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Homes

Turning an upsizing dream into reality

How do you leave a home where you have raised your family after 29 years? You get a move-in service help to shift the memories and make tough decisions.

By ELIZABETH BETTENDORF
Published August 5, 2005

PLANT CITY - Patty and Raymond Conrad had already raised their kids - all seven of them - when they decided to build a bigger house.

A much bigger house.

At an age when most people opt to downsize, the couple - both in their 60s - made a life-changing choice to build a 9,300-square-foot Florida cracker-style house in the orange groves.

The two-story, porch-wrapped house, which sits on the edge of a fishing pond deep in the groves off State Road 60 between Brandon and Plant City, is a dream for the Conrads, who have 10 grandchildren and an 11th on the way.

"When we all get together as an extended family, there are 50 of us," explains Patty, 64. "And we do it four times a year."

So after years of packing everyone into their modest 1,800-square-foot home in Mulberry, they decided it was time for a change. It took them five years to get permits to build on their 50-plus acres of orange grove, some of it planted in the 1930s. The runaround had nothing to do with history, but rather the land's former life as a hydraulic phosphate mine.

They finally broke ground in 2004, and last week the house was move-in ready. But after nearly three decades in the same house, they needed help sifting through the contents of their old life.

Like many people facing a big move, they faced tough questions:

What to keep and what to buy?

Where to put everything in the new house?

The Conrads decided to enlist the help of Roma Starkey, a room arranger and designer in Tampa who also offers clients a highly efficient move-in service. Her goal is to streamline the moving process, thinking out the placement of furniture and accessories for clients who are typically overwhelmed.

"I've done everything from 1,200-square-foot apartments to people downsizing to assisted living facilities to houses like this," Starkey said. "Many clients feel they have no knack for moving at all. They can't get the visual, much less the organizational plan."

On the Conrads' moving day, Starkey waited at their new house with two assistants, Kim Golter and Rachael Pirozzi from the International Academy of Design and Technology. New master-bedroom furniture was already in place, as were the ceiling fans and lights - all of which Starkey advised the couple on prior to the move. Starkey and her crew planned to instruct the movers on where to put rugs, chairs, tables, sofas, nightstands, beds and bookcases.

The next morning, they would hang artwork and arrange decorative items, making the house look like a page ripped from a homes magazine.

"We had already walked through the old house and the new one before the move," Starkey explained. "We knew some of the existing furniture was too small for the scale of the new house, so we bought some new things. But I really tried to use a lot of what they had. Most clients already have everything they need and want. I just embellish it."

If the Conrads still need it, she will enlist the help of a professional organizer to help place the contents of the kitchen cabinets and drawers.

The idea was to make the transition from old house to new seamless, to make it look like the couple had lived there for years - even if they had just moved in.

That was just what Patty Conrad needed.

On moving day, she wasn't in shape to make decisions about which belongings to keep or toss. She was also emotional. She cried at the thought of leaving the house that had sheltered their family for three decades.

"I know I'm moving into a wonderful, beautiful new home, but I raised all my kids in our old place," Patty Conrad said. "Roma has really been a big help making this transition. From the moment we met, I knew I liked that girl. She wasn't having us go out and buy a lot of new stuff. Raymond really liked that."

The new house, built by Radd Builders in Brandon, features a 1,622-square-foot porch - nearly the size of the Conrads' old house. The sheer size of the new place gives Patty Conrad pause: "We're just normal hardworking people - we worked our fannies off for many years to own this house. And it's for our family, our kids and grandkids."

Starkey worked with Patty's Victorian taste into the open, two-story floor plan that includes two kitchens and tiled bedrooms for the grandkids. Starkey incorporated antique lamps and richly detailed wood furniture, as well as new, very modern features, such as covering the walls in the children's play closet in chalkboard.

Eventually, they will put rocking chairs on the front porch for looking out at the fishing pond and gazebo that Raymond Conrad, 69, plans to build.

Conrad, who co-founded - and recently retired from - Central Maintenance and Welding in Lithia, stocked the pond with catfish, bluegill and bass. He grows lychee nuts commercially on the property as well as exotic varieties of citrus and other fruit. He bought the land in 1994.

One hot afternoon in July, he drove a visitor around the property in his Ford pickup, something he enjoys doing. Conrad, who grew up in the area called Hopewell, pointed out an area behind the screened lanai and swimming pool that was being cleared for swingsets for the grandkids. He has planted loblolly pines and western cedar trees around the property's perimeter as a windbreak.

"My dad was a truck farmer and I'm a nature man. This will keep me busy," he said of the land.

As for Patty Conrad, she said she couldn't wait to sit out on the back patio and watch her grandkids play.

"Right now, I'm just tired," she said. "I haven't moved in 29 years. It's a tremendous relief to have Roma here saying "put this here and put this there.' She recycled a lot of what we had - the things that meant something to us. We've gone from 1,800 square feet to something much bigger. In our wildest dreams we never imagined this new house would turn out so beautiful."

[Last modified August 4, 2005, 08:43:14]