Nov. 5th 4AM: Goals for the ranch house

I’m at the Ranch with Kallan and Griffin.  We spent the night here.  I'm awake.  Thinking about things to improve the Ranch House to make it more inviting is keeping me awake.  Often the best way for me to stop these ideas from bothering me is to write them down.

Here are some of my thoughts and goals for the Ranch House.  Take these with a grain of salt.  I'd be interested to hear what other people envision for the place.

Ranch House Vision:

The ranch house should be a comfortable place for a family and a couple of friends to stay.  It is a remarkably small space, an endearing quality, but also a real design challenge.  There are several potential activities indoors, but it encourages the use of the outdoors.   Enhancements to the ranch house shouldn’t come at the expense of getting people (kids, mostly) outside to enjoy the beautiful surroundings.  I also think safety and accessibility should also be on our list.

Regarding safety, the ranch, in general, is a place where things can be a bit dangerous.  But the ranch house should be a place of respite.  If there is an accident of any sort the ranch house should be the place you come to fix your boo boo’s, not worry about getting them.

I have a strong bias towards accessible areas, but a lot of us are getting older and our mobility is always becoming less and less.  I’d really like to look into making it easier to get to the house and then move around unencumbered when you’ve made it here.

You may have noticed that I haven’t discussed style.  I’m a bit hesitant to do so.  The ranch aesthetic is an ad hoc, bubble gum, duct tape and baling wire, do whatever meets the most immediate need kind of style.  The problem is that if everybody goes in an makes changes as they see fit, we can easily step on each other’s toes.  It is something to discuss in for the future.

I plan to post my ideas here before executing them, at least the major ones.  As always, please let me know what your opinions are.  The comments section is a great place for that.

I think the first thing to do is take stock of what’s here.  From there we can decide what stays, what goes, and what can be improved.  Look for that in future posts.