Dormering a ranch?

We have a three bedroom ranch and while I could expand back (no room on sides) I was thinking in the future to possibly expand up. However I cannot picture how that works inside (I am a visual person). Anyone have pictures they can show me?

Dormering a ranch?

Look on Houzz website they have great ideas

Re: Dormering a ranch?

A lot of times they will redo the whole first floor too.

For example my ranch has 3 bedrooms and if we went up I wouldn't need the 3 current bedrooms downstairs and another 3 upstairs... that would be overkill.

So they might knock down current walls/restructure the first floor to a big kitchen and living area/great room with maybe an office or small storage room etc.

A house in my neighborhood did it and the new house looks nothing like the original ranch when you walk in. They pretty much restructure the whole thing to look like it was always 2 stories and use the space you have now more efficiently

Dormering a ranch?

I have an expanded ranch but I have a full 2nd floor over 1/2 my house. My house is also expanded on the first floor. My house is deceptively small looking from the street and you would never know it is over 3000 SF not including basement or garage.

Open the front door and you can go to the left or right. To the right is LR, then Kitchen, then Dr then Den with door to garage.
To the left is BR, upstairs door, 2nd BR, bath across the hall, Master BR at the end of the hall. The stairs to 2nd floor sit at the end of the hall. There is a foyer, then the stairs, full kitchen, DR, LR, full bath, 2 large closets and master with 12 foot closet. I love my house because i love having living and sleeping areas separate. We always refer to it as the bedroom wing and the kitchen wing. We rent the 2nd floor. We also have a finished basement.

Re: Dormering a ranch?

Let's design it together! Lol I'm back on. .. been awhile since I've been here. The boards seem kinda slow though.

Go to open houses abd check out how they have their layouts with a second floor

Dormering a ranch?

You typically can rearrange the first floor any way you want. You will lose space for the staircase. Usually the staircase upstairs will go up one side of the house with a hallway leading down to the rooms or if the staircase is in the middle of your home, you would have rooms on both sides. It all depends how big the footprint of your home is.

Dormering a ranch?

I dormered my ranch. I'm also a visual person. I visited a few of my neighbors houses that had already done this. Also we had a architect draw designs with different possibilities to give me ideas. The architect was very helpful.
Fiore Architecture 516-586-5409. I highly recommend. You can even see pictures of my before and after on his Facebook page.

Re: Dormering a ranch?

My BIL has a ranch and added a master suite as a second floor. He put the stairs in the back of the house near his backyard door. I think they took away from a closet that was there.