the midcentury ranch for a new generation
33 min readThe good news? Your home is currently grandfathered into every code statute written and approved after the day it was built.
Let’s get the scary part out of the way first. Your mid-century house, the one you love for its charm and quirks, does not comply with the modern building code.
That’s ok for now. No one is going to knock on your door tomorrow demanding you rewire every outlet in the house.
Continue reading “Your mid-century house is not up to code”Where are all my history nerds? Raise your hands. This week is for you. I’m talking historic maps, digitized collections and crowd-sourced cartography projects. I KNOW!
I was so tickled when a Ready to Remodel student showed up to an Office Hours call a few months ago with so much fresh confidence derived from finding the Sanborn maps of her own property.
Her local permitting office was willing to accept the map she found as proof of a grandfather in the structure that meant they were able to carry on with their plans for a WHOLE LOT LESS paperwork!
Plus, turning up a historic resource had helped her feel confident in her interactions with her local building department and advocating for her remodel plan. This is what Discovery is all about!
I was delighted to hear her name check the Sanborn map collection, because it took me right back to my university days.
Continue reading “The Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps”32 min readIn honor of spooky season, let’s talk nightmare mid-century remodel scenarios.
Can you picture it? Sure you can. We’ve all seen some really scary remodeling choices —on Zillow, on Instagram, or sadly, maybe even in our own homes.
You can file this under schadenfreude if none of it applies to your house. Or it can serve as a what not to do guide to help you avoid mistakes. If you’re already living one of the nightmare mid-century remodel scenarios I’m about to describe, then let’s focus on the fact that you’re far from alone.
AND there’s hope!
I really believe that a good, solid master plan can bring any mid-century house back from the brink of horror.
Continue reading “Nightmare Mid-Century Remodel Scenarios”27 min readToday, some more excellent advice on planning the landscape the yard of your mid-century home from Jim Drzewiecki of Ginkgo Leaf Studio.
Winterizing your yard (the right way) actually is more about planning and planting the right way up front than it is about an endless checklist of October landscaping tasks.
A lot of people (me included) tend to believe that an amazing looking yard requires constant effort and care.
Amazing news: that’s just not true.
When you’ve designed your mid-century yard the right way … with a layout that complements the house and a collection of plants that look good in every season, there isn’t that much you must or SHOULD do to get the yard ready for winter!
Surprise, surprise, a little master plan thinking for your yard can keep it looking good and easy to care for all year round!
Let’s talk about how to plant a year round garden with great advice from Jim Drzewiecki (of Ginkgo Leaf Studio).
Continue reading “Winterize your (Mid-Century) Yard: Advice from Ginkgo Leaf Studio”36 min readAre you considering new siding for your mid-century home? Before you call a contractor or pick a sample, let’s talk about what mid-century siding is and how to make good choices for your house.
During the 80s and 90s, when appreciation for MCM was at a low ebb, too many of our sweet ranches were re-wrapped in narrow strip beige vinyl, covering up their original colors and patterns.
If you’ve been dealing with that kind of generic cover-up, or if your siding is simply damaged or in poor repair, you might be considering a replacement.
Before you call a contractor or pick a sample, let’s talk about what mid-century siding is and how to make good siding choices for your home.
55 min readI was thrilled to chat with Dana Jenkins and Colin Davis of the Instagram account @un.flipping,(who may have coined the phrase!) and have blown up online by sharing their five-year journey to add the soul back into their thoroughly flipped mid-century home.
We all know the story. You find an MCM ranch in your perfect neighborhood, only to click further into the listing to discover a flipper has been there first. They’ve ripped out the character and replaced it with trendy, generic finishes.
It’s a tragedy…(well, to us it is).
And many mid-century lovers believe it’s also the final answer for the home. Remodeling something that has been “updated” is wasteful, isn’t it? And it’s almost impossible to undo the damage to original finishes or find replacements for pieces that ended up in the dumpster.
Continue reading “A flipped house is not a final answer with Un.flipping”You’re thinking about a remodel. You have a budget in mind, a Pinterest board full of perfect tile, and a list of things in your house that just aren’t working. But stop right there.
Before you hire a contractor or pick out a single fixture, I need you to answer the single most important question you will ask in this entire process:
Why does your house need a remodel? I mean, does it? Seriously?
Knowing the underlying why, what you are truly trying to achieve in your life, will ultimately control what your remodel costs, how many parts of your house it affects, and everything down to the last tile choice.
It’s the only thing that will keep your remodel on track, keep you going when the planning gets slow or expensive, and help you avoid all the “shoulds” that will make a project unnecessarily stressful and pricey.
Oh AND without sticking to your why, you’re much more likely to take on a remodel that ends up damaging your home’s mid-century character!
So let’s talk about how to get under the surface of your remodeling why …
Continue reading “Why does your house need a remodel … really WHY?”70 min readReady to Remodel students have the chance to get questions answered – live – every month during our Architect Office Hours. And once in a while, I open up the opportunity to a wider group!
Movies love to show architects creating away at a drafting table or sitting picturesquely at a cafe, sketchbook in hand. It’s romantic, this vision of a endlessly creative mind conjuring beautiful buildings from some eternal, internal well. But *SPOILER ALERT* no one uses a drafting table anymore (except throwbacks and nostalgia lovers). In fact, I do all my sketching on a tablet.
There is another major element of architecture that is seldom shown in the movies…
An architect spends A LOT of time answering questions.
I answer questions emailed in by my clients almost daily. I answer questions from students in Ready to Remodel every month at office hours. I pick up a few queries from my instagram DMs every week.
And once in a while I hop into a zoom and hold an open office hours for anyone with a question. I held an open office hours just this week…and the questions were fabulous! So, I’m sharing it with you!
Want even more … here’s a snippet of one of my student only calls from several years ago!
43 min readYou’ve heard of the military-industrial complex, and maybe even the wedding-industrial complex, but what about the kitchen renovation industrial complex?
What is the kitchen renovation industrustrial complex? This is the system that pushes us toward renovations designed with a built-in expiration date. It encourages us to follow trends seen on HGTV or Pinterest, leading to homes that look like everyone else’s and feel dated just a few years down the line.
The solution? Push back by focusing on a renovation that is timeless, personalized and designed to fit your home and your life.
Continue reading “Avoid the Kitchen Renovation Industrial Complex”44 min readMid-century Ranch houses are pretty easy to get around for people with disabilities, especially with few key upgrades to add accessibility!
Designing accessibility into your mid-century home during a remodel is easier than you might think.
Mid-century houses have enormous potential to fit every stage of life.
They make great first homes for young couples and singles, were built for and are adaptable to the needs of growing families, and serve owners who choose to age in place.
They also work well for people with living disabilities … especially with a few essential updates.
Let’s talk about how to design accessibility into your mid-century home to fit your life and the lives of the people you love.
Continue reading “Designing Accessibility into Your Mid-Century Home”
