While we’re not actively looking for a new home, we do keep our eyes open to 1960s ranch homes in original (or close to original) condition. This past weekend, local auctioneer and realtor Billy Long had several open houses for a mega auction event he’s having at the end of this month. Two houses caught my eye enough that I wanted to take a closer look. The first one, while looking good online, needed way too much work and had a funky layout that just didn’t seem to work with our needs. [This one](http://www.billylong.com/megaEvent/march08/galleries/parcel23/index.htm) was more interesting. It has many of the features I want in my dream home and hadn’t been destroyed by over-updating. Steve was less enthused. He felt that the current work being done on the house was shoddy (I agreed) and he didn’t like the street it was on (I disagreed). All in all, we don’t know if it would be worth the expense and effort to move but it’s always fun to look.
I have an ongoing list of the things I want in my dream house. I realize the chances of my getting all of them are almost none, but I like to think about them anyway. I imagine that someday we’ll just end up building what we really want based on the 60s ranch design. Here are my wishes:
Double front doors, preferably with doorknobs in the middle of the door.
Patchwork marble entryway.
Funky colored tile bathrooms (blue, avocado, pink, etc) with built-in vanity in main bathroom.
Corner bathtub or sunken tub.
Carport or drive-thru garage with glass doors
Sunken living room.
Double fireplace. If not double, then a large stone fireplace both with built-in shelves.
Picture windows.
Kitchen with gas stove. Bonus if it has wall oven and copper vent.
Original light fixtures, knobs, hardware.
Mahogany tiled ceiling (my grandparent’s house had this and it was gorgeous!)
Built-in furniture – such as long benches, desks, shelving, etc.
Finished basement/rec room with laundry room.
Some of these things I can live without while others are very important to me. I know when the time and house is right we’ll know. Ten years ago when we moved into this house I remember taking one step inside the front door and declaring to Steve that this was “the one.” I’m sure I’ll feel that way again when the time’s right.
Pretty Pretty Bang Bang 
I could definitely go for the right mid-century house. We were contemplating a move a while back, so I spent some time online looking at houses. The area that I liked had a lot of houses from that era, and I found a couple I loved – partly because no one had come in and redone the kitchen and bathrooms. I was picturing new furniture, a living room in shades of aqua … didn’t happen, but who knows?
While I like our brand-new house, I am really missing our old turn-of-the-century neighborhood in Indiana. I don’t think we’ll ever build again – at least not a spec house in a brand-new subdivision.
And what’s wrong with the street that house was on? I’m sure I knew someone who lived over there – seems OK to me.
Steve said it was too close to the school (well, we live near one now!) and the street was too busy. Yes, it is a busy street and is used as a cut through, but I didn’t think it was much different than our current street address.
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