THE Hugh H. Gallarneau residence at 9436 Vanderpoel Avenue is an excellent example of a small house that looks large. It is set rather well back from the street on a slight ridge. The proportions are such that the facade of the house gives the impression of being much larger than it actually is.
In the center of the first floor is a very compact front hall. A stair leads up from it to the second floor and at the bottom a large door opens on one side into the living room and on the other into the dining room. Next to the stairway is a sizeable closet for the storage of coats and other wraps.
On the first floor are three rooms: the living room, dining room and kitchen. The living room occupies the entire north end of the first floor, running from the front of the house to the back. At the rear or west end, is a door leading out onto a comfortable closed in sun porch. The south side of the house is devoted to the dining room and kitchen. The front half contains the dining room while immediately behind it is the kitchen. A door opens from the kitchen onto the back porch which contains the ice box and space for storing the usual miscellany of material that accumulates about a kitchen. Another door opens onto the sunporch so that if occasions arise on which it is desirable to eat out there, service can be had from the kitchen with the minimum of inconvenience.
As on the floor below, the hall on the second floor is in the center and opens onto both of the bedrooms and the bath room. It also contains a capacious linen closet.
On the second floor the layout is quite similar to that of the ground floor. To the north is the master’s bed room. This is a very commodious room being of just the same size as the living room below. One of its most attractive features is the fact that due to its running across the entire end of the house, it is provided with ventilation on three sides, as a result of the location of these windows, a breeze is assured under almost any conditions.
In the rear of the house is a roomy sleeping porch, directly above the sunparlor. This in reality adds another bed room to the capacity of the house for it accommodates a full sized bed. This porch is glassed in and can, therefore, be used in both winter and summer.
To the south is the second bed room and the bath. The bed room is over the dining room and the bath is over the kitchen. This latter feature, notably the placing of the bathroom over the kitchen, is of service in that it makes it possible to build the house with only one set of waste pipes and vent stacks for the plumbing which is a great economy.
One of the most pleasant features of the place is the back yard. The lot is unusually deep, providing ample space for garden development. Next to the house is a patch of lawn, while further back is a flower garden with a pool in the center. Both the house and garden are shaded by a number of oak trees of considerable size and age which lend an air of permanence and tend to mellow and soften the landscape effect.
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