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Inside a Cape Cod House

Cape Cod houses fool people. They are roomier on the inside than anyone judging from their outside appearance, would guess.

Inside the front door is a compact hall. Here a door leads off to rooms on either side and a small steep space-saving stairway leads upstairs.

The two front rooms are usually pine panelled, and each has a fireplace adorned with a classic wooden mantle. Wide pine boards, the envy of American antique lovers, are on the floors, and wooden cupboards, faced with small glass panes, are usually set beside the fireplace. These rooms are square and small. One was used as a parlor and the other as a bedroom.

Beyond them the middle room runs the whole width of the house. Usually the central chimney goes directly into the large central fireplace of this room where the cooking was done. The brick oven beside the fireplace once baked the family breads and cakes and pies. This room was of course the most important one in the house and the activity of the entire family centered here. Off the kitchen, is the buttery and the tiny kitchen bedroom.

The two smaller bedrooms were often left unfinished. One of the beauties of these houses. are the hand-hewn old beams which give a feeling of rugged durability to the house.

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