Our Richmond Home Farewell: A Comprehensive Before & After Tour and the Journey of Downsizing to Florida

This post marks a significant milestone for us, a bittersweet farewell to a home that has been the backdrop to countless memories and immense growth. While a picture is worth a thousand words, we believe a video tells the full story of our beloved Richmond house, especially as it looked in its pristine, market-ready state. Join us for a final, emotional “after tour” of our home, captured just before our real estate showings in early March. It was a whirlwind experience, and you can delve deeper into the fascinating details of how those showings unfolded in this podcast episode – trust us, it was quite an adventure! Should any design element catch your eye, from paint colors to furniture pieces, accessories, blinds, or rugs, rest assured all items are meticulously sourced and available right here in this dedicated post. This comprehensive guide will not only offer a visual journey but also provide practical insights into our seven-year transformation and the thoughtful process behind our recent downsizing efforts.

Witness the Transformation: Our Richmond Home’s Final After Tour

After years of dedication, design choices, and countless DIY projects, presenting our Richmond home in its finished state felt incredibly rewarding. This tour encapsulates the culmination of our vision, reflecting a blend of functionality, personal style, and comfort that truly defined our family’s living experience. We meticulously crafted every corner, ensuring that each space served a purpose while radiating warmth and welcoming charm. The final touches and thoughtful staging for showings allowed us to see our hard work come to life in its most polished form, ready to captivate prospective buyers and mark the end of a beautiful chapter.

Note: You can also view this video here on YouTube.

A Nostalgic Look Back: The Original Richmond Home Before Tour

For a truly satisfying journey, let’s rewind time and revisit the “before tour” of this very house. It’s hard to believe how much has changed, and sometimes we can barely remember it in its original state! Seven years might not be an overnight miracle, but the transformation has been nothing short of incredible. From its initial raw potential to the vibrant, comfortable home it became, this house has truly been a gift. We are beyond thrilled with where we ended up, having poured our hearts and souls into every renovation, every paint stroke, and every design decision. This home has served our family wonderfully, nurturing growth and creativity, and it will forever hold a special place in our hearts – much like a proud parent cherishes their child’s achievements.

Note: You can also view this video here on YouTube.

The Art of Downsizing: Preparing for Our New Florida Adventure

As we embark on a new chapter in Florida, the journey involved not just moving, but a significant downsizing effort. Our second new video offers a unique walkthrough, recorded after the house was meticulously packed, and our moving pod was en route to our new Florida home. This wasn’t merely a change of address; it was a radical shift in living space. We’re transitioning from a spacious 3150 square feet to a more compact, cozy 1400 square feet, and from 14 rooms down to a manageable 6! Clearly, bringing everything with us was never an option. After careful consideration, we estimate we brought approximately 45% of our belongings, leaving behind a substantial 55%.

How We Decided What to Bring (and What to Leave)

If you’re pondering, “how on earth did they choose what to keep?”, you’re not alone! This was undoubtedly the most challenging, yet ultimately liberating, part of our moving process. To simplify the daunting task, we developed a system based on four specific questions that guided every decision. These invaluable questions, which helped us navigate the emotional and practical aspects of decluttering, are thoroughly outlined right here for you. You don’t even need to listen to the podcast; they’re conveniently typed out in the show notes here – just scroll down to find the four numbered paragraphs. This intentional approach allowed us to make thoughtful choices, ensuring that only the most cherished and functional items would make the journey to our smaller, more focused Florida home.

Selling Our Remaining Treasures to the New Owners

As for the remaining 55% of our possessions, we opted for a unique and mutually beneficial approach. We offered the person who purchased our Richmond house “first dibs” on acquiring any items we weren’t taking with us. We compiled a detailed, itemized list of everything for sale, assigned a fair price to each item, and to our delight, she decided to buy it all! This simplified the moving process immensely and gave us peace of mind knowing our beloved items found a new home with someone who would appreciate them. For a deeper dive into how this process unfolded, our pricing strategies, and the exact financial outcome of selling everything, you can find more information in this podcast episode. Now, click play below to see the house in its truly empty state, revealing what remained after our extensive decluttering and selling spree. (A quick note: a few personal items like our computers, bedding, and plants are obviously coming with us – they’ll be riding comfortably in the car on moving day!)

Note: You can also view this video here on YouTube.

Answering Your Most Pressing Moving & Downsizing Questions

We anticipate a few common questions arising from this significant life change, so let’s address them directly to provide clarity and insight into our thought process:

1. Our Resilient Stair Runner: Our original stair runner served us incredibly well for over six years, enduring daily wear and tear with impressive durability. However, during our bathroom renovation, the constant hauling of heavy materials up and down the stairs took its toll, leading to some noticeable wear. Consequently, we made the practical decision to replace it. We chose to install the same durable stair treads that proved so effective in our previous “pink house” – primarily to provide better traction for our beloved dog, Burger, ensuring his safety and comfort as he navigated the stairs.
2. Curated Styling for the New Buyer: You might have noticed that some built-ins in the living room, bonus room, and our son’s room, as well as the kitchen shelves, still featured decorative items. These were pieces I was actively downsizing and decided not to bring to Florida. Rather than simply leaving them, I proactively asked the new buyer if she would be interested in having me style these spaces and leave certain items behind for her to keep. Her enthusiastic response of “ooh yes please!” was a delightful affirmation. While it’s always essential to ask first (leaving things uninvited can be awkward), her positive reception made it a wonderful opportunity for us to part with smaller, curated items that wouldn’t have a designated space in our new home, ensuring they continued to be enjoyed. This collaborative approach made the transition smoother for both parties.
3. Our Staggered Move to Florida: Many have inquired why we shipped our pod to Florida yet remain in Richmond, seemingly delaying the unpacking process. The logistics of a cross-state move dictate that the moving pod requires approximately two weeks to reach its destination in Florida. Therefore, we had to pack and dispatch it about half a month before our planned physical relocation. Our current plan involves waiting for our new Florida house to be fully livable – there are still some essential floor repairs and final touches needed to make the bathroom fully operational. We’re optimistically timing our arrival to coincide with the pod’s arrival, which effectively becomes our moving day! We understand this sounds like a “moving target,” and indeed it is; specific dates are constantly evolving due to various factors. This dynamic situation feels quite familiar given the unpredictable nature of life lately – sometimes we even wonder what day it is!

Room by Room: Before & Empty Home Photo Comparisons

To truly illustrate the scope of our downsizing and the profound transformation of each space, we’ve captured a series of comparison photos. These images vividly depict our home both in its perfectly staged state for showings and then in its stripped-down, empty form, offering a unique perspective on what stayed and what embarked on a new journey.

The Office: From Productive Hub to Blank Canvas

This is the office as it appeared right before our house showings in early March, a space that truly epitomized productivity and creative flow for us.

And here it is now, transformed into a blank canvas. While the sturdy desk, elegant curtains, comfortable deck chair, and stylish light fixture are staying with the house, our personal computers are, understandably, coming with us in the car. We’re also making every effort to carefully transport our beloved fiddle leaf fig plant, hoping she fits comfortably for the journey! Interestingly, a significant portion of the office’s functional elements, including two tall white shelving towers, John’s trusty parson’s desk, the elegant marble plant stand, two versatile benches, and even a filing cabinet (not visible in this shot), are accompanying us to Florida. This decision reflects how incredibly functional and highly utilized this room was in our daily lives, making these pieces indispensable for our new workspace.

The Living Room: A Heartfelt Farewell to Cherished Pieces

Here’s our spacious living room, another prime example of a space that underwent significant editing. This is what it looked like, welcoming and beautifully arranged, right before our house showings:

And here it stands now, stripped back to its essentials. We understand the collective gasp! The stunning rug, that beautiful TV table, our cherished homemade coffee table – we feel you. While we genuinely adore every single item in our house and have carefully curated them over the years, the reality of downsizing meant that not everything could make the journey. Our decisions were rigorously guided by those four crucial questions we asked ourselves throughout the decluttering process. If an item didn’t have a clear use or a suitable spot in our new, smaller home, it simply didn’t make sense to endure the effort and expense of moving it, only to feel regretful about its lack of purpose in its new environment.

Specific spatial considerations played a significant role. For our new house’s layout, we envision a lower but longer TV cabinet to better complement the space. This magnificent rug, despite its beauty, regrettably doesn’t fit well into a single area of our new Florida home. Our beloved coffee table, a homemade piece, was perfect for this living room’s expansive layout, skillfully bridging the considerable gap between our sofa and armchair. However, this particular spatial challenge won’t exist in the new house. Furthermore, weighing in at an estimated 754 lbs, its sheer bulk makes it incredibly difficult to move. It truly pays to invest the mental effort in planning before diving into the physical labor of moving! We meticulously took countless measurements of our new home and faithfully applied those four guiding questions, maintaining complete honesty with ourselves about each answer. Oh, and we also decided to leave both of our wall-mounted TVs (including a second one in the bonus room, visible in the video). Since they were both professionally mounted with wires neatly hidden within the walls, it was far more practical to leave them behind, eliminating concerns about potential damage during transit in the pod. We also reasoned that we might prefer a different sized TV for the new house anyway, and by selling both, we recouped roughly the same amount it would cost to purchase new ones for our smaller space.

The Primary Bedroom: Saying Goodbye to a Favorite Rug

Next, let’s revisit our primary bedroom as it looked, a serene sanctuary, just before our showings:

And here it is now, in its empty state. We hear you – the rug! My beloved secondhand find-of-a-lifetime rug. It is absolutely enormous, and after checking every single possible space in the new house (believe me, I measured and re-measured at least 143 times), there simply isn’t a single area where it would make sense. Nothing would be worse than lugging such a weighty and cherished item all the way to Florida, only to drag it around our smaller home while softly sobbing over its inability to fit. I find comfort, however, in the fact that the new owner passionately promised to cherish it like her own child and even send me periodic photos, allowing me to “pet” it through my phone screen. For this rug, truly, in the immortal words of Celine Dion, “my heart will go on.”

Beyond the rug, we also made the strategic decision to sell all of our beds. We recognized that in our new Florida home, optimizing storage will be paramount, and more storage-friendly bed solutions will be incredibly beneficial. Our current upholstered beds offer no under-bed storage, a feature we knew we’d miss. Our children, in particular, were enthusiastic about the idea of beds with trundles or integrated drawers, offering smart solutions for their smaller rooms. In a downsized home, every inch counts, making smart and multi-functional choices a fun, albeit challenging, endeavor for us. John and I are genuinely excited to explore all sorts of intelligent solutions, from strategically chosen store-bought items to custom built-ins and DIY projects designed to maximize every bit of function and space.

Kids’ Rooms: Empowering Little Designers in the Downsizing Process

Onward to the kids’ rooms, where their personalities truly shone! Here’s how our daughter’s room looked right before our showings. (We did swap out the curtains for fresh white ones, but unfortunately, we forgot to snap an updated picture before the move!)

And here it is now, a blank slate for her imagination. We engaged in extensive conversations with both our children about what they truly wanted to bring to their new spaces. It was fascinating to see their priorities! While I initially assumed our daughter would want to bring her headboard (even if we upgraded the actual bed frame for one with drawers or a trundle), she surprised us by having no attachment to it whatsoever! Her primary desire was to bring her dresser, a truly functional piece. She also wanted to keep a lot of her cherished art, but not every single piece. Curiously, she didn’t want the cubby-bookcase storage unit we had against one wall (which isn’t pictured in either photo but is visible in the video tour). As she’s almost 10, we’re giving her a significant amount of control over designing her new room. Frankly, based on her incredible cardboard box houses, I’m 100% convinced she’s a more innovative designer than I am at this point! She is absolutely thrilled to be putting the money “earned” from selling items in her old room towards new pieces for her Florida space. Her enthusiasm is palpable, and I genuinely cannot wait to see the creative choices she makes.

The Beloved Art Room: A Creative Hub That’s Coming With Us

Ah, the art room – a space that initially didn’t exist in our home, but once it came into our lives, it garnered absolutely constant, invaluable use. This creative sanctuary was truly a game-changer for our family. Here’s how it looked, brimming with artistic potential, before our showings:

And this is how it looks now – completely empty, because every single piece of this art room is coming with us! We are absolutely committed to recreating and integrating this indispensable space into our new Florida home. Its daily use as a “home base” for all things paper, cardboard, and imaginative creation made it a non-negotiable item for the move. We’ve already begun planning its placement, which you can read more about here and here. Just as in our Richmond home, we intend to tuck it upstairs, ensuring it’s not the very first thing guests see upon entering the house – largely because our children’s artistic creations have a wonderful way of multiplying and spreading joy (and sometimes a bit of creative chaos, ha!). You can even catch a glimpse of this vibrant space in action within this “Real Life” highlight on our Instagram.

Embracing Less: The Freedom and Excitement of Intentional Downsizing

So, there you have it – a comprehensive look at our farewell to the Richmond house, filled with tours, reflections, and the practicalities of a major life transition. As usual, this turned out to be far more verbose than I initially intended, but some stories simply require detailed narration! And despite all the explanations, I fully anticipate a barrage of “wait, you’re not bringing XYZ?!” questions, as every shared Instagram story seems to spark countless inquiries when something left behind catches someone’s eye. The long and short of it is this: we genuinely adore every single item we’ve carefully selected for our home over the years. However, the practicalities of moving to a significantly smaller space meant we simply couldn’t bring everything. We are profoundly excited about the prospect of living in a smaller home, with fewer possessions to maintain and manage. This new chapter means embracing a more intentional lifestyle, which inevitably required making some incredibly tough choices about what truly serves our future needs and brings us joy.

Believe me when I say I tirelessly tried to find a spot for my beloved Serena & Lily stools for about a month. The thought of leaving them was heartbreaking! Even knowing our new kitchen wouldn’t have an island, I pondered every possibility: “What about a slim bar against a wall somewhere? Could they possibly survive on the covered porch, providing stylish outdoor seating?” Finally, I had to face the music and admit to myself that there was definitively no suitable place for them. And surprisingly, there was something profoundly liberating in that honest admission. Furthermore, the comfort of knowing that the things we loved, and specifically chose for certain spots in this house, get to continue their story with a new owner who will cherish them here, feels incredibly good.

This entire rigorous exercise of decluttering and downsizing has also imbued us with an even deeper appreciation for the items that are making the journey in the pod. That, truly, is OUR FAVORITE STUFF! It’s packed with carefully selected pieces that we believe will be the most useful, the most beautiful, and the most integral to our new, smaller house by the beach. Oh man, the anticipation is almost unbearable – we absolutely cannot wait to unpack that pod, reunite with our cherished belongings, and begin styling our new Florida sanctuary! On a related note, how many houseplants do you reckon I can surreptitiously cram into the car with us for the drive down to Florida? If I had my way, it would be ALL OF THEM – though John has firmly, and predictably, said no to that ambitious plan!

P.S. For any burning questions about specific paint colors used throughout our Richmond home, or where we sourced furniture items, accessories, blinds, rugs, and other decor elements, you’ll find all of that comprehensive information conveniently compiled in this dedicated shopping guide post.