anything like equal satisfaction from the cheaper wood as compared with
oak, if we do feel bound to adopt it we shall have less cause for
complaint later if we view very carefully the material and the
operations of laying and finishing. Poor workmanship can spoil the
best of materials; what it can do with cheaper stuff is absolutely
unmentionable. Paint may be used on the upper floors and even limited
to a border in the bedrooms.



CARPETS

The floors would not be quite so important if we were planning to
entirely cover up their beauties or their uglinesses with another kind
of beauty or ugliness in the form of carpets. But experience has long
since made it clear to all of us that rugs are not only more healthful
and in better taste, but, taken by and large, give less trouble to the
housekeeper than carpets. Owing to the fixed position of the latter
they are, too, quality for quality, less durable. It is true that in
some parts of the house a rug or carpet fastened down may be desirable,
but with good floors no such thing will suggest itself in the living
rooms at least.



LINOLEUM AND MATS

Where a very small vestibule is substituted for the reception hall a
parquetry or tile flooring would be left uncovered. Over a cheap floor
a good quality of linoleum, costing about 50 cents per square yard, may