The Ranch We Love: 2015

Friday, November 06, 2015

A Toddler Room with Vintage Trucks and an Airplane, Oh My!

My 6-year-old is no longer a toddler but he's still enjoying the room we made for him when he was 3! This was one of my favorite room makeovers. It was even featured on apartment therapy a few years ago. It's a small room so we made the most we could with the space. I love the bold fun colors and especially love decorating with vintage toys that my father gave to my on. A trip to ikea and some browsing pinterest for chalkboard ideas (all post more about that later) made this room a pretty simple one to put together.

Ikea Pax Wardrobe Wall

My favorite part of our new master bedroom addition is definitely the Ikea Pax Wardrobe wall. At first we considered a walk-in closet for the 18X18 room, but ended up going for more floor space by doing one wall with nothing but custom storage space, something this house desperately lacks. Ikea has a great website where you can build-your wardrobe from their free online software then print out the plans and items needed and take to the store to purchase.

After measuring the space we determined that 5 ikea pax wardrobe frames (39 1/4 X 22 7/8 X 93 1/8") would fit the space, however, we ended up using 3 of those and 4 smaller frames 19 5/5 w frames. We picked the Hemnes doors, komplement shelves and wire baskets. We borrowed a truck and picked and drove the 2 hours to our nearest ikea.

Here's the basic process we used to get that built-in closet look. Photos aren't great with iphone.

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Master Bedroom Addition to 1950s Ranch (interior)

With lots of consideration we realized it was best for us to add on a bedroom to our 1950s ranch instead of buying a new house that was larger, here is a glimpse to how it happen. If you're looking for an exterior glimpse click here.

In order to make an entrance to the new addition, we cut space from our old master bedroom and added a hallway through that room to gain access to the new room, this worked great because we were able to keep the old master bathroom with our new master bedroom addition. At some point we plan on making the master bathroom bigger, but for now it keeps the cost down and permits are not needed since we are not adding plumbing outside of the original layout of the house. It was a lot of fun seeing this room come together, my favorite part of the room is the wall of closets!

Here's brief step-by-step of the interior:

1. From old bedroom a hole is cut through the exterior bedroom wall to access the new master addition, note the door on the left leads into the master bath that we will use with the new master bedroom.

ENTRANCE

2. Walls going up to create hallway through old master bedroom making that bedroom a bit smaller but still usable for a guest bedroom. We added a new doorway into the new guest bedroom and closed a winodw, leaving one window in the room and a closet.

4. View of old master bedroom with framing for new wall and closed exterior window.

5. Windows and doors installed, drywall up.

6. View from new master into original part of the house.

7. The last thing to do was to choose a flooring, although our entire home has original hardwood we opted for carpet for a few reasons. It was more reasonably priced, it would help keep the room warmer and quieter and I wanted a softness under my feet and larger area for the kids to play around on the floor. We chose a Bliss brand carpet in the color "eclectic" it's grey and beige medium cut pile carpet.

Monday, October 26, 2015

Master Bedroom Addition to 1950s Ranch (exterior)

When I first threw out the idea of a master bedroom addition, my hubs thought I was crazy. One year later the master bedroom was complete.

After much convincing on my part, he realized it was the best option to accommodate our growing family (we were expecting our 2nd) and needed a 4th bedroom for relatives. So here's the low down of the long project...

We called upon 3 contractors to give us their thoughts and quotes. After 3 months of thinking things over, we picked our guy! I drew up rough sketches on how I envisioned the addition, he took those and made it happen. After gathering lots of documents including a land survey and design prints, we made two trips downtown to receive permits. After permits were approved, we were able to break ground.

Here is the layout of our existing house... Initially I thought we'd expand out via the dining room, but after a midnight wakeup I realized that wasn't a good idea, we'd be building too close to a large tree and the master bedroom would be cut off from the other bedrooms. I decided that we could make the original master smaller by adding a hallway through the room, giving the new master it's own small hall. This would also keep the original master bathroom with the new master bedroom which would cut down costs!

Original Layout

New Layout

I'll give you the good shot of before and after then brief details of each step.

BEFORE

(way before as in 2010, only before picture I have because this is not a nice area to photograph)

AFTER (before landscaping)

1. Digging hole for foundation.

2. Foundation laid

3. Subfloor and framing going up.

4. Roof and walls going up.

5. Shingles on, insulation and windows and doors going in.

6. Soffit on and siding going up!

7. Painted, light fixtures, outlet and patio installed.

8. After Landscaping (work-in-progress)

My House

I started this blog in 2006 when we were renovating our 1959 ranch kitchen and when house design blogging wasn't so much a thing, and here it is 2015! After 9 years of no updates, much has changed in our 1959 rancher: a renovated bathroom, a new master bedroom addition, lots of updates, too much painting, patios and even two cute kids to fill it! We learned a lot since then, and that kitchen from 2006, now needs a major update. I do hope to make some little changes to it (on a budget of course) as well as some changes to other rooms in the house. I hope to use this place in the huge world of home blogging, to share my little hobby of interior design on a very, very tight one income household budget! I used to love browns and beiges, but no more! So join me as I slowly try to brighten this place up! Note: not a write and photos all from iphone so nothing fancy here!

HOME TOUR

Before & After Exterior (new garage door, shutters, roof, window boxes and lots of petunias)

Front Porch and Door:

Kitchen

Remodeled in 2006, and now needs updated. Thinking about painting cabinets (I missed the white trend, new hardware and new pendant lighting.) Read more here.