Home upgrades suggestions
 

We are planning on buying a house in TV this fall after our house here is sold. In looking at homes for sale in TV I noticed that there's often references to upgraded AC, water treatment, tankless water heaters etc. My question to all of you is, what upgrades would you have made to your home knowing what you know now? Are there some that you think are more necessary than others? Thanks for any insight you can give me.

Definitely
 

Tankless water heater.

Thank you for the quick response.

It all depends if you are buying new or not. If new, no need to upgrade AC. We also didn't get water purifier, as we find nothing wrong with the taste of the water here. Also, if you are buying a new home here, you will not have natural gas, it'll be all electric, so a tankless water heater is not an option. Solar tubes are a nice addition, more so from an aesthetic point of view, as you will never recoup the energy savings as opposed to using a light.

Attic stairs, preferably aluminum, epoxy on the garage floor.

:clap2:

It is my opinion that the one thing most people move to another home here for, because they do NOT have it in their present one, is a golf cart garage or a bigger garage. Remember for not just your vehicles, but for other storage and projects. It is in essence your basement.

A golf cart garage along with a two car garage is one of the things on our wish list. Thank you for the advice.

Stings,
IMHO, move in, get a feel for the area, your new home, and your neighbors, etc. Do NOTHING for a few months, talk to everyone, get information, then and only then start to make changes.
We feel the water here is hard, this is a matter of opinion. There will be at least 3 or 4 water quality people stopping by your house, ignore ALL of them. You will save hundreds or thousands going with Sears, Home Depot, or Lowes.
Painting the garage floor is a good idea, BEFORE it gets loaded up. We used a clear coating, but the epoxy with or without flakes is very nice, expect to spent well over a $1000.
I agree with the solar tubes, we installed LED lights, and consider this a much better solution, these work at night and when it is cloudy.
There are lots of other upgrades that you will discover as you live here for a while, each has good points and bad points.

Above all, you are moving to a really nice location, with very nice people. Relax, take it in, and please DO NOT TRY TO DO EVERYTHING AT ONCE, remember you are retired.
Hope this helps.

I would put location first and upgrades second. When we bought our spec home, it was our second home. Soon we tired of driving back and forth to Michigan, and this has become our permanent home. As a permanent home, we would have spent more on the view.

Also, I would, if building, put the least upgrades in (except for expanded space), as the quality of materials they use is not the best. Our home had carpeting in the living area, which we ripped out in favor of tile (two hairy dogs), and corian countertops that scratched like crazy, which we replaced with a better grade of granite than was available in a custom home. Neighbors who built put the least in as possible (lower taxes), and then moved in and replaced carpeting with hardwood floors and laminate with granite or quartz.

We tiled our lanai because the cement had so many cracks in it, and home warranty/builder wouldn't do anything about it other than offer to paint it and charge us $200. It looks beautiful, and we're so happy with it. (dark red with black grout). We installed coolaroos shades on the lanai to control the sunlight.

Later we had the garage covered with that thick speckled paint stuff. It looks terrific and is so easy to clean.

Our next plan is to address the water situation with whole house filter, recarpet the bedrooms with a better quality carpet, and finally, paint, if we ever settle on colors.

Many people have sun tubes installed to bring in light.

You don't know how much a big garage is important till you move in

I wish we had removed all carpeting and replaced with laminate before we moved in. New house, but cheap cheap cheap carpet. Thinking about doing it now exhausts me.

suggestions
 

make sure light switches are on all walls needed....or on floor to accommodate table lamps.

and my number one suggestion:

Make sure the toilet position accommodates the width of a vacuum.

Get stainless appliances that do not leave fingerprints.

I love the new security doorbells.

If you add a lanai screen make sure installer does not leave collection areas for leaves etc.

Line one of your closets with cedar if you have need for protection.

love built-ins (book-shelves, wine rack, pantry.

Plantation shutters are great here in Florida, helps with utility bill as a bonus.

a pasta faucet near stove is nice but not necessary.

:bigbow:

Thank you
 

All these suggestions are just what we hoped for. If anyone has any other ideas we would like to hear them.

As an aside when we were at TV last summer we met many great people. We can't wait to get there.

We have a three car garage in our house here and at least a third is used for stuff!

Thanks again!

Remember that if you put in attic stairs you will need to use them, which means storing stuff. After a couple years the attic becomes the black hole where stuff disappears. I agree with the epoxy on the garage floor. If you can find a home you like with a 3 car garage jump on it......we have lost a couple neighbors because the garage was just not adequate.

Yes we had attic storage above our garage here. Took almost 175 boxes down as we are preparing to sell the house. Hope to leaven that load as I don't relish moving all of that stuff across country just to re-store it. From these suggestions today we have added flooring for the house and garage as must do's prior to move in.

Most new homes here come with the bare minimum in the way of gutters, mainly just around the entry. Count on $400 to $600 to have the whole house done. The other thing no one has mentioned is whole house surge protection. You can rent this monthly from SECO the electric supplier or buy your own thru the electrical contractor that did your house which in the long run is more economical.

We removed all the carpeting and replaced it with laminate, installed a whole house water filter system, upgraded the doors and locks and installed privacy landscaping. There were other improvements, though for us these were the most important.

so true. and try to have the laundry system in-house & not in garage. also avoid lanai so close to yr neighbors.

If on the outside of the house how do you protect it if it freezes.
How does this speed up the delivery of hot water to the master bath?

I would look toward a regular hot water tank and a pump on a timer that circulates hot water through the house. Set the timer for the times you normally need hot water. This will save water. But it may cost you more to hear the water. Should cost about $500 or less to install.

Storage space - kitchen and garage

The storage space is minimal. Get a golf car garage. Get rid of stuff before you move. Epoxy garage floor before you arrive. Install pull down ladder in garage. Everything else should be delayed unite after you arrive. You we be in a hurry to get everything done as soon as possible. Take your time. See what is available. Do not fall for the water quality pressure salesmen. Decide for yourself. The classified section in The Talk is a great place to find odds and ends. You are not moving here for the house. You are moving here for the activities that take place outside the house. Concentrate on that and enjoy.

ideas
 

Just a few suggestions that I wish I could have done when we built. Builder would not let me do things I wanted when we built, but I think they are more flexible now. Stretch EVERYTHING as much as possible, every direction....Stretch the lanai and the garage for sure. Be aware that different home styles have different size garages. (Look up the floor plans for all the models you are interested in and compare floor space) For example, the Gardenia model garage is much smaller than the Lantana model. If you have the money and are building, I would have the area behind the golf cart garage built out. You can either make it a workshop, or an exercise room or a huge closet.....it is great extra space and is much cheaper built in the beginning than adding on later. These homes do not have a lot of space, so stretching helps....if your lot will allow it. Put in upgraded carpet and granite. Actually, I would put in Quartz as I think they are allowing that now. I like it much better than granite.
Have the garage floor painted BEFORE you move it. You will be glad you did. Hope these ideas help some.

Has anyone ever carpeted the Garage floor with indoor/outdoor carpeting? We have done it several times and it looks great and doesn't wear. Just cut the Roomba loose once a week...Beautiful...:popcorn:

We had the popcorn ceiling replaced with knockdown finish, installed hardwood flooring, 5 1/2 inch baseboards, new ceiling fans, granite counter tops/backsplash in kitchen and baths, tall toilets, plantation shutters, upgraded all kitchen appliances to stainless, installed farmhouse sinks, installed pull out shelves in all the lower cabinets, and had all cabinetry refinished/new hardware. We decided not to have crown molding because we didn't think it would look right with the angles of our ceilings. I also had a Versa Lift installed in the garage.

Of all these improvements, I highly recommend the pull outs and the tall toilets. My wife, who has much finer aesthetic appreciation than I, would recommend all the other stuff.

To solve the problem of insufficient A/C storage, we closed in our nook and built a walk in pantry. Best thing we could have ever done!

We have a Sunflower (Same floor plan as Begonia) and decided with the dining room table, the bar which seats 4 and the 30ft lanai, we did not need another place to dine. We needed storage!

The area where the nook is entered from the foyer we made into an mirrored alcove which I use to display seasonal decor. We love the walk in pantry it is 6ft x 7 ft and with floor to ceiling storage it is a life saver!

Luckily Hubby was a builder and I designed several of our homes, so we could look at the floor plan and knew that this was a great way to tweak the area for our personal use.

We have a view lot and also added a 12ft slider to the living room. We have 2 sliders now. We moved the original slider to the dining room, so we have 21 ft of glass opening onto our lanai and our view. We think the view is the best part of our home. So glad we built when they were still doing custom in 2014, so that we could tweak that. I don't think we would have gone to the trouble to tear out a wall and add the slider. The pantry was super easy!

We also stretched all that our lot would allow. We did the garage stretch all the way to the back of the house. Many people stop at the garage. By extending it to the back of the house we were able to add 2 ft to our laundry room and master bedroom. We certainly did not need the bedroom space, it is a generously sized on the standard plan, but the additional room in the laundry room is a real plus.

We feel very fortunate that we bought at the right time to make the custom changes that we wanted. We love our home!!

That sounds like a great idea but are you sure it would be more expensive to add later?? I've heard that after market additions would be cheaper.

Pull-outs in cabinets, attic stairs, attic fan, garage door insulated,
tiled lanai, alarm system, Nova water filter, landscaping,
and my favorite, Master Bedroom closet system.

We took our time and did it over 2 or so years.

Three things we did immediately were to epoxy the garage floor (when it was empty), have crown molding installed throughout the house (and got a discount because the house was empty), and have all the bedroom closets dismantled, patched and painted (with new bedroom colors) to have The Container Store custom closets installed. We had the closet measurements in advance and had The Container Store design them for us and ready to go at settlement. Something we wish we did was to paint the laundry room, at least behind the washer and dryer before it was installed. We would also recommend having any flooring changes done before moving furniture in.

After move in, we have had gutters and attic steps installed. A tip on the gutters is to wait to see where water runs and puddles (or stains) to see if you need to route some of the gutter drains out underground. We found we needed to extend the front gutters underground.

We also have had recessed lights installed in a bedroom, living room, and the dining room area (where we removed the chandelier, replaced it with a fan and made it more seating area). We used the smaller (4 inch) recessed cans instead of the larger ones found in the kitchen and elsewhere in the house, and they are on a dimmer switch. We liked this idea for getting more light into the house instead of solar tubes. Over time, we have also replaced almost every interior and exterior light bulb with LED lights. (Start with your outside lamp post and kitchen recessed lights to get the most immediate electricity savings.) Another item we did was to have a quad electric box (for four plugs) installed in the place of a two plug box in the master bathroom. We could only do the interior wall, but wished that we could have done this for all master bathroom outlets. (Ladies have a lot of items to plug in!)

These were the enhancements we made in the first year. We have now moved on to doing an addition to the lanai. We mention this solely because we have a lot of neighbors who have been in TV for less than three years who wish they could make changes to their properties, but their lot lines won't allow it or won't allow the size of what they would want to do. Be familiar with the set backs of your lot, preferably before you buy....as this is key to knowing why the average Villager moves three times within TV.

All of the previous suggestions are great but I would do the minimum needed to the house you purchase, until you have decided this is the house your staying in and never plan to move, before you take on several projects that may cost thousands of dollars.

The average villager moves three times.

A fairly new home won't require much repair so most of the changes might be decorative. It is very easy to spend several thousand dollars and then, oops, I decided we should move!!!

Like the old saying, "measure twice and cut once".

Would it be wise to seal the grout before we move in? Any one having trouble with grout getting nasty? Can't wait to be able to move.

Sealing grout. We didn't include this in our "things to do immediately" recommendations, while the house is still empty, because we did it. It was the worst thing we did before moving in. We hired a local company, whose owner lives in TV. There are even glowing reviews for them on TOTV. To make a long story short, the owner himself ended up doing the work. He used his "proprietary" sealant formula, which turned out to be purchased, right out of the can, concrete sealer. Anywhere the sealant touched that was not grout, left smear marks permanently on the tile. He also sealed the bathroom, including the shower floors. He completely covered the shower floor tiles, (his excuse was that they were small). The product he used was not supposed to be used in wet areas. The product manufacturers doesn't make a remover. We learned most of this after the fact.

There is usually not enough lighting in a new house to see the extent of damage (smear marks, splashes, drips) before it is finished and paid for. When we complained, and showed him the areas we were concerned with, he offered to come back and remove the overspills. He showed up with a helper, a mop, bucket and some Goof Off. Based on research we had done, we knew this was not a solution and we asked them to leave. We spent a whole day with acetone in an enclosed space, trying to mitigate the shower floor sealant.

Our only advice here to anyone wanting to hire someone to seal their grout would be to 1.) know exactly what product or products are going to be used on your grout and that this/these are meant for grout; 2.) know if the sealant is removable (within a certain time during application or after); get references for the same type of job, talk to them, and ask if you can see example of finished work (many happy homeowners in TV are happy to show off their projects); and during the whole time of application, watch them do the work.

The floor was supposed to be super cleaned before application, so the expectation was to have ultra clean, shiny floors when finished. Our floors had a dirty look to them before (post new construction) and worse after. Plus, we get a daily reminder of this bad choice every time we get in the shower and see the shiny smear marks.