Part 6

Today’s cabinet type oil range, with burners and fuel reservoir concealed, is as attractive in appearance as the modern gas or electric range. Burners are quick in performance and adjustable to any degree of heat desired. “Bottled gas” installations are also practical if your cabin is located where it can be serviced by the sales representative. The gas, compressed to liquid form in a steel cylinder, is piped to your stove like ordinary city gas. However, burners must be especially adjusted for it, or if you are buying a new stove, get one made for this fuel.

Refrigeration adds to the comforts of cabin life as much as to city life. If you have electricity, you can use the conventional electric refrigerator. Also available are mechanical refrigerators that use gas. Modern oil burning refrigerators also give effective performance and are usable anywhere, requiring no outside connections. There are two types—one having a continuous flame and the other requiring the burners to be lit about two hours a day, the burners going out automatically when the required quantity of oil has been consumed.

While the space may of necessity be smaller, the kitchen of the vacation home deserves as much thought in planning as that in the city house. Apply the same principles of convenience and workable arrangement and provide plenty of storage space, for the family on vacation does not ordinarily go food shopping every day. On the following pages you will find a number of kitchen conveniences that with a little planning can be incorporated into your cabin kitchen.

TO FAUCET KITCHEN STOVE TANK HEATER FIREPLACE INTAKE

CABIN MISCELLANY

Native Stone Lends Charm and Ruggedness to Cabin Fireplaces and Barbecues

Native stone, gathered from near the site, seems to be the most popular material for the cabin fireplace or barbecue. Skillfully handled, it may be adapted to a variety of artistic treatments, and it lends to the cabin, inside and out, the atmosphere of ruggedness sought after by most cabin builders. Sometimes the stones are gathered one by one over a wide area for their appearance, beauty and other characteristics, so the fireplace itself becomes almost a collector’s item to those who have gathered far and wide the material for its construction. Where stones of the proper size are not available, they are frequently blasted from larger boulders.

The various ideas for indoor and outdoor fireplaces and barbecues shown here have been sketched from photographs of fireplaces actually built in Western cabins. They show some of the wide possibilities of design and of decorative treatment. Among them, or from a combination of their various features, you should be able to find the design of your ideal fireplace.

Outdoor Cooking Awakens Primitive Impulses and Sharpens Vacation Appetites

All the world likes to return to the primitive at times. In most cases this return takes the form of cooking and eating a meal outdoors. There is something about a fire outdoors that awakens impulses lost in us ages ago. And a well cooked outdoor meal makes hearty vacation appetites even keener.

Since the purpose of your vacation home is to get closer to nature, you should plan to get the most out of it by providing facilities for cooking and eating at least some of your meals in the open. On the other hand, you will want to arrange to have greater convenience than the open fire on the surface of the ground that served your ancestors long ago. The outdoor grill, or an outdoor fireplace with a grill built in, provides the comfort and facilities that the modern generation demands.

Outdoor grills range from the simplest form U-shaped brick cooking place, covered with a heavy steel screening, to huge affairs of brick or stone with chimneys and dampers, Dutch ovens built into the sides, warming places for plates, and perhaps a roaring separate fireplace to soften the chill of the evening air. All of them are relatively easy to build and reasonably inexpensive. However, you must keep the fire hazards in mind, and in the National Forests, before you begin to build, have your forest officer approve your plan and location.

Construction of the outdoor fireplace is much the same as that of an indoor one except that the chimney and flue are not carried to such a height. Nor does the footing need to be as thick unless your fireplace is very heavy. A concrete base eight inches thick with four inches of this above ground is usually ample. You may use the chimney of your cabin fireplace for your outdoor fireplace or grill but be sure to provide a separate flue.

There are several methods of adapting the outdoor fireplace to cooking. The simplest is to provide yourself with a pair of rather high andirons and a grill to lay over the top of them. The grill may also be hinged to rear of the fireplace or you may install sliding adjustable grill as illustrated. A pot and crane adds to the appearance as well as the utility of the outdoor fireplace.

The design of the barbecue grill or outdoor stove is a matter for your own taste. For comfort’s sake you will want to have the grill top about the height of your kitchen stove. Build up the firebox so that when the coals are glowing, they will be about eight inches below the grill, which should be made of ³/₁₆-inch steel rods spaced about one inch apart in a metal frame. A groove or seat for the grill may be made in the masonry, or you may provide supports by imbedding projecting pieces of iron in the firebox walls. A piece of sheet steel laid over the grill will provide a fry plate when one is needed.

A chimney is a good addition to a grill of this type. It not only adds some architectural character but it will draw off fumes and give a better draft to your fire. And if you want even more efficiency, you can include some sort of damper arrangement to control the draught.

Your Vacation Home Deserves the Right Kind of Furnishings

Many vacation homes are so obviously furnished with discarded town house furniture—odds and ends from different rooms—and with misfit draperies and scraps of old carpet. After a few seasons they are likely to look like a cross between a second-hand store and a rummage sale. Rooms containing such odds and ends can scarcely be called restful and yet a cabin home is supposed to exist for rest and relaxation.

If you are buying new furniture, give consideration to the newer so-called California style furniture, which retains the Spanish or Mission influence. It is now made by various manufacturers. It has simplicity and sturdiness, is not easily damaged, and does not need a great deal of care. It is perhaps the most distinctive kind of furniture for the purpose and, when set in an environment of rustic simplicity with gay fabrics and correct accessories, is admirably suited to informal living.

TRUNDLE BUNK ROLLS UNDER

If old furniture must be used, try the magic of paint. It is wonderful what may be accomplished with some cans of paint and brushes. Then cover the old seating pieces with some gay cretonne slip covers, use the same fabrics at the windows, and a cheerful, colorful result is obtained.

When refinishing old furniture try remodeling it to fit its new surroundings. Chest and chairs and such, dating from the early days of the century, are likely to have a lot of gingerbread decoration. By removing as much of this as possible and getting down to the simple basic lines of the piece much improvement may be made.

Before painting any piece previously coated with shellac or varnish go over it with varnish remover or use a hook scraper and steel wool, cleaning down to the bare wood. Apply a coat of flat white and, when dry, at least two coats of one of the quick-drying enamels. Go over each coat with very fine sandpaper or steel wool and brush off the resulting dust before applying the next coat.

If you are working with maple, walnut or cherry, the natural color of the wood is often more pleasing than a paint or stain. Remove all traces of enamel, stain or varnish and sand the surfaces smooth. Then apply a thin coat of clear shellac—orange if you prefer—and after sanding this once more polish with ordinary prepared wax.

SMALL TABLES

A Score and More of Cabin Ideas

Rustic furniture, of course, is attractive in most cabins, but it frequently takes considerable skill and ingenuity to make it comfortable.

Where considerable room is required to sleep weekend party guests, give a thought to furniture and fixtures that can be converted into comfortable beds on short notice. Studio couches provide lounging by day and sleeping by night. Double-deck bunks use a minimum of floor space and provide attractive and comfortable sleeping accommodations. Hinged wall beds that disappear under shelves and curtains or into closets are likewise popular.

1-INCH HOLES SPACED 4 INCHES APART and 1¼ INCHES BELOW LINE OF CUT ROPE LACING FOR SEAT SUPPORT FURNITURE WEBBING OVER ROPE SUPPORT FORMS GOOD UPHOLSTERY FOUNDATION

2-INCH SLABS HALF-ROUND SPLIT-POLE CLEAT HALVED JOINT WHERE TABLE LEGS CROSS SPREAD OF LEGS AT BOTTOM EQUALS WIDTH OF TOP

BOX WIRE SCREEN FLASHING

SPONGE RUBBER CUSHION ½-INCH ROPE LINOLEUM COVERED TOP

TWIST ROPE WITH STICK WOOD BLOCK BEND WEDGE IN TENON TIGHTENS JOING WHEN DRIVEN UP SLOPING SHOULDER MORTISE & TENON JOINT

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