[eee eel 
Porte Cocnere 
VeRanodA r) 
Living Room 
16°0+20°6 
Ground floor plan of remodeled farmhouse 
brook, on the banks of which grew wild garden thyme. He 
glanced into the house, much as a huge Newfoundland 
might look into a kennel, and then went about to study the 
surroundings. The house was on the side of the lot, there- 
fOrewit suited. 
There was no drive- 
way, but that could 
be arranged with a 
little macadam; and 
Virginia creeper 
could soon extin- 
guish the architec- 
tural glories of the 
tower; so. before 
nightfall a sale was 
made at $4,500. 
The new 
brought his wife to 
see the great pur- 
chase. 
Immediately she 
exclaimed: “Coal 
stoves and pumps! 
I never lived in 
such a place in my 
life. The servant 
willleave! We 
will have to eat in 
the kitchen! Could 
you not have seen 
that no one could get from the kitchen to the rest of the 
house without great trouble, and that the bathroom blocks 
up the whole house! ‘That agent must give you back our 
money. 
owner 
But they moved in, and soon an opening was made in the 
two-foot wall which connected the kitchen and the living- 
room. Part of the five hundred dollars left over bought 
and installed a hot-air furnace and connected the house 
piping to the city water mains, and so they passed the 
autumn and the winter. 
An architect who took an interest in the owner and his 
house ran out occasionally to see the trees, the view, and 
to watch a real wood fire at the hearth. He examined the 
house carefully, and declared that with an expenditure of 
about two thousand dollars a proftable and pleasing result 
could be obtained. 
He drew a plan of the original house and then advanced 
his ideas of a radical remodeling of the building. 
“To begin with,” he said, ‘you want your dining-room 
placed to the southeast. That is an essential point in house 
designing, as here one gets the morning sun. 
“Now, we will pull out the front of the kitchen so as to 
make it line up with the house, and then cut it in half to 
make a kitchen and a dining-room.”’ But on further con- 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
The new house, remodeled from the old, compares favorably with its surrounding neighbors 
October, 1 gII 
sideration he decided that this would not do, as he had to 
provide space for a pantry and a back stairs for the second 
floor. So he planned to push it out to line up with the 
tower front. ; 
He sketched it carefully enough, and at last announced 
that the old farmhouse had the elements of an H-plan 
manor-house. 
‘‘My purpose in the design here made,” said the archi- 
tect, “is to pull off the roof, run up this story over the rear 
kitchen, carry the second story of the tower back to match, 
leaving a porte-cochere underneath, and put on a porch 
across the middle section. The present roof is one of flat 
tin. Put a new one on over it, and it can all be: accom- 
plished inside of the two thousand dollars’ estimate.”’ 
The designer finally presented an Elizabethan structure 
that looked to be on architectural terms with any of the 
villas in the neighborhood. 
It was now the owner’s turn to be interested in the archi- 
tect, and he asked what could be done with all the clap- 
boarding on the walls of the farmhouse. He was informed 
that it could be covered with hair-felt paper, furred with 
one - inch - by - two - 
inch hemlock, 
lathed, and _ then 
asbestine slap- 
dashed stucco put 
on. 
To carry out the 
scheme of remodel- 
ing it was found 
that it would be 
necessary “t Oumier 
move the peak roof 
of the tower after 
finishing the work 
on the middle sec- 
tion and the kitchen 
wing, the parts of 
the house chosen 
for the winter oc- 
cupancy. 
The architect 
next drew a plan of 
the original second 
floor. Giiomemd 
study of this he 
b) 
found that the mid-. 
dle chamber was too large, so he planned for a bathroom in 
one corner. The former was very poorly lighted, so a 
couple of small windows at the front were taken out and 
put in the back of the house, and two big diamond-pane 
Beo Room 
12°6*15 0” 
8 ix 
Bevo Room 
12°0%12'6 
Bedroom floor plan of remodeled farmhouse 
