The Oregon

Charm is the word for The Oregon, a beautiful Ranch house that rambles comfortably over a garden plot.

"Double features" mark the attractive design of The Oregon. For example, there are two covered porches, one at the entrance overlooking the front garden and the other off the dining room at the rear of the house, for outdoor entertaining in privacy. Other "doubles" include back-to-back bathrooms, one for the master bedroom and the other conveniently located off the center hall for the junior bedroom and the third bedroom or den.

In addition to the full dining room with a window wall facing the back garden, there is space for a comfortable dinette in the big kitchen. The room marked for the den on the plan is still another "double." When there are young children in the home, it can serve as a combination bedroom-playroom. As they grow up, the room can become a cozy private study for the master of the home.

After walking past a garden or large flower border in front of the house, you enter an enclosed porch with neat white lattice work on either side of the entranceway. Then you step into a foyer with a guest coat closet located at the left.

To the right, you walk through an archway into a large bright living room with a big fieldstone fireplace at the opposite end of the room. Natural light flows into the room through a wide casement picture window in the front wall and through an unusual scored-glass paneling above the built-in bookcases in the rear wall separating the living room from the dining area.

Plenty of light comes into the dining room through a rear window wall and a glass door that open on a broad screened-in porch. Varicolored, odd-shaped flagstones form the flooring for the porch. The roomy porch can serve as an outdoor living room during the hot weather-with no worries about pesky mosquitoes and bugs.

The kitchen is only a brief step from the porch through the rear corner of the dining room. Designed as a pleasant but highly efficient working area, the kitchen has the range, refrigerator, sink, laminated plastic work counters and sectional cabinets arranged in a convenient U-shaped unit, with a large window and the sink at the base of the U. The spacious cabinets have many helpful features for the homemaker, such as sugar, flour and vegetable bins, a metal pastry drawer with ventilated cover, cutlery and utility drawers and a cutting board.

Beyond this work center is sufficient open space for a dinette set.

If you prefer to save costs by eliminating the cellar, the heating unit may be installed in the area set aside for the basement stairway in the kitchen space. A service entrance to the kitchen leads past the extra lavatory and out through the garage.

The Oregon's sleeping area includes three bedrooms, five built-in closets and two bathrooms. Both the master bedroom in the front of the house and the junior bedroom in the rear have double exposures and thus excellent ventilation. The big bedroom has two large closets built into the interior sidewall and a complete bathroom with a stall shower. You can turn the smallest bedroom into a playroom or a quiet den.

The poured-concrete basement provides plenty of space for an extensive recreation area and hobby facilities. With this full basement and a stone barbecue pit and stove in the back yard, The Oregon will cost you about $16,000 plus the land. With a concrete slab or pier construction instead of a cellar, you can build this charming home for $1,200 to $1,500 less. But, with or without a basement, The Oregon will definitely give you an outstanding Ranch house that will be your family's pride and your friends' envy for years to come.