Fiddling With A '50S Rambler -- This Simple Approach Takes You Outside

WHEN HOUSE HUNTING, LOOK beyond the obvious. We did in 1991 when we bought a quintessential 1950s rambler, complete with tacky add-ons, its white-painted roman brick and turquoise trim graced with a matching rubberized deck.

I chose the house for what could be there but wasn't: a large and sunny garden. My husband's nod came with both eyes on the home's wide-open lake and mountain view. We both saw in Sheridan Beach a school district and neighborhood for our children, then ages 5 and 11.

Our architect, George Singer of Seattle, was more hopeful about the house than we could bring ourselves to be, as we sought his advice before signing the papers. He admired the eastern exposure and sturdy construction, and pointed out the wonderful integration of house and garden possible with a one-story home.

What we saw was a house badly in need of remodeling, with a cramped dining room, no entry or master suite, and a motley mix of colors and finishes. But the foil-papered wet bar with Christmas lights in the living room and the red, black and orange kitchen were balanced out by the sidewalks, the school bus stop at the corner and the community club beach. We signed the papers.

We decided to live in the house for a year as we made remodeling decisions, and an overall plan took form. We watched the pattern of light in the house and garden, thought about how we used the existing space, and looked at design magazines to see what others had done to update houses built in the '50s.

Most examples we found were not inspiring. As second stories were added, the indoor/outdoor flow was lost, and adding trim and other details from an earlier period ruined the simplicity that seemed to us to be one of the style's few virtues. As we walked the streets of the neighborhood, looking at the many remodels, we were struck by how often the essential qualities of the house and its relationship with surrounding houses had been lost. While impressive, and no doubt more comfortable, these houses had the ungainly look of newcomers overdressed for the party.

As the year passed we came to appreciate some aspects of the house as it was, even though we never adjusted to how it looked. They knew how to build family houses in the 1950s, and our downstairs quickly became a "kid zone" with room for the TV, bookshelves, toy storage, piano and art table. Its knotty-pine walls were perfect for hanging up the kids' art. We added some good lighting and new paint, and left the lower level to its fate of slumber parties and puppet shows.

On the main floor we enjoyed the quiet and privacy created by the traditional floor plan, the warmth of brick construction, and the many windows and sliding doors that let in abundant light and views of the garden. Keeping these pluses in mind, we worked through our ideas. The simple clean lines of Japanese design came up again and again as a way to unify the interior and exterior with the garden.

Now that the remodel is complete, the plan we chose seems inevitable. The work done by Johnson Brothers Construction took four months and cost about $100 per square foot for the new construction and $65 for the remodeled spaces. The house now has 2,164 square feet on the main floor and 1,115 in the basement.

Our architect skillfully designed 750 square feet of new construction and changes to the existing structure that make much better use of the old space.

The idea of opening the house to the garden and view - through the extensive use of glass to bring the garden in - and extending the architecture out into the garden influenced our design decisions at every point.

New spaces include a generous dining room a step down from the living room, replacing the turquoise deck at the front of the house. It is a wonderful room for family dinners and cozy reading, with window seats and large lake-facing windows.

The too-small old dining room became an ideal-sized entry, enhanced by a glass door with paned sidelights and a wood and aggregate entry deck. Narrow planters on both sides of this porch deck are planted with dwarf bamboos and yellow-striped grasses, overhung by the new sheltering roof line. The dining room windows and entry look out on a newly paved terrace, surrounded by winter-blooming, fragrant plants such as witch hazel, sarcococca, violets and daphnes, so that visitors are greeted by bloom and fragrance even in January and February.

The advice of our architect to use similar materials and colors throughout the house saved time and money and contributes to the tranquil, Asian feel of the house. New kitchen and bath cabinets are made in the same simple style of off-white laminate, and the same warm gray floor tile, matching laminate countertops and chamois-colored tile are used in both spaces.

In the living room, the blue-and-white-flowered fireplace tile has been replaced by creamy limestone, rich with the whorls of shells and fossils that created it. New lighting throughout the house enhances the soft, warm colors, accented by golden oak floors, taupe carpeting and oriental-patterned rugs in beiges, gray and rust tones.

Interest and color are provided by the many windows opening to lake, sky and garden views, as well as the textural art pieces in most of the spaces. Old exterior brick was left on the walls of the new dining room and master bedroom and painted a creamy ivory, a cost-saving idea which turned out beautifully.

One of the few things we liked about the house before the remodel was the flow between house and garden. The remodel furthered this quality by creating a private sunny patio off the kitchen, with a tiny table for breakfasting outside on spring mornings. Here I grow herbs, scented geraniums and sweet peas in a bright, fragrant tumble during the summer months.

The den, master bedroom and bath wrap around a shady courtyard. The sunken soaking tub, surrounded by glass block, looks out onto the courtyard filled with an akebia vine, Japanese painted fern, moss and trout lilies, luxuriating in the only shady spot in the garden. The trellis-type fencing and a large free-standing pergola shade the sunny back patio and provide privacy from the uphill neighbors. This patio, opening off the living room and large enough for pots of flowers and a dining table, overlooks a pond for fish and water lilies. Here I grow fragrant summer blooming plants such as Buddleia, Phygelius and Monarda, which attract butterflies and hummingbirds.

Sitting on the patio on a warm summer afternoon, we can delight in the fish, bees and butterflies, all within a few feet of the house. The back yard holds an abundance of flowers and foliage for cutting - such as roses, lavender, lilacs and hosta - that can be cut and brought into the house, helping further blur that line between indoors and outside.

One of the nicest compliments we hear from neighbors and guests is that the house "doesn't look like a remodel."

Valerie Easton is a librarian at the University of Washington Center for Urban Horticulture. Barry Wong is a Seattle Times photographer.