Full Nest: An Everett couple caters to growing brood of grandkids with a family-focused home

Published 11:22 am Thursday, May 15, 2008

Bill and Susie Rucker call it the playroom.

It is a grandkid’s dream.

It all started when Travis Rucker, one of the Ruckers’ grandsons, asked where the family pool table would go when his grandparents moved from their two-story house in Everett to a new rambler overlooking Possession Sound.

That’s when the Ruckers, in the middle of commissioning a custom home for their golden years, decided to add the extra-large rec room, complete with cozy leather furniture, tabletop shuffle board, an arcade console, a pinball machine, a piano, a dollhouse, a craft desk, a wall-size projection TV for movie nights and, yes, a pool table.

It even offers access to the outdoors with two sets of French doors that open onto a courtyard, where a small, informal basketball court awaits.

In the backyard, which faces the water, the Ruckers commissioned a six-hole putting green, surrounded by a modest spread of grass, well-maintained shrubs and a view of Mount Baker to boot.

If it all sounds way too cool to be “Grandma and Grandpa’s Place,” as the sign in the driveway indicates, think again.

This is where the Ruckers cater to their eight grown children and 16 grandchildren, ranging in age from newborn to 22 years old.

The Ruckers were considering downsizing.

Then they remembered their favorite thing in the world.

Grandchildren.

“We said, ‘Let’s really think about this,’” said Bill Rucker, a grandson of Bethel “B.J.” Rucker, one of the two brothers who helped found the city of Everett. “We finally just said, ‘You know what? We’ve got a few years left of having fun and what makes us happy is having the kids around.’”

With almost all of the Rucker grandchildren living between Edmonds and Marysville, it seemed only right to the Ruckers to build a home that could create not an empty nest but a full one.

“You don’t usually get so darn lucky,” Bill Rucker said. “What’s more important than family?”

Then a friend tipped them off to a home taking shape on a bluff overlooking the water. Though the builders, Bruce Hahn and Jeff Spesock, were already in the middle of framing the structure, they didn’t have a buyer yet.

The Ruckers eagerly made a deal with the men, who agreed to customize the home.

“They put their heart and soul into their family,” Hahn said, remembering the excitement Bill Rucker had for his grandkids during the planning. “It’s wintertime and it’s cold and he’s talking about having carpeting in the living room from one end to the other just so he can play with his grandkids on the floor.”

The Ruckers brought others into the project as well, including Tom Rochon of Designs Northwest Architects of Stanwood and Molly LaChapelle, an interior designer based in Redmond.

They also sought advice from a good friend and architect, Jud Marquardt, who had them fill out a detailed questionnaire to help prioritize their desires.

That helped them tremendously, Bill Rucker said. Instead of adding numerous bedrooms for family members who live nearby, they settled on three.

“We were able to focus on what was important to us based on how we live,” Bill Rucker said. “Three bedrooms is very adequate. If not, we throw sleeping bags down on the floor, and kids like to do that, anyway.”

The Ruckers tweaked the builders’ original floor plan to make the main living space as open as possible to enhance their family’s feeling of togetherness. Instead of downsizing from their previous home’s 3,500 square feet, they actually increased their space slightly.

Two living rooms, one with a TV and one with a fireplace, are open to the home’s water views. Both are also open to a dining area in between, a spacious kitchen and a large office area, separated by a short wall.

The Ruckers also added a galley kitchen behind the main kitchen to provide an extra dishwasher, a spare oven, an extra-long farmhouse sink, counter space and wall-to-wall cabinets for storage aplenty.

It works wonderfully when the Ruckers have large family gatherings, which can easily exceed 25 people.

“I have the ability to prepare meals for more than a couple people,” Susie Rucker said. “It makes a huge difference.”

Bill Rucker, a longtime youth sports coach and a semi-retired owner of H&L Sporting Goods and Soccer West, both based in Everett, said a smaller home really wouldn’t have worked as well.

“This is more fun for us,” he said. “I’ve never had so much fun in my life.”

Susie Rucker has the same philosophy. Though the home is decked out in lush carpets, polished wood floors, exquisite lighting, coordinated paint colors and family furniture, kids are welcome to relax here.

“It’s for them,” she said. “With grandchildren, you can’t expect them to sit with their little hands folded.”

Though the Ruckers have no trouble enjoying their home when it’s just the two of them, they seem to have the most fun sharing it.

“Every single day we talk about how glad we are that we did what we did,” Susie Rucker said.

Reporter Sarah Jackson: 425-339-3037 or sjackson@heraldnet.com