1950 | American Home - House #13 | Architect-owner: Charles F. Pyke

    Retirement wasn't exactly what architect Charles Pyke had in mind when he designed this heart-warming honey of a house. The retirement angle was our idea because it is blessed with so many features hundreds of you have asked for in a new kind of old people's home. Downstairs, an older couple could have a complete suite to themselves, with a large living and dining room, kitchen, bedroom, and bath-and there's even space for an overnight guest on a built-in settee-bed. But to welcome a whole brood of visiting offspring, there's an upstairs with three bedrooms and bath which you shut off, economically unheated, when you're alone. And all of this is compact enough to pose prettily on a tiny city lot (here only 30 by 87 ft.). But look at the size of the rooms, examine the delightful detailing, consider the flexibility, and you'll see why we think it's remarkable. 

    However, this house would be as good for a first honeymoon as for a second. A young couple could build it, leave the up-stairs unfinished for now, and look forward to the time when it's home for a houseful of kids. Or it's a good family house to build with an eye on the future if your youngsters are half-grown it won't be too big for you to keep when they marry, but its resale value should always be high. Because it could be so many things to so many people, we've prepared blueprints from which you can build it for yourself. 

    It needn't cost a fortune to build, to keep up, or to furnish. It's a frame house with wood siding you can paint or stain as you please. There is no basement to require an expensive excavation for it stands on a concrete slab foundation and a warm red color is built right into that concrete so that, in many localities, you need no other flooring on the first story. For variety, a few of the interior walls are plastered, and some are papered but most of the inside walls are paneled with random-width pine which stays trim and fresh year after year with little attention from you. To make the very most of every cubic inch of space, the architect provided an unusual amount of built-in storage and some built-in furniture as well, and detailed them with care, so you'd need few cupboards or chests in this house. 

    Its planning represents one of the most intelligent and economical uses of space we've seen. With its four bedrooms, two baths, and dividend of a dressing room, it measures only 1442 sq. ft., all told. But note the clever architect's tricks which made every bit of space do a job : The staircase comes off the dining area to allow full use of the living room, and the space under the stairs houses the piano, dear to family life, which is sometimes difficult to place in a living room. There is no entry hall, but there is a service entrance and pantry off the kitchen to keep deliveries far from the living centers. The kitchen is neither too large nor too small, and the compact arrangement of kitchen, pantry, and bath means that no precious footage is wasted on hallways downstairs. The second-floor plan is equally efficient with its minimum hallways, its centrally located bath, and its wealth of good closets Each bedroom up there has two exposures to ensure plenty of air, and there's through ventilation as well to trap the summer breezes. 

    Even on a diminutive parcel of land, you could enjoy good outdoor living here in a garden you enter through a Dutch door opening from the dining room. The owners of this house filled the back of their property with an oversize garage, but they made a cozy outdoor "room" of the rest, surrounded by a pert picket fence and furnished for dining and lounging. 

    Take a look around the interior and see how far very little furniture goes even a sofa is built into the living room. With their soft red floors, the warm tones of their paneled walls, the enhancement of their fireplaces, the rooms themselves are so handsome and colorful that little "decoration" is needed. Scatter rugs do very well, and inexpensive chintz ruffles provide all the dressing the windows need. 

    A perfect haven for just two people, the plan below is complete in every way. Note the divided bath, 5 generous closets, the real fireplace, built-in sofa-bed. Space under stairs could be extra storage closet. Upstairs, when not closed off, sleeps 6 people in solid comfort. Adding an outside stairway, a kitchen, could make it a separate rental apartment.

Planned for big dinners, dining room adds to living room area. Through open door above, see the paneled kitchen. Piano nests in closet under stairway, built-in cabinet holds dining accessories. The mistress of the house made her rugs, and snipped rooster prints from a catalogue