CHAPTER I.
THE HOUSE: SITUATION AND ARRANGEMENT.
From the beginning it must be understood that what is written here applies chiefly to country homes.

The general principles laid down are applicable with equal force to town or city life; but as a people we dwell mostly in the country, and, even in villages or small towns, each house is likely to have its own portion of land about it, and to look toward all points of the compass, instead of being limited to two, as in city blocks.

Of the comparative advantages or disadvantages of city or country life, there is no need to speak here.

Our business is simply to give such details as may apply to both, but chiefly to the owners of moderate incomes, or salaried people, whose expenditure must always be somewhat limited.

With the exterior of such homes, women at present have very little to do; and the interior also is thus far much in the hands of architects, who decide for general prettiness of effect, rather than for the most convenient arrangement of space.