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A WOMAN’S PLAN OF A HOUSE 
The first tiling to bo considered in arrang¬ 
ing a plan for a dwelling, is the necessities 
of your family; the second, and perhaps the 
attended to that as 
faithfully as did ever 
WjLKINS Mlt'AWBSH. 
Of course we man¬ 
aged to make our very 
insignificant “bills re¬ 
ceivable” meet our 
“bills payable,” and 
vice versa. We were 
slow to learn that it 
was by slow and 
steady accumulation 
that a competency 
would be gained. But 
when at last the de¬ 
sire for a home of our 
own took a deep root 
in our hearts, every 
thing to which we 
turned our attention 
became a financial sue 
cess. A present of a 
beautiful building lot 
from my mother be¬ 
came the nucleus of 
our endeavors. Hav¬ 
ing no family we both 
continued active part¬ 
ners and both worked 
for tho same end. 
When the assets of 
our bank rounded the 
second thousand we 
began to think of a 
plan for a house. My 
husband's forte being 
entirely confined to a 
newspaper office, the 
selection of a plan was 
left entirely to me. 
Our family, present 
and prospective, con¬ 
sisted of my good mo¬ 
ther an old friend and 
schoolmate, now a 
lUtnil ^ixhitci’ture. 
[ Entered ncco ' rd t n T m A^Torc^r oss'. in the year 1S72. by I), b. T. MooRt, in tho office of the Librarian of Congress, at WasUingUm.j ___ 
I girl My chief desire was to plan a house ^ able apartment, where sho could spend the winter evenings in endeavoring to living out 
Itwhich should give to mother a most dosir- excess of her “ three score years and ten ” my dormant conception of our house, and 
I _ iii'qulet and rest. So I employed tho long as I had had considerable experience as a 
- -- I I | i -L_ ^ draughtsman (?) in mapping, etc., in tho 
llllil^ county office, whoro I rendered service for 
f ID a number of years, while the sterner sex 
/ went forth to battle, I succeeded beyond 
^ I # my expectations. 
able apartment, where sho could spend the 
excess of her “ three score years and ten 
in quiet and rest. So I employed the long 
most difficult thing to take into considera¬ 
tion, is the sizo of your pocket-book. It 
should be the aim, however, of the heads of 
every family to secure to themselves as 
good a home as their means will allow—that, 
is, as good a home as they can possibly make 
for themselves, without incurring too great 
indebtedness, or jeopardizing their every 
day bread-and-butter income. In order to 
do this, young married people especially 
should bear in mind the excellent, advice:— 
“ Take care of the pennies, and tho dollars 
will taka care of themselves." It is a prev¬ 
alent error with people to think, because it 
takes a thousand dollars to build such a 
house as they need, and they have in pos- | 
session only five hundred, that, therefore, 
they will buy a horse and buggy, nr spend 
the money on loss desirable luxuries, and in 
so doing, they never attain to the desired 
thousand* 
My husband and I are in partnership. 
Fifteen years ago when we entered Into our 
present relations, he had sixty-five dollars 
and I had fifty dollars to put into the mat¬ 
rimonial business. He was a good printer, 
a man of most excellent liabitH, steady and 
industrious. 1 was a “ school marm, the 
only thing then open for a young woman 
to do. The first half dozen years we spent 
in “ waitintr for something to turn up,” and 
OROUND 1'T.AN OF RESIDENCE OF F. S. J1EDF.T.L. 
A, parlor, 15 by 23 feet; 11, (lining room, 12 by 
CHAMUKIl FI,AN OF RESIDENCE OJf F. H. UKDKLL. 
A, bed room, 15 by 18; It, tower, VA by 7J4 ! C, 
. . -I closet, 4 by 8 : L>, closet, 4 by 7; E, bed room, 
20; 0, hall, 7‘4 by 9y.; D, sitting room, 15 by <, by lH; p, closet, 4 by 5; G, be.l room, 8 by 
17 ; E, closet,5 by 7*4 i Is passage; G, China I 18; H, toed room, 15 by 17; I, passage into 
closet, 2« by 6; H. kitchen closet, 2*4 by «; attic gtor( , l ()0 m, 5% by 7; J, attic store 
I, pantry, 5 by 10; .1, cellar stairs; K, kiteb- room,22by28; K, backstairs; LL, balconies. 
w'mdslK-d 1 , 1 21 "by’ 14V"* N, ground floor ’for [In the ground plan It, R, lUve pitizzas; S, lat- 
wood; O, cistern ; P, cistern pump. ticed porch; 1, 1, I, walks.] 
widow, and her little 
RESIDENCE OF S- BEDELL, GROWN POINT, UnTD- 
Thecost of this house complete, including 
out-house, cellar and cistern, finished as 
represented in the engraving, was $3,250. 
This, of course, does not Include the im¬ 
provements necessary to the finest of city 
houses, but simply that of a first-class coun¬ 
try residence. The inside work is finished 
with 2)i-in. band molding out)* G. casings; 
the windows are all supplied with pulleys, 
the doors with mortice locks. Each room 
has its closet supplied with shelves, a drawer 
and hoolcs for hanging. The chimneys all 
are built from the foundation—each resting, 
in fact, upon a stone foundation of its own. 
The pantry is supplied with shelves and 
drawers and a receptacle fol* two barrels of 
Hour, having doors in front to receivobar¬ 
rels and a folding lid on top for every-day 
use. This closet is large enough to contain 
bread-bowl, board, eto., as well as barrels. 
Tho China closet is supplied with a row 
of drawers on uithcr aide of the door, 
shelves, and also a slide eighteen inches 
square opening into the kitchen closet and 
affording means of passing food through 
without the usual amount of travel. The 
Kitchen closet is supplied with numerous 
shelves and drawers to accommodate its 
i uses. The passuge between the dining room 
and kitchen is of much value in my eatiuia- 
I tiou in cutting off sounds and smell, as well 
as affording a conve¬ 
nient place for hang¬ 
ing a hat and shawl 
for ready use. The 
room marked “sitting 
room,” in the original 
plan, was “ mother’s 
room ” instead, and 
still retains the name 
with us, although tho 
beloved occupant on¬ 
ly enjoyed it about six 
months, when sho 
went homo to enjoy 
a heavenly palace in 
that “building of 
God, a house not 
made with hands.” 
The part which com¬ 
prises the kitchen and 
wood shed is built 
with 12 feet studding, 
having 9 feet ceiling 
below and the remain¬ 
der in the great attic 
store-room — a recep¬ 
tacle of tho every¬ 
thing of housekeeping 
and also a place to dry 
clothes ill winter. 
The main building of 
20 feet studding, hav¬ 
ing 10 feet below and 
9 feet above. 
Back stairs are a ne- 
cessi ty in such a house 
for reasons which will 
occur to housekeep¬ 
ers. But we leave the 
whole merit of our 
plan, whatever it 
may bo, to be studied 
out by those inter¬ 
ested. 
Mrs. L.G. Bedell. 
Crown Point, Iud. 
NEW YORK, ANl) ROCHESTER, N. Y, JUNE 15, 1872. 
[ PRICE six: CENTS. 
( ST2.50 PER YEAR. 
VOL. XXV. NO. ‘24. I 
WHOLE NO. 1108. f 
