Leading from the passage is the stairway, and two closets. The little passage in which one closet is placed is separated from the hall by a door. There is another door opening from this passage into the kitchen. Thus there are two doors between the kitchen and the front part of the house. This arrangement has in mind the isolation of the kitchen from the other rooms in a way to prevent the passage of the usual kitchen odors.
The stairways in this house are of the class known as combination stairways; while they are convenient and easy of construction, there is a certain amount of complication in their arrangement which makes them difficult of description so as to be understood by those not accustomed to examining floor plans. There is the stairway from the front hall to the floor above, and one from the kitchen to the landing of the front stairway. The landing of the front stairway and that from the kitchen stairway is in common; that is, it is the same. For the purpose of making this understood, it may be well to say that one may go up the stairway from the front hall to the landing, some eight steps, and from thence down into the kitchen, or he can turn right face and go to the landing on the second floor. This part of the stairs is used coming up from the kitchen as well as from the front hall. However, the kitchen stairway is separated from the landing by a door. There is another door at the foot of this kitchen stairway. In coming downstairs, one may turn to the right, open a door, and go down into the kitchen; or, he may turn to the left, and go down the front stairway into the hall. Thus it will be seen that the combination stairway is a front and rear stairway together, with separate entrance from both parts of the house,--one from the kitchen, and one from the front hall. It must be confessed that there is a certain amount of compromise in an arrangement of this kind, but it is a saving of both space and money, and is tolerable on this account. By this plan everything is concentrated, and without the serious drawback which extra cost, or a smaller number of rooms, would imply to those who have only a little over two thousand dollars to spend for a house, without appurtenances. The head room for the stairway, coming up from the kitchen, is secured under the bath-tub in the bath-room immediately above.