What is said about emergency space applies principally to the sleeping apartments.  There is an altogether happy tendency in these days to simplify the living rooms and to plan them for constant use.  We of the East have something to learn from the Californians, whose bungalows and cottages are so often models of simplicity without the crudeness of most small houses in other sections.  Our coast brethren have demonstrated that a four- or five-room cottage will satisfactorily house a considerable family, and that it may be given the characteristics that charm without increasing the cost.

PLANS FOR BUILDING

The simplest and in many instances the prettiest cottages are of only a single story.  But more than four rooms in one story makes a comparatively expensive house, besides using up a great deal of ground.  With the foundation, first story, and roof provided for, the second story adds little to the cost compared to the space gained.  Where ground and labor are cheap the single story is to be considered; but in most places it would not be practicable for us.

In planning the house due regard must be had for the dispositions of the respective members of the family.  In any event we shall not please all of them, but the less the others have to complain about the happier the rest of us shall be.

NECESSARY ROOMS

If paterfamilias is accustomed to depositing his apparel and other belongings rather promiscuously about, expecting to find things where they were left on his return in the evening, it may be better to plan his room where it may stand undisturbed rather than to attempt the breaking of a habit which shows that he feels at home in his own house.  Likewise, some place there should be where the mistress may conduct her sewing operations without wildly scrambling to clean up when the doorbell rings; the children should have at least one place in the house where they may “let loose” on a rainy day, and the master should have somewhere a retreat safe from interruption, as well as a workroom in the basement in which the tools and implements that quickly accumulate in a country home may be secure.

THE SICK ROOM

Sickness, too, may come, and the questions of privacy without an unwholesome curb upon both children and adults, of convenience to hot water and the bathroom, of saving steps for the nurse, should be thought of.  An upstairs chamber is likely to be best on account of the ventilation, lighting, and distance from ordinary noises; but frequent journeys to the kitchen mean an excess of stair climbing.  Whether there be sickness or not, there should be somewhere provision for individual privacy, where absolute rest may be gained.

A large indulgence in entertaining must have its influence in settling both size and arrangement.  Ordinarily, however, we may expect to be reasonably hospitable without enlarging our home into a clubhouse.  If we do not consider this matter in building, propriety must compel us afterwards to limit our company to numbers that we can comfortably care for.