HOUSE AND GARDEN 
July, 1911 
Wide boards are laid up horizontally like clapboards on the wood frame over the underpin¬ 
ning of local stone. There is a splendid place for garden tools under the porch' 
The exterior of the house is quaint and unusual, with its small- 
paned windows and sharply sloping roof line, broken by the 
dormers which make possible the good-sized bedrooms. Wide 
boards are used in the construction, with a foundation of field 
stone, and a shingled roof. The house is painted white, with 
green trim, and the roof is stained red. The wide porch to me is 
one of the most satisfactory features of the plan. I have sat 
uncomfortably on many a porch where one’s head seemed to 
press against the house and one’s knees against the railing. On 
this porch, people may sit in groups, instead of in a straight and 
formal row. 
The living-room is entered directly from the porch, and I 
must pause here to describe the front door. It is of the two-piece 
variety commonly known as the Dutch door — that is, the upper 
and lower halves open separately. It is made of five-inch oak 
planks, and chamfered, or beveled where the edges join. There 
are heavy battens on the inside, and the door is swung on rough 
iron barn hinges which run the entire width of the door and are 
painted black. An iron thumb-latch is used instead of a knob. 
The whole effect is of quaintness combined with great solidity. 
The living-room extends the whole width 
of the house, but is divided into the living- 
room proper and a little music-room by 
means of a partition which reaches only 
part way to the ceiling. The walls of the 
living-room, as of the entire house, are 
rough plaster, of a warm gray tone which 
makes a most successful background for 
pictures and pottery. The woodwork is 
cypress, treated with two coats of brown 
shingle stain, which allows the beautiful 
grain to be seen. The ceiling, both here 
and in the dining-room, is formed simply 
by the joists and flooring of the rooms 
above, left rough and stained the same 
brown. This was a treatment dictated by 
economy, but eminently satisfactory in 
effect. 
The most striking feature of the living- 
room is the inglenook, which is opposite 
the front door, to the left as one enters. 
The wide chimney is made of the roughest 
brick the architect could find in a personal 
visit to the brickyard. This also forms the 
broad hearth, which is slightly raised above 
the level of the floor, a plan which I think is good. It gives the 
ingle-nook a certain detachment from the rest of the room, which 
in the case in point proves very attractive. 
We usually find visitors regarding our mantel-shelf with a puz¬ 
zled expression, and hasten to explain that is is a railroad tie, left 
in its natural state, with the exception of an application of shingle 
stain. On each side of the chimney is a built-in settle. The wide 
seats are hinged to furnish convenient lockers underneath for 
kindling wood, and so forth — principally and so forth, as even- 
housewife can testify to such tuck-away places. There must be 
one last and most important tribute to the chimney — it draws to 
perfection. I might mention here that the house is heated with 
hot air, which has proved very satisfactory. 
The little music room, which is at the opposite end of the long 
room from the fireplace, is just large enough for a piano and some 
bookcases. It has a window which opens on the porch, and two 
casement windows set high in the other wall above the bookcases. 
These, by the way, were built in after we were living in the house. 
The disposition of a fairly large library was a serious question, 
which we solved by putting in shelves wherever there was a space 
In the dining-room, as throughout the first story, the second floor 
joists, closely spaced, form a very decorative ceiling 
A glimpse of the living-room from the dining-room, showing the 
end screen of the inglenook and the location of the stairs 
