The House That Once Embarrassed Them Is Now a Showplace

For a long time, Alicia and Craig Oberg disliked their house so much that they didn’t want to invite anyone over.

“We were actually embarrassed,” Ms. Oberg said of the house in Plymouth, Minn., which had a dated 1990s interior that “was just so far from what we felt our aesthetic was.”

But the 3,800-square-foot ranch house, built in 1981, had a few things going for it. For one, there was plenty of space: The couple, whose twins are now 14, bought it in August 2013 for $584,000, after outgrowing their previous home. And they loved the bucolic setting, between a horse farm and a small lake, but just 15 minutes from the center of Minneapolis.

“There was a necessity to find a place, and the lot was unbelievable,” said Ms. Oberg, 47, the founder of Destination Directive, a travel company.

“When we bought the house, we knew we’d have to remodel it,” said Mr. Oberg, 47, who works in investor relations and mergers and acquisitions at a public company.