HOUSE AND GARDEN 
July, 19 rt 
A corner of one of the bedrooms—the one facing the road, as shown on the plan. Here, 
too, are the same rough-plastered gray walls harmonizing with the dark woodwork 
in place, pictures ju¬ 
diciously hung, and 
shelves put up for 
pottery, the effect was 
so good that we de¬ 
cided to leave the 
walls as they were. 
In matters of house 
furnishing and dec¬ 
oration it is very easy 
to make the mistake 
of acting in haste and 
repenting at leisure. 
I am convinced that it 
is best to begin house¬ 
keeping in a new 
house with only the 
barest necessities in 
the way of furnish¬ 
ings, and devote a 
great deal of time and 
thought to the subject 
before completing the 
work. In this way 
one is much more apt 
to get things which 
suit the house and seem an integral part of it — not like strangers 
in a strange land. For instance, I have a clock which occupied 
at least five different positions in the house for varying periods of 
time, while we vainly tried to persuade ourselves that it looked 
well. At last we decided that it didn't belong, and put it away on 
the top shelf of the linen closet, since when I have felt happier. 
The placing of the stairs leading to the second floor of the 
house is quite unusual. They occupy a space just their width, 
between the dining-room and the kitchen, and are completely shut 
off from both rooms by doors at the foot. A small window, open¬ 
ing on the back porch, gives the necessary lighting. This was the 
only part of the plan which did not appeal to me in the beginning. 
I did not like the idea of guests having to pass through the dining¬ 
room in order to get upstairs. Now that I have lived in the house, 
however, I find that this small objection is far outweighed by a 
number of advan¬ 
tages. A great deal 
of space is saved 
in the living-room 
by the arrange¬ 
ment, I am sure the 
house is warmer 
in winter for it, and 
the members of the 
family or the maid 
can go up and 
down stairs with¬ 
out disturbing call¬ 
ers who may be in 
the living-room. 
The kitchen has 
windows on two 
sides, and the out¬ 
side door on a 
third, an arrange¬ 
ment which has an 
obvious merit in 
summer. There is 
no provision made 
Looking across the end of the house from on l^‘ m |°' ,l 
the kitchen corner in the rear closet m the kitch¬ 
en, but we have sup¬ 
plied that deficiency 
by having a kitchen 
cabinet and shelves 
for dishes built in. 
These were included 
in the cost of the 
house. A thing I 
particularly like in 
the kitchen is the fact 
that the chimney 
bricks are not plas¬ 
tered over, but are 
allowed to show in 
contrast to the plas¬ 
ter of the walls. 
Upstairs we have 
three bedrooms of 
comfortable size, a 
bathroom, and a large 
linen closet. Any¬ 
one who has seen only 
the exterior of the 
house finds this hard 
to believe, but the ex¬ 
planation lies in the 
fact that'there is absolutely no waste space in the house. Every 
inch, practically, has been utilized to good purpose, and I do not 
see how the given space could have been divided to better advan¬ 
tage. 
The two bedrooms in the front of the house have roomy closets, 
while hooks in the linen closet supply the lack of this convenience 
in the third room. At the side of the house in the back which 
has no dormer, there is a large space under the pitch of the roof 
which serves as a trunk closet. In the bedrooms are found the 
same rough plaster walls and dark-stained woodwork as down¬ 
stairs. The woodwork throughout the house is perfectly plain, 
and the doors are fitted with thumb-latches and bolts, instead of 
the usual doorknobs and locks. We have several times been on 
the point of tinting the bedroom walls, but as yet have not done 
so, chiefly owing to our inability to come to an amicable agree¬ 
ment on the sub¬ 
ject of color. We 
have decided, how¬ 
ever, that this is to 
be a thing of the 
very near future, 
as is the painting of 
the bathroom and 
kitchen walls. 
We have planned 
a great many 
things for the fu¬ 
ture, but our plans 
now are chiefly 
concerned with the 
exterior of the 
house. Now that 
the interior is fair¬ 
ly complete, we 
have turned our at¬ 
tention to garden¬ 
ing — rea 1 i z i n g 
p a i n f ully what 
might have been, if 
we had begun this 
work years ago. 
A bookcase and press in white enamel is 
built across an end of the music-room 
