The end of World War 2 created a baby boom, which in turn created a need for more homes – fast. The new homes built in record time in the Metro St. Louis suburbs were known as “ranch homes,” a uniquely American architectural style of rectangular, one-story houses with low-pitched roofs, attached garages and large windows for an indoor-outdoor connection.

These new homes perfectly matched the new informal lifestyle, with central air conditioning, a floorplan centered around the family room and kitchen, and were adaptable for growing families because basements could be converted into more living space as needed.

Many of these ranch homes are now over – or rapidly approaching – 50 years of age, which qualifies some individual homes or entire subdivisions for historic designation, and there is a grassroots movement underway to educate people on the merits of maintaining these homes that still serve families so well to this day.

Any home over 50-years of age is usually ready for some remodeling (and has probably seen a good deal of it over its lifetime), and the ranch house remains a highly adaptable structure for 21^st century living.

The 21st Century Ranch Home

Ranch homes marked the beginning of modern construction materials and methods, most of which are still recognized or used by today’s remodelers. This makes it relatively easy to update these homes to today’s levels of energy efficiency, and implement new floorplans that better match the way we live today. And re-using these homes just makes sense for our pocketbooks and our communities, because the greenest home is the one already standing.

Accessible Design The one-level floor plan of the typical ranch is perfect for accessible living. Going up and down the stairs can become problematic over time, so having all daily needs on one level becomes a necessity for living comfortably and productively in your home.

There is a growing trend of older adults seeking one-level living for their retirement years, and this often finds them returning to the ranch style homes in which they originally raised their families. Quite often, they are still in the very same home and simply need the place remodeled for increased functionality and comfort.

Loft-Style Living Originally, the informal floorplan of the ranch is what differentiated it from more traditional, pre-WW2 house styles, and Americans now crave even more open space. Luckily, the ranch is highly adaptable, allowing you to remove interior walls and reconfigure spaces for more flow and usable square footage. This type of open floorplan is commonly known as “loft style,” where function is defined by furniture grouping rather than walls, creating spaces that can be quickly rearranged to meet ever-changing needs.

To achieve loft living in your ranch, it is possible to leave plumbing and HVAC fixtures in their original space (which helps with the remodeling budget) and create a whole new floorplan that takes advantage of existing views while maximizing living space. And this ultra modern layout coordinates beautifully with the mid-century modern style of a ranch, creating a unique synergy of form and function.

See more photos of how a ranch home converts to loft-style living.

Energy Efficiency As Americans deal with rapidly-increasing energy costs, the budgetary benefits of a smaller home become apparent, and this is where existing ranch homes have the advantage. It is no longer about the quantity of square footage, but the quality of how it is used, and when energy costs are measured by cubic feet, having less square footage helps with the energy bills.

There are both state and federal tax credits available for energy efficiency improvements, and working with trained and certified energy efficiency professionals will help you pin-point the improvements that will deliver the most comfort and long-term savings for the dependable ranch home.

Additional Space The ranches in suburban Metro St. Louis built from 1950 – 1970 were typically 800 – 1,500 square feet and even back in the day, families were building room additions to gain more space. So if you need more square footage, a ranch has the flexibility to embrace more space.

Because of lot size and placement on it, most room additions happen on the rear of the home, or built vertically as a 2^nd story addition, and refinishing the basement is always a smart investment. The rectangular nature of the ranch home and its modern construction makes it extremely accommodating for room additions.

See more photos of a ranch home rear addition.

Home Makeover The accommodating nature of the ranch home makes it ripe for a total makeover, inside and out. Updating the exterior design with new siding and roofing, or a new front entry makes a middle-age home look brand new. Pair that with a complete makeover of floorplan, systems and fixtures inside and you can essentially create a new home over an existing shell.

Older ranch homes exist in thriving, established communities with all the amenities and infrastructure already in place, so it makes sense on so many levels to remodel a strong home in a good neighborhood.

See more photos of a ranch home’s total makeover.

Mosby Building Arts specializes in remodeling ranch homes with personalized architecture and skilled craftsmanship for a quality home that will easily last for another 50 years. From design to energy efficiency improvements, Mosby has been contributing to sustainability and lifestyle improvements by renewing these homes to meet the needs of both the original owners of the home as well as new generations who love all the benefits of remodeling the most American of architectural styles – the ranch home.

Here’s an example of a son remodeling his parent’s ranch to match his lifestyle, and if you’d like to explore options for your ranch home, call Mosby at 314.909.1800 or contact them here.

Trim samples in the Mosby Building Arts selection center.

There may come a time when your home is perfectly tailored to the way you live, but it just seems to lack pizazz or that certain something that would make it pop.  When you’re looking for some interior design excitement, consider small changes that make a major impact.

The look and feel of any room can be transformed with molding and trims, which give you a way to add depth and character to doorways, windows and walls for a comparatively smaller price and effort.

For instance, a dining room or family room will evoke old-world distinction with a coffered ceiling.  The coffered look (as seen in the top right picture above) happens by constructing and installing plywood boxes, which is a fairly basic carpentry process that achieves rich results.  See more of this project.

Fireplace surround styles change almost as quickly as fashion styles, so can just as easily become outdated.  You can keep the original firebox in place while completely changing the look of the surround, hearth and mantle.  As shown in the above photos, designers gave a dated fireplace a fresh, contemporary look with Woodharbor trims and moldings and a granite hearth.  See more of this project.

A perfect example of updating what you already have in place is the project shown above.  Granite around the firebox adds elegance while new wood trim and a substantial mantle add weight and drama.  To match the new look of the fireplace, new built-in bookcases were created to deliver a more substantial and contemporary look.  See more of both fireplaces in this home.

A key opportunity for changing the look and feel of your home is entryways.  As you can see from the above examples, when you outline the shapes of your entries with molding, each room takes on a more formal and classic look that adds subtle impact.  Adding molding also provides an opportunity for contrast; crisp, white molding next to a fresh wall color provides instant pop and makes your rooms more visually appealing.

Another idea for upgrading a room is to encircle the room with chair rail molding a third of the way up the wall from the floor.  This presents an opportunity for a split color scheme: one paint color or wallpaper above the railing and a different choice below.  Wainscoting or panel molding is also another option below the chair rail.  These simple additions add depth and perspective to a room.

Crown molding installs at the intersection of your walls and the ceiling. This is the secret weapon for adding big impact to a room.  An example of a kitchen designed for a historical city home is shown above.  The goal for this project was to mimic the look of the hefty original molding throughout the rest of the home, so several small pieces of molding were used to replicate the richness and depth seen elsewhere in the home.  See more of this project.

Installing picture railing is an efficient way to approximate the Victorian or Art & Crafts style in a contemporary home.  Depending on the height of your ceiling, picture rail is installed either directly under crown molding or several inches below it.

One large area to consider updating is the staircase.  It serves a crucial function in your home and has a large visual impact, which means the look of it deeply influences the feel of your home.  In the example shown above, design and installation of a new banister system and stair treads instantly changed the look of this home from casual to elegant.  See more of this project.

Think about how many doors you have in your home and how much they contribute to the look of each room.  Interior doors can enhance the design theme of the room it serves, and installing new doors is relatively easy and brings immediate design results.  The Woodharbor line of doors and interior trims create a fully coordinated design theme for your interior design projects.  See more of this project.

Interior flourishes are small changes that have major impact.  Mosby Building Arts is skilled at creating a design master plan and installing the details that create instant changes in your home.  Mosby designers will take you through our selections center and guide you through your choices and options.  To explore the possibilities, call our office at 314.909.1800 or contact us here.

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Creating a master plan will make your home fit the way you live now.

Is your home providing all that your family needs or wants?  Is your family expanding or contracting with family members living with you or visiting. . . . young and old?  Are the accessibilities or hobbies of the occupants changing?  Are there some rooms in your home that you do not even enter?  There are times when your home could use an update, so how do you make it work for you once again?

A master plan will help you transform your home to fit the way you live.  Our Mosby designers and architects begin re-designing your home by listening to your dreams, exploring how your lifestyle has changed, and asking important questions about your future that will help achieve your goals for lasting value and enjoyment.

REPURPOSED ROOMS

Some areas of your home may no longer get used as much as they once did, like a bedroom that now is vacant because your son or daughter moved out on their own.  This type of available space is an opportunity for you to consider your current daily life.  Finding a new use for a room is also known as repurposing.  Based on the current needs and desires of those living in the house, it could now become an art studio, an exercise room or entertainment space.  Or multi purpose a room by combining a home office and guest room.  Consider the space as an opportunity to create an improved flow of life throughout your home.

Convert your dining room into a library.

How often do you really use your formal dining room? If the answer is “not very often,” then consider converting it into a space you’ve been longing to have.  Repurpose it as a library by installing floor-to-ceiling shelves along one wall, bring in comfy reading chairs and turn the dining table into a desk.  Or throw a protective cloth over that table to make a work bench for your arts and crafts room decked out with file drawers and shelves. In both cases, a few quick changes can put the room back into service as a dining room for the few times that you do need it.

Some homes have both a family room and a living room, with the family room usually being the space everyone uses while the living room (usually in the front of the house) languishes. For those who work from home, turn that front room into a full-blown office, which also makes it convenient for when clients come to call because they can stay in the front office without having to access the rest of the personal spaces.

Remove the wall between your kitchen and dining room to expand your space.

Depending on the placement of a seldom-used room, it could be co-opted to enlarge a space that is used regularly.  By removing a wall, a dining room can become part of an expanded kitchen, or a spare bedroom can become a generous walk-in closet for your master bedroom.

MULTI-PURPOSE SPACES

Embracing the art of living conjures clever ideas for allowing one room to serve many purposes or creating more square footage within your existing floor plan.

Create extra kitchen storage in an adjacent hallway.

It may not be in the budget right now to remodel your kitchen, but you do need more pantry space.  Realize that many items we store in our kitchen do not need to be immediately accessible for cooking, so think outside the box and use spaces nearby as the new pantry. Our paper products, bulk food purchases and serveware for entertaining could be moved outside the kitchen to new pantry areas created in hallways, under stairs or in the mudroom.

A media center in a mudroom gives it multi-purpose function.

Speaking of mudrooms, many families have had us install a corner cabinet with countertop space to be used as the family media center, which is a place for all the battery chargers for cell phones, laptops and digital cameras.  Some also include room in this cabinet configuration for a spot to put all the family mail plus a paper shredder to handle all the mail you can recycle.

OUTDOOR ROOMS GO INDOORS

Turn a screened-porch into an all-seasons room.

Spaces you may currently use as a sheltered outdoor room can become an official part of the floor plan. For instance, a screened porch can be converted to an all-seasons room by trading the screens for insulated glass, adding insulation and a heating/cooling system. All of this can be done while preserving – or even enlarging – the outdoor views.

Some homes have a breezeway, which is essentially an enclosed hall that connects the house to the garage. As with a screened porch, it can be turned into an insulated, temperature-conditioned space ideal for use as a children’s playroom, mudroom or computer room.

If your home has a large front porch that is seldom used, this can be “walled in” to become a screen porch, green house or a home office.

We, at Mosby Building Arts, think differently and invite you to look at your home from a new point of view.  Create fresh and useful ways along with our design team to repurpose rooms in a master plan that will give you more space and better reflect the way you actually live.

With over 60 years of experience in improving the lives of St. Louis area families, we know that remodeling is really about the art of living.  Our deep bench of professionals will help you have a tremendous sense of satisfaction and pride in the finished results by creating wonderful new uses for your existing spaces.  Call us at 314.909.1800 or contact us here.

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Historic renovation is a challenging and rewarding remodeling project, and we look back with pride at an 18th century Illinois farmhouse we brought into the 21st century.

To make this home functional, beautiful and welcoming for the 4th generation of family who use it, we melded their personal history with current needs and future aspirations to craft a new home that honors the past.

Here’s an illustrated story of this historic renovation project.

To prepare this home for a 2-story addition and updated, energy efficient systems, Mosby designers and carpenters got a thorough education in building techniques of the 1850s.  For instance, as the original clapboard siding was removed, they discovered the interior walls were lined with brick! Here’s what we learned about brick nogging.

As we stripped the house down to its original bones, we discovered hand-cut iron nails and old-growth wood framing that was still plumb over 140 years later!  We learned that the building techniques of the past still serve us well today, and how building science has improved with the centuries to increase our safety, comfort and energy efficiency.

This Homer Award-winning home makeover inspired and educated all of the Mosby experts involved, and most importantly of all, the family has a modern heirloom that enhances their legacy and lifestyle.

We invite you to explore all the links above that tell this engaging story, and if you have an historic home that needs deep knowledge, understanding and skill to revive it, call us at 314.909.1800 or contact us here.

We are preparing to remodel the master suite and kitchen of a 108-year old home in the Central West End. During a pre-construction walk-thru, the owner made a comment that surely there was once pocket doors that closed off the front rooms from the entry hall.

Our estimator Tim (shown above) is a veteran carpenter who has worked on houses of all ages. He responded that people typically either remove the doors and stash them in a basement, attic or carriage house or they simply push the doors back into the wall and cover over them. Worst case scenario is the doors get pitched.

With that said, Tim pulled out a pry bar and popped off a piece of molding in the middle of the door frame and…

…sure enough, there was a pocket door! He had to jimmy and prod quite a bit, but was able to yank the door from its deep hiding place.

It appears that when the door came off the track, rather than repair it, they simply shoved the door out of sight and covered up the storage well. Because of this forethought from a previous owner, the door remains in excellent condition, hardware and all. Getting this beautiful pocket door back in working order has been added to the remodeling project, and it’s good to note when a pleasant surprise pops up!

A rear addition brings new life to a 150-year old Illinois farmhouse.

After 140 years and 5 generations, a 2-story family farmhouse in St. Clair County, Illinois was feeling its age. While other farmers’ took over cultivating the corn fields that surround it, the great-grandson’s family used it as a rustic weekend get-away. In the spirit of adapting a 19th-century family heirloom to a 21st-century lifestyle, they came to us for an update and rear addition. A normal request turned into a compelling historical adventure for the owners and us.

Click here to see the entire project portfolio.

Two views of the new outdoor room of the farmhouse.

The basic plan was: all new systems, new windows, siding and roofing, more bathrooms (it had only one), more bedrooms (it had only 2 large ones upstairs), a fabulous kitchen and a large rear deck to thoroughly enjoy rural beauty and solitude. As we explored the owners’ desires and a thorough evaluation of the house, it became clear that this was more than a remodel – it was a total re-working of the home from the bones on out. But how does one gut renovate a cherished family home and keep its memories intact? It requires a deep knowledge of all eras of home building, respect for the home’s heritage, and the ability to “listen” to the stories revealed.

A pleasant nook in the new master bedroom in the 2nd-story addition.

Mosby project planner/designer Adrienne Morgan reconfigured floor plans in the existing space, creating a spacious 2-story rear addition that gave the house an upstairs master suite and 2 full bathrooms, and a downstairs dining room walking out to a wrap-around deck. Another goal was to salvage as much original material as possible and re-use it. With these plans, project manager Rick Henson and his crew began carefully peeling away the layers of the building down to the original wood frame. This is where the home revealed long-hidden secrets that changed the best laid plans.

One wall of the hearth room perfectly conveys the old and new of the farmhouse. The new brick fireplace is surrounded by the original brick nogging found in the walls during the remodel.

Here’s the story of our carpenters finding brick nogging in the walls. This required a quick education on what it was, why it was there and what to do about it. Because the interior and exterior were being re-built, the brick should go in order to properly insulate, but it was such a great historical find – how can we just chuck these antiques? As you can see from the photos above, an ingenious design solution was born. Plans for the hearth room wall were changed so that the old brick nogging hugs the new brick fireplace. The starting point of the home – long buried under plaster and paneling – is now fully exposed, serving as an architectural scrapbook of how it began and how it remains.

The 4th generation of the farmhouse as a toddler.

As the house was stripped down to the original wooden skeleton, our carpenters found more chapters of the story. Here’s a report on some of the things they found, and our knowledge of early building practices confirmed that the home was easily 10 years older than thought. The farmhouse is at least 150 years old, placing it squarely in the American Civil War era. Each new find was a lesson in construction history – what works eternally and what didn’t – and at times it felt as if the carpenter forefathers were working right along side them.

Mosby made an exact replica of the original front entry door.

An awe-inspiring discovery was the original framing itself. Hand-sawn from original growth Southern pine, the framing was solid, pristine and – most amazing of all – still plumb! There was virtually no shifting or settling in the bones, so we had a perfect spine to support the new body. Rick – who has extensive new home construction experience – took great pleasure in working with it because it’s so rare and infused with so much personality in comparison to the lumber used today. The original carpenters had “overbuilt” this house to last forever, so the 1860s balloon frame met every modern building technique with a strong and hearty handshake.

The handrail, scrollwork brackets and stair treads are refurbished originals. The balisters needed to be taller for modern height so are new replicas.

With each new discovery, the renovation became a personal journey for us and the family, with all of us organically altering plans to fit the emerging personality of the home. In the dining room, for instance, pre-construction drawings showed 2 large windows overlooking the rear cornfield. As new framing on the addition began, a row of 3 old trees – about as old as the house itself – was the constant backdrop and a great place to eat lunch on scorching summer days. An idea popped up: what if the dining room had 3 windows that framed each of the trees? The idea resonated deeply with everyone, new drawings were made, and now the view from the dining room is spectacular.

A 2nd floor before and after shot shows how the new addition relates to the original floor plan.

The stairwell came to epitomize the spirit of the project: harmoniously bringing the old into the fold with the new. Great-grandfather himself had built the railing and newel post, so must remain, but people are taller today, and we couldn’t compromise safety and convenience. We refurbished the handrail and newel post (adding an extension to the bottom), and made new – and taller – replicas of the spindles.

A majority of the original wood flooring was kept and supplemented with new planks of the same species only as needed. We made sure to sand lightly on the original boards to preserve a century-and-a-half of character etched into the grooves. The original bead board paneling on the kitchen ceiling was removed, refinished, and moved to its new location as wainscoting in the new 1st floor bathroom. See the bathrooms here.

The basement is cleaned up, insulated and paved for its new role as command central for the electronic and communication systems of a 21st century farmhouse.

Everyone involved did an amazing job of creating a modern home deeply connected to its rural roots; wherever one is in the home, there’s no mistaking it for a new suburban home plopped into farm country. It has every top-of the line technological innovation running quietly under the surface, and that network command central is tucked into the basement. It was quite the adventure excavating, cleaning and updating the ancient cellar, but now it is the clean and precise brain of the home, a perfect example of how this sturdy building was able and willing to embrace another new century.

See the high-tech rural kitchen here.

A backup power generator is installed to keep the home humming if the power goes out.

And the 21st century requires electricity at all times. The farmhouse is monitored remotely from the owners’ primary residence and sits in a storm plain, so a backup power generator is a necessity.

The 1st floor bathroom and bedroom entrances update the transom glass that was originally above many doors in the house. Operable transom windows were the ingenious method of getting more air and light into rooms with 12 foot ceilings.

We loved working closely with the family on this unique project, as all of us were personally invested in creating the new proto-type for a modern historical farmhouse. Experiencing all the changing seasons on quiet, unspoiled land gave us a true understanding of rural heritage, and allowed us to profoundly contribute to the story of the generations of family who came before and will come in the future. This is why we are so proud to share this story with you.

We are currently working on an interior remodel with an interesting twist. The husband half of this Ballwin client is an accomplished carpenter, specializing in furniture making. He is fully qualified to convert a small bedroom and living room into one large family room, but to do so on weeknights and weekends would take months of disruption and effort.

To shorten a job from months to mere weeks, they enlisted us to demo and drywall the new space, reface the fireplace, add a new entrance to the backyard pond and create a closet in the foyer. We do the basics and our carpenter client will do all the finishes. He will put down tiger wood flooring, install moldings and handle all the painting. In essence, Mosby creates the canvas for the client to create on.

When Mosby lead carpenter Rory (pictured above with “site supervisor” Maxwell) asked what made him choose us to do the prep work, he replied that there was never any question that it would be Mosby. He wanted quality work done right, and we were the only ones he trusted to match his carpentry standards.

A compliment like that from a carpentry peer is quite the honor. Thank you, sir.

We have just begun work on a complete renovation of a 2-story farmhouse in Southern Illinois. The home was built by a great-grandfather approximately 140 years ago and has served 5 generations of family.

The house was built with balloon framing, which is not unusual for a house of this vintage. But finding the wells between the studs lined with non-structural bricks was quite the surprise. Interior plaster was applied directly to the bricks, while wood clapboards nailed into the wood studs covered the exterior brick. This curious find led to a collective, “Why?”

One of our carpenters, recalling old building practices of his native Ireland, said they used to fill framing with bricks to keep out rodents and insects. The most logical guess was that the bricks were a crude form of insulation. A little research into this phenomenon offers up several answers.

This practice of brick wall lining is known as “brick nogging,” and can be found in wood frame buildings built from 1810 – 1900. Bricks were found to be a better material for thwarting pest infestation than the straw and corncob insulation used in earlier days, and that solid wall helped block wind.

Brick nogging also served as a form of fire blocking, and provided a bit of soundproofing. A fascinating detail on all aspects of brick nogging can be read here.

It’s said that brick nogging was done only on exterior walls, and that highlights another curious aspect of our client’s farmhouse: even the interior walls are “nogged.” Seeing as how this home is (still) in a sparsely-populated rural area, the fire protection aspects of brick lining could have been an incentive for the 19^th century builder.

In the 21^st century, a brick lined wall provides an R-value of only R1 while modern homes strive for R11 – 20. Bricks retain moisture, so applying any new materials on or near it increases the risk of damp and mold issues. So, in adherence to responsible remodeling practices, we are carefully removing the brick lining, and proper insulation will then go into the spaces between the still-sturdy wood framing.

As we move through the old house, we’re learning how best building practices both change and remain the same over the centuries, and that great grandfather and Mosby have something important in common: We build it to last.

You can now see the completed project.

We have just begun a new project in the Fountain Park neighborhood in North St. Louis city. The owners have lived in the stately, stone-faced house (built in 1893) for 30 years. Over the years, two 2^nd floor rooms were converted into a large master bedroom with a makeshift closet. Now, the owners are treating themselves to an official master suite. The space will be stripped down to the brick walls and studs, and new flooring, walling and bay windows will go in. It promises to be a dramatic and gratifying transformation.

It’s also exciting to be in this historic neighborhood. Fountain Park (the fountain is shown above) was first plotted in 1857, and landscaped by the City of St. Louis in the 1890s, which is also when most of the homes surrounding it were built.

This old postcard below shows a Fountain Park church just down the street from our project site:

The church was erected in 1895, and the original congregation was a merging of the Third Church with the Aubert Place Church. The Centennial Christian Church occupies it today.

And it’s this type of history in such a picturesque setting that makes this such an exciting project. Mosby gets to combine modern design and amenities with historic restoration sensitivities. Plus, after 30 years, the homeowners have decided that they – and their home – deserved a gorgeous new space. It’s all about living right!