Taste and expedience--Responsibilities--Renting, buying or building--Location--City or country--Renunciations--Schools and churches--Transportation--The butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker--The home acre--Comparative cost in renting--The location sense--Size of lot--Position--Outlook and inlook--Trees--Income and expenditure--Style--Size--Plans for building--Necessary rooms--The sick room--Room to entertain--The "living room"--The dining room and kitchen--The sleeping rooms--Thinking it out
The necessity of good floors--Material and cost of laying--Ornamental flooring--Waxed, varnished, and oiled floors--Carpets, linoleum, and mats--The stairway--Rugs--Oriental rugs--Kitchen and upper floors--Matting and cardoman cloth--Uses of the decorator--Wood in decoration--Panels and plaster--The beamed ceiling--Paint, paper, and calcimine--Shades and curtains--Leaded panes and casements--Storm windows
Necessity of sunlight--Kerosene--Gas and matches--Electric light--Pleasing arrangement--Adaptability--Protection--Regulated light--The two sure ways of heating--The hot-air furnace--Direction of heat--Registers--Hot water and steam heat--Indirect heating--Summary
The quest of the beautiful--Ancient designs--The Arts and Crafts--Mission furniture--Comfort, aesthetic and physical--Older models in furniture--Mahogany and oak--Substantiality--Superfluity--Hall furniture--The family chairs--The table--The davenport--Bookcases--Sundries--Willow furniture--The dining table--Discrimination in choice
Linen, past and present--Bleached and "half-bleached"--Damask--Quality--Design--Price and size--Necessary supply--Plain, hemstitched, or drawn--Doilies and table dressing--Centerpieces--Monograms--Care of table linen--How to launder--Table pads--Ready-made bed linen--Price and quality--Real linen--Suggestions about towels
The plan--Location and finish--The floor--The windows--The sink--The pantry--Insects and their extermination--The refrigerator and its care--Furnishing the kitchen--The stove--The table and its care--The chairs--The kitchen cabinet--Kitchen utensils
Laundry requisites--The stove and furnishings--Irons and holders--Preparing the "wash"--Removing stains--Soaking and washing--Washing powders and soap--Washing woolens--Washing the white clothes--Starch--Colored clothes--Stockings--Dainty laundering--How to wash silk--Washing blankets--Washing curtains--Tidying up and sprinkling--Care of irons--How to iron