The Complete Home

The Complete Home, by Various

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Title: The Complete Home
Author: Various
Editor: Clara E. Laughlin
Release Date: September 4, 2005 [EBook #16650]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COMPLETE HOME ***

Produced by Al Haines

[Frontispiece: A $3,400 House.]

The COMPLETE HOME

EDITED BY
CLARA E. LAUGHLIN

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
NEW YORK
1907

Copyright, 1906, by
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY

Published November, 1906

CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
CHOOSING A PLACE TO LIVE
By OLIVER R. WILLIAMSON
Taste and expedience--Responsibilities--Renting, buying or building--Location--City or country--Renunciations--Schools and churches--Transportation--The butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker--The home acre--Comparative cost in renting--The location sense--Size of lot--Position--Outlook and inlook--Trees--Income and expenditure--Style--Size--Plans for building--Necessary rooms--The sick room--Room to entertain--The "living room"--The dining room and kitchen--The sleeping rooms--Thinking it out
CHAPTER II
FLOORS, WALLS, AND WINDOWS
By OLIVER R. WILLIAMSON
The necessity of good floors--Material and cost of laying--Ornamental flooring--Waxed, varnished, and oiled floors--Carpets, linoleum, and mats--The stairway--Rugs--Oriental rugs--Kitchen and upper floors--Matting and cardoman cloth--Uses of the decorator--Wood in decoration--Panels and plaster--The beamed ceiling--Paint, paper, and calcimine--Shades and curtains--Leaded panes and casements--Storm windows
CHAPTER III
LIGHTING AND HEATING
By OLIVER R. WILLIAMSON
Necessity of sunlight--Kerosene--Gas and matches--Electric light--Pleasing arrangement--Adaptability--Protection--Regulated light--The two sure ways of heating--The hot-air furnace--Direction of heat--Registers--Hot water and steam heat--Indirect heating--Summary
CHAPTER IV
FURNITURE
By OLIVER R. WILLIAMSON
The quest of the beautiful--Ancient designs--The Arts and Crafts--Mission furniture--Comfort, aesthetic and physical--Older models in furniture--Mahogany and oak--Substantiality--Superfluity--Hall furniture--The family chairs--The table--The davenport--Bookcases--Sundries--Willow furniture--The dining table--Discrimination in choice
CHAPTER V
HOUSEHOLD LINEN
By SARAH CORY RIPPEY
Linen, past and present--Bleached and "half-bleached"--Damask--Quality--Design--Price and size--Necessary supply--Plain, hemstitched, or drawn--Doilies and table dressing--Centerpieces--Monograms--Care of table linen--How to launder--Table pads--Ready-made bed linen--Price and quality--Real linen--Suggestions about towels
CHAPTER VI
THE KITCHEN
By SARAH CORY RIPPEY
The plan--Location and finish--The floor--The windows--The sink--The pantry--Insects and their extermination--The refrigerator and its care--Furnishing the kitchen--The stove--The table and its care--The chairs--The kitchen cabinet--Kitchen utensils
CHAPTER VII
THE LAUNDRY
By SARAH CORY RIPPEY
Laundry requisites--The stove and furnishings--Irons and holders--Preparing the "wash"--Removing stains--Soaking and washing--Washing powders and soap--Washing woolens--Washing the white clothes--Starch--Colored clothes--Stockings--Dainty laundering--How to wash silk--Washing blankets--Washing curtains--Tidying up and sprinkling--Care of irons--How to iron
CHAPTER VIII
TABLE FURNISHINGS
By SARAH CORY RIPPEY
Dining-room cheer--Stocking the china-cupboard--The groundwork--Course sets--Odd pieces--Silver and plate--Glass--Arrangement--Duties of the waitress--The breakfast table--Luncheon--Dinner--The formal dinner--The formal luncheon--Washing glass--Washing and cleaning silver--How to wash china--Care of knives
CHAPTER IX
THE BEDROOM
By SARAH CORY RIPPEY
Light and air--Carpets versus rugs--Mattings--Wall covering--Bedroom woodwork--Bedroom draperies--Bedroom furnishing--Careful selection--Toilet and dressing tables--Further comforts--The bedstead--Spring, mattress, and pillows--Bed decoration--Simplicity--Care of bedroom and bed--Vermin and their extermination
CHAPTER X
THE BATH ROOM
By OLIVER R. WILLIAMSON
Plumbing--Bath room location and furnishing--The tub--The lavatory--The closet--Hot water and how to get it--Bath room fittings
CHAPTER XI
CELLAR, ATTIC, AND CLOSETS
By SARAH CORY RIPPEY
The cellar floor--Ventilation--The partitioned cellar--Order in the cellar--Shelves and closets--The attic--Order and care of attic--Closets--The linen closet--Clothes closets--The china closet--Closet tightness--Closet furnishings--Care of closets and contents
CHAPTER XII
HANGINGS, BRIC-A-BRAC, BOOKS, AND PICTURES
By SARAH CORY RIPPEY
The charm of drapery--Curtains--Porti��res--Bric-a-brac--The growth of good taste--Usefulness with beauty--Considerations in buying--Books--Their selection--Sets--Binding--Paper--Pictures--Art sense--The influence of pictures--Oil paintings--Engravings and photographs--Suitability of subjects--Hanging of pictures
CHAPTER XIII
THE NICE MACHINERY OF HOUSEKEEPING
By SARAH CORY RIPPEY
Monday--Tuesday--Wednesday--Thursday--Friday--Saturday--House cleaning--Preparation--Cleaning draperies, rugs, carpets--Cleaning mattings and woodwork--Cleaning beds
CHAPTER XIV
HIRED HELP
By SARAH CORY RIPPEY
The general housemaid--How to select a maid--Questions and answers--Agreements--The maid's leisure time--Dress and personal neatness--Carelessness--The maid's room--How to train a maid--The daily routine--Duties of cook and nurse--Servant's company

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
A $3,400 House. . . . . . . . Frontispiece
A Unique Arrangement of the Porch
A Homelike Living Room
An Attractive and Inexpensive Hall
An Artistic Staircase Hall
An Oriental Rug of Good Design: Shirvan
Good Examples of Chippendale and Old Walnut
A Chippendale Secretary
The Dining Room
The Kitchen
The Laundry
Wedgwood Pottery, and Silver of Antique Design
A Collection of Eighteenth-century Cut Glass
The Bedroom
The Bathroom
The Drawing-room

THE COMPLETE HOME
CHAPTER I
CHOOSING A PLACE TO LIVE
Blessed indeed are they who are free to choose where and how they shall live. Still more blessed are they who give abundant thought to their choice, for they may not wear the sackcloth of discomfort nor scatter the ashes of burned money.

TASTE AND EXPEDIENCE
Most of us have a theory of what the home should be, but it is stowed away with the wedding gifts of fine linen that are cherished for our permanent abode. We believe in harmony of surroundings, but after living, within a period of ten years or so, in seven different apartments with seven different arrangements of rooms and seven different schemes of decoration, we lose interest in suiting one thing to another. Harmony comes to mean simply good terms with the janitor. Or if (being beginners) we have some such prospect of nomadic living facing us, and we are at all knowing, we realize the utter helplessness of demonstrating our good taste, purchase any bits of furniture that a vagrant fancy may fasten upon, and give space to whatever gimcracks