House and Garden Papers on Home Making 
habits of life wholly unfit them for the com¬ 
prehension of such matters, and to whom 
such criticism as this would appear absurd. 
3. The Suburban House. 1 his term is 
used in a restricted sense to indicate the 
type developed in the outlying portions ot a 
city, away from the more congested centres, 
where the price of land is not prohibitive of 
detached houses of moderate cost. Under 
such conditions the lot will assume the shape 
of the urban lot, decidedly longer than wide, 
with the narrower frontage on the street, 
but with free light and air on all four sides. 
To properly develop such houses they must, 
as in the case of the semi-detached type, not 
be built so close together as to prove a mutual 
annoyance. It is usually best that the 
house be placed well to one side of the lot 
and a maximum southern exposure is to be 
tried for and, after that, an eastern. One 
of the narrower sides toward the north is 
well, but western exposures, especially of 
the longer sides of the house, should be 
avoided. This question of exposure, or 
aspect as it is technically termed, will be fully 
considered later. 
4. The Seaside House. This type de¬ 
velops under conditions of site peculiar to 
water-front properties; notably at the sea¬ 
shore, but found wherever similar conditions 
prevail either along the banks of rivers and 
lakes or, in some special cases, in purely 
rural districts detached from bodies of water. 
Its characteristics are an outlook chiefly in 
one direction, with the point of approach 
either of necessity or expediency on the 
opposite side of the house. The desirability 
of keeping the principal outlook unob¬ 
structed, as regards the more important 
rooms, leads to a peculiar type of plan in 
which the principal entrance and the service 
rooms are grouped together on the same 
side of the house, the plan as a whole tending 
to develop as an oblong rectangle with the 
longer side toward the sea and the front door 
in the back of the house, if one may be par¬ 
doned such an apparently absurd expres¬ 
sion. 
5. The Country House. This is the most 
elementary and unsophisticated of the several 
types and consequently the most wholesome. 
It implies not only full light and air on all 
sides, but an outlook equally apportioned 
between at least three of the sides (though, in 
restricted cases, to two) with corresponding 
freedom in the development of the plan. It 
is restricted chiefly by considerations of 
position with respect to the points of the 
compass. I hese favorable conditions obtain 
as a rule, and for obvious reasons, in the 
rural districts, where land is relatively easy 
to obtain, and in larger tracts. Hence the 
name of the type. 
The next physical condition to be consid¬ 
ered, as applicable in general terms to all 
sites, is the question of exposure. This re¬ 
solves itself into the two factors, aspect and 
prospect , previously referred to. 
Aspect has to do with exposure to the points 
of compass and hence to generally fixed 
meteorological conditions, such as sunshine, 
the coldest winds of winter, or the prevailing 
breezes of summer. Prospect, on the other 
hand, concerns itself with the outlook from 
the site, the best views, or those least desir¬ 
able. Aspect and prospect often, therefore, 
present conflicting claims, and such cases 
require most careful consideration; but from 
our present general standpoint they may be 
discussed separately, and aspect first. 
In so vast a country as ours, with such 
varying climates, rules devised for one local¬ 
ity must needs be considerably modified 
when applied to others; but speaking broadly, 
and for the northern and central Atlantic 
seaboard and adjoining states, it may be said 
that from the north and northwest come the 
coldest winter winds with the minimum of 
sunshine, though in midsummer from the 
northwest come, too, the level hot rays of the 
late afternoon sun. The western aspect, on 
the whole, is the least desirable. Hot in 
summer, cold in winter, rooms having that 
outlook are the most uncomfortable in the 
house, and the plan should usually relegate to 
that quarter, if possible, all or most of the 
secondary rooms. From the northeast come 
the early rays of the summer sun, rendering 
bedrooms facing in that direction insupport¬ 
able to some people whose morning sleep is 
made impossible under such conditions. 
From this quarter, too, come most of the all¬ 
day driving rain storms and, on the North 
25 
