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Windows
Last
century’s homes had more window area than today’s do. That’s
logical for a time when rooms were lit only by candles or the
sun. A formula that was often repeated in yesterday’s building
guides calls for one square inch of window area for every cubic
foot of room volume. In a 12’ x 16’ bed room with an 8’
high ceiling, that means three 2’ wide by 4’ high windows,
or a third more than most modern builders would use.
The old formula
seems just right for a new country home. If you’re building in
the country for the clean air, cool breezes and pretty views,
you should keep it in mind.
Where
economy is necessary, doors and windows should be what are
called ‘stock’ sizes, i.e., the regular sizes made by the
mills of the vicinity in which the dwelling is to be located. To
specify them will save the expense inseparable from unusual or
irregular sizes. If, however, the house is so located as to have
a fine view, it will be mistaken economy not to have one or more
of the prominent windows wider.
Francis
C. Moore, How to Build a Home, 1897
Doors
Doors
are generally hung according to the sweet will of the carpenter,
but there are two ways to hand a door, one so as to expose the
room, the other so as to screen it. The first may be good for
the more public rooms, but, in regard to bed-rooms, the doors
must swing so that, when partly open, they will shield the
apartment from view. Closet doors should be hung so that the
closet may receive light from the nearest window. Doors are
sometimes made to swing out on stair landings or halls, and who
has not seen two doors so placed that they strike each other
when opened? It is hardly necessary to say that these methods
should not be adopted.
A.W.
Brunner, Cottages or Hints on Economical Building,1884
Closets
Closets are
indispensable for comfort, and should be numerous. It is safe to
assume that it is wise to sacrifice floor-space of rooms for
closets, for they secure not only comfort, but order and
neatness in the appearance of the house. The specifications
should name the height and width of shelves, distance between
them, size and arrangement of drawers, and should require hooks
for hanging, which will cost little more if of brass or bronze
instead of iron, and should be double. The door should not swing
into a closet, thus doing away with half the hanging room, to
say nothing of injury to the contents; and yet this is a common
fault with some architects and builders. Examine the plans to
see that the hooks in closets for hanging clothing are at the
proper height from the floor, and that the shelves above the
hooks start at a sufficient height above them to give room for
removing garments. Any practical housekeeper will say that the
house cannot have too many closets.
Francis C. Moore,
How to Build a Home, 1897
Having
suffered some for closet room at one time or another, or for
places to stow away things, I have had considerable sympathy
with the man who said that when he built a house he should begin
with a big closet and make additions to that.
The American
Agriculturist, 1874
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