If it be possible, the nursery, sitting parlor, and kitchen ought always to be on the same floor. Nothing is more injurious to a feeble woman than going up and down stairs and yet, in order to gain two large parlors to show to a few friends, or to strangers, immense sacrifices of health, comfort, and money are made. For example, a kitchen will be in one story, a sitting room in another, and the nursery in a third. The arrangement of rooms and the proper supply of conveniences are other points in which economy of labor and comfort is often disregarded.
There is in this country a very great want of calculation and economy in this matter. Double the size of a house and you double the labor of taking care of it and vice versa. Every room in a house adds to the expense involved in finishing and furnishing it, and to the amount of labor spent in sweeping, dusting, cleaning floors and windows, and taking care of and repairing its furniture. If a man be uncertain as to his means for hiring service, or if he have a feeble wife and be where properly qualified domestics are scarce, it is very poor economy to build a large house or to live in a style which demands much labor. In deciding upon the size and style of a house, the health and capacity of the housekeeper and the probabilities of securing proper domestics ought to be the very first consideration. There are five particulars to which attention should be given in building a house namely, economy of labor, economy of money, economy of health, economy of comfort, and good taste. There is no point of domestic economy which more seriously involves the health and daily comfort of American women than the proper construction of houses.
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