They gave a jolt to their small 1950s ranch house - house remodeling

Sunset, July, 1988

They gave a jolt to their small 1950s ranch house The almost symmetrical facade of this remodeled house has a clean, crisp form that jolts it out of the '50s and into the '80s. In a tract of ranch-style houses in Sepulveda, California, the two-bedroom house was too small for owners Judy and Bruce Dobson. They wanted another bedroom and bath, a better entry, and a more contemporary overall look.

The solution devised by Los Angeles architect Howard Zellman was simple in plan but radical in appearance.

Formerly, the house's L shape put a side-loading two-car garage forward on one side. This arrangement meant that most of the front yard--right up to the front door--was used as driveway. Zellman extended a new bedroom wing out from the house on the other side, making the house's plan U-shaped. He moved the garage doors to face the street and created a private courtyard where the driveway had been. For drama, he added a two-story entry foyer across one corner of the court.

As on old Western false-front buildings, the end walls of the addition and garage rise above the house's roof line to equal the height of the foyer's peaked roof.

To complete the contemporary look, the exterior is now light gray and mauve stucco, replacing board-and-batten siding, a used-brick apron, and gingerbread trim.