1957 Ranch in the Raw

Boy do I have a house tour for you. We moved in a couple weeks ago and as I was taking photos I realized just how much there is to do here. This house needs so much work. But its proximity to family, convenience, a killer backyard and classic mid-century style won us over. At least I will have some dramatic before and after photos!

We spent an evening a few nights ago meeting our neighbors, and right next door to us is a couple who have lived in their house since the 1960s and told us the background of the neighborhood. Apparently the land used to be wine country. Farmers nearby used some pesticides and whole grape crops were wiped out and the land was then scheduled for development. Our house was the first to be built in 1957 by the owner of Sue Bee Honey. There used to be beehives and all sorts of fruit trees on the land.

Can you believe this is our back yard?

There’s still so much vintage charm throughout the house but you’ll see the state some finishes are in. Use your before and after imagination. Let’s start with the exterior.

This house is an all brick exterior with almost all original windows. That’s good and bad since we can hear everything outside and they’re not very efficient. But the wood matches everything else in the house.

You know I’ll be painting that door something fun down the road. Priorities.

The entryway is huge with more than enough room for vintage coats.

And you’ve all seen the living room.

And dining room.

This is our master bedroom. Yes I’m definitely making a to-do list and shuddering as I see these pictures. Currently we’re living with all that going on.

So someone asked if we had pink bathrooms. Yes! The pink fixtures will obviously stay. Here’s the weird part though: two of our bathrooms used to be connected by shower doors, but at some point one of those got closed in to make two separate bathrooms. If we have friends over they’ll have to go through our bedroom or downstairs to use the shower! So we’re thinking of changing it back to the original layout. We’ll see.

There’s the infamous dividing wall which is in some sad shape anyway.

All of our bathroom faucets are original. Here’s this amazing faucet that still works like new.

This is the second bathroom that used to be joined. It’s so small and I think a shower door will make it seem a little larger.

Currently this is the nursery. I can’t wait to get started in here.

And then something happened in the kitchen. All the built-ins, the doorways, trim are all some sort of lighter wood. Maybe a birch? Not sure. But in 1998 this kitchen got refaced. To golden oak. Don’t get me wrong, golden oak worked in our last kitchen but in this house it seems blasphemous. We’re going to try to un-face the cabinets at some point. That’s further down the line. The dishwasher had a leak in it and spilled water all over the floor so we had to tear that up and start replacing it. That’s the first project on the list.

The eat-in kitchen has the same problem. Yikes.

And while we’re at it, we’re taking up and replacing the carpet in the mudroom too.

But check out those built-ins on the other side of the mudroom. They will look awesome once a new floor goes in and the snow geese wallpaper goes out.

In the basement are two more bedrooms. This is currently our guest room. You can see where holes had to be drilled in the ceiling to prevent mold from the dishwasher leak. Sorry guests!

And now my husband gets to work from home and this will soon be his amazing office.

And our last bath is not pink but blue! Not too much needs to change in here, but you’ll notice the refacing happened to all the bathroom cabinets as well. We’ll see what happens.

Last but not least, since this house was built during the Cold War we have a bona fide bomb shelter. Those rolls of paper up on the shelf? Those are the architectural blueprints to the house that have encountered some water damage throughout the years, but we’ll be taking a look at them soon.

And there you have it. We probably won’t be getting things done as fast as we did in the last house, but I’m looking forward to some changes. I know this house will look great…eventually! What’s your favorite part of the house?