Part 9

A house is, or should be, an investment. Therefore it should be honestly constructed. One of the most important lessons for the home buyer to learn is that the initial cost of a house is not its full cost. It pays well to spend a little more on purchase price if, thereby, repair bills and maintenance costs are kept down. And it pays not only in dollars and cents but in satisfaction as well, for the house that soon begins to go to pieces, that soon looks shabby, is quite the opposite of a "joy forever."

Consequently the demonstration house should be well built, and one of the most valuable parts of the demonstration should lie in pointing out by suitable placards its structural excellencies. Has the ground immediately outside the walls been drained so that water will not lie against these walls and gradually soak into them? Is the cellar well drained and dry; well lighted and ventilated? Is the foundation well built? Are the beams and joists heavy enough and of good material? Are the floors and woodwork of good material, well seasoned, and of good workmanship? Is the hardware (locks, hinges, lighting fixtures, etc.) strong enough to stand usage? Are the outside walls of good material--if of brick, of good quality with good quality mortar; if of frame, of good lumber, well seasoned and well painted with three coats of paint? What kind of sheathing is used? Is wood well seasoned? Is the roofing of a material adapted to the climate and of good quality? What material is used for flashing?

Recently there has been some discussion of the heat-retaining quality of walls. It is advocated that openings which permit circulation of cold air between outer and inner walls shall be filled. This adds but little to the cost of building and in cold climates reduces materially the coal bill. Incidentally it also aids both in reducing the fire hazard and in rat proofing. For the latter, care must be taken that there are no unscreened openings through foundation walls into a cellar, and that all openings from the cellar to the space between outer and inner walls of stories above shall be filled with rat-proof material.

Much attention is now being given to standardizing the parts of a house, both to reduce initial cost and to make replacement easier and less expensive. Are the doors, windows and other parts of the demonstration house of standard stock sizes?

Light and Ventilation

Every room must have adequate window areas giving upon wide outdoor spaces. An interior room, or one poorly lighted from a narrow court, or receiving its only light from a wide porch, may not impress the visitor, who sees it only when the house is new and the room artificially lighted, but it does in time impress the family who inhabit it. Row houses are best when they are only two rooms deep from front to rear. If, however, an extension is built upon the rear of a row house, the court on one side of this extension, from which middle rooms are lighted, should be at least six feet wide for a two-story dwelling and seven feet for a three-story dwelling. If there is a front porch on a row house it should not extend clear across the front, darkening every window of the front ground-floor room, but should extend only part way, leaving one window free. This also adds to the value of the porch by giving it greater privacy, but of course it necessitates a house at least 18 feet wide, if the porch is to be large enough to use as an outdoor sitting room for the whole family in warm weather.

So far as practicable, each room should have at least two windows, and corner rooms should have windows in two walls.

The rooms should be planned so that they may be opened into each other and the breeze permitted to sweep through.

Privacy

While the family is a unit, and a function of the house is to symbolize and emphasize family unity, there should, nevertheless, be provision for some individual privacy. The most elementary provision, of course, is that there be at least three bedrooms--on the assumption that the normal family will contain both boys and girls. Consequently the demonstration house must contain not less than three bedrooms. But beyond this, the grouping of rooms possible in a two-story house (bedrooms and bath on the second floor, common living rooms on the first floor) as against a one-story house, adds greatly to privacy. At the same time the two-story house is nearly always the more economical both to build and to operate, while one flight of stairs does not add appreciably to the house-wife's work. With the kitchen, dining room, living room and a lavatory on the ground floor there is comparatively little need of running up and downstairs, even when there are young children in the family. A third story, an upstairs sitting room, no ground floor lavatory, do add appreciably to the amount of stair climbing.

Stair climbing is reduced by having the laundry on the same floor as the kitchen instead of in the basement or cellar. Though it is the scene of greatest activity only one or two days a week, it is often used at other times, and often in connection with kitchen work. On the score that the number of steps is thereby reduced, laundry tubs may be placed in the kitchen; but against this must be balanced the annoyance, or worse, that comes from having the kitchen full of steam and all cluttered up with clothes in process of washing when meals must be prepared. Because of this many women prefer a separate laundry in an ell or extension opening off the kitchen. From the latitude of Philadelphia south, this extension may be of light construction without danger of pipes freezing except in the coldest weather; and it is a simple matter to install a cut-off, so that these pipes may be emptied when not in use.

Sanitation

There should be a fully equipped bathroom on the bedroom floor and a toilet--preferably a wash bowl also--on the ground floor. A toilet in the cellar is only a half-way measure. It does give an added convenience of very real value, especially when there are servants; but it is usually less accessible than the upstairs bathroom and, unless the cellar is unusually well lighted and ventilated--unless it is heated and unless its floor is high enough above the sewer to provide for the necessary slope of the soil pipe--it is very likely to become a nuisance. A sewer-connected toilet in the yard is only a step above the old-time privy vault. It is inaccessible in bad weather; after dark it is public; and it is likely to freeze.

Suggestion for Furnishing and Decorating the Demonstration Home

PREPARED BY THE BUREAU OF INFORMATION

Changing an empty house into a furnished, restful place of beauty is no less a task than transforming a piece of paper into a lovely picture. In one sense, interior decoration is a creative art. It is true that decorators, or persons furnishing houses, do not weave their own hangings, build their own furniture, or design their own wall-paper, but they select the things they require from shops, where they have been designed by others, and choose in such a way as to make a beautiful and harmonious whole.

Persons who must furnish a house for the occupancy of a family face four distinct problems: first, they must see that the things selected suit the house in size, coloring, and style; second, that the pieces selected are harmonious with each other, and that they are comfortable and well-made; third, that they suit the requirements of the family; and fourth, that they fit the family purse.

Backgrounds

The first requisite of a house is that it be restful; therefore, it is wise to use wall coverings that are plain in effect. Plain paints or tints, and wall-papers of a cloudy, all-over pattern, make the best backgrounds.

When a room faces north, the best colors to use are the yellows, which might range from a cream color to a deep pumpkin yellow.

In rooms that face south, it is possible to use light grays, which might range to a deep putty color; though it is possible in sunny rooms to use almost any color except those which might fade easily.

The best way to treat rooms which have wide doorways connecting them with other rooms is to have the walls of both rooms alike, preferably in some plain color.

Floor Coverings

Rugs and floor coverings should be several shades darker than the walls, and be either in plain colors or have a small or indefinite all-over design. Where walls are plain, the latter type of carpet should be used. When walls have on them any figured covering, plain carpet should be used.

Hangings

The hangings for rooms which have plain wall coverings could be striped or figured, but in rooms where there is a figured wall covering, the hangings should be in plain colors, taking the color scheme for these from the dominating color note in walls and carpet.

Furnishings

A good rule to follow in choosing furnishings is to avoid anything which strikes you as elaborate, or prominent. If a piece of furniture, carpet, or curtain material stands out in a shop, you may be quite certain that it will be even more noticeable in a house.