the midcentury ranch for a new generation
2 min readThe drywall was hung, taped, and textured and now its ready for me to get on with painting. I have a quick decision to make. Help!
While I was upstairs, ripping out the wall-to-wall carpet, the drywall crew was downstairs turning the basement spaces back into rooms. It’s very exciting to see the work progressing. Continue reading “Progress: The basement drywall is in!”
3 min readI finally pulled out the tired green wall-to-wall carpet in my living room and revealed … a lovely warm toned and dense grained hardwood floor underneath. I’m so happy I can’t stop rubbing my hands together in glee.
I actually can’t believe it took me a year and a half to get around to this step. I always knew I was going to rip out the terrible green wall-to-wall carpet and expose the hardwood underneath.
Note: For ranches of this era hardwood floors were standard issue since nylon wall-to-wall carpet was invented after WWII as an alternate way to keep the war industry producers in business. It was not common in Wisconsin in 1952 when my house was built. I had even pulled back a small corner to confirm that it was down there. But somehow I just didn’t get around to getting it out! Continue reading “Revealing the gorgeous hardwood under my (hated) Wall-to-Wall Carpet”
7 min readToday, a breakdown of the Midcentury Modern style – both at NASA and at home – in one of my favorite recent movies: Hidden Figures.
I just re-watched Hidden Figures. It is a fantastic movie that checks all my boxes: painful-but-inspiring untold underdog history about nerd girls who are determined to show everyone what they can do. Plus, it is beautifully shot with a fantastic soundtrack and some really great acting. What more could I ask?
If you haven’t seen it yet, stop reading this blog post and go stream it RIGHT NOW. Continue reading “Midcentury Style Frames Storytelling in Hidden Figures”
5 min readThe definition of a true MCM kitchen is not the laminate counter tops and pastel appliances. You can recognize a classic ranch kitchen by its layout and by the driving philosophy behind it.
I recently came across a list post of gorgeous midcentury modern kitchens to emulate. As I scrolled, I realized they had one thing in common – clearly none of them were actually midcentury kitchens. So today I’d like to break down the differences between a kitchen built in the midcentury era, and those done in a midcentury style, now. Continue reading “Internet “MidMod” kitchens are more Modern than Midcentury”
5 min readHere’s an interesting example of the residential ARCHITECTURE being constructed at the same time as the ranch house was filling the country. Farnswoth house has been called the “reducio ad absurdum of the notion of a dwelling.”
The Farnsworth house is clearly NOT a ranch but it was built during the height of the ranch era -constructed (just a year before my own home) in 1952. It is an peak example of the purely architectural residential design then and a strong contrast to the standard single family homes being built at that time. Continue reading “Residential Architecture in the Age of the Ranch: Farnsworth House”
2 min readA little insight into my ranch’s inception. It, along with some 300 other local homes, was built in 1952 by a local contractor. Today, I find out a little more.
My ranch was built in 1952 by one Harold Berwick. The permit – left with some other house papers in a basement cabinets – lists him as “owner” rather than contractor but he never occupied the space, just developed it on spec and passed it along. He apparently did a super speedy job of construction. Continue reading “Harold Bewick: Builder of My Ranch”
3 min readYou can remodel your home and substantially increase your living area without adding on a single square foot! Staying within your existing footprint is easier, cheaper and more sustainable.
Every little bit helps. You can avoid adding to the impermeable surfaces of the world by remodeling within your existing building footprint rather than building new OR expanding beyond the current boundaries. Look around the house for space you already have. This is the low hanging fruit in any remodel by measures of speed, difficulty, return on investment, and baseline cost. Continue reading “Three places to find more space in your house without adding on!”
2 min readHaving passed the framing and electrical inspections, the next direct step for the basement was to finish up the insulation. For the first time ever, this task turned out to be easier than I expected.
It was unexpectedly challenging to find 23” batts of insulation (designed for more efficient 24 inch on center framing I used) which were ALSO unfaced (no place for moisture to get stuck) AND designed for a 2×4 wall (not an attic). I scoured the internet for this unicorn of insulation objects, the 23” unfaced 3.5” batt and finally had to special order it to be delivered to Menards. Continue reading “Progress: Installing Batt Insulation”
2 min readYesterday the new flooring for the basement was delivered. I’m not quite ready to install it but I do have a sample on the floor already!
It came FedEx freight and the pallet weighed in at 1200 pounds so I was very grateful that the delivery guy was nice enough to help me get it up the driveway and store it in the garage with his pallet jack. That said, it took all of his pulling and my pushing to make the slope! Now the pile safely ensconced in the center of the garage and I will work on moving it down to the back corner of the basement for temporary storage at my leisure. Continue reading “New Cork Flooring Delivered!!!”
6 min readToday I consider the similarities and differences between two closely related building types, the Chicago Bungalow and the Midwestern Ranch. What can one teach about the other?
These two building types are very closely related. Specifically, the Chicago Bungalow is very closely related to the Midwestern or “tract” Ranch. They each share an older California cousin which features more variation, more drama and was originally designed as one-offs by architects. They are similar in square footage, in class and in initial cost. Their differences are useful in highlighting the modernism and innovations of the ranch type. Let’s look more closely! Continue reading “What came before: The Bungalow and Ranch Side by Side”
