[Chopper]

This is my first post on TOTV.

We first visited TV in April 2007, just two months after a tornado ravaged the area. On the last day of our visit, we were within an hour of closing on a new designer home when we were struck with a dose of reality. Better sell our current house and take care of some other items before making our big move. It was the right decision at the time. Other priorities put TV on the back burner for the past two years.

Now we are ready to pursue our dream again. The economy has introduced new challenges. Selling our house in Alabama is going to be tough in this housing market, but, we are committed to making the move to TV.

I have been reading the forums on this board for the past week or so and have found the discussions to be very informative and helpful. What a great information resource for a TV wannabe! One item that I found interesting was that since sometime in 2006 buyers could no longer make any choices in building a new home. It has been a "take it or leave it" approach to marketing the new homes.

I just received the latest TV Lifestyle Brochure and Video. The "Our Homes" brochure (printed 11/08) indicates that there are now two ways to select your Villages Dream Home.

Option 1: New Personalized Package Program for Designer and Premier Homes. This plan allows the buyer to select the homesite, select an Interior Decor Package and select an Exterior Color Package.

Option 2: Move right into any of our newly constructed, professionally designed homes and villas.

I wonder how much the buyer can actually specify regarding the interior decor package. Are there just a few "stock" packages. Pick A, B, C or D, or can the buyer actually build an interior decor package. Does anyone have any idea how this works?

Having said all of that, we are also very open to the idea of purchasing a pre-owned home. We have already seen several homes on the internet that were very appealing and also in our price range. We are not ready to just opt for a new home without first exploring all buying options (pre-owned listings by TV realtors, pre-owned listings by outside realtors, and, pre-owned listings from a recently discovered website - Villages FSBO).

Any information on how the Interior Decor Package selection works would really be appreciated.

In the meantime, we will continue to be envious of all of you who are already living TV lifestyle. I go to bed thinking about it and I wake up thinking about it.