Date Archives: July 2020

After months spent indoors cooking or ordering delivery every day, it's safe to say that we could all use a nice night out. Thankfully, many eateries throughout the RVA are now offering outdoor dining options. Our REALTORS® encourage you to support our local RVA businesses and enjoy patio dining at one of these Richmond area restaurants.

1. Union Market – 2306 Jefferson Ave., Richmond, VA 23223
   Your favorite neighborhood café and market in Union Hill is ready to serve you in person once again. Union Market has limited patio seating available for customers between 11 AM and 9 PM. Swing by for lunch or dinner and savor favorites like the Chicken Tarragon sandwich, Fattoush Salad, and handmade soup of the day. They're also serving wine and beer by the bottle as well as kombucha for any adults who surely deserve a night to unwind away from home.
   
   
2. Ipanema Café – 917 West Grace St., Richmond, VA 23220
   If you've been craving amazing vegan and vegetarian food, you'll be happy to know that Ipanema Café is once again ready to serve dine-in customers. Their popular BBQ jackfruit, tofu sandwiches, and fresh salads are waiting for you on their cool patio. Stop by if you're in the area browsing Richmond homes for sale and enjoy a healthy meal outdoors.
   
   
3. Home Sweet Home – 3433 West Cary St., Richmond, VA 23220
   Even though you're dining out, Home Sweet Home will make you feel like part of their family with their friendly service and homecooked meals. As one of Carytown's favorite neighborhood hangouts, they're ready to welcome you back for patio dining during brunch, lunch, and dinner. We can't wait to bite into the Upstate, the Jerk, or another Specialty Grilled Cheese. If you can't make it out during the week, dive into their Breakfast Sausage Sandy or Greek Frittata for brunch and savor that sweet flavor you've longed for.
   
   
4. Latitude Seafood Co. – 15532 WC Commons Way, Midlothian, VA 23113
   Even though our Midlothian homes for sale are a little far from the ocean, we're thankful that restaurants like Latitude Seafood Company are in town to provide us with the freshest fish each day. Start your meal with over a dozen seafood appetizers, soups, and salads before diving into the fresh catch of the day like the Mahi Mahi and Snapper or another salty entrée like Lobster Grilled Cheese or Fish Tacos. Be sure to treat yourself to dessert with a Mill Street Cake or Nightingale Ice Cream Sandwich.
   
   
5. Red Salt Chophouse & Sushi – 12221 West Broad, Henrico, VA 23233
   If the words 'steak' and 'sushi' make your mouth water, then Red Salt Chophouse & Sushi is ready to satiate your taste buds. Delivering a new culinary experience to the area, this unique steakhouse and sushi bar is unlike any other restaurant near Henrico homes for sale. From the lunchtime Bento Boxes and savory starters to the exceptional hand-cut steaks and specialty sushi rolls for dinner, every dish is handcrafted to your preference. Their patio offers limited seating for guests who are ready to finally enjoy the upscale restaurant experience that they've desired for months.

Are you looking to get out of your current house and move into a home with a large enough patio to enjoy outdoor dining? We can help! Contact us today to browse our homes for sale in the RVA and surrounding area. 

Who wouldn't want their home to feel more spacious? You might think the only way to accomplish this would be to add onto your home, but our REALTORS® have a few other tricks up their sleeves. 

Whether you're getting ready to put up your Richmond home for sale, or you just need a little extra space, these tricks will make your home feel much more open and spacious.

1. Eliminate Clutter
   Nothing makes a small space feel even smaller quite like being filled with too much stuff. Decluttering your space is one of the quickest and easiest ways to open it up. That means reducing the number of pictures on the walls, getting rid of old and unused items, and thinning out your collection of knick-knacks. 
2. Lighten It Up
   It's a well-established fact that lighter colors make a room feel more spacious. When you want a room to feel cozier, you paint it a bold, dark tone. When you want it to feel open and airy, you paint it white (or off-white). Another great trick is to paint your walls a pale shade of blue or gray, and then paint the trim an even lighter white. This creates the illusion that the walls are farther away, enhancing the sense of space. 
3. Downsize
   Scaling down your furniture is a little-used trick to open up your space. And no, we don't mean switching to miniature furnishings. We mean replacing a big overstuffed plushy couch with a more sleek sofa that still offers the same amount of seating, but with a much trimmer profile. Same goes for chairs, dining room tables, coffee tables, and other furniture. Streamlined furniture, like tables and chairs with lithe legs and a low profile, also helps open up the space by letting light flow through and around them. 
4. Use Mirror Magic
   The mirror trick is an oldie but a goodie. Interior designers have been using them to trick the eye into perceiving more space since before interior designing was a thing. Of course, no one is going to see a mirror on your wall and mistake it for a window leading into a whole other room; mirrors trick the eye in a more subtle way. They reflect light as well as the view, subconsciously suggesting that the room is bigger than it is. 
5. Go With the Flow
   Furniture should be arranged in such a way that the empty space flows naturally around it. Pull furnishings out against the wall to create some more space and keep enough space between each piece that they don't feel like they're at risk of bumping up against one another. 
6. Get Creative With Storage
   One of the problems with trying to create space is that we simply have a lot of stuff, and it all needs a home. Even after doing a thorough decluttering, you still need to put all your remaining belongings... somewhere. Use creative storage solutions to keep all this stuff neat and, as much as possible, out of sight. This could mean mounted racks, hooks or cubbies, recessed shelves, and cabinets, or getting creative with baskets and bins. 

Contact us today to learn more about simple tips and tricks to make your home feel more spacious. Our team at Joyner Fine Properties has years of experience selling homes in the Richmond area, and we can offer the guidance you need to sell your home. 

Grab your spoon! National Ice Cream Day is Sunday, July 19th, and you'd better believe that our real estate agents are ready to devour scoop after scoop! National Ice Cream Day is always the third Sunday in July (which also happens to be National Ice Cream Month) and celebrates one of our favorite desserts. Celebrate National Ice Cream Day at one of these Richmond ice cream parlors.

1. Scoop – 403 Strawberry St., Richmond, VA 23220
   Looking for the scoop on National Ice Cream Day? Then you need to head to Scoop, the small-batch ice cream shop that churns our signature and seasonal flavors that everyone will love. Located in the Fan, they produce flavors that are vegan as well as gluten-free. We suggest ordering an ice cream flight (3 mini scoops with three cookie wedges), so you can try multiple flavors. Do note that they also make ice cream cakes, including custom orders, which are perfect for birthday parties, anniversaries, and celebrating National Ice Cream Day, of course!
   
   
2. NarWhals – 3313 W. Cary St., Richmond, VA 23221
   NarWhals is Richmond's first hand-rolled ice cream parlor, where you can create your own mix-in flavors. One of the NarWhals crew members will help you craft the perfect mix-in flavors at their NarWhals Workshop. What do you want with your ice cream? Candy, cereal, fruit? Get as creative as you'd like and enjoy an RVA ice cream experience like no other!
   
   
3. Charm School Social Club – 311 W. Broad St., Richmond, VA 23220
   Using fresh dairy from a local farm, Charm School Social Club makes their ice cream and cones by hand in house every day. They're also hard at work on vegan flavors for those who would love a dairy-free cup or cone. Along with your ice cream, you can also grab a float, cup of coffee, soda, or tea to take on the road.
   
   
4. Gelati Celesti – 3004 Stony Point Rd., Richmond, VA 23235
   Heavenly handmade ice cream right in the RVA, Gelati Celesti, gives you a moment of pure joy every time you take a lick of their ice cream. Using the finest ingredients on the planet, they have over 100 rotating flavors that are made in small batches. Best of all, they'll happily fill a few pints for you to take home so you can celebrate National Ice Cream Day as often as you'd like!
   * Check the website for their 5 other locations and food truck.
   
   
5. Moonrocks Gelato – 2400 W. Main St., Richmond, VA 23220
   Moonrocks Gelato is out of this world! Their unique combination of Gelato and waffles creates a one-of-a-kind sweet shop. Their premium Gelato flavors are constantly changing, offering up new scoops throughout the month. Their warm waffles are also second to none, but what you really want to get a Moonrocks is the Moonrock Panini! A warm Brioche that's stuffed with Gelato and covered with your choice of over 50 toppings…how can we resist?

Hungry for more? Taste test every ice cream shop in the RVA when you move into one of our Richmond homes for sale. Contact us today to get your search started!  

Organizing and decluttering can be great ways to stay productive while social distancing. The only thing more satisfying than an ultra-tidy closet, pantry, or laundry room is seeing what it looked like before it was super organized. And it doesn't need to be spring for us to get overly excited about a good clean-up and organization project. If you need a little inspiration to start your own, these tips and tricks are the perfect motivation to tidy up.

	1. Create Effective To-Do Lists Make a habit of writing down your short and long-term goals. Then create additional to-do lists, separated by task. Listing out the steps you need to work toward your goals will help you reclaim the kind of crisp, results-oriented mindset that builds and sustains momentum.
	2. Make "Mise-En-Place" a Way Of Life The French phrase translates literally to "put in place," and it refers to the practice of gathering all the ingredients and utensils needed before cooking a meal, then systematically cleaning your utensils and workstation as you go. Mise-en-place also beautifully focuses the mind, and, best of all, dramatically cuts down on organizational chaos.
	3. Expose Everything in Your Storage Spaces Stacking clothes up pancake-style means you inevitably only end up wearing (and re-wearing) the few garments that land on top of the piles. The solution: Fold clothes small and tight, and store them in drawers "standing up rather than laid flat," says Marie Kondo, author of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing.
	4. Reuse and Repurpose You don't have to leave the house to purchase anything for these organization projects. Get creative by repurposing shoe boxes and bank-check boxes (both lids and bottoms) as drawer dividers, or putting instruction manuals in a three-ring binder and you'll never rifle through drawers again.
	5. Hang and Stash Hanging and stashing can make any space seem tidier. Think outside of the box when looking for creative storage solutions. A wine rack might store magazines and newspapers, while a wooden peg rack can be used to hang brushes or a blow-dryer in a bathroom.
	6. Keep Your Files Streamlined To keep your desk and living spaces clear of papers and documents you're not currently using (both energy-sapping eyesores), try a simple, three-tiered filing system: one file drawer close at hand for current projects, another for research material you may need in a month or two, and a third for documents relating to finished projects you should hang on to for legal reasons.
Photos: Adobe Stock Source: Real Simple