HOUSE AND GARDEN 
March, 
1914 
181 
"I want a thatched roof,” I declared, but David reminded me 
that we were living in the Twentieth Century and one hour from 
New York. I was considered quite unreasonable, but during a visit 
to Long Island 1 saw a roof with shingles laid to imitate thatching. 
The style of the 
house delighted us, 
and for hours we 
sat on a fence oppo¬ 
site, mentally build¬ 
ing our house and 
adapting many at¬ 
tractive details of 
the one before 11s. 
The trellis work 
around the w i n- 
dows, though as yet 
unador n ed, was 
most suggestive of 
the tangle of roses 
to come. We decid¬ 
ed that this style 
would be in excel¬ 
lent harmony with 
our landscape. Our 
architect worked 
out this idea, and 
then we turned our 
thoughts to the inte¬ 
rior. I tried to de¬ 
scribe by various 
wild motions of my 
arms the general plan 
for the living-room, hall and dining-room; also for the master's 
bedroom. David drew with his pencil more discreet and tangible 
•figures of his special desires; the ingle nook, fireplace and wain¬ 
scoting. Opposite the entrance we placed a French casement 
door, framing in this way an exquisite picture of hills and valley. 
Between the living-room, on the right of the hall and the dining¬ 
room on the left, I wanted a 
large doorway, so that, having 
felt the bigness of the wonderful 
outdoor world, we would not ex¬ 
perience the cramped sensation 
which one so often does on en¬ 
tering the front door. I also in¬ 
dulged in surreptitious dreams of 
dances to which the ground- 
floor plan was so well adapted. 
The French casement door 
would also tend to mingle home 
and nature. The casement win¬ 
dows in groups of three 011 
•either side of the living-room, 
and the two small ones on the 
sides of the fireplace, allowed a 
breeze to circulate to cool one on 
the hottest summer day. Wish¬ 
ing to insure the absolute health¬ 
fulness of our home, we planned 
a cellar 8 feet deep under the en¬ 
tire house. It was well venti¬ 
lated by sun and air from two windows, besides those in the ad¬ 
joining laundry. 
Our builder jocosely remarked that in an emergency we could 
have a good extra bedroom in the cellar. Though we doubted the 
capacity of the drains to keep it dry, we have since found that by 
placing traps in each drain the hardest rainstorm could do no 
damage. In some ways the attic resembled the cellar, being large 
and light, and covering half of the house. A generous part of my 
childhood days was spent in an attic play-room, and there, from 
my first steps, I valiantly followed my brothers in their gymnastic 
feats. Our children, we were determined, should know the same 
joy. Annihilating the rather miserly impulse to place two bed¬ 
rooms in the attic, we left it free for the rope ladders, trapeze, 
shouts and rompings of the children. A most comfortable feature 
of the house was the arrangement of the master's bedroom and ad¬ 
joining nursery. Instead of making a doorway in the wall, the 
rooms were entirely separated by closets. In my closet we put 
two doors, thereby allowing me to go into the nursery without 
passing through the hall. In case of sickness, both doors could 
be left open, or, on being closed, I had entire quiet and privacy. 
Another thing that made this even more complete was a door in the 
hall, closing off the master's suite. In this suite, besides the bed¬ 
room, was a boudoir, also a large closet or minute dressing-room, 
as one would wish to call it, and a bathroom which is comfortable 
in size and appointments. A sleeping porch opened through a 
French casement door from the bathroom. Here was a delight¬ 
fully cool retreat on a warm summer afternoon, when the sun hid 
around the corner of the house. Furnished with pretty wicker 
furniture, plants and screens, it would tempt one co doze away 
many a sultry afternoon. 
It is surprising how dependent one becomes upon the use of a 
porch of this kind for sleeping, and there are comparatively few 
months when one cannot take advantage of this refreshing out¬ 
door rest. 
The land on which our house stood was entirely unimproved; 
we therefore decided to consult a prominent landscape architect, 
that he might show by a planting-plan how to achieve the results of 
which we had an indistinct vision. It was money well invested, 
for with that I was able easily and correctly to lay out the grounds, 
which would otherwise have been most difficult. 
An old stone fence would have to be removed to build the 
road, and where our future lawn was to be were innumerable 
stumps of dead trees, vines and stones. There were several huge 
mounds of earth 
which were left 
from the cellar 
excavations, and 
the four acres 
which we wished 
to cultivate were 
covered with 
rocks and weeds. 
David had no 
time to superin¬ 
tend the improve¬ 
ment of the land, 
and we engaged a 
foreman through 
a contractor, who 
also supplied 11s 
with Italians. All 
our work was to 
be carried on by 
the day. We ex¬ 
plained to him 
that our plan was 
to have only the necessary work done to make the place livable. 
A short time after they had been at work we went over late one 
afternoon to see what had been accomplished. Imagine our dis¬ 
gust when we found a small space on one side of the house 
graded and smoothed to a parlor finish, while the rest looked as 
The house was finally placed on a hill, surrounded 
almost entirely by valleys 
We did not consider the outrageously steep and bumpy road until it was necessary to improve 
it by giant dentistry and corresponding expense 
