Cracking the Code

We bought our raised ranch in 2005, right at the height of the Real Estate bubble.  Although we weren’t thrilled with the style, we WERE thrilled that we were able to get ANYTHING on this street in this town with this amount of land etc.  We sacrificed form over function but dreamed of a future project to make the house both more pleasing to the eye (tough) and bigger (yay).  We hired an architect in 2009 to assist us with our quest.  Ultimately, we realized that the “vision” for our home would have to come from us.  The architect we chose added very little value to the project unfortunately (and cost us a bundle).  We went through several drafts of different designs, including a colonial design that would have almost doubled the square footage.  Hubby spent many Saturday nights curled up with his pencil, ruler and graph paper trying to create the plan.  Finally in 2011, the clouds parted, lightning flashed,  and he emerged from his cave with something that just might work.

Our impression is that no one has ever really been able to “crack the code” on the raised ranch.  It is an extraordinarily difficult house to add onto.  It is boxy and boring.  There are few possible roof lines.  Space added to the main level must be supported by space added to the ground floor, which can easily create unnecessary redundancy.  With construction costs still running high in our area, coupled with the rising costs of fuel and electricity to heat and cool, homeowners on a budget do not want to build redundant or excess space.  Plus, in towns like ours where lot sizes are small, zoning regulations limit the number of square feet that can be added.

Cracking the code would be difficult.  We would truly have to think outside the box, the “box” being our 49’x30’ abode.  We would also have to accept our house for what it was.  It would never be a charming colonial.  But maybe it could work better.  Maybe we could take the disadvantages and turn them into advantages.

Disadvantage #1:  3 Bedrooms

Most people in our area would like a home with 4 bedrooms, and 4+ bedroom homes command a premium.  We only have 2 children, so 3 bedrooms suffices for us.  However, we had no comfortable place for guests to stay.  Our downstairs had been a large (28’x17’) playroom where we generally stowed guests, but there was no bathroom.  In order to add to our main level, we needed to extend the downstairs by approximately 9’.  This extra space created the opportunity for us to maintain a playroom almost the same size as before while adding a small office/bedroom and full bath.  We now have a beautiful guest suite – a great “add” to our home.  So far the only “problem” I have identified with this room is that Hubby thinks it is “his” room and I think it is “mine”.  He keeps all of his coats in the closet.  I keep my makeup and mirror on the desk (makeup becoming increasingly important these days, much to my chagrin).  So far we have had no Brady-like wars requiring tape down the middle of the room – hopefully we can continue to coexist.  Result:  Private guest suite now available!

Disadvantage #2:  Downstairs ceiling soffit

In our original playroom, in order to keep the ceiling height as close to 8’ as possible, a soffit had been created around the ductwork that ran down the center of the room.  When designing the downstairs bedroom, the idea was to have the rear bedroom wall end at the soffit and to build closets under the 2’ wide soffit.  One closet would open into the bedroom and one would open into the playroom (both with double doors).   We created an entry to the playroom under the remaining section of the soffit that gives the feeling of an archway and offers a sense of separation between the bedroom/bathroom area and the playroom.  Result:  Soffit drawback GONE and beautiful new storage closets HERE TO STAY!

Disadvantage #3:  Must add space downstairs to support upstairs addition

To support the main level addition, we added 9’ straight across the entire back of the house, including behind the garage.  We had to figure out what to do with the 9’ deep room to be built behind the garage.  A storage room was born to swallow up all of the “large” items Hubby hated storing in “his” garage, such as bikes, snow blower, picnic items, sports equipment, etc.  In order to circumvent FAR restrictions (floor area ratio – which limits the square footage that can be built on a particular size lot), this room had a raised cement floor and could not/would not be used as living space.  Result:  Great storage, happy Hubby, and support for master bedroom addition.

Guessing Game

Who can figure out this Real Estate market? I am seeing houses in this town sell for anywhere between $350 and $650 per square foot, and I cannot fully understand what accounts for that spread. It appears as though brand new homes are still able to command a premium, up to a certain square footage at which there are diminishing returns, meaning the price per square foot begins to slide because people do not want or need the excess space the home offers. Updated older homes that exude charm are also in demand, unless they are in a poor location. Friends just bought a lovely remodeled 1960’s home in a nice neighborhood on a flat ¼ acre lot for $360/sf. Granted, the street is a double yellow cut through between two busy roads, but it is generally a quiet neighborhood nonetheless. A tired but cute Cape Cod with deeded water access and a somewhat funky layout (MBR on ground floor, garage access though MBR sitting room, etc.) just sold for $400/sf. But a brand new house with a small (.11 acre) lot on a main road is in contract for somewhere in the neighborhood of $550/sf.

It comes down to this: there are not a lot of buyers out there, and those who are looking want value. If a house needs work, they want a discount. And so, our offer of over $425/sf for the house on our street was actually high. I keep thinking it is worth closer to $400/sf, but then the sales come through and begin to make me think otherwise. We wonder when they will come back to us, although my husband suspects that it would be too difficult for them to admit they were wrong. Of course, we would admit we were wrong too, and lower our offer. That should go over REALLY well. We are still hearing about “quiet layoffs” all around the New York area, and if the trend continues, Real Estate as a lagging indicator of the economy could continue to slide. No one can predict the bottom of the market – it is a guessing game. My guess is that the Real Estate market will keep us guessing!

(Taps)

The deal is dead. At least, for now. We went back and forth with the owners of the house, and before we submitted our “final offer”, we went to look at it again. Unfortunately (for them), it was a rainy day. The basement smelled musty, the gutters were showing their inadequacy, the rotting wood trim had nowhere to hide, and we decided that our most recent offer (we had increased our offer by $75K at this point) was as high as we could go. We began to feel scared about the daunting task we might be about to take on: fixing this neglected house. To be fair, the more anyone looks at any house, the more they will be able to find wrong with it. But when we first saw it, we had stars in our eyes, and the owners should have capitalized on that. There was a time, a few weeks ago, when we would have offered about $25-$50K more than where our final offer ended up. But as our enthusiasm waned, and our feet came back to earth, our desire to negotiate further dissipated as well. I guess that’s why they say, “Strike while the iron is hot”!

The real estate market in town is dead in general, so I would be surprised if they were able to drum up an offer at all between now and the end of the year. One of the sticking points in the negotiation was the closing date. They desired a January 15, 2011 date, while we had asked for March 31, 2011. We are not clear on why they were in such a hurry, considering that they HAD A BUYER WHO WAS WILLING TO PAY A LOT FOR THEIR HOUSE, but we stood our ground and, eventually, they gave in to our desired closing date. However, as far as price, we ended up being about $45,000 apart. Our final number was 10% below the asking price. Most houses here are trading at prices more than 10% below the final asking price, which is usually a reduced price to begin with. The other problem for them was that they agreed to a bum deal with their broker. She required them to have a contract signed on the private sale within one week after the Listing Date in order to avoid a brokerage commission. We received the owner’s final offer the day before the deadline, with a stipulation that we would need to have a contract signed by close of business the next day. Hilarious! Considering that we had not yet agreed to terms, and had not completed a professional inspection of the premises, signing a contract within 24 hours was a completely unreasonable expectation. In the end, the owners admitted that our offer was too low and that they felt they needed more time to test the market. I wrote back that we do understand (because we do – even though we know we are right! Ha!), and wished them the best of luck.

Since then, we have had several chance encounters with them on the street, and it has all been perfectly friendly and charming – there are no hard feelings at all. Unfortunately for them, it has rained for about six days straight, so there have been few (if any) showings of the property). Did I mention that one of my closest friends (a true BFF) lives across the street from them and has been spying regularly? She also offered to park an old beat-up pickup truck on her lawn and throw old beer cans around in order to make the neighborhood appear less than appealing to any potential YUPPIE buyers. What a pal!

What does the future hold? We heard last night from some friends on Wall Street that trading volume is slow – and that more layoffs are looming, even if not the 80,000 predicted by one fairly reliable analyst. Since this town’s real estate values are so closely tied to Wall Street wealth, I would say that’s bad news for anyone trying to sell a house. Will our neighbors get offers? Yes – it is a fabulous neighborhood with many amenities, and the house has good space. But they will get lowball offers, and will have to pay a broker 4% of the sale price. They will end up with less money in their pocket than if they had taken our deal. There is no doubt in my mind, they truly believe, or want to believe, that their house is worth more than it is truly worth. There is nothing wrong with that mentality, unless you are in a hurry to move, and you have no offers. We have not heard the last of them. It is really just a question of “when” we will hear from them again. We will see them on Halloween when my children go up to their door for some candy. And I wonder – will they offer us a trick, or a treat?

Let It Roll, Baby, Roll...

The stage is set, the die is cast, whatever you want to say – the ball is rolling! On Thursday, we submitted some questions (mostly about mechanicals, roof, etc.) which were answered very quickly. I “gently” broke it to the owners that their square footage calculation was wrong (they never replied to that email, but you can bet they went down to City Hall that day!). The offer letter was ready yesterday, but we sat on it all day, for no particular reason other than that we were scared ____less. But at 7:01 PM last night, the letter was submitted via cyberspace.

It was a fair offer – one they cannot possible perceive as an insult. But let’s face it, they have not done anything proactively in that house. The kitchen is 17 years old. The roof is 13 years old. The windows are original (1970). The house has not been painted in eight years. So to receive an offer that is 15% off the asking price is not too shabby. And lest we forget, if we do this private sale, there will be no broker’s commission, which will save them over $50,000. Nice work, if you can get it!

Last night, ½ hour after I sent the offer, I picked up two of my friends and went to dinner at a great local restaurant. And wouldn’t you know it: There, seated at the next table, was the owner of the house we just offered to buy! I text-messaged my husband, and his response was, “Too bad he is not there with another woman. (Note: wife is away, looking at houses in their target community) Then we could steal the house!” He did have his arms around 2 ladies, but it was clearly a gathering of old friends – all couples except this guy. I don’t think there was any hanky-panky going on. Perhaps I should shoot him an email saying, “Was that you at the restaurant last night? I am sorry I did not get a chance to say hello, but I did not want to intrude on your fun.” Then, if there were any question about his actions, he would know that I knew. Food for thought.

Just kidding, of course, but it would be nice if there were a way to steal this house. I guess the fact that it will go to market at the end of September could work in our favor – as the holidays approach, there are fewer buyers out there. However, now that they have secured our offer, they will undoubtedly use it to drum up others. I can hear the realtor now: “Well, there IS an offer already, after all, so you may want to act quickly.” What better words to drum up interest? It’s part of Queuing Theory, I believe (very rusty business school Operations Management memories) – haven’t you ever noticed that when you walk into an empty store, it suddenly starts to fill with customers? Whatever happens, I am proud of us for our due diligence and for taking this risk. While I do believe it is a calculated risk, it is still outside of our comfort zone, and we will have to continue to push the envelope in order to secure our future, and that of our children. So, let’s see what comes back, if anything, this weekend. We are ready to talk!

Didn't See It Coming

Oh what a difference a week makes! While chatting with neighbors on Sunday, we learned that the owners of the colonial on the hill (mentioned in my previous post) are putting their house on the market in the next two weeks! My initial reaction was, “Oh, that’s too bad. Better luck next time!” Thankfully, my husband immediately began the first round of “What if…?” The most important “What if” being: What if we can come up with some lenders and make this happen? We decided to “pay attention to the signs”, and be aware if the process of vetting this investment became too onerous. We would then have to understand that it was not meant to be.

We laid out a methodical plan for our due diligence. First step: call the owners and indicate our interest. The call was returned and a date for showing was made. Second step: Drum up possible lenders. Check. Yes, there is still money out there for investors, if you can be creative! I realize that it appears as if I am referring to this house as an investment, but in actuality, part of the plan is to KEEP our current house as an investment while we move to the larger home. It is truly the only way this deal works. With brokerage fees and transfer taxes, a scenario in which we sell our current home becomes a money-losing proposition, while renting could potentially turn a profit. Not to mention the long-term benefit of owning a $1,000,000 investment that pays its own mortgage and other costs. This house, in a sense, becomes our “retirement plan”. If the mortgage is someday paid off, we simply collect rent as our income. Another possibility is that refinancing the investment house in the future creates the opportunity for other investments.

We were truly blindsided by this opportunity, which may or may not happen. At this point, we have seen the house twice, and reconciled with its plusses and minuses. We have asked questions which have been answered. One sticking point which I will need to address soon is that the square footage is not what they claim (and it’s not their fault). The city records are wrong, unfortunately, and counted the family room (a 12x 16 foot, single-story space) as two-story. So, the house is about 200 square feet smaller than they told us. I will have to figure out how to call their attention to this disparity without royally pissing them off. We are close to submitting an offer. But it is a clear case of the “cart before the horse”. Our income, like that of so many people across the country, has been down for the past year. I had not officially begun to look for work. For some reason, though, we are at peace with all of this (beer and wine sure do help!). One of my greatest concerns throughout my adult life has been the funding of college and retirement, mostly because my parents did not plan for either. The fallout from that lack of planning has been close to devastating, and I have always been terrified of repeating their mistakes. But equity in a thriving asset – that could be the ticket for us.

The next step will be to begin the negotiations. If we cannot strike a deal in the next few days, the house will go to market. This could be good or bad for us – in the past, non-updated houses on this street have languished on the market. Renovated homes have gone to sealed bids. Where will this house fall? Hopefully into our outstretched hands within the next couple of days!!!

Next Chapter...Colonial?

The summer is gone – there is a strong breeze and a chill in the air. The flowers are all but dead, and a friendly caterpillar has made his cocoon under our Japanese Maple tree. It is time for me to emerge from my summer bubble and announce that we have decided not to add onto our house, for a plethora of good reasons.

It all started when we heard that our empty-nested neighbors were putting the word out that they would entertain a private sale of their home over the next couple of years, if anyone were interested. The house, a colonial, is one of the largest on our street (about 2,800 square feet), and sits perched on a hill with a very private wooded backyard. My husband does not love the sloped driveway, but the front yard is perfect for small-scale sledding. It will need quite a bit of renovation as the front steps are crumbling and the interior appears to be completely original. But to us, a renovation project is infinitely more desirable and doable than an addition. Of course, we are not chasing this particular house, and in fact there are several other empty-nester homes on the street that may go to market first. But this one got our juices flowing.

While we have determined that we can make an addition to our Raised ranch work (yes, we revised it again), by simply adding a new kitchen, expanding the dining room, and adding a bedroom and bath downstairs, it does not give us what we truly want out of our house: flow and lack of redundancy. Our enormous downstairs family room was virtually unused all summer. We have separated our daughters into their own bedrooms, so we no longer have a guest/play room upstairs on the main level. And we can see with clarity now that we will want more separation between the public and private areas of the house as these girls grow up. With my aging brain, I continue to go up and downstairs ten times a day because most of our storage is downstairs and I am forever forgetting why I went in either direction/what I was looking for. This can only get worse as I get older!

Besides, moving to an existing house is GREENER. Wouldn’t it be nice not to have to disturb the plant and animal life that live in the earth behind our house? We have a large number of boulders at the very back of our yard that were excavated when the original foundation was dug. We would undoubtedly find more rock in digging a foundation for an addition, and I can only imagine the added expense (and noise, and irritation to our neighbors) of chipping it out.

Another consideration is that I will (hopefully) soon be returning to a regular job, and will have less time to manage a large-scale project. We would have a much easier time managing one project at a time, when we can afford it, to make an existing house perfect again. In the meantime, we have outlined about $20,000 worth of projects that we would tackle immediately to make THIS house perfect before selling or renting it.

I still believe that our addition plan would work for any Raised Ranch. But based on our specific needs, we do not feel it will work for us going forward – at least, not to the extent we would like. This family is entering a new era, in which our kids are older, we spend less but higher quality time together at home, and we are not as willing to compromise when it comes to our house dreams. The next 12 months should be interesting…

Back on Earth...

As we settled into Autumn last year, $10,000 poorer due to architect fees, we decided to “take a break” from the planning process, and we advised our architect as such. We were on board with the Colonial idea, but it made no sense to make revisions to the plan until a time when we would be closer to realizing the project. With a $400K - $500K price tag, that would not happen for at least a few years. Hubby’s business, which normally relies on a constant pipeline of business, was finally feeling the effects of the past year’s economic crisis. I had accepted a job on a writing project, but had no idea whether or not it would lead to further employment. Financially, we were up in the air, and the only thing we could afford to buy was time.

Around January, after the hustle and bustle of Christmas had waned, we settled back on terra firma emotionally and began to realize that our Colonial dream might really be a “pipe dream”. Practical to a fault, Hubby and I both began to have doubts about converting our home to a colonial. Aside from the fact that all of the work we had accomplished thus far would be destroyed, it suddenly dawned on us that we would be turning our cookie-cutter Raised Ranch into a cookie-cutter Center Hall Colonial, with a dining room to the left, a living room to the right, and a kitchen and family room along the back of the house. We would simply be adding another layer to our existing box. “What is so exciting about that?” I thought. It certainly would not be interesting enough to warrant the additional mortgage burden. We looked back at our plan to add onto the back of the house and realized that we could create a much more unique home (for much less money!) by modifying this plan.

The changes we came up with were as follows: The living room would remain the same; the kitchen and dining room would be combined to create a large, eat-in kitchen; an addition of approximately 12 feet (depth) behind the kitchen and hall bath would accommodate a family room and dining room. On the other side of the house, the hall bath would become a powder room, the two family bedrooms would remain the same, and a full bath would be added at the end of the hall, between the family bedroom and master. The master bedroom would gain a walk-in closet and get bumped out approximately six feet. The master bath would lose its shower to the walk-in closet but take over the bathtub from the original hall bath to create a new walk-in shower. A deck would be built that could be accessed from both sides of the house. Downstairs, we would create a fourth bedroom, full bath, laundry room and rec room.

In the end, we would create a four bedroom, three and a half bath house, with a powder room in the correct spot, a formal dining room, lovely kitchen and attached family room, master suite and deck. We would preserve our vista and not create as much redundant space downstairs. We would also have a “real” laundry room instead of sharing space with our utility room. The mouldings, archways, railings and solid core doors would be preserved as well, and the furnace could be tweaked to accommodate the additional space. While we had believed that we could do anything we wanted to our house, in the end, our practicality told us we should not make it into something it wasn’t. Not wanting to be “posers”, we would accept our house for its shortcomings as well as its advantages, and try to allow it to evolve into its highest and best use (for the least amount of cash!).

Of course, not long after we came to this conclusion, a neighbor’s Colonial went to market. This home, one of the largest on the block, had been renovated top-to-bottom by our architect, Paul. From all accounts (I have never been inside), every detail is beautiful, perfect, and magnificently finished. The price tag was $1,995,000, which seemed steep considering that the last two sales on the street were $1,385,000 one year ago for a similar size house renovated ten years ago, and $875,000 for a Raised Ranch half the size. Days later, we were informed that the house went to sealed bids with five bidders and sold for over the asking price. As you can imagine, in my mind I simply HAD to revisit the idea of making our house into a Colonial. As far as investment value, it would be a slam dunk, even if it cost $700K. However, given that we would still have to PAY for that $700K, it would not be possible. We did conclude, however, that there would be only two options for our house: knock it down and start from scratch to build a real Colonial with a basement, or add onto it as a Raised Ranch. As far as we are concerned, the "Colonial Conversion” project is off the table.

Viva la Vista!

All is not lost with the Raised Ranch. There are many ways, large and small, to make them more interesting than they were intended to be. This was our focus during our first four years living in one. The next big project for us would involve a new kitchen to replace the original (which had held up beautifully, I might add), but we felt strongly that it should be incorporated into a larger project if possible. When we met with architects, some of them expressed frustration with the Raised Ranch style. We had hoped for more enthusiasm, and maybe an infusion of confidence from these experienced designers. One gentleman wrote in his proposal, “You do not have a simple house to renovate.” Part of this has to do with the allowable floor area ratio (“FAR”) in our neighborhood and the fact that our zoning laws require garage space to be counted as floor area, even though it is unfinished (not typical in surrounding towns). We have three options: add a second story to create a colonial, bump out the back of the house to expand the raised ranch, or tear it down and start from scratch. At this point, for a number of reasons, we have ruled out the latter option.

FAR was the major subject of discussion with the first three architects we interviewed. They all seemed doubtful that we would be able to accomplish our goals of expanding our home without some significant measures to get around the zoning limitations. Some were more spirited than others. After meeting with these three very different professionals, we felt dejected and uninspired, instead of excited and ready to get started on a plan. I decided to call one more person in my neighborhood who had recently renovated her home (all of the architects had been referrals from friends or neighbors). I was a bit worried that the work she had done was more “high end” than what we would be able to afford, but I figured there was nothing to lose by calling in one more opinion.

Paul didn’t talk about FAR. He talked about the fact that “anything is doable”, and he was impressed with the “vista” that could be viewed from our house due to the open space between lots in our neighborhood. He told us about another raised ranch he had converted into a gorgeous showpiece on one of the main avenues in town. When he left, after more than an hour, we let it all sink in for an hour or two, and then realized that Paul was “the one”. He was the only architect who saw that there was more to the project than just the bricks and sticks of it – that there was a desire to capture all of the positive elements of our property in a project that would benefit our family for years to come.

At the time when Paul came on board, we were focused on bumping out the back of the house to create a family room and slightly larger master bedroom upstairs, and a 4th bedroom, laundry room, full bath and rec room downstairs. There was one element to this plan that began to define the entire project: the desire to incorporate a powder room on the main floor, adjacent to the kitchen and “public” areas of the house. Looking ahead, we realized that our two daughters, wonderful as they were, would someday be teenagers, and the bathroom they shared could become a veritable war zone. We cringed at the thought of our guests using the same bathroom as our “future Miley Cyrus’”. We also felt that if we were going to the trouble and expense of constructing an addition to our house, we should get everything we want (or as close to our goal as possible). In other words, there would be no compromises on our “must haves”.

The powder room became a huge bone of contention in our plan. Paul did everything he could to keep it real. He knew we were on a budget, and as the plan began to evolve, he saw the project increasing exponentially due to the placement of this %$#&*^ powder room. We, on the other hand, held fast to our “no compromise” objective. When we finally got some raw numbers from contractors as to how much this plan would cost, our sticker shock was palpable, to say the least. Adding 700 square feet to our home was going to cost somewhere between $300,000 and $400,000, excluding any work to the exterior such as new windows or siding, which would add another $30 - $40K. The powder room, which had become our albatross, threatened to unravel the entire plan. Another problem had been revealed: in order to add space on the main level, the lower level would have to be expanded as well. We began to see that a redundancy was being created – as the upstairs family room grew, so did the downstairs rec room. To us, the rec room was to be a “bonus room”, not a main living area. We would end up with a good size living room, small family room, and rec room large enough for a regulation pool table, wet bar, and plenty of seating. With our goal of creating flow, the disconnected rec room, while wonderful, would not give us what we intended to gain. At the same time, due to the placement of the powder room, the size of the upstairs family room would need to be limited in order to preserve backyard space. Suddenly our vista was shrinking (but the rec room kept growing, as did the budget).

We sat with the plan for a month. We were devastated that our original budget of $200,000 had been blown out of the water and, not for nothing, we would still have a Raised Ranch! It finally dawned on me one day. What I really wanted, my dream home, would still be a dream after all was said and done with this project. Already in my forties, was I willing to take the risk that my real estate dream, that had been driving me for most of my adult life, would never be realized? The answer, simply put, was “no”. I got on the horn with Paul. “Scrap the plan. We’re going up!” It had always been my dream to live in a beautiful colonial house, with wonderful flow for entertaining, space for a piano, and the ability to seat a large group at the dining room table. How could I give up on that dream without at least giving it a shot?

Paul asked me to revise our original list of priorities, which I did with lighting speed, and we were off and running again. Although I knew he was glad to have the work during a MUCH slower than normal summer, I could sense his frustration with our lack of decision. But, in the end, we would have to live in the house, and we also knew that Paul was glad to be rid of the freaking powder room. More quickly than expected, Paul came up with a plan for a center hall colonial. Essentially, the entire house would be gutted, but for the finished family room downstairs. But we would have four family bedrooms upstairs, a living room, dining room, eat-in kitchen and family room, plus laundry and POWDER ROOM. The placement of the powder room was, believe it or not, still an issue, but we knew we could plow through that decision much more easily than before. The house would have a total of four bedrooms, three and a half baths. The total square footage would run about 3,000 and change, including the finished areas on the ground floor. We would get around the FAR issue by building up the exterior grade (akin to “throwing dirt against the walls") to reduce our above-grade square footage. Paul seemed to think the City would have no issue with this, and that it had been done before. Our lot in particular would be conducive to such a technique because we were built on a natural hill. What’s a little more dirt, after all? Paul estimated that the project could be completed for between $400,000 and $500,000, which was much more than our original budget, but worth waiting for and, in the end, a better investment.

In the Eye of the Beholder

Since the beginning of time, human beings have built and lived in homes that represented their wealth and power (or created a perception thereof). Kings do not live in shacks (although some dictators have been known to inhabit foxholes while evading the United States military), and while most of us will never rule a country, we desire our own “castle” – a home to be proud of. (Note: Millions of people in our very wealthy country have no home at all, and that fact is not lost on me. Homelessness may indeed also be tied to our American obsession with living quarters, but it is a topic for a different blog entry. I will address it in the future, because I do believe it is a very important part of the puzzle.) Along the topic of the real estate implications of “a man’s home is his castle”, I wanted to discuss a recent conversation with my neighbor, a lovely woman of whom I am very fond. The other day, while chatting with me on her front lawn, she revealed that the first time she saw her house (a Raised Ranch, of course), she cried. She qualified her comment by saying, “Now, this is just me, but I always pictured a two story.” In other words, she did NOT picture herself in a Raised Ranch. At that point, her teenage son chimed in. “I never want to live in a house like this again,” as he gestured toward his home. “It’s too…” “Boring?”, I offered. “Yeah,” he agreed.

What do these comments, and the general disdain for this type of house, reveal about people? I think there are several answers. Most importantly, our self-esteem is tied very closely to the way in which we live our lives. There are dozens of factors that affect a person’s happiness with their home environment, but given that monarchs and rulers have ALWAYS built castles for themselves, it stands to reason that a beautiful home can make a person feel important, no matter whom they may be. Certainly where I live, in the Northeast, as soon as people get a little money, the first thing they do is either add onto or improve their home, or move into a larger dwelling, be it an apartment, condominium, or house. There does come a point, however, when other desired features come into play, and an individual or family may need to move to a different community. Some of these amenities can include award-winning schools, access to transportation, convenience to cities, better parks and recreation, or just plain old social status. In general, if you are moving to a community that has better amenities, you will get a smaller overall real estate “package” (land and its improvements) for your money. This is what happened to my neighbor, who moved from a close-by yet more remote, land-locked village to our town which has, among other things, beach access, a city-owned golf and pool club, great schools, access to two train stations to New York City, and a quaint downtown shopping area. What our town also has is more expensive real estate, and so a Raised Ranch on a good piece of property is going to be more affordable than a Colonial or Tudor. This is where a buyer needs to strike a balance – between the desire for a “castle” and a need for quality of life. If you have made the decision to move to a town with lots to offer, and you are on a budget (like we were), you will have to weigh the plusses and minuses of each home you consider. The good news is that real estate is about “location, location, location”, so if you buy a house you hate, you can always change the structure (but you can’t change the locale!).

Aside from the self-esteem factor, people have a general desire to create beauty in the world. Not that we all expect to be artists or poets, but we feel an innate joy when confronted by beautiful things. Physical beauty is, of course, subjective, and while the collective consciousness appears to despise cookie cutter homes in a visceral manner, there is no avoiding the fact that repetition exists in our society and to a large degree has a place in a capitalist economy. In “Eat, Pray, Love”, the author, Elizabeth Gilbert, postulates that Italy has never gained superpower status despite its incredible location and large population, because the Italians have been too busy creating beautiful things like music, art and food. When you think about it, it kind of makes sense. The United States might never have gained worldwide economic and military might without the Industrial Revolution. Our ability to repeatedly turn out thousands and thousands of identical items, be they cars or weapons, textiles or food products, made us who we are today. So should we be surprised that, when the need for quickly, cheaply built housing arose, we resorted to what we knew best? Of course not - but it looks as if the buck stops with real estate. There we were, going along nicely wearing ready-made clothes, eating ready-made food, using ready-made products of all kinds, when all of a sudden somebody said, “Here’s a ready-made house!” and we screeched to a halt.

Where did I come from? -RR

The Raised Ranch and its brethren were born out of a dire need for affordable, easily built housing in the post-World War II era. With millions of service people returning to the United States, there was an almost instant need for new dwellings all over the country. Fortunately, the Federal Housing Administration (“FHA”) had been created in 1934 to promote lending by insuring certain home loans, making them virtually risk-free for lenders. Factories in the United States that had been dedicated to the war effort now had to be converted to other uses, including the manufacture of building supplies. In order to meet the increased demand, style would be sacrificed for function and cost. Small homes with little variation in design could be planned and constructed rapidly. The days of the custom-built home (Colonial Revival, Victorian, Tudor) of the early 1900’s were over, temporarily.

Homeownership became more feasible for many Americans after World War II due to favorable tax laws, the FHA, and a booming post-war economy. Jobs were aplenty, and banks, having mostly recovered from the trenches of the Great Depression, made financing available. According to the United States Census Bureau Census of Housing, overall homeownership rates increased from 43.6% in 1940 to 61.9% in 1960, an enormous positive change.

Ranch, Cape Cod, Split-Level, and variations on the Raised Ranch-theme homes spread like wildfire. They were constructed without trouble, often on cement slab, saving time and money by not digging deep basements. They were mostly well-located in suburban areas with convenience to city centers and/or newly developed shopping areas. Parks, recreation, good schools, and transportation arteries and hubs made life in the suburbs “easy livin’”.

The design of the Split-Level and Raised Ranch style homes may have been influenced by some of Frank Lloyd Wright’s ideas, in which public areas of the home would flow into each other. This is more true for Split-Levels, which typically have a ½ flight of stairs leading from the kitchen to the family room below. However, I can vouch for the fact that the flow in Raised Ranch homes ends on the main level and does not include the family room in any way. In fact, this is my greatest complaint about our house, other than the exterior aesthetics. The family room is completely disconnected from the rest of the house, making entertaining large groups (i.e. more than 10 people) difficult and forcing a decision every evening as to where to settle in for the night. We are too cheap to pay for two DVR’s, so we end up staying upstairs in the living room most evenings, even though we have an enormous, lovely room beckoning downstairs. Of course, if we eliminated the living room television, that problem could be solved, but then our living room would become more of a showpiece and less of a family gathering place. But I digress. More on that later.

Modern architecture has sought to bring the outside in, which is why we often see large and multiple glass windows in modern homes, to a much greater extent than in more traditional homes. This is another flaw in the “tract housing” of the Post-World War II era. In order to cut costs, builders would use the same plan over and over again, making slight modifications for how lot topography might affect placement of steps, foundation, etc. We recently uncovered the original blueprints for our home and realized that the same plan was used to build our next door neighbor’s house! In order to save time during construction, no attention was paid to how the homeowner might take advantage of views from their residence. The same windows would be installed in the same places in each home, even if the backyard contained beautiful woods, a babbling brook, or a gorgeous Dogwood tree. Similarly, if the house were situated close to the street, or set back nicely, the same windows would be employed, sizes and all. It would be up to the homeowner to customize the window treatments to accommodate their particular needs. In fact, given the character-less nature of these homes, homeowners were really just buying a shell with a roof, walls, foundation and the typical fit-out of a home (bedrooms, baths, kitchen, living areas). Any sense of character was left completely to the buyer’s discretion to create.

Our backyard, while not large, abuts our neighbor’s lot which is almost three times the size and filled with woods and a gigantic rock formation, providing a magnificent natural buffer between us. Unfortunately, the only windows onto this wonderland exist in the dining room (regular double-hung double window), kitchen (small double-hung window) and master bathroom (even smaller double-hung window). There is no view from the master bedroom. We are quite frankly amazed that no one has addressed this in the home’s 40 year life. By the way, the view from the one existing window in the master bedroom is…my neighbor’s exterior wall. It is a blank, vinyl-sided wall with (thankfully, I suppose), no windows. I must admit, though, on Wednesday and Friday nights in the summer, we gather in the master bedroom to watch fireworks from the local amusement park, which can be seen exploding in the distance. We crane our necks a bit to see over the neighbor’s roof, but it is a bonus view we did not expect when we bought the house. Maybe the previous owners never looked out the windows? Windows and views will definitely need to be addressed in order to bring the unique aspects of our entire property into the overall feel of our home.

Whaddya call it?

The poor, underappreciated Raised Ranch. In doing my research, I have found web posts where people have made blanket statements about Raised Ranches such as “I hate them all”, “I personally despise these houses as annoying and pointless” and “That floor plan is appalling.” Frank Lloyd Wright, whose open floor plans probably inspired the Split-Level/Bi-Level/Raised Ranch style, is likely rolling in his grave. Here’s the dirty little secret of Raised Ranch owners: This floor plan WORKS! It is great for small-scale entertaining, and especially wonderful for young families who want to keep small children safely confined to one floor. However, it does have its limitations, which will begin to reveal themselves as you read on.

This style of house is difficult to define. There are a multitude of different versions of the Raised Ranch – Bi-Level, High Ranch, Split-Entry Ranch – and there are some subtle but distinct differences between them. But what they share in common are a main floor with kitchen, living room and dining room, bedrooms and bath(s), and a lower level living area and garage. The main difference lies in the number of stairs between the entry and the two separate levels. In some homes, the entry is at ground level. In others, you must ascend a short flight outside to get to the front door, and then make a choice between walking up or walking down a full, half or partial flight of stairs. Another difference is the placement of the garage – either on the front or side of the house with entry directly into the lower level. Houses with a side-entry garage are likely to have smaller garages and more space on the lower level. In houses with front-entry garages, the garage runs the entire depth of the house and the interior area is smaller.

One of the main disadvantages of the Raised Ranch is its lack of curb appeal. It is generally a box with a pitched roof. There are no unique architectural details in the exterior design. Zero! As a result, it is up to the committed owner to “make it interesting”. I became fascinated with this subject when my husband and I purchased a Raised Ranch five years ago. The style of house was our last choice, but all of our other “must-haves” were fulfilled with this purchase: ¼ acre of land on a cul-de-sac within walking distance of the beach. Oh, and we were on a budget! This particular home had an added bonus – it was three doors down from my in-laws, which was convenient for babysitting help, warm Italian meals, and general good company anytime we wanted. The question was, could this house satisfy our need for a “home with character” to complement all of the “characters” in our lives?

Built in 1969, our house was filled with original “details”, such as wrought iron railings (inside and out), plain bottom moldings, hollow doors, original kitchen cabinetry (that had been painted and updated), formica countertops in both bathrooms and the kitchen, and linoleum throughout the downstairs hallway and utility room. The previous owners had renovated the downstairs family room with Pergo floors, slightly more interesting bottom moldings, built-in bookshelves, a brick (gas) fireplace, and solid core double doors to the large closet and under-stair storage space. However, there were enough polished brass details (door knobs, fireplace cover) to remind everyone that the work had been completed in the early 1990’s. In addition, the original wood frame windows had been replaced throughout the house with cheap vinyl. The garage window had escaped this fate – and was merely boarded up and painted over. The path to homeowner’s bliss had been laid before us by a series of cheap upgrades that would simply have to go!