The property was vintage. Except for adding a deck in back, Lara and Carlos had done little to their Venice residence since they purchased it as newlyweds in 1953. When they decided to sell the house and retire to Arizona, near their children; they asked their real estate agent what they should do to get their home ready for sale.

“Clean up the yard,” I said.

Lara and Carlos came from frugal backgrounds, and knew the scarcity of life is a town with no major businesses. They appreciated what they had, and maintained their home; replacing the roof, electrical and plumbing as needed – but did little to modernize as time marched on.

The new buyers, part of the “.com” era were delighted with the vintage property.

“We wanted to make it our home, do it our way,” noted Steve and Sherril, the new buyers of the property. “We liked this property because it was the perfect shell – the structure is solid, and well kept, it just needs extensive remodeling.”

Families and homes have changed drastically in the past half-century. Families are often blended and extended, and homes how need to accommodate computers, home-based businesses, and a whole host of children’s technological needs that are rapidly evolving.

"So much has changed since the 1950s in the way we ask our homes to serve our needs," noted Barry Berkus, architect and owner of B3 Architects, who has been designing homes for 45 years.  "We have many different ages and more diversity living together, so homes need to accommodate that."

Although there is a great deal of customization, and specification, contractors throughout the Southland note that young buyers purchasing older homes tend to do similar upgrades.

When the next generation buys a house, here’s what they tend to do….

• Remove cottage cheese ceilings.

• Replace carpet with hardwood floors. Or pull up the carpet and refinish existing hardwood floors.

• Upgrade kitchens and baths, replacing fixtures, finishes and appliances.

• Replace metal slider windows with vinyl clad or wood sash windows, sometimes enlarging the window space. An easy way to create indoor-outdoor flow is to replace windows with doors allowing access to the yard.

• Replace sliding glass doors with French doors.

• Enlarge closets or make them more efficient with closet organization systems.

• Create more storage space, either by adding pull-down ladders to access attics or building storage in the rafter space in the garage.

• Tear down walls between the kitchen and living areas.

• Expand master bedrooms to create master suites.

• Create outdoor living space for dining and lounging.

• Wire the property for their digital needs.

• Create private, “office space” for each computer user in the household.

When you get into more specific age brackets, needs become more specific.
Gen-X buyers require home entertainment centers, increased connectivity, and have a desire to replace backyards with enclosed courtyards in the front of the house. Another trend Gen-Xers are dictating are large open, lofty rooms, dubbed “great rooms,” which give homeowners the flexibility to set up the space however they choose.

Like many of the old Craftsman homes, the rooms flow together serving as
living, dining and entertainment rooms – porches are appreciated, bringing the outside inside.

The traditional living room is aging with the baby boomers — it's becoming smaller in size and is nearly extinct in some new-home markets.

As living rooms shrink, kitchens are becoming larger, and more women are designing them. Expect the concept of island kitchens to increase in popularity, as will indoor grills. “Kitchens and master bedrooms are what sell the house,” declared Steve Bottfeld, EVP of Las Vegas-based consumer research firm Marketing Solutions.

Another choice option is converting the garage into a 2 1/2-car garage - space for two cars and a workshop.

"In the past three to five years, Generation Xers have shown they have a fondness for homes that boomers grew up in and away from,” Berkus. To Generation Xers, those homes built between the late '40s and early '60s, look Rat Pack cool, with their low-slung roofs. They see Dean Martin with a martini.

"Baby boomers just don't look on those neighborhoods with the same affection. The Gen-Xers bring to the homes built in the '50s and '60s the reverence that boomers have for homes built in the '30s and '40s."