In this house the laundry is located in the basement, which stands out of ground on the kitchen corner. An outside door enters the cellar on grade level.

The bedroom plan is compact, private, light, and airy.

Other plans may be analyzed in a similar manner, the strength and the weakness of various arrangements noted, and a sense of good planning acquired. The larger farmhouse shown in Fig. 10 has been inserted for personal study on the part of the readers. It represents a well-organized arrangement with a new feature introduced in the rear - a hired man's room with separate stairs leading to it. The dignified, simple, and well-designed exterior shown in Plate I, upper figure, will stimulate the imagination and serve to make the plan more realistic.

It must not be supposed that the plans shown in Figs. 6, 8, and 9 are perfect in every respect. No business office is included and they contain fewer bedrooms than farmhouses of the past have provided. It must be remembered that each of these houses was designed for a particular family and for a particular farm site, as all successful houses should be. Consequently they are not intended as models to be copied, but as illustrations of the principles of house-planning. If the principles of planning are understood they may be applied, whether to new work or to alterations.

In general, an intricate or confused plan is always a poor one; the more carefully an arrangement is studied, the simpler it should become. Briefly stated, the final test of a good plan is its extreme simplicity. Starting at the main entrance, one should be able to proceed mentally through the plan with ease and comprehension. For the most part the walls should be in continuous, straight lines and should show an absence of jogs, angles, and diagonal corners. Windows may be grouped or single, but should be disposed in an orderly manner with relation both to interior and to exterior appearance.

The plans shown are a reasonable protest against the old wasteful types of farm dwellings. Study of these plans will serve to show in what respects the modern rural house should differ from former arrangements. A living-room now combines the unused parlor and the overused sitting-room for general family life; an office where the farmer's business is transacted is provided in a place convenient to roadway and barn, but outside the path of housework travel; the kitchen arrangement is compact and well organized; the downstairs bedrooms open, not from other rooms, but from a private hall, thus insuring quiet and privacy (Figs. 5 and 8); a bathroom is provided on either the first or the second floor, according to water pressure; if possible all the bedrooms are provided with windows on two sides; the large hall with open stairs has given way to a more condensed arrangement; a generous porch or uncovered terrace is placed where it either commands the best view or is most useful during the day; the family hearth has literally returned in the living-room fireplace; and the whole plan is so arranged that the rooms lived in most are the sunniest.

A dwelling combining the above features is illustrated in Fig. 11. Wisely studied and frankly arranged, without a foot of waste room, this structure represents a type of farmhouse that is economical to build, to heat, and to work. The stairs for the whole house are contained in one vertical shaft; the hall is reduced to a small area; an office is placed near the roadway and away from the housewife's work, which is accommodated in a dining-room and kitchen combination; a man's room is provided at the extreme end of the plan, away from the family; a washroom is on the line of travel between the back porch and the dining-room; and a spacious living-room, with fireplace and window groups, is located on a desirable corner. On the second floor, the stairs land centrally in a square hall, which gives direct entrance to each of the four bedrooms and to the bathroom; the bedrooms are provided with good closets; light and ventilation are everywhere abundant.

Fig. 11. - A house planned for farm life and farm conditions.