roof were 

 lifted, an airy attic tucked 

 away beneath them, and then 

 they were covered up again 

 with a sheathing of fine new 

 shingles. The old house nad 

 been covered from top to 

 toe with broad hand-made 

 shingles, now worn and 

 rotted past all usefulness, 

 and they had to come off. 

 Inside, the plaster was tumb- 

 ling from the walls, showing 

 hand-made laths such as will 

 never be seen again underneath 

 come down, and the old laths were replaced. Then the 

 new rooms were added — six of them, with two baths. 



The old kitchen was still the kitchen, in the new house. 

 Its walls were new, but 

 its fireplace yawned as 

 hospitably as of old, its 

 Dutch oven still stood 

 ready to bake innumer- 

 able pies. The little bed- 

 rooms behind it became 



pantries, and an entrance 



.1 11 First floor plan 



to the new cellar was K 



made through a romantic little green door. A tiny door, 



no more than two by four when Mr. Otis found it, that 



looked as if it might lead into some fairy land country lying 



behind the big red chimney, but which, enlarged to human 



The tearoom 

 The plaster had to all 



4 Yeah s 



LMNO-R00W 

 IOYeass 



dimensions, is now prosaic, 

 and very useful. 



The old living-room be- 

 gan a new lease of life as 

 the dining-room, with its 

 corner cupboard, shining 

 forth in all its beauty stand- 

 ing triumphantly in one 

 corner. It is filled with rare 

 old china, and surrounded 

 with wonderfully valuable 

 antique furniture which Mr. 

 Otis has gathered from 

 many countries. In this 

 room there were originally 

 two small windows. They 

 were not enough. Mr. Otis wished three. But there was 

 not space between the two. There was space enough, how- 

 ever, for a third, if it had no sash of its own. So a copy 

 of the two old windows was made and fitted in between 



them, and a very fine 

 effect was easily secured, 

 the new window fitting 

 into the old sash as if it 

 had always been there. 



The new living-room is 

 large and sunny, with a 

 fireplace in careful imi- 

 tation of a really old one, 

 and it, too, holds many treasures of other lands and older 

 times, for Mr. Otis is an enthusiastic and intelligent col- 

 lector. 



But maybe the most interesting room in this most inter- 



Second floor plan 



The owner's bed-chamber. The old desk was brought from the Hague 



