January, 1914 
21 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
the much higher level upon which the house is built. The 
bank is covered with closely clipped grass and a window-box 
is hung below each of the windows which face the street. 
A wrought-iron gate hangs in the concrete wall which ex- 
tends across the front of the house, and through the gate 
one enters the little court-yard, which is the most notable 
single feature of the cottage. Upon all sides of the patio 
are casement windows, which extend from the floor to the 
ceiling of the house, and open 
into the various rooms which 
surround. In the centre of 
the court is a fountain sur- 
rounded by a number of the 
semi-tropical plants which 
give to California the name 
of the “land of perpetual 
summer.” Within the patio 
and about the exterior of the 
home, and particularly about 
the small pergola which shel- 
ters the window of one of the 
bedrooms, are being grown 
the rose vines with their 
clinging branches, which fre- 
quently cover a house with a 
single rose plant with its 
masses of blossom. 
It is always interesting to 
study the costs at which at- 
tractive homes have been 
built. Location and the state 
of the labor market, and va- 
rious other conditions, have 
much to do with the cost ; but 
there is generally a certain 
basis which applies to some 
extent to conditions anywhere in America, and which may 
afford some idea of the cost of the same house if built else- 
where. The entire cost of this very interesting bungalow 
was $2,420, and the various items are here given: 
Brick and concrete, $200; lumber and mill work, $850; 
painting and decorating, $300; hardware, $110; electric 
wiring and fixtures, $125; labor, $350; plumbing, $200; 
plastering, $135; mantel, $75; oak floors, $75. Total, 
$2,420. 
It so often happens that in a small house, and particularly 
where the rooms are arranged upon a single floor, the bed- 
rooms are either unduly in evidence or else that they are 
approached by a hall which is apt to be narrow and dark, 
such as are often seen in city apartments. In this instance, 
however, neither of these conditions obtains, for the bed- 
rooms, while placed by themselves and entirely separated 
from the rest of the house, open into a small hall which is 
well lighted and which, in turn, opens directly out-of-doors. 
All of the bedrooms have large closets and two of them 
have windows which face in two different directions, and the 
bathroom, which is at one end of this bedroom hall, has 
walls, woodwork and fix- 
tures of white enamel. 
The living-room contains 
a fireplace set within a man- 
tel of chocolate-colored tiles. 
The standing woodwork is 
of weathered oak, and heavy 
oaken beams cross the plas- 
tered ceiling. At the far end 
as one enters the living-room 
from the courtyard wide 
openings lead into the din- 
ing-room, which is finished 
in a manner similar to the 
living-room. At one side of 
the dining-room stands a 
built-in buffet with doors of 
leaded glass. A group of 
four windows lights one end 
of the room, and at the op- 
posite end a French window 
opens upon the patio. 
So well planned is the 
kitchen that it opens only 
into the dining-room. The 
service entrance is through a 
porch which is screened with 
wire netting. Like the bath- 
room, the walls of the kitch- 
en are covered with white 
enamel, which possesses the advantage of being easily “wash 
able” when it becomes soiled. A gas range is used for 
cooking. 
The vegetation of California is of such amazingly rapid 
growth that it seems to spring from the fertile soil and to 
be coaxed into fruition by the sunshine in a way which 
seems almost a miracle, and it therefore requires only a 
very slight stretch of the imagination to picture this Los 
Angeles bungalow when its roses shall be fully grown and 
when its patio and pergola shall be clothed with vines 
which will climb the roof, and when the tangle of plants 
about the fountain in the courtyard shall be even more luxu- 
riant than they are now. A home so pleasing and so eco- 
nomical may well interest other builders elsewhere and 
put approval on the bungalow far beyond its place of origin. 
Floor plan 
The living-room 
