The “roof garden” was built on a tin roof above a room on the first floor. The roof 
supplied by the opened windows and ventilators in the roof. 
is of glass shaded with adjustable screens, and in summer abundant ventilation 
Willow furniture and growing plants are appropriately used 
is 
A Year-Round Living-Room 
PROVIDING A COMFORTABLE OUTDOOR ROOM WHICH CAN BE USED EQUALLY WELL 
IN SUMMER AND WINTER—A NOVEL SOLUTION OF A NOT INFREQUENT PROBLEM 
by Theodora W. Krichbaum 
T HE problem of a suburban house without a veranda was 
the one which confronted us when we started in to con¬ 
vert a most ordinary and nondescript dwelling into a modern 
home. The building in question, a wooden affair which had re¬ 
ceived sundry and divers sorts of patching in the past, stretched 
its ugly width some fifty odd feet in extent, across its appointed 
site, almost to the final foot, hugging the curb, moreover, in its 
crowding upon the street. 
The house entrance was dignified by the name of front 
veranda. It could hold perhaps four chairs, and was about ten 
feet square, but of privacy it was utterly destitute. The noise of 
passing vehicles, the proximity of the traveler on the sidewalk, 
generally served to keep the family indoors, when they most de¬ 
sired to be out-of-doors. 
With the exception of the briefest of vacations, our summers 
are spent at home; consequently, with the approach of spring our 
■eyes have been wont to turn to the small yard in our rear, and 
the great question which arose each year was what could be done 
to secure a restful, retired spot, attached to the house, yet open 
to the splendors of the night and the sunshine and breezes of the 
day. No rear veranda could be considered because of the near¬ 
ness of the stable, and obviously no enlargement of the front 
porch was either desirable or possible. 
Plans and speculations proceeded apace, however, and the 
mark of a blue pencil demolished interior partitions everywhere; 
rooms grew and windows opened (on paper) till the very roof 
raised itself, and the old house lost its identity completely. At 
this juncture, Inspiration stepped in. Back in a sunny southeast 
corner of the house, covering a space of some twenty odd feet, 
was a tin roof surmounting a room on the first floor. In that 
bit of seclusion and sunshine a wonder grew which, as the weeks 
passed, became what we now call our “roof garden.” A glass 
roof fifteen feet high was arched overhead with the two interior 
side walls which flanked the house, rising to meet it. This left 
the two outer sides for wide open spaces of copper wire net in 
summer, and glass sashes in winter. A green cement floor was laid. 
(361) 
