The golden years of This Old House illustrate this perfectly. Bob and Norm renovating old houses--that is, old Victorian houses. Bob and Norm in flannel shirts. Old Victorians in Massachusetts that normal people could never afford. And that's even before This Old House jumped the shark and started renovating actual museum-pieces that have no bearing on reality.
Where does that leave the rest of us folks in our Fifties- and Sixties-era ranch-style homes? Renovation-less? In the past few years, normal mortgage-carrying people have begun renovating their ranch houses, resisting the urge to turn them into McMansions.
There's a great blog called 1951 Ranch Redo, run by Laurie and Eric. They are documenting in pain-staking detail their Corvallis, Oregon ranch renovation--and they manage to keep all those great mid-century horizontal lines intact.
Jen Wolf, over at The Blog at Ranchrevival, gives us a wider perspective of ranch houses and how they fit into our communities as a whole.
But an accurate ranch-house renovation isn't for everyone. It means keeping a lot of the things that us today have long outgrown. Here are some things you might like and dislike about doing a historically accurate ranch-house renovation.
Accurate Ranch Renovation - Possible Likes
- Those pleasant horizontals.
- Fieldstone. Brick touches.
- Lava rock fireplaces.
- Medal next to doorbell, telling you this is a "Gold Medallion Home".
- Yard.
- Garage. Always a garage.
Accurate Ranch Renovation - Possible Dislikes
- Flat roofs.
- Hollow core doors.
- Low ceilings.
- Wall to wall carpeting.
- Aluminum framed windows.
- And, how can we leave this one out: popcorn ceilings.
