Eeeee! That’s my excited dolphin noise — a theatrical impression my kids mock me for whenever I’m extra enthusiastic. I’m so thrilled to share a tour of our new Florida house as it looked the first time we saw it in February. Coincidentally, that was also the last time we were inside in person because our spring break trip was canceled and we’ve been staying put at home. A lot has changed since those photos were taken — both globally with the pandemic and locally with the renovation progress. Over the past six weeks our contractor and his small, socially distant crews have fixed many of the things that made the house uninhabitable: holes in the floor are patched, the AC works, and the bathroom finally has a flushing toilet (and the sink is no longer in the tub).
Believe it or not, this charming house sat on the market for over eight and a half months in a lovely neighborhood only a few blocks from the beach. The visible problems scared many buyers away, but we are thrilled it waited for us. The lot, the mature trees, and the outdoor living spaces sold us — there’s so much to love.
Do we wish we were there overseeing every detail of the reno? Absolutely. But we can handle a few more weeks of managing the project remotely, because by the first week of May the house should be livable enough for us to move in. That’s also when our packed POD from Richmond is scheduled to arrive, so we’ll finally reach a long-term goal: owning—and living in—one smaller house. Cue one more excited dolphin squeal.
We squeezed everything we’re bringing into the smaller house into a single POD. It felt like a giant Tetris puzzle and John mastered the packing (it took four days). Downsizing was tough, but it already feels worthwhile. If you want to hear more about our decision-making process—what we kept and what we let go—you can listen to our podcast episode linked below. That photo we took after packing was cheesy but priceless.
We’ll be sharing a lot about the renovation on an upcoming podcast episode and in future blog posts. There are numerous projects ahead, so this house will be a long-term renovation similar to our Richmond project. Expect plenty of progress photos and updates over the coming weeks, months, and years. But for now, here’s the before tour.
When you step through the front door, this is the first view you see. Yes, that long strip in the floor is a hole caused by water damage — unfortunately, water issues were a recurring theme when we toured the house.
The main first-floor space will become kitchen, dining, and a casual seating area. Ignore the soffit and the mauve counters for now — the centered window over the sink brings great light. We’ve shared style inspiration and how we plan to use these spaces in a separate post linked below.
Update #1: This room will be multifunctional — a kitchen, dining area, and a cozy hangout spot for puzzles, reading, and games. It won’t have a TV; that’s headed elsewhere. The room is much deeper than it looks (about 25 feet), so there’s plenty of space for flexibility.
Update #2: The door on the left is just a closet that houses the water heater and HVAC, with extra room for brooms or a vacuum.
If you stand with your back to the kitchen window and look toward the front door, you’ll notice the original wall paneling throughout the house. We love its charm and character. We were especially smitten with the abundance of large glass doors — there are a total of twelve French doors across this house, which only has six rooms. The light and views of the magnolias and live oaks make the home feel luminous, even on a rainy, gloomy day.
If you walk around the kitchen peninsula and turn left, you enter what was a formal living room but which we immediately decided should become our bedroom. There’s a large living area upstairs, so we don’t need two main living rooms downstairs.
Inside that room are six French doors; if we close off the wide opening and remove the awkward triangular post and mirror, we can create a true bedroom wall for the bed and nightstands and wake up to those doors every morning. That possibility had me practically squealing with excitement.
Looking from inside the bedroom with your back to the six doors toward the kitchen, the plan is to drywall the wider opening so the bed area is private. The smaller doorway on the left will serve as the bedroom entrance.
Imagine waking up to that wall of glass daily, with bamboo shades for privacy and sheer white curtains to soften the light. We plan to remove the odd ledges above the doors and create a simple, beautiful wall that opens to our private outdoor area.
Right outside those six bedroom doors is a glorious tree-filled yard — mature oaks and magnolias surround the lot. The landscaping and the feeling of privacy sold us on the home immediately.
At the far end of the bedroom sits a cozy fireplace wall that we have big plans for. I can already picture quiet weekend mornings with the kids tucked in while the fire flickers. We’ll likely install an electric or gas insert, but we’ll decide on the specifics after we live there and weigh the best options.
Also worth noting: there are two more glass doors off this room that currently open to a small side deck — bringing the door total in this room to eight. That deck is roughly 10 x 10 feet and is perfect for converting into an ensuite and closet, which will give us a second bathroom. The house originally listed with fewer bedrooms and only one bathroom, so that little porch felt like an angelic loophole.
Those trees really are everywhere — lush, shady, and low-maintenance. We gladly passed our mower to John’s dad and waved goodbye to the lawn. No turf, more time outdoors!
Back at the kitchen/dining area you can better understand how the rest of the house flows. That missing flooring area from earlier is more visible here.
There’s an odd deep closet that leads into the only truly private bedroom the house originally had — a strange layout where a bedroom’s closet opens directly into the kitchen. It’s peculiar, but it actually solves a planning problem for us that we’ll explain in a future floor plan post.
Once renovation was underway, we discovered more extensive water damage than expected. We had to repair floor holes and remove and replace drywall on the first floor. The drywall tear-out revealed a hidden bathroom leak — a blessing in disguise since we caught it before moving in.
Down the hall, there’s a linen closet and the access to the only downstairs bathroom. At the time of our first visit, the house’s water had been shut off because of the damage, and the bathroom vanity had been removed — the sink was even placed in the tub. Charming staging, right?
The bedroom that will become our daughter’s room is the only original enclosed bedroom. Since these photos were taken, the ceiling there has been vaulted and planked, which transformed the space entirely. We can’t wait to share the progress photos.
Her room also has two glass doors to a small side porch. We may replace one or both with a large picture window for better flow from the front entry, or simply keep them locked and enjoy the light. Fun fact: that room currently sports three different paint colors — blue, pink, and green.
Next to the bathroom is what used to be a large laundry room; we’re converting it into our son’s bedroom. We vaulted and planked that ceiling too, and the difference is dramatic. On one wall we found some charming wall drawings that caught our attention.
Turns out a well-known local artist, Nancy Swan Drew, lived in the house decades ago and drew those sketches. We were excited to learn the home’s little piece of artistic history. The drywall was too damaged to keep, but we scanned high-resolution images of the artwork to print and frame.
We debated storage and bed systems for this small room — options we detailed in our inspiration post linked below — and will share the final plans once we’re further along.
Update #3: Many of you have asked where the new laundry will go. We’ll reveal that in a future floor plan post once we have more progress photos that make the plan clearer.
Now let’s head upstairs to the huge, light-filled flex space.
This upstairs room is airy and sun-drenched and will host our primary living and working areas. It opens onto a large deck surrounded by trees, which greatly expands our outdoor living options. With the living area and workspaces upstairs, we’ll keep TV time separate from the kids’ bedrooms downstairs and protect household quiet at night.
We might occasionally bring a laptop to the bedroom for focused work, but historically we’ve shared an open office without doors and it’s worked fine. The upstairs space’s size means we can comfortably fit a kids’ art area, a TV and seating area, and a compact work nook.
The large glass door out to the deck creates a seamless indoor-outdoor flow. We plan to use the lower level for outdoor dining and an outdoor shower that will connect to a future pool. The upper deck will be a peaceful spot for calls, reading, and working in the trees. (That chimney that appeared in early photos has already been removed due to leaks.)
The other side of the upstairs room shows just how much space we have to zone for different activities. Unfurnished rooms can be deceptive; this one could fit two 8 x 10 rugs without them touching. It’s far too large to repurpose as a primary bedroom for such a small house, and we want all bedrooms on the same level for convenience at night. Think of the layout as ranch-style living with a bonus loft-style space upstairs for shared family use.
Update #4: We were asked if the upstairs flex space could be the master bedroom. It could, but we prefer to keep all bedrooms together and reserve the upstairs for shared living, working, and outdoor deck access.
Most of the floors are original pine, similar to our previous beloved beach house, and we plan to refinish and clear-seal them. Some boards are already sanded and are looking beautiful. Hooray for no more holes in the floor!
Downstairs we also have a covered side porch and an outdoor shower that leads toward the pool area we plan to build. We’ll simplify the porch posts and make the space more cohesive.
That outdoor shower was water-damaged when we found the house, complete with a dangling light fixture and humorously precarious details. It still makes me laugh to think about it.
A little serendipity: after meeting with a contractor and signing the offer papers at a local lunch spot, I noticed a single book for sale in the shop. The illustrator was Nancy Swan Drew — the same artist who once lived in our house. That felt like a sign. We signed quickly, and as our plane touched down after our trip home we learned our offer was accepted.
This whole process has been a wild, emotional ride, but we’re incredibly excited for what’s ahead: renovating, refining the floor plan, creating new outdoor spaces, and making this Florida beach house our family home.
P.S. If you enjoy these before tours, we’ve shared similar walkthroughs of other houses in prior posts linked below.