Ranch style homes, sometimes called American Ranch, or California Ranch, are an architectural style originating in the United States. The ranch style house plan is sometimes defined by it's long, close-to-the-ground profile, and wide open layout. This house style fused modernist ideas and styles with notions of the American Western period of wide open spaces to create a very informal and casual living style. The ranch was informal and basic in design, starting around the early 1960s, many ranch-style houses constructed in the United States (particularly in the Sun Belt region) were increasingly built with more dramatic features like varying roof lines, cathedral ceilings, sunken living rooms, and extensive landscaping and grounds.
