The Saline County journal. [volume] (Salina, Kan.) 1871-1893, 1879-06-12

Common Mistakes in House Building.
A writer in the American Architect ant
Building News hss recently directed ut
tention, with considerable truthfulne ss
to certain mistakes OF plan in hOus,
building, which too often occurs in THU
country. These mistakes, he says, have
their origin outside Of the profession O
architecture, and are due to the igno
rance Of those who build. 1t is certain
ly reasonable to expect that q person
who is about to build should know such
simple matters as the number and char
acter of the rooms he will have; yet this
is just what many people do not know
and here is where the first mistake is
made. People in their ignorance err in
wishing too many rooms. Many people,
with a desire to initiate tho nobleman's
mansion, decide to have tumble of hall,
drawing-room, morningroom, dining
room, library, study, boudoir, billiard
room, breakfast-roOm, MUSHROOM, re-
ception-room, and SO on; and to these
they add others of their own invention,
till there is separate room:for the per-
formance of almost every act of daily
life. As all this costs, and there is .
limit to every mans purse, economy is
attained by copying the stone wall OF
their model in wood and plaster, wood
work in paint, cheapeniDg the founda-
tlons, and making thin walls that keep
out neither cold nor wet.
A sensible man in building his house
proceeds on different plan. He wants
Just such accommodation as he needs,
and no more. He knows that for the
average American family IN good cir
cumstances three principle rooms are
sufficient: drawing room, library, and
dining. he has use for. He
also needs hall by which to reach the
others, and vestibule or porch, as
shelter to the hall. He omits the "fam-
lily sitting-room," knowing that the
three other rooms will serve that pur-
pose, and that any room too good for
daily use has no right to exist. Tho
habit of keeping shut-up parlors for oc-
casional company is so absurd that it is
difficult to give people who practice it
credit for common sense.
Another common mistake is the small
scale of the kitchen and Offices as CON-
pared with family rooms. A. kitchen,
If work is to be we'll done in it, and the
dinner to be we'll cooked, should not be
less than the equivalent of Is feet square,
and should be still larger in house en-
ploylng many servants. The communi-
cation between the kitchen and Offices
and the family apartments, and tie con-
cealment of the former from public view,
are matters which are much neglected.
The usual arrangement of placing but
ler's pantry between kitchen and dining.
room, with doors to both rooms, often
directly in line, makes the best possible
conveyance for odors from the kitchen
10 dining-room, and thence to the rest
of the house. In case of basement
kitchen the same result follows from
having the basement stairs open instead
of Enclosed, as they should be. The En-
glish manage better they put next the
dining room sometimes the buffers pam
try, but oftener q small serving room,
opening not to the kitchen, but to pas
sage leading thither and this passage is
made the only means of access from the
family rooms to the kitchen and Offices,
which, if not in the basement, are in q
wing under q separate roof from the
main building, SO that by closing one
door Tor two at the most all communi-
cation is cut of, and the odors from the
kitchen do not annoy the family.
A common thing in country houses,
though often omitted in the city, is q
servants staircase. People of small
means. who can afford but one servant,
insist upon the separate staircase for
that one, while many city family with
three or four servants gets along per-
fectly well without it. This hobby with
people amounts almost to fanat-
icism. The second staircase, a great
in large houses, is out OF
place in q small family; 1t is unnecesss-
y, and therefore wasteful.
The place of veranda may seem .
hing Of small moment yet it may prove
either great comfort or great nui.
lance, according to its position. Most
people seem to suppose it should be on
he sunny side of house, " here it dark
me the rooms, itself being ablaze with
light and hot as furnace. But The
object of q veranda is not TO keep the
light out of the room, because this can
70 done better bv the window hood or
hutters, but to afford cool, sheltered,
hady place out of doors tor summer .
100. Hence it should be on the shady
ide of the house that side that is f..
hady in he afternoon. To prevent
be rooms behind it being too much sha- :
ed they should, If possible, have one .
y more windows on the side not cover :
d by the veranda or, if this cannot be,
he windows looking upon it should be ,
,sde very large, and tho yea nda itself |,
+ light construction and painted as
ght . color "a the rest OF the house
1ill admit. No one should worry :
bout too much light in the house.. there !,
re many days when there cannot be !
DO much, and where there is, it is easy
D shut it out.
ten. Grant In India.