HOUSE AND GARDEN 
i5° 
November, 1909 
Where the porch has an open balustrade or railing it may either be sheathed with tongue-and-groove 
boards on the inside, with a sash above the hand-rail, or else the sash may extend from 
floor to ceiling inside the railing 
occasions of weddings and funerals. Probably our own children 
will smile indulgently while enjoying the comforts of their sun¬ 
lit outdoor living-rooms and say to themselves, “And this is the 
part of the house that our fathers were content to have put out of 
commission for eight months of the twelve!” 
Of course, some porches can be much more easily enclosed 
with glazed sash than others. If your porch 
has square posts supporting the roof, rather 
than round columns, and if the “balustrade” 
is not a balustrade but a solid parapet of shin¬ 
gles or plaster, the fitting of the sash will be 
the easiest thing in the world; all that is needed 
is a strip of b x 2 inch wood, white pine prefer¬ 
ably, along the top of the parapet ledge, across 
the lower side of the soffit or top of the open¬ 
ing, and on the sides of the uprights, against 
which the sash will be snugly fastened. In 
one or two of the openings it will be well to have 
a pair of sash, fitted to open like casements, or 
to slide one behind the other, for there will be 
many times throughout the winter when the 
porch will be the more comfortable and enjoy¬ 
able for being open to the outside air. Have 
at least several single panes arranged to slide 
open for the sake of ventilation. 
Where there is an open balustrade, and 
round columns for the uprights, the problem 
is not so simple, but it may be solved no less 
completely, and you will then have an addi¬ 
tional area of glass, which means more sun¬ 
light. In this form of construction the most 
satisfactory way to enclose the porch is to put 
the strips or “stops” on the floor, along the 
porch ceiling, and up along the wall of the house 
proper, setting the longer sash up against these 
inside the line of balustrade 
and columns. At the corners 
the sash may lap, one over the 
end of the other, with another 
upright strip to make tight the 
inside corner. The sash, in 
either case, should be held in 
place by screws or, better still, 
by brass turn-buttons, so as 
to leave no disfiguring marks 
on the permanent woodwork 
during the summer when the 
sash are taken down and stored. 
It is, of course, an easy matter 
to have the fittings arranged 
so that insect screens may take 
the place of the sash when 
warm weather comes. The 
screens are usually built up of 
thinner wood, but the turn- 
buttons may be made to en¬ 
gage in the same slots by the 
simple expedient of mounting 
them on strips that will make 
up the greater thickness of the 
frames. 
The enclosing of the porch 
area, however, is not all that 
has to be done to make the 
place an outdoor sun room that 
will be comfortable enough to 
ensure constant occupancy 
throughout the cold weather. The bare, uninviting enclosure 
alone would be little reward for the work of fitting it up with 
sash, and we would perhaps conclude that the aforesaid eight 
per cent loss was irretrievable after all. In the first place, it is 
well to make some provision for keeping the floor from being 
constantly cold and barn-like. A tight sheathing of tar paper 
If there is a chimney on the porch side of the house it is not a difficult matter to put in 
an outside fireplace. Here the dining-porch is enclosed with glass for use 
as a winter breakfast room 
