Litchfield enquirer., 1865-07-13
From Chambers Journal go HOW | BUILT MYSELF A HOUSE.

Ny Wife Sophia myself, and lfS the b beginning
 of happy line, formerly lived in the suburbs
 of London, in the sort of a house called high.
 y desirable semi detached villa But in reality
 our residence was the very opposite of what we
 wished it to be. We had. no room for our friends when they visited us, and we were oh. liged to keep our coals out of doors in a hean against the back wall. If we managed to soueeze few acqnaintances round our table to dinner. there was very great difficulty in serving it ; and on such occasions the maid, for war;t of s'deooard room, would take to putting the dish es Tn the staircase, or on stools and chairs in the passage 80 that if anybody else came after we had sat down, he usually went away again, disgusted at seeing the remains of what we had already got through standing in these places. and perhaps the celery waiting in corner hard by. It was therefore only natural that on wet days. chimney sweepings and those cleaning times when chairs may be seen with their legs upwards. tub blocking a doorway, and your self walking about edgeways among the things, We called the villa hard names, and that we re solved to escape from it as soon as it would be polite, in a monetary sense, to carry out mo- ton which had long been in our minds.
 This notion was to build house of our own a little further out of town than where We had hitherto lived. The new residence was to be right and proper in every respect It was to be of some mysterious size and proportion, which would make us both peculiarly happy ever afterwards--that had always been set tied thing. It was neither to cost too much nor too little, but just enough to fitly inaugu- rate the new happiness, It's situation was to be in a healthy spot, on stratum of dry gravel about ninety feet above the springs. There were to be trees to the north, and pretty view to the south. It was also to be easily accessi- ble by rail.
 Eighteen months ago, third baby being our latest blessing, we began to put the above-men- toned ideas into practice. As the house itself rather than it's position, is what wish partic ularly to speak of, will not dwell upon the in- numerable difficulties that were to be overcome before suitable spot could be found. Maps marked out in little pink and green oblongs olinging to winding road, became as familiar to my eyes as my own hand. learned, too, all about the colored plans of land to be let for building purposes' wn1cn are exulDIreu at ralr- way stations and in agents windows-that sketches of cabbages in rows. or artistically ir regular, meant large trees that would afford a cooling shade when they had been planted and had grown up--that patches of blue showed fshponds and fountains and that wide straight road to the edge of the map was the way to the station, a corner of which was oc- casionally shown, as if it would come within a convenient distance, disguise the fact as the owners might. a,E ..s .....H.. .s. .... .t+.l-
 After considerable time had been spent in these studies, I began to see that some of our intentions in the matter of site must be given up. The trees to the north went first. After short struggle, they were followed by the ninety feet above the springs. Sophia, with all wifely tenacity, stuck to the pretty view long after l was beaten about the gravel subsoil. In the end, we decided upon place imagined to be rather convenient, and rather healthy, but possessing no other advantage worth mention ing, took it on lease for the established period, ninety.nipe years. t...
 We next thought about an architect. A friend of mine, who sometimes sends paper on art and science to the magazines, strongly recommended MT. Penny, gentleman whom he considered to have architectural talent of every kind, but if he was trifle more skllful in any one branch ofhis profession than in another it was in designing excellent houses for fam- lies of moderate means. at once proposed to Sophia that we should think over some arrange ment of rooms which would be likely to suit us and then call upon the architect, that he might put our plan into proper shape.
 I made my sketch, and my wife made hers. Her drawing and dining rooms were very large, nearly twice the size of mine, though her doors and windows showed good. judgement. We soon. n.found that there was no such thing as ft- ting our ideas together, do what we would. Wher We had come to no conclusion at all, We called at MT. PennYs ofice.t began telling him my business, upon which he took a sheet of foolscap, and made numerous imposing notes with large brackets and dashes to them. Sit ting there with him in hls office, surrounded by rolls of paper, circles, squares, triangles, compasses, and many other of the inventions which have been sought out by men from time to time, and perceiving that all these were the realities which had been faintly shadowed forth to me by Euclid some years before, it is no wonder that became puppet in his hands.
 He settled everything in a miraculous way, We
 were told the only possible size we could have the rooms, the only way we should be allowed
 to go upstairs, and the exact. quantity of wine
 we might order at once, so as to fit the u;ne.. celler he had in his head His professional opinions, propelled by his facts, seemed to float into my mind whether wished to receive tbam or not. I thought at the time that Sonb;a f., kc-.r s1<.- g. Al