After falling in love with Granite Bay, California’s horse trails, open spaces and swimmable lakes, designer Rachel Madden and her husband rented a house next to a community pasture. A year later, they took the plunge and bought it. To transform the modest 1960s rancher into a family home as idyllic as its surroundings — complete with a pool and views of grazing horses — Madden teamed up with architect Leonard Woehler, whom she discovered on Houzz.
House at a Glance
Who lives here: Designer Rachel Madden; her husband, Dave; their three daughters, ages 12, 9 and 6; and their golden retriever
Location: Granite Bay, California
Size: four bedrooms, four bathrooms
Designers: Rachel Madden Interiors (interiors), Leonard Woehler of LRWoehler & Associates (architecture), Red Leaf Developments (landscaping)
Builder: Kenneth Development
Before: Madden and her husband bought the home they’d been renting with the expectation of a major renovation — unsurprising given that Madden was sketching up floor plans within a week of moving in. After searching Houzz for an architect and finding Woehler, they built a small guesthouse on the property, where they and their three young daughters lived while construction on the main house was underway.
They decided to keep a single-story layout, partly to help with aging in place. The plan also called for breaking up the long, unbroken roofline by raising the center section while leaving the left and right sides largely intact. But after discovering moldy studs, the renovation became a near-complete rebuild. They had to take the house down to the subfloor.