[twoplanekid]

Around the turn of the century, a couple in our church announced that they were relocating from Ohio to a small retirement community in Florida called The Villages. While my dad lived in Englewood, Florida for several years, I had no desire or interest in leaving Ohio.

Several years later around 2007, good friends of ours in Urbana, he is a fellow Urbana High School classmate of mine tried to bid on houses in a retirement community only to always be out bid. Then in 2014, this same couple asked us to share a rental in the Villages for several months. As my wife loves to spend months in Florida during Ohio winters, we agreed and had a very good time although I could only spend one week a month doing so because I was not yet retired.

Because my wife wanted to continue this rental thing, I decided to look at homes I would feel comfortable to own to use as a second/vacation home. She was delighted with my idea and we spent the summer of 2014 looking. We visited in the fall to view a specific house which sold as we were traveling to Florida. However, it only took us two days to find and then offer to purchase our current home in Lake Deaton.

In January of 2015, my wife and I traveled to the Villages to furnish our new home. My brother came down not long after to purchase the last new house on our street some 7 houses from us.

Our only regret with the house was to not have a view of the water. However, this last summer I talked my brother into going in halves with me to purchase a very nice condo unit 75 miles away in Hudson that does overlook the gulf and has a boat dock to boot.

P.S The one couple is still living in the Villages and my classmate/couple is now living in Marsh Bend. Who would have thought?