24 
HOUSE AND GARDEN 
January, 1913 
land the more necessary this will be. He will note the position 
of any trees, the best views, probable character of the sub-soil, 
the location of water, gas, electric wiring and sewer, note any 
building restrictions peculiar to that particular lot and any other 
points that will affect the work. This knowledge is essential. 
Next, he will wish to have 
a talk with the owner to dis¬ 
cover what his requirements 
are, what he must have, what 
he can do without, his particu¬ 
lar hobbies and finally to ask 
what he purposes to spend, 
and tell him it is not enough! 
If he has made tentative 
plans at home on the dining 
room table, the owner will 
produce them sheepishly and 
with many apologies, but they 
are often a great help. 
Having got all the informa¬ 
tion possible from the owner, 
the architect’s work really be¬ 
gins. Not the least of his dif¬ 
ficulties will be the fitting of 
demands into the sum to be 
expended. In small work —- 
that is, houses costing up to 
$12,000 — space should be giv¬ 
en the first consideration and 
the cost of the work is usually 
reckoned on a basis of 
so much a square 
foot, the locality and 
type of house desired 
affecting the amount. 
This means, then, that 
for so much money 
we can have just so 
much house. It is 
chiefly a matter of 
area. 
It is a great sorrow 
in the life of an archi¬ 
tect that he is so often 
forced to spread his 
money out so thin. So 
many of the delectable 
things that hover on 
the point of his pencil 
must be sternly order¬ 
ed back and a foot of 
area added instead. 
This is one of the 
things that they seem 
to do better in Eng¬ 
land, that land of en¬ 
chanting country 
houses. There they 
will often build a small house or cottage and spend on it as 
much as would build a house twice as large; money going for 
heavy slate roofs, brick and tile here and there, hand hewn 
timbers, simple decorative plaster work or the infinite pleasure 
to be had in the company of cunning wood joinery and simple 
carving. 
One cannot find fault with a young couple having a strictly 
limited purse for demanding area first, when at best they will 
get less than they desire. We should, however, like to see a 
larger body of people who can better afford it, willing to increase 
the per-foot cost; that is, who only desire a small house but are 
willing to spend more than a minimum sum for it. It would 
seem that thoughtful persons in comfortable circumstances would 
realize the fact that living in a home surrounded by the best 
work of gifted designers and 
skilled craftsmen is a source 
of real solid and lasting pleas¬ 
ure, a subtle influence to re¬ 
finement that makes for an 
increased appreciation of all 
the world’s art of every sort. 
Anyone who is at all sensitive 
to such things (and the hard¬ 
est head is influenced more 
than it ever realizes) knows 
how he stands up straighter 
and holds his head higher be¬ 
fore a Whistler etching, a 
piece of old satsuma, gilded 
carcone or faded tapestry. 
Oscar Wilde said, “If I only 
could live up to my blue 
china,” and this is the feeling 
that soaks into one that is sur¬ 
rounded by work that skillful 
men can do. 
But to return to our draw¬ 
ing board. First, we have to 
determine the proper location 
of the main rooms. 
Consider the simplest 
form of plan for a 
moment, the rectan¬ 
gular. The living- 
r o o m and dining¬ 
room will each want 
southern sun, the din¬ 
ing-room should also 
have sun at breakfast 
time which determines 
for it a southeast 
corner. This will 
leave the southwest 
for the living-room. 
The fact that the con¬ 
nection between the 
dining- room and 
kitchen cannot be 
severed has reduced 
the possibilities s o 
that with the dining¬ 
room on the south¬ 
east, we shall have 
our kitchen on the 
southeast. This 
leaves, by a process of 
elimination, only the 
southwest for our hall or if the living-room is given the whole 
west and side, our hall will come in the center on the north. 
This, we will find in the case we have taken, to be a sensible 
arrangement. 
The kitchen finds itself in the most undesirable corner where 
it belongs. It is a room that does not lack heat of its own and 
the pantry and refrigerator are about the only places in the house 
that should never see the sun. The front hall will also find itself 
in a location the least desirable for a room. 
The waste spaces of a house may well be planned to accommodate 
closets and drawers or provide a window nook 
English half-timber houses, though more expensive than the house of square plan, have 
a charm unapproached by the buildings of flat exterior. Allen W. Jackson, architect 
