Service area Arapahoe, Douglas and Jefferson Counties
Littleton home remodeling for Martin-era ranches and split-levels
Littleton grew from a small county seat into a busy suburb in the two decades after the war. The houses from that boom are where most remodels here begin.
Littleton within the Front Range service area
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Overview
Remodeling Littleton homes
Remodeling For Less provides Littleton home remodeling for the ranches, split-levels and two-stories built during the city's postwar growth, with kitchen remodeling, bathroom remodeling, basement finishing, open floor plans and whole-home refreshes. It's for homeowners who want the plan to fit the house they actually have.
Littleton incorporated in 1890 and has been the Arapahoe County seat since the early 1900s, though parts of the city also sit in Douglas and Jefferson counties. The biggest change came in the mid-1950s, when research and aerospace employers arrived, including the Glenn L. Martin Company, which announced a plant southwest of town in late 1955. By 1960 more than 30 percent of residents worked for Martin, and subdivisions spread across former farmland.
Areas and neighborhoods in Littleton
- Windermere Homes
- Broadmoor
- Lininger
- Arapaho Hills
- Louthan Heights
The housing
The houses behind a Littleton remodel
Littleton's population roughly quadrupled during the 1950s and nearly doubled again by 1970. Most of that growth came as detached single-family homes in subdivisions, some with architectural control committees that set design standards. The house types shifted as the boom went on.
Frame and brick ranches
Windermere Homes, platted in 1946 as the city's first new subdivision, offered one-story frame houses with oak floors and two bedrooms. Broadmoor followed in 1952, with most of its ranches built between 1954 and 1958, first in frame and later in brick veneer, many with no garage or only a one-car one. These modest plans are where kitchen reconfigurations, a second bath and wiring updates tend to come first, because the rooms and the circuits were sized for a different era.
Larger ranches on rolling ground
As defense and research jobs arrived, houses grew. In Lininger, south of Belleview, rolling land allowed larger ranches with walkout basements, next to low- or flat-roofed contemporary ranches with carports. Meadowbrook Valley, built from 1955 into the mid-1960s, set a minimum house size and added bigger three-bedroom ranches in its second wave. A walkout basement is one of the best remodeling assets a Littleton house can have, since it gets daylight and a door, and it usually becomes the family room or guest suite.
Split-levels and two-stories
Through the 1960s, Littleton subdivisions moved to curving streets and larger, often irregular lots, and split-level and two-story houses began replacing the ranch. Split-levels create their own remodeling puzzles: short stair runs between floors, a kitchen wedged between levels and a lower level partly below grade. Opening the kitchen to the living room usually means dealing with a structural wall and a change in floor height, which calls for careful planning and an engineer's input before anything is removed.
Local factors
What a Littleton address means for your project
Check that you're really in the city
A Littleton mailing address doesn't guarantee a Littleton permit. The city's own permit guide tells you to use its Address Wizard to confirm the property is inside city limits before going any further, and the city itself spans three counties. If your lot turns out to be outside the city, a different jurisdiction handles the permit. Inside the city, applications go to the Building Division, and a license or registration certificate is required to pull permits for work within Littleton.
What Littleton's permit guide says
Littleton publishes a plain-language guide to common residential projects. Painting, tiling, carpeting and similar finish work are generally exempt, and cabinets and countertops can be too when the work is truly limited to finishes. The guide warns not to assume a kitchen or bath is only cosmetic, since a remodel that touches regulated work means the whole room gets evaluated. Load-bearing walls, beams, headers and enlarged openings need a permit, and so do water heaters and other regulated plumbing work.
Historic districts and landmarks
Littleton's historic districts include Louthan Heights and the Downtown Littleton Historic District, and National Register listings include Arapaho Hills, whose modernist homes were built from the mid-1950s into the 1960s. The city's preservation code reviews exterior alterations and demolition on designated properties. Interior kitchens and baths are a separate matter, but window, siding or addition plans in a district need that review. The city also offers incentives for designated properties, including property tax refunds and tax credits.
If this, then that
Where a Littleton project usually starts
| If | Then |
|---|---|
| If your house has a walkout basement | Then basement finishing is often the best value in the house, since the lower level already has daylight and an exterior door. |
| If you live in a split-level with a closed kitchen | Then plan an open floor plan around the structure and the level changes, with a permit for any beam or header. |
| If your kitchen needs new surfaces but nothing moves | Then a refresh may fall under Littleton's finish exemptions. Confirm with the Building Division before you start. |
| If your property is in a historic district | Then keep exterior changes for last and get them reviewed, while interior work moves ahead on a normal permit. |
Services in Littleton
Remodeling services for Littleton's postwar houses
Here's how three of the services usually fit Littleton's housing.
Basement finishing
Walkout lots in neighborhoods like Lininger make basement finishing especially useful, since a lower level with a door and windows can hold a bedroom, bath and family room. Plan moisture control first, frame partition walls to float over the slab where soils move, and settle the drain route before placing a bathroom, since that choice decides where the other walls can go.
Open floor plans
In Littleton's split-levels and later ranches, owners often want to open the floor plan between kitchen, dining and living rooms. That usually means an engineered beam, and in a split-level it can also mean reworking a half-wall or railing at the level change. Littleton's guide lists load-bearing walls, beams and headers as permit work, so plan for review time.
Kitchen remodeling
In the city's 1950s ranches, kitchen remodeling often means turning a small closed room into a working space that connects to the rest of the house. New circuits, a vented hood and a relocated sink are common, and each makes the job regulated work under the city's guide. Surface updates on the same layout are simpler and faster to schedule.
Planning checklist
Before you remodel in Littleton
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Questions
Remodeling questions from Littleton homeowners
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It depends on how far the work goes. Littleton's guide generally exempts painting, tiling and similar finish work, and cabinets and countertops when the work is truly limited to finishes. Once a remodel affects regulated work such as plumbing, electrical or structure, the city evaluates the complete room. Check with the Building Division before assuming a project is cosmetic.
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Not necessarily. Littleton's permit guide recommends confirming through the city's Address Wizard that a property is inside city limits. The city covers parts of Arapahoe, Douglas and Jefferson counties, and properties outside its boundary are handled by another jurisdiction. Check before drawing plans, since submittal rules and fees can differ from one office to the next.
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Yes. Littleton's historic districts don't prevent change or new construction, according to the city. Designated properties get review of exterior alterations and demolition to keep changes compatible with the district. Interior remodels follow the normal permit path. The city also lists incentives for designated properties, such as property tax refunds.
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The level changes. Kitchens often sit between floors, stairs are short and frequent, and the lower level is partly below grade. Opening walls can expose structure that carries more than it appears, and new flooring has to transition cleanly at each step. A plan that starts from the stairs and structure usually goes more smoothly.
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The city requires a license or registration certificate to obtain building permits for work within Littleton. Permits are handled through the city's Building Division, which also publishes residential submittal requirements for remodels, additions and new builds. Ask any contractor you're considering to confirm their Littleton license before you sign a contract.
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The bottom line
The bottom line
Littleton's remodeling work mostly comes from one fast boom, which means similar ranches, split-levels and walkouts across many neighborhoods. Confirm your address is in the city, read the permit guide, check for historic district review and decide whether you need a refresh, a reconfiguration or a full remodel. Call [Phone] to talk through your Littleton house and the right starting point.
Talk through your Littleton project
Start with the room and what isn't working. The scope follows from there.
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