The team achieved this by careful selection of products and systems, as well as by employing a lot of old-fashioned air sealing. The builder used Honeywell’s closed-cell spray foam with Enovate HFC-245fa Foam Blowing Agent at R-6+ per inch. The air barrier aspects of this product can potentially save 20% to 40% on heating and cooling energy.
The team chose Rheem’s HP-Series Hybrid Water Heater/2.0 energy factor (twice the efficiency of standard electric water heaters), which is Energy Star rated.
And other products add to the efficiency of the house: The beautiful concrete masonry veneer on the front exterior is premolded over polystyrene panels, offering R-13.5 insulation. All the appliances are Energy Star qualified, and many of the lighting fixtures are LEDs.
Net Effect
The house will fit nicely into the neighborhood of bungalows, Key West-inspired homes, Spanish Revivals, and mid-century moderns. “The house has the biggest lot on the street,” Pleveich points out. “We didn’t want to overbuild for this neighborhood. ... Keeping the ranch without a second story is a cool look.”
“We wanted to take a older ranch and offer an example of a quality renovation,” adds Pleveich’s building partner, Kim Foy. “Often, add-ons or renovations aren’t well thought out, and you walk in and floors drop down, roof lines don’t match up. Putting on additional square footage takes extra steps but done right it adds value because it doesn’t look like an addition. It flows like it was always like that.”
Most important to both the builders, though, is that the house inspire other people interested in remodeling. “We want people to know that you don’t have to get crazy,” Pleveich emphasizes. “You can take an older house that needs love; give it love, and make it energy efficient. People should never shy away from doing this kind of project.”
Stanley Furniture’s My Haven and Second Nature collections are Greenguard certified to ensure good indoor air quality.
www.youngamerica.com
THE RANCH: BACK IN STYLE
Ranch-style houses (also called American ranch, California ranch, rambler, or rancher) is a domestic architectural style originating in the United States. First built in the 1920s, the ranch style was popular among the booming post-war middle class of the 1940s–1970s. The style is often associated with tract housing built during this period, particularly in the western United States, which had experienced a population explosion.
The ranch house is noted for its long, close-to-the-ground profile, and minimal use of exterior and interior decoration.
The houses fuse modernist ideas and styles with notions of the American Western period working ranches to create an informal and casual living style.
Their popularity waned in the Century as neo-eclectic house styles—a return to using historical and traditional decoration—became popular. However, in recent years, interest in ranch house designs has been increasing.
Preservationist movements have begun in some ranch house neighborhoods, as well as renewed interest in the style from a younger generation who did not grow up in ranch-style houses.
This interest in the ranch house style has been compared to that which other house styles, such as the bungalow and Queen Anne, experienced in the 20th Century: initial dominance of the market, replacement as the desired housing style, decay and disinterest coupled with many tear downs, then renewed interest and gentrification of the surviving homes.
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