SOLD! A Beautiful 1967 MCM Ranch with a Long Gable Roof in Des Plaines
It’s interesting that with all the modern homes in the Chicago suburbs, there are some specific styles that we don’t see too many of. For instance, there aren’t many homes with a butterfly roof around here. And another one we don’t see much of is the long gable roof, like this beautiful example of modernist architecture in Des Plaines.
Often when we do see a home like this with a long gable roof, the ceilings are only vaulted in one or two spaces.
But inside the home at 1033 Crabtree Lane, nearly every space benefits from that roofline, with vaulted ceilings and clerestory windows that make each space feel even bigger and brighter.
Another great feature of this home is that it actually has a main level, spacious laundry room, meaning that the house lives as a true ranch, as all day-to-day needs are met on the main floor.
A little over 5 years ago, Brianna and Brody were searching for a home to purchase, and they knew they wanted someplace modern.
“We’d been renting in a few different neighborhoods of Chicago,” says Brianna, “our last being a house in Andersonville/Edgewater. We felt the time was right for us to be homeowners.”
“We had honeymooned in Palm Springs in 2016,” adds Brody, “and got that itch for something modern after spending a week lounging by pools and touring peoples’ homes.”
“Yes! We were open to other styles at first, especially since this would be our first home purchase,” continues Brianna. “For instance, we did see a really charming Oak Park bungalow, but we felt the layout just wouldn’t work for us. We were getting nervous because it was getting harder to find an MCM with original features. We didn’t want something that had been renovated.”
“But when we saw this house,” adds Brody, “it immediately triggered that Palm Springs vibe and we knew right away this was the home for us.
The overall elevation of the house is one that is, by contrast, fairly common in Palm Springs, where the “desert modernism” of the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s was generally long and low, with clerestory windows often used not only to add more natural light, but to provide views of the mountains.
And while there may be no mountains to look at in Des Plaines, there are plenty of beautiful mature trees in the home’s yard of nearly 1/2 acre.
The house presents beautifully from the street, with its brick & cedar construction, numerous large windows, and gorgeous landscaping that Brianna & Brody had done after they purchased the house.
“The house really was a hidden gem,” says Brianna. “I was amazed it was on the market for so long. I think a big part of that was that the landscaping was so overgrown that you really couldn’t appreciate the house for what it was. Getting the landscaping under control first, and beautiful was a big priority for us after we bought the house.”
Now, both the front and back yards benefit from Brianna’s and Brody’s vision for how the yard should be landscaped, retaining the beautiful, mature trees while cleaning up some areas in front of the house, and landscaping new areas with an assortment of native and feature specimens that really fit with the home’s architectural aesthetic.
Heading past the semi-circular driveway toward the front door, you’ll walk up a few steps past an integrated brick planter to the recessed entryway, with its huge windows.
Once inside, you immediately gain an appreciation for the design of the house, and how it’s very open while still maintaining excellent sense of space in the various rooms.
“I think we walked around the house for about 2 minutes before we knew this was going to be the place we wanted to try to make our home,” says Brody.
“The light and airiness about it was beautiful,” recalls Brianna. “It was lovely being inside, but all the large windows make you feel like you’re outside. It felt like somewhere I wanted to stay for a long time. The two-way fireplace and parquet floors were a dream. It didn’t hurt that there were deer traipsing through the back yard while we were there!”
The entry foyer itself feels extremely spacious, thanks to all of those large windows, and the fact that the coat closet has a ceiling, and then is open to the vaulted ceiling above, which is at the highest point. Borrowed light flows from the front to the back, and from the back to the front, and the brick exterior continues inside the foyer in classic modernist fashion.
Beyond the entryway you’ll find the sunken living room, with the elements of the post and beam construction clearly visible make your way down into the home’s more formal living space.
“The living room is easily one of our favorite spaces,” says Brody, “with the two-way fireplace that gives a peek into the rest of the house. It’s comfortable and fun, and with the enormous windows facing east, catching the morning sun, it’s an amazing space to start or end your day.”
The living room also acts as a sort of divider between the home’s common / living spaces and the private spaces, with bedrooms being on the left side of the house and the living space on the right.
This includes the dining room, which faces out the front of the house through a wall of glass, and another set of windows looking out onto the front porch. The clever design leaves the entry mostly open to the spaces at the back of the house, but still separated enough to feel like a distinct space.
“I love the flow,” says Brianna. “It’s so easy and open yet still defined. I love how it can be dressed up or down and still feel right. We can lean more formal or funky depending on what space we’re in.”
Past the dining room is the kitchen, which still retains its original cabinetry & hardware, and a large, open family room, which sits on the other side of the two-sided fireplace from the living room.
The kitchen has a fantastic layout, with an oversized peninsula that works more like an island, including a cantilevered counter area for stools to have people sit opposite where the cooktop and oven are. The beautiful walnut cabinetry still retains its original hardware, and there’s plenty of natural light, thanks to the large expanses of glass on two sides in this space.
The tile flooring in the kitchen continues beyond the peninsula, creating a natural dinette area, surrounded by the parquet wood flooring found in the family room, living room, dining room and the hallway to the bedroom.
The family room area is a fun and clearly a less “structured” and formal space, with the angled brick fireplace wall creating irregular shapes that can be furnished in all sorts of ways depending on how you’d like to use the space. But however you set it up, you’ll enjoy all the natural light afforded by the huge wall of windows at the back, and the triple-panel windows on the side.
At the other end of the house, the Primary Bedroom is an extremely comfortable size, large enough for a king bed, nightstands and other furniture, and features two well-sized closets and even has its own private en-suite bathroom. The bathroom also retains its original cabinetry and hardware, as well as the original floor tile.
Across the hall, bedroom #2 is where their son calls home, with windows on one side looking out into the yard, and clerestory windows in the vaulted roofline adding more natural light while staying private on the front of the house.
The second bathroom, used for the other two bedrooms, features dual sinks above that same beautiful cabinetry, and a shower / tub combo that’s both original and completely charming, set above the same original, vintage tile on the floor.
Bedroom three is being used as a home office & lounge, and again, has windows facing out the side toward and across the front entryway & planter, with the same kind of clerestory windows letting in light above the front wall.
When you walk through the house, it’s impossible not to notice the efficiency of design in the home’s floor plan. At just a bit under 2,000 square feet, the house feels like a much larger home, with its multiple living spaces and bright, comfortable bedrooms.
And what’s even better is that between the house & garage is a main level laundry / mud room, which also houses the stairs to the home’s partial basement.
While the basement is unfinished, Brianna & Brody have set it up as a partial home office and partial rec room / hobby space: One in which you get an even greater sense of their design sense.
“We love vintage interiors,” says Brianna. “I like to call our style ‘Your grandma’s Mid-Century Modern’. It’s an eclectic combination of antiques she would’ve inherited, a home she would’ve bought and furnished in the ’60s, with decor from the ’70s and electronics and toys for the grandkids in the ’80s.”
“I grew up surrounded by mid-century vibes,” adds Brody. “My dad and I – I held the flashlight – built a lot of hot rods in the garage, with the oldies station playing in the background. In the summers we would visit my grandparents, who lived in a geodesic dome house in the woods in Missouri. That funky dome always left an impression on me and since then I’ve always been interested in architecture and other things that originated from a point of optimism for the future and designed with a clear sense of inspiration.”
Throughout the house, Brianna and Brody made improvements over the years, such as re-coating the roof (which was replaced about 10 years ago), putting in a new water heater, upgrading to a new electrical panel, refinishing all the beautiful parquet floors, adding the new oven in the kitchen (while retaining the original built-in oven), repainting the exterior, putting new carpet in the bedrooms, and more, including all of the beautiful landscaping.
Speaking of which, Brianna & Brody made the outdoor spaces as fun as they have the inside of the house, adding a hot tub behind a patterned screen reminiscent of the breeze block walls found throughout places like Palm Springs.
A stone patio directly behind the house is spacious enough for multiple seating areas and a vintage freestanding fireplace they set up for cooler nights outside (sorry…that fireplace is going with them!), surrounded by a mixture of native and other plants.
Behind the laundry room area is an angled patio, where they have a grill and a vintage-style freestanding bar. And the yard itself is mostly surrounded by mature trees, offering shade in the summer and privacy as well. It’s a beautiful space to spend time, and I appreciate how there’s ample space both in front and in back.
Of course, with any such natural space, there are always local fauna who tend to explore the area…
“Before we did the landscaping there was this dead tree with a bird feeder still attached to it,” says Brianna. “It was right up against the house near a window where we had our TV. We started filling it up, and every night we’d get a parade of animals. This big, fat raccoon would come and hang upside down, scooping the birdseed out. After he left, a skunk would come around, snuffling for dropped seed. Then the opossum would show up, and in the morning, a menagerie of birds would flit around for the leftovers. The tree needed to come down of course, but it was a great show while it lasted!”
With both Brianna and Brody working from home in the fields of design-driven post production, and their growing family, they’re now moving on to the next chapter of their lives, but it’ll be tough for them to leave the place they’ve called home for the past 5 years.
“This house is where we spent our days sheltering in place during the pandemic,” says Brody. “Countless projects were conceived and executed simply due to the fact that we never left! It transformed from a place we came home to after work into a place where we both live and work from full time. Where we welcomed our son and gained a deeper appreciation of the home’s design and how playful it could be, playing peek-a-boo through the two-way fireplace, games of tag running circuits around the partition wall between the dining room, even watching our son go from crawling down into the living room to bracing himself against the wall, to jumping down the stairs. It’s simply a beautiful and fun home, inside and out.”
This property sold on November 26th, 2024.
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