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It
is a great thing to build the house that is to be one’s home.
There are few pleasures so unalloyed as that of selecting the
ground, laying the foundation, and watching day by day the
growth of wall and roof that go to form one’s own secure
kingdom through the years to come. And it is a pleasure that
cannot be entered upon too seriously. If there are to be but
three rooms, they will constitute the home, and the opportunity
exists to make them either charmingly cozy and cheerful, or
depressingly ugly. Therefore, even a small house-plan should be
well considered. A house-plan is easily torn down and remodeled;
it costs nothing to add a paper window here, or to remove a
paper partition there; a pencil line changes a staircase or
enlarges the dining-room; a few moments of inexpensive
reflection lets the morning sunlight into a cheerless kitchen,
builds a clothes-press, and remodels the pantry; or, if
something better is thought of, the whole establishment can be
easily tossed aside, and not even the shadow of the house-mover’s
bill presents itself. But, having put a plan into solid timber
and mortar, and then coming to find how greatly the house might
be improved - ah, woe the day ! It is no idle thing to meddle
with the stair-cases and partitions, and the gloomily-lighted
kitchen.
E.H.Leland,
Farm Homes, 1882
The
Features of a Good House Plan
A
well-studied plan is characterized by compactness and the
absence of any visible make-shifts or after-thoughts. Everything
fits well and seems in its natural place.
A
rectangular house is the cheapest and best, the octagonal and
circular forms are better adapted for bays or projections only.
Very irregular and straggling plans may product picturesque
results, but are sure to be comparatively expensive. A square
house has always been a favorite with many practical-minded
people. It is such a "sensible" shape and cuts up well
into rooms. True, a given length of line, as a square, encloses
a greater area than in any other rectangular form, so we get the
most house for our materials and money. Still, we will probably
find that, after arranging our plan, considering comfort and
convenience alone, it will not result in a mathematical square;
but, if it be compact and capable of being simply roofed, we
need not reproach ourselves with undue extravagance.
All
space occupied in passages and corridors, increasing the size
but not the capacity of the building, is wasted.
Light
and air are, we know, essentials of life. Let us not forget it
in planning our house. Dark passages and stairways should not be
tolerated.
A.W.
Brunner, Cottages, or Hints on Economical Building, 1884
If
you are not familiar with all the details of the house you
propose to build, make yourself so, by a repeated examination of
existing specimens, in dwellings in the same style, already
erected. Above all, do not be satisfied by the mere expression
on the plan, in figures, of the sizes of your rooms; but
ascertain if the size is exactly what you suppose, and what you
want, by looking at rooms already built of that size. Otherwise
you may find to your regret, when it is too late, that ‘parlor
16 by 20’ means something a great deal smaller, when actually
enclosed within four walls, than it did in the air castle of
your imagination, which you conjured up with the aid of your
paper plans.
A.J.
Downing, Hints to Persons About Building in the Country,
1847
In
planning windows and doors to bedrooms, regard should be had to
the importance of locating bedsteads and bureaus with reference
to light and drafts, and windows should be arranged accordingly.
It is sometimes discovered that the windows have been so
injudiciously planned that there is no place for a bed to stand.
An easy way of
planning for bedsteads, bureaus, etc., in rooms, is to cut
pieces of cardboard of the proper size according to the scale of
the rooms. This is usually one fourth inch to the foot. These
pieces of card of the exact size of bedsteads, bureaus, buffets,
etc., can be moved about on the architect’s floor-plan of each
room to determine the location of windows, doors, gas-brackets,
etc.
Whatever
the plan adopted, let it, when once fixed on, be firmly adhered
to. Even though it should be found in some slight degree
imperfect, attempts to improve it after the work has begun will
be more likely to result in injury, loss, and vexation, than in
benefit. Those who adopt a published design with the idea of
modifying it, should remember that a slight alteration may
change its whole character, and destroy its value. Such a change
can be safely made only in the same spirit as that which
governed in the original formation; and to do it well requires
at least equal skill.
Francis
C. Moore, How to Build a Home, 1897
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