Arlington Virginia Home Styles Part 2

Arlington Virginia Home Styles Part 2 - The Rambler

July 29th, 2008 Categories: Arlington Dirt, Falls Church Dirt, McLean Dirt, Neighborhoods, Northern Virginia Real Estate Dirt

Yesterday I mentioned my series on house styles found here in the local area – today I thought I’d hit a biggie – The Rambler. This comes in many shapes and sizes, but it’s basically a 1 level home – most of the time here it’s on a basement, but it could just be built on a concrete slab. You will generally find a living room/dining room “L” and kitchen on one side with bedrooms/baths on the other side – a rec room in the basement perhaps with another half bath – and maybe an unfinished utility room. That’s it! Many people have added on perhaps a den on one side or a family room off the back. Let’s look at some examples:

Here is a fairly small (but super cute) rambler:

Rambler

Here are some additional examples:

arlington rambler

Arlington Rambler3

Arlington rambler 4

Ramblers are also a FABULOUS starting point for a renovation. There are many things one can do with a rambler, and what makes it most attractive for renovating is the large footprint. You have to figure if the entire living space is on 1 level and you double it by adding a 2^nd story, you don’t necessarily have to create an addition.

The other fantastic thing about renovating a rambler is that you can turn it into a colonial by going straight up and keeping with colonial architectural aspects. You can add a steep roof with dormers and create a LARGE cape cod. You can create an arts and crafts style (see example below) or a farm house style. You can even create a contemporary.

Here’s an example of a rambler that underwent a whole house renovation taking the square footage from about 1,900 to 4,800.

Before:

Rambler before