HOUSE AND GARDEN 
82 
August, 1912 
well under way. The work of fertilizing the soil 
was begun last fall and the strawberry bed was 
set out while the house was building. Grape ar¬ 
bors, a round pool, fruit trees, flowers in abund¬ 
ance, purple cabbages, and other vegetables are 
planned for a garden that will be both practical 
and beautiful. But more than one summer's rain 
and hot suns, and ever so much hard work, must 
come first. Meanwhile, building the cottage and 
decorating it have taken all the time that could 
be spared from professional work and housekeep¬ 
ing for a whole year. 
Peter designed the plans, devising and super¬ 
intending all the details of construction, and to 
Ruth Ann belonged the decorative side of the con¬ 
tract, let to each other at the beginning of the 
undertaking. Mutual criticism has been given, 
but the division of 
labor was strictly 
adhered to. Weeks 
before the first big 
beams were laid 
across the hole 
that was to be a 
cellar, the cottage 
was the sole amuse¬ 
ment of the home¬ 
builders. Later all 
their leisure hours 
until late evening 
were spent near it, 
superintending the 
work, or planning 
interior schemes. 
The head carpen¬ 
ter and his help¬ 
ers entered heartily 
into the plans, ad¬ 
vising as to tech¬ 
nical detail, enjoy¬ 
ing while they did 
not thoroughly ap¬ 
prove, the differ¬ 
ence between the 
cottage and the or¬ 
dinary small house 
with its front porch, small front 
parlor, and conventional treat¬ 
ment of woodwork. 
The foundation is of rough 
stone capped by cement blocks. 
The exterior walls and roof are 
covered with red cedar shingles, 
left unstained, since it is a con¬ 
viction of the home-builders, 
gained from a Sunday after¬ 
noon’s excursion to the nearest 
town, that stained shingles grow 
muddy looking in the course of 
a few years and that the best 
result is gained by leaving the 
shingles unstained, with bits of 
contrasting color in doors and 
window frames to bring out 
their quality. The chimney is 
of red brick, a massive structure 
nearlv in the centre of the build¬ 
The side porch opens from 
the living-room 
A niche was planned to accommodate a big leather-covered settle so that it made an ideal 
fireside seat 
A little nook with flanking seats and built-in 
advantage of the roof slope and beside saving' 
pleasant place to sit and sew 
ing. The low pitched roof gives a comfortable, 
cozy aspect to the cottage, which looks, not as if 
it were newly built, but as if it might have stood 
where it is since the village began. This is as 
the owners planned, and is a surprise to the vil¬ 
lage, which begins to think that there may, after 
all. be method in the newcomers’ madness. For 
unless your father and mother were born in the 
village, and your great grandfather was an early 
settler, you are a stranger and a sojourner,- and 
there is no telling what you may do. But, as it 
is, the village approves the green-painted front 
door divided in Dutch style and adorned with a 
brass knocker ; the big rear porch, looking out 
over the view and to be used in summer as a din¬ 
ing and sitting-room, the little side porch, reached 
through glass doors from the living-room, even 
the orange tones 
that are coming 
out in the cedar 
shingles, and the 
big apple tree 
branch that 
stretches out across 
the front of the 
house. It may tol¬ 
erate later even 
the barberry hedge 
that is starting 
i t s first season’s 
growth around the 
front yard, fram¬ 
ing a playground 
for baby, and the 
fence that proves a 
barrier for the gar¬ 
den against dogs 
and fowls until 
plans for trellis, 
protecting shrubs 
and small trees are 
carried out. 
Next to a plan 
that insured plenty 
of fresh air and 
light, the leading 
idea of the interior of this crafts¬ 
man’s cottage was to build it 
around its furniture. The home¬ 
builders already possessed a 
store of oaken furniture. There 
was the big chest used as a side¬ 
board, carved in Frisian style, 
that had taken many hours of 
skillful labor. There was a china 
cabinet, a bookcase or so, a big 
settle, and complete sets of other 
living-room and dining-room 
furniture of heavy oak, fumed 
and stained a warm brown. In¬ 
stead of buying the furniture to 
suit the house, the problem here 
was to build a house to suit the 
furniture. Thus, as far as pos¬ 
sible, the furniture was built into 
the house, becoming an integral 
part of the walls. The sideboard 
cupboard took 
space made a 
