Ranch Revival Remodeling Ideas 01

Remodeling House Ideas : Ranch Revival Remodeling Ideas 01

When Mark McIntire and Stuart Sklar bought their vacation home within walking distance of the village of Southampton, New York, a seaside area of Long Island, they were attracted to its simplicity and workable space. “We knew we could easily make it comfortable,” said Stuart.

Built in 1963, the modest ranch-style house was one of four similar small-scale structures that had once been home to families working the fields of an adjacent potato farm. That farm, long gone, was ultimately turned into a residential development. High hedges now shield Mark and Stuart’s house from neighbors beyond its half-acre site.

“For us, part of its appeal was that, though small, this was a one-level house,” Mark explained. Originally, it had two bedrooms and one bath, but a previous owner had added a lean-to structure containing a second bath, attached like a barnacle to the rear of the house. When they sat down to plan the renovation, Mark and Stuart decided to expand living spaces and create three state-of-the-art bathrooms, a sizable master bedroom, plus a new kitchen sized and equipped for entertaining. Even with such ambitious goals, said Mark, “We wanted the house to look as though it had always been that way.”

They turned to architect Darren J. Helgesen, AIA, in Amagansett, New York, and his builder of choice, the late James Spooner, of James E. Spooner Construction in nearby Bridgehampton. The team worked on the inside and outside of the house—replacing plumbing, appliances, flooring, and wood trim as well as siding, roofing, some parts of the roof structure, and windows.

Initially, Mark and Stuart feared that adding a second story was the only way for them to have the new master suite they coveted. They were delighted and felt reassured when Helgesen said it made more sense and was a lot less expensive to expand outward. “We did move a lot of things around,” Helgesen recalled, “like extending the back of the house by 8 feet so we could increase the size of the kitchen, dining and guest rooms.”