Binsd--The Ranch Style lives! Love this thread because I too am the proud(?) owner as of last Feb of a 1960s ranch home. I got all the cool stuff from the 60s and 70s: avocado appliances, gold flocked wallpaper, pink tile, gold colored accents. Oh yeah! Immediately took the house down to the studs to turn it into a Modern Farmhouse. I took inspiration from these: Walker-Warner Sonoma Farmhouse (http://www.walker-warner.com/indexf.html#POR-GRC-001) Christine Lane, Boston, MA (http://christinelaneinteriors.com/) I think ranchers are particularly suited to blend styles. They were a bit funky then and they can still be. Yet, if you want to lean slightly more traditional, they can sustain the transitional. I think they are way more flexible than many styles. Your home in particular has some good bones! The raised ceilings and open one-story floorplan are great for toddlers since you can see them from most rooms. If you can mix some of your Spanish furniture with some more contemporary pieces, I think it will have that California Spanish casual style--with a cleaner look. Love it! In the green bathroom, take out the brass and replace with frameless glass. It will immediately look more contemporary. A glass company should be able to make the shower enclosure (this one's traditional, but you get the picture): From Misc photos If you want to embrace the modern look, peruse: Atomic Ranch (http://www.atomic-ranch.com/). I think they have more Eichlers than Ranch, but it gives you an idea of that style. Here's my old house and the old stuff that was in it, then here are two exterior shots of what it looks like now: From Menlo Farmhouse From Menlo Farmhouse From Menlo Farmhouse From Menlo Farmhouse From Menlo Farmhouse I wish I could cite all of the great pics I have seen in magazines where they have remodeled a ranch. Each had their own flavor: slightly more modern, slightly less modern, more funky, somewhat traditional, etc. Search: mid-century, modern, ranch home. Have fun! I think your house is a great choice!!

In your situation, especially if the workflow of the kitchen is decent and the current appliances don't look bad, I'd put in beautiation rather than a new kitchen. Was the room originally the kitchen? If so, is there a hearth? If you put some period-look accessories there, cast iron andirons, old ash bucket, etc., and paint the walls an appropriate color, that will go a long way. If there's any open wall space, that's also a good opportunity to take down your personal things and hang some old impedimenta. A bit of harness. Some cooking implements. Put in an accent light fixture that looks period appropriate. These "antiques" can be reproductions, and can be anything that looks like it predates WWI. Give the old cabinets a fresh coat of milk paint, with some distressing, so that the underlayers of paint show where they would be worn, giving an instant hit of "history" to to the room. Change the Formica to one of the new slate look ones. Use an unexpected, period possible textile. Cushions or a valence or something. Something colorful, bright and fun. If you're feeling more energetic, you can also take the doors off the upper cabinets for an open shelving look, or even take down the cabinets, fix up the walls and put in chunky board shelves. You can go a step farther and replace some lower cabinets with an old sideboard. If there's room, put a beat up old farm table in the middle. I really think you can get a feel that works with the house with an investment of $1-2K in set dressing and some creativity, rather than going into debt over a new kitchen, which, inevitably, the new owners will tear out because it doesn't have a beer tap, baking station, or kimchi fridge, or because they really want a Pedini kitchen and all the magazines say it's okay to put a sleek, Modern Italian kitchen in a very old house. The point is to make the kitchen feel like it belongs to the house rather than being a jarring let down. You can sell a house with, "Obviously, the kitchen will need to be redone," as you know, if you can keep it from looking like it doesn't belong in the house at all. And when it comes time to sell, bake some kind of antique recipe instead of chocolate chip cookies. :) (Or buy blueberry tarts and reheat them...)

Love everyone's comments! It seems like some 70's homes have more character than others. Mine is more on the "character" side. It has some architectural features that could enhance the whole place with the right decor. I'm still figuring out the last part about the "right" decor! Gscienceschick: RetroRenovation is fabulous! I checked out their 70's lighting catalogs. How come we had dreadful fake bronze/crackled smoky glass fixtures instead of those beauties? I have already replaced all the lighting because it was so dim. Palimpsest: Thank you for the historical perspective. It helps understand the context the houses were built in. I'm not American, so it is very educating for me. Funkyart: I wonder if you have a picture of your accent wall somewhere on this site? I'd love to see your creative solution. It appears that in the 70's the pendulum swung from the openness of the mid-century architecture toward a more cloistered and intimate feel. I do like an earthy palette and I think it can be done tastefully. The see-through mid-century modernist interiors are impressive but I never could picture myself living in such a place without putting ceiling-to-floor draperies over the window walls. I'd like to find a balance - having some airy and bright spaces together with a few cocoon-like rooms. Our house has a potential for it. We have a bright dining room (a slider to a 2nd story deck and a large window on the adjoining wall) and roomy kitchen facing south, and we like to have meals alfresco on our large 2nd story deck. At the same time our two downstairs rooms are dark, although the floors are only about a foot below grade. I'm toying with an idea of re-making the downstairs in an Art-Deco-ish style - cozy, cocoon-like and in a rich color palette. Speaking of an ultimate blank state for a home, the only examples I can think of are new construction condos in Moscow, Russia. Most of them are sold "bare bones" - no interior finishes, lighting, cabinets, floors, etc. The assumption is that the new owners would rip out the builder grade stuff anyway and redo the interiors to their taste. There's no landscape to influence the style either since those residences are in high-rise apartment blocks. There are all sorts of creative interior solutions, some interesting and some outlandish. Unlike in the U.S., the "resale value" concept hasn't taken a hold in Russia yet. For those who are curious, here's a link to a interior finish/remodel company in Moscow area that serves middle-class customers. The top video is the apartment at the time of purchase. The bottom video shows the work done by the company on it. These owners opted for a modernist design, but if you click on the links in the top section of the vertical bar on the left, you'll see other projects done in a more traditional style. Many of them are fairly pedestrian - recessed lights, IKEA bathrooms, etc, but I like browsing such portfolios for occasional novel ideas. One of the projects on this site features a bathroom with a plaid yellow/black floor tile. I have yet to find tile like that! Here is a link that might be useful: Interior Finish and Remodel Company in Moscow

You also might consider something like a china cabinet (a Haywood-Wakefield -style china cabinet would be very hot!) as a furniture-style solution. It can hold more than china -- vintage staples canisters, cookbooks, linens on the bottoms etc. That way you can just move it around the house as needed. Some people find things stay cleaner. (I have open shelves and don't have a problem.) You can definitely replace the laminate counter (they pull the whole counter out, not just peel off the skin) and put in a new laminate counter, or put in another kind of counter. Sometimes a "period feel" can be done with just what you have and some accessories. You don't need to add a thing that would turn anyone off. I also wanted to raise the issue that some people, contractors, designers etc, may come in and advise you to rip everything out. They may do this for a silly reason -- it's just easier for them, or a real reason -- a slow drip has been rotting the sink cabinet for 15 years, and it actually does have to be replaced. It's easy for things to get the "while we're at its" as someone here called it, and before you know it, your very modest kitchen plan calls for bumping out 3 stories and adding an indoor pool. I just want you to remember that, no matter what you decide, YOU are the one in control of this project. It's YOUR house. You can really say "No, we're happy with X as it is. We'd just like a quote on the Y right now, thanks." If you needed to get a couple of cabinets built because one is very rotted and unsalvageable, it might be done by a local carpenter for a reasonable amount of money, less than getting a whole new set of cabinets. But if what you really want is a whole new kitchen in 5 years, then -- get the leak FIXED, come back and let us know.