washstands in bedrooms should have small traps;
underneath each should be a leaden tray to protect ceilings in case
of leakage, breakage or accidental overflow. This tray should have an
overflow, and this overflow should be trapped, if connected with the
foul-pipe system (which it should _not_ be if possible to arrange it
otherwise). Flues should have a smooth parging or lining, or they will
be apt to draw with difficulty. Gas pipes of insufficient diameter
cause the flames to burn with unsteady, dim light. Made ground is
seldom fit for immediate building; and never for other than isolated
structures. Ashes, street-sweepings, garbage, rotten vegetation, and
house refuse are unfit filling for low ground on which it is intended
to build. Cobble pavements are admirably adapted to soaking-up and
afterwards emitting unwholesome matters. Asphalt has none of this
fault. Wood is pernicious in this respect. "Gullies" in cellar floors
should be properly trapped; and this does _not_ mean that they shall
have bell-traps nor siphon-traps with shallow water-seal. Cellar
windows should be movable to let in air, and should have painted
wire-screens to keep out cats, rats, etc. New walls are always damp.
Window sills should project well out beyond the walls, and should be
grooved underneath so as to throw the water clear of the walls. Cracks
in floors, between the boards, help the accumulation of dirt and
dust, and may harbor vermin. Narrow boards of course have narrower
interstitial cracks than wide boards do. "Secret nailing" is best
where it can be afforded. Hot-air flues should never be carried close
to unprotected woodwork. Electric bells, when properly put up and
cared for, are a great convenience in a house; but when they
don't work, they are about as aggravating as the law allows. Cheap
pushbuttons cause a great deal of annoyance. Silver-plated faucets and
trimmings blacken with illuminating and sewer gases. Nickel-plating
is perhaps a less pleasing white, but is cheaper and does not discolor
readily. Windows are in most respects a great blessing; but there may
be too much of a good thing. It is unreasonable to expect that one
grate or stove or furnace can heat a whole county. Don't attempt it.
If you have too many windows on the "cold side" of a house, give
them double sashes (_not_ double panes), and "weather-strip" them.
Unpainted trimmings should be of hardwood. Yellow pine finishes up
well. Butternut is brighter than walnut.