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Farmhouse Plans · Wallace Ashby — chapter 6 of 13 · ~1,087 words · public domain

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The addition of bedrooms with closets and a bathroom is suggested. This addition will provide space for a circulator heater, which is a convenience when no cellar is planned.

Prepared by the Bureaus of Agricultural Engineering and Home Economics, U.S. Department of Agriculture.

PLAN 6518

Floor areas: Superstructure, first stage 835 square feet; with addition 1,160 square feet. Porches, 120 square feet.

Several novel features about this small dwelling will appeal to the farm-home builder. A heater room on the main floor near the rear entrance and the kitchen avoids the need for a cellar. A kitchen like this, with three outside walls to give light and cross ventilation and a better view of the farmstead and highway, is often desirable. The end of the living room next the kitchen is narrowed to a dining alcove, and when more space is needed the dining table may be extended into the living room. The completed bungalow has three bedrooms, with ample closet space. The rear porch will provide a comfortable, shady place to work outside during the warm summer days.

In the first stage of construction the two bedrooms at the rear may be omitted. This would still leave one bedroom and the bathroom and temporary closet space in the original bungalow. Then the two other bedrooms can be added later, when funds become available, or a screened and glazed sleeping porch with outside entrance could be built instead. A porch off the living room could also be added.

Prepared by L. J. Smith for the department of agricultural engineering, State College of Washington.

PLAN 6519, FOR THE SOUTHWEST

Floor areas: Superstructure, original house 775 square feet; with addition 1,075 square feet. Porches, 160 square feet.

The plans and perspectives on these pages show two methods of roofing this house. In each plan the original unit of the house is complete, and pleasing in appearance, and the additions fit the house gracefully with very little tearing out or rearrangement.

As in some other plans, the kitchen is designed for the use of an oil, gas, or electric cookstove. The house may be heated by a circulator hot-air heater, by a hot-water system with a radiator boiler in the living room, or possibly by radiant gas or electric heaters in the bedrooms.

The type of design favors keeping the house close to the ground. If floor-joist construction is used, the topsoil should be removed from under the house so that joists will not come too close to the ground surface. A concrete subfloor could be placed directly on the ground, supporting wood sleepers and wood floors.

Prepared by H. E. Wichers, O. S. Ekdahl, and N. F. Resch for the department of architecture, Kansas State Agricultural College.

PLAN 6520

Floor areas: Superstructure, first unit 450 square feet; with first addition 730 square feet; completed house 985 square feet. Porches, 255 square feet.

With their low-pitched roofs, and modest design both inside and out, plans 6520 and 6521 represent very desirable types of farmhouses. Such buildings blend with their surroundings to produce a real homey atmosphere. Originally planned for southern conditions, where a circulator heater placed in the hall should be adequate, these plans are adapted to colder regions if the houses are well constructed and are provided with basements and central heating plants as indicated on the working drawings.

PLAN 6521

Floor areas: Superstructure, first unit 630 square feet; with first addition 985 square feet; completed house 1,285 square feet. Porches, 385 square feet.

In both designs the development from two large rooms progresses logically, the main difference being that in plan 6520 the additions are made at the side, while in plan 6521 the new rooms are added at the rear of the first unit. Although all the rooms of 6521 a r e shown as larger than those of 6520, by slight alterations either size of house may be built from either plan. The choice should be determined largely by the slope of the building site.

In each original house a temporary partition provides 2 bedrooms in place of a living room. The first addition adds 2 other bedrooms, and the removal of the partition between the temporary bedrooms provides a large living room. The second addition increases the total number of bedrooms to 3 by adding 2 and refitting 1 in the first addition as a bathroom.

Each kitchen is ideally located to command a view of the driveway, highway, and farm buildings. Closets, pantry, and other equipment utilize the darker part of the room, leaving the lighter portions for working area and dining table. These arrangements are complete in the original house.

On the screened back porch, which is equipped with laundry trays and closet, men coming from the fields may hang their outside work garments and, except in cold weather, wash before entering the house. Here a great deal of the dirty and messy work in preparing fruits and vegetables for canning may be done. Entrance from the screened porch to the bath or bedrooms reduces to a minimum the traffic through the kitchen and living room. In plan 6520 the screened porch might be divided by a lattice into work and living spaces.

Prepared by Eldred Mowery and C. E. Cope for the Bureaus of Agricultural Engineering and Home Economics, U.S. Department of Agriculture.

PLAN 6522

Floor areas: Superstructure, original house 640 square feet; with addition A. 950 square feet; with addition B 930 square feet. Porch, addition B, 120 square feet.

On account of its compact arrangement, this low-cost house furnishes a very satisfactory amount of usable space for the small family and may be enlarged to three-bedroom size, as indicated on the plans. The kitchen is well-arranged, with moderate storage space, and a wood box filled from outside, with a ventilated cupboard or cooler above it. The workroom, unusually large for a small house, is a good place for laundry or canning and for men to clean up before coming in to meals. Dining space is provided at the rear of the living room. This house should be compared with no. 6527 (p. 36).

Board and batten construction is very suitable for a low-cost house, but any other type of construction may be used for plan 6522 if preferred. If the house is built in a cold climate, probably it will be desirable to omit the fireplace and heat the living and bedrooms with a circulator heater.

Prepared by the Bureaus of Agricultural Engineering and Home Economics, U.S. Department of Agriculture.

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