CUT-OUTS TO HELP IN PLANNING Good house planning is a family job. Needs of individual members and of the family as a whole are best met when every member of the family has a part in deciding on the kind of house to be built or the changes to be made in remodeling the present house. Make plans carefully, by easy stages--not hastily. Think about future as well as immediate needs. Keep in mind that as the family changes in number and age, there may be changes in housing needs--in the number of bedrooms, for instance, and in space for dining, social activities, work, and storage. The first step in planning is to make a list of the features the family wants in the house. Such a list would include • Number of stories easy care of the sick Be sure to consider also water and sanitation systems, central heating, insulation, ventilation, and electric lighting. Put your plan on paper With the needs listed, the next step is to translate them into a plan on paper. In doing this you will want to consider the orientation of the important rooms of the house to take advantage of pleasant views, sunlight and breezes, and desired views of the highway entrance drive and other farm buildings. Locate your front entrance so that guests coming in the drive will use it. Place the entrance to the work areas of the house for convenient access from the farm court or other farm buildings. This bulletin is designed to help you work out your plan. It gives floor plans for different types of houses, showing major traffic lanes, which may offer suggestions that you can use in building or remodeling. It also gives typical lay-outs for the different rooms in a house and indicates clearances needed for passage and work space between pieces of equipment or furniture and walls. Included are pages of cut-outs of furniture and equipment, drawn to a scale of inch to represent 1 foot. With your plan drawn to the same scale, you can use these cut-outs to test the plan. Illustrated directions showing just how to proceed are given on the next four pages. Planning the New House relation to highway, direction of prevailing winds, and views. The site may depend also on the nature of the land and the location of the drive, the other farm buildings, and fields. In locating the rooms, if you want a view of the highway and the farm drive and a pleasing outlook from the kitchen windows, start with the kitchen. If the view from the living room and its exposure is of major importance, choose the location for that room first. Make a rough sketch of the general farmstead layout, with the highway, farm court, and farm driveway shown. Indicate the direction of the prevailing winds, slope of the land, and view. Locate the site for the house between the highway and court so that prevailing winds do not blow from the barns toward the house, and where a desirable view will not be blocked by the barns. If the highway is dusty set the house well back from the road. With house site settled, you can locate rooms to suit your family preferences. Suppose that from the kitchen you want to see the highway, the farm drive, and the approach from the farm court. Draw a circle to show kitchen location that will provide for this. Then draw the workroom circle next to the kitchen, near the court and a yard for drying, but not obstructing the kitchen view. For the dining room put another circle beside the kitchen, not interfering with the room's view but with a pleasant outlook of its own. Locate living room circle for desired connection with other rooms, to take advantage of the best view or needed protection from winter winds and summer sun. Put in the bedrooms and bath. Plan them so that you won't have to go through the living room to reach them from the rear entrance. Locate porches and entrances. 1 Wichers, H. E. An Easy Way of Planning a Farm Home. Wash. Ext. Serv. Bul. 455. 1951. |
