Bluekitobsessed, Na_praha, Lauren, and KGW -- Many thanks! Trust me, not every detail is perfect and it took me some time to deal with letting go. [Which I've yet to master, actually.] Lauren -- I do love that shelf AND its price but we don't have much room between tile and mirror, so I will probably file that away for Upstairs Bath. We have the 20w x 10h x 6d cubby to the right of the sink, so *so far* we've been ok. Na_praha -- With single pane windows in the house I always have leaded glass window/door/sidelight envy. Hence my taking liberties with this bath since it wasn't a purist reno anyway! And thanks re the paint color. Since I didn't want a THIRD aqua-in-some-variation room, I swear I tried a zillion colors. But I realized I wanted a shade that blended with the unlighted sconce shade color, so I mixed something up and had Miller recreate. BTW, know what you mean about greys -- thought long and hard before doing a stairwell/upper hall in a cool grey, but skylight + window + fir = not too grim, so: MS KGW! Have missed seeing you around and was gonna send you a personal update, truly. Do NOT know how you got through a problematic reno being increasingly pregnant as I was losing it, esp over the [string of expletives deleted, ha] stuff that went wrong with terrazzo base and windows. I think you get a pass for lack of progress given what you endured PLUS given that you and your DH are new parents! And as much as the soapstone sounds delightful, if you can shrug your shoulders and learn to love the black granite it may be a much better use of your time and energy. Keep us posted!

We also have a plain vanilla ranch built in 1950. It was never MCM nor any style. It was just churned out as a tract home. The basic layout of bedrooms and living space was ok, but we opened the wall between the kitchen and living room, extended and moved the kitchen so the old kitchen is half of the new one and partly as our new main level laundry room. The rest of the kitchen is part of the extension and is adjacent to the new den we added on. Due to budget constraints, we only cathedraled the new extensions' ceilings and the master bedroom ceiling was vaulted as we extended there too. Where we did not raise the ceilings we added in skylights and a 5ft eyebrow window in the front of the house, boxed in like a skylight (and we have a skylight over the den up high). The greater amount of natural light is fabulous and it feels so much more spacious with the openings for the skylights and eyebrow window. We had hated the all low ceilings when we moved in. Our previous house had vaulted and cathedral ceilings over the living spaces and it was hard to adjust to low and flat. I truly think that being able to raise the ceilings and/or use skylights is one of the best features about a ranch. Since the house was built with little style and updated with no style either (unless cheap and ugly are styles, lol), we felt free to create our own vibe. We went for retro modern with a 40s feel. What a modern person would have done prior to MCM is how I'd describe it. It has some deco feel to it but the lines are simple and not ornate. Crown moldings would not have worked, so we have done simpler ones. We chose modest looking but well designed materials. No one would ever think it is fancy or frilly. We wanted clean lines but not sharp edges. It is supposed to feel homey and unassuming. Like a well worn pair of jeans that fit well. We want guests to feel at home. If you come up with your own style mission statement you can check your choices against it. At one point, we fell in love with white marble and wanted that for our counters. Then one day, we figured out it went against all our other choices and was too elegant. We ended up with Corian in their Rain Cloud pattern, which mimics the feel of a white marble, but is not trying to fake anyone out. It has a softness to the look but with all straight lines and an eased edge profile, it looks neat. We ended up with Carrera marble in our master bathroom for the counter and in the faux rug part of our floor. That space is meant to be more grown up and fancy since it is our private space and not designed for the kids. The veins that make it great there would have been too busy for the kitchen. If we had gone for another look, I'd have loved to use the marble as I usually drool when I see it used anywhere. If I ever do a kitchen again, I would want qs oak with white marble or some other medium toned stained wood. The door style would be different as well. We are happy with our vision and how the look has turned out (the gc screwed us on condition, but that will be fixed, someday). It is not plain vanilla any more! Our house looks like no other in our area and I dare say, it is now one of a kind. Hopefully, you find your groove and your end result reflects your style and vision, and makes you smile too ;)

"Seniors don't want just a first floor bedroom suite, they want a one floor *house*. Why maintain and pay taxes on a house with stairs to a second floor that may get occasional use? There are some good reasons for having bed and bath on a first floor in a family home, but don't fool yourself that this transforms a family home into one good for Seniors." ^^ This. That being said, it doesn't sound like that is the issue with the OP, first house and all. Honestly, of the two options, I'm not sure which I would choose - I don't like either of them. I think the practical and best choice for resale would be laundry on the second floor with the bedroom/full bath on the first. Maybe you can put a sink in the garage if you envision needing a clean-up area? I toured a home one time that had the laundry in the garage right off the entrance to the house - I realized it wasn't a bad idea (the garage was heated) and for me was preferable to the basement, because, let's face it, as you get older schlepping down basement stairs to do laundry is just as bad as schlepping up to second floor stairs. All the area needed was some drywall to enclose it and it would have been a terrific mud room right off the house. (I wanted to bid on this particular house, but that is another story).

@tartanmeup "From what I understand, this style has a raised front entry presenting the double stairs and the space is clearly separated on two levels. A split will have three levels." *shrug* Huh. I guess all the houses where I grew up that were called "split level" were actually raised ranches, then, because they were all exactly as described here, and none had three levels (unless you count the tiny entry/landing so aptly described by @remodeling1840). You learn something new every day! :-) OP, I did a bit of Googling and found a discussion about raised ranches, and a woman who added a two-story bump-out to the front entryway, which made the house look more like a Colonial and gave her both a larger landing/entry and a walk-in closet upstairs. I don't know what you might use the upper area for, but she was very happy with her bump-out and apparently at least one of her neighbors liked it so much they added one to their house as well. I of course can't say how it would look on your actual house, but on the one in the photo I think it could be quite nice; bring about ten feet around/including the door forward to the edge of the porch there, and replace the section of angled roof above it with the second floor of bump-out. Widen the window beside it (the small one that I assume is either the DR or a bedroom) and I think it would make both sides look more even and remove a lot of that angled roof, thus eliminating or at least dulling the "mushroom" look you dislike. I think it could look really nice. But I don't dislike the house in the photo, or this type of floor plan--when I was a kid, the houses like that in my neighborhood were more expensive (our house was just a basic ranch with a walk-out basement accessed by stairs, off the dining area), so I guess I grew up thinking of them as being very snazzy; stairs in the entryway, the height of "fanciness" to a kid in the 70s! Lol. ETA: Found a couple of pictures to show kind of what I mean: This one is only one story, but you see how it changes the front. This actually looks like they've bumped out the entire house, almost like they added a three-sided wrap-around with an angled roof that covers the front and two sides! Which brings to mind another idea: how about a covered porch extending along the whole lower-level facade? Add weight at the bottom, eliminate the "mushroom," and update it so it doesn't look quite so much like an office building.