Courtyard landscape designs
 

OK folks who was the brain from TV that designated the landscaping in Courtyard villas.

Imagine this if you were to own a villa. On the side by your front door is your neighbors gate to his or her backyard. Now from his/her walkway along side his/her garage to that gate and only from the corner edge along side the house/garage to the fence up to this gate is your property. Even though the power meter,cable box and whatever else is on the wall belongs as his/her utilities. NOT YOURS.

So when you landscape and take out the pine straw and replace with other materials you have a stupid 10 feet by 3 foot section that you must maintain. STUPID, STUPID, STUPID.

So now my property which we want to take out all the pine straw and replace with rock and other slate materials will look STUPID, STUPID, STUPID because when we place the stone down can't go from the front all the way around along side our house and through our gate to stone the complete backyard. We must avoid this 10 X 3 foot section because the neighbor whose property is on the other side of my walkway owns this 10 X 3 foot area.

Thats right I got to leave it with pine straw. The villages wont give me his/her name or mailing address The owners haven't been seen since I arrived on 1/3/08. So I had to send a letter showing "TO OWNERS" at its villages address and hope they have mail forwarded to wherever they live.

again STUPID, STUPID, STUPID.


:cus: :cus: :cus:

Re: Courtyard landscape designs
 

Bubbalarry, We also have CYV and appreciate your dilemma. You can find the name and mailing address for any property from the Sumter County Tax assessor's web site. Just plug in the address. You'll have more info than you ever imagined, including what they paid for their CYV. http://www.qpublic.net/sumter/search.html

Marion and Lake Counties may have similar web access to their tax records.

George

Re: Courtyard landscape designs
 

I'll admit I don't understand this exact problem. We visited the CYV only one day and I didn't think about landscaping though we'd certainly do something other than straw

Re: Courtyard landscape designs
 

Tried the link and it shows nothing. I guess I need to wait for taxes to be paid before it will show up. Thanks for the try.

Re: Courtyard landscape designs
 

Bubba....yours is a fairly new neighborhood; it can take 3-6 months for the sale info to show up in the Sumter Co system;

Re: Courtyard landscape designs
 

Bubbalarry

We are currently in the process of redoing the front landscaping of our Courtyard Villa. The landscaping people know the "rules" and they were the ones to inform us that what we thought was our neighbour's property is really ours to landscape. We were surprised to learn that what we thought belonged to us doesn't! :dontknow: Nutty for sure.

However I am SO happy living in Paradise that I could live with a purple garage door if I had to!

Loving it in TV

P.S. I apologize in advance to those who have purple garage doors. ;D

Re: Courtyard landscape designs
 

You get to landscape the area across from your front door, but not the area behind your garage. What's the problem? It's strange, but it has worked for some time in TV. What's
Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! (to use your words) is buying a CYV and not knowing all of this.
I've even heard of people paying up to a $50,000 premium on a home lot and not knowing a train goes by 20- 30 times a day. Duh!

Re: Courtyard landscape designs
 

I've tried to look up tax information for several homes in the Villages, but don't get anywhere. (I'm using the right county, too.) Is there some other way they list the properties other than The Villages?

Thanks, Jan

Re: Courtyard landscape designs
 

1. sumterpa.com/
2. Click on search records
3. Click on Yes I accept.......
4. Click on Location Address ( one of several options )
5. Type in the street name, no number, and the entire
street will come up if it's in there. If not, try one of the other options.
If nothing works, ask Sumter Co. when will they update the records on-line.

Re: Courtyard landscape designs
 

Wow 6 posts and you know how everything worked for TV. You should be commended for your expert knowledge.

Do you own a CYV?

No matter how long TV has done it this way it still looks STUPID, STUPID, and still STUPID.

FYI, I suggest you speak with people who own CYV and have vines/plantings crawling up the side of their house because thats what their neighbors put in. That causes real wars and is unnecessary. I on the other hand knew all of this going in saving $$$$ thousands where others overpaid. However I still think the CYV are the way to go for part timers.

My thread was a question on who the designer was and unless your the designer bug off.

Now if you have issues over what my threads all about don't read it. If you have input thats constructive please by all means add to it. Don't be a wise*^+.

Re: Courtyard landscape designs
 

Aaaah! Someone hasn't sipped enough of the coolade. Doesn't sound like America's friendliest hometown. Here's where we all hummmmmm a few bars of cumbyya and make nice. Rent a few months a year and you won't have these problems. I'll have some strawberry coolade Mr. Jones.

Re: Courtyard landscape designs
 

Hey....... Budda-larry, calm down buddy. I do own a CYV that I bought in 2004.
I believe there are 108 houses in our villas. Not a single person that I know of has a problem with the set up that has you blowing a gasket. And don't ask, Yes I do know most of them. We have a great neighborhood organization. Monthly meetings, a news letter monthly, a web site (with a talk forum) and lots of activities going on all the time.
Everyone has a list of all other owners and their phone numbers. Also contact info. on the snow flakes in case we have to contact them. The lady next to us is only here 1 month a year. We talk to her up in N.Y. several times a year about things like " landscaping ."

If it makes you feel better I,ll apologize for only having 6 posts. Now, do you feel better?
I think you should get all your info. from the people with hundreds of posts, they're much smarter than I am.

Did you have any problems with my second post on this subject? I think it's helpful. Nobody has made a comment on that one.

Have to turn in soon...I have an early tee time tomorrow. You stay glued to this site and
maybe by tomorrow you will have 200 more posts. Boy,will you be smart then!

Tell the Rev. Jones I said hi and drink lots of kool-aid.

P.S. To Barefoot at last "Anyone with a purple garage door should be doing the apologizing."

P.P.S. To villages 07 Sumter Co. PA site also lists property by sale dates. There are 164 listed as sold in Jan 2008 that didn't take 3-6 months to be posted on the site. I don't know if that is all of them.

Folks it just dawned on me what it is that I dislike the most about TOTV.
1. Not enough people say " I don't know." and they offer incorrect info.
2. Not enough people say " I screwed up and I'm mad at myself." Easier to get mad at
someone else. Well I'm mad at myself for getting drawn into this petty BS. I think I'll
go back to just reading TOTV and chuckling.

BOMBERO in a CYV year round. Bubba I'll buy you a beer someday.

Re: Courtyard landscape designs
 

Where in my post does it show me blowing a gasket? Calling the designer stupid is my perogative along with my neighbors who think of the designer the same and some use more derogatory terms.

Again your making statements on your own without knowing who or what I am or who they are.

You don't live in or near my community with my fine neighbors. We don't have a problem other than why would they make something as beautifull as TV and then go and create this design. It makes no sense so if it makes no sense it's STUPID in our opinion.

I am not here to debate the issue any longer other than to say your comment wasn't appreciated about buying a CYV and not knowing about it.

I've been coming here for 11 years and rented everytime. I have seen hundreds of homes both VHS and MLS that we looked to buy. I never needed to sell a house to buy, just didn't like anything I saw except in Bridgeport and the asking prices for those properties are ridiculous for a 2700 sq ft house. Finally we tired of the landlords who BS you to get the first months rent and security to find when you arrive, what they claimed they had never existed.

One landlord actually had a P-38 for a can opener as they were so cheap we had to spend $10 to buy an electric one. This in a designer home.

Now I appreciate the post that shows me access to Sumter, but again we here in Hadley Village don't like the designers setup. You can quote us on it.

Re: Courtyard landscape designs
 

Again I have rented for 11 years and even through TV, who for 11 months had held my money for one year on a designer home with a King, Queen and 2 singles until the day before we departed. They called and changed the location from Winifred where our friends live all they way up off Rt 42, under power lines. Oh yes the beds became 2 doubles and a desk in the 3rd bedroom. Just right for my family to visit.

Killed all our plans as we refused to accept the unit. We found something in Spanish Sprigs by going out of TV to a Realtor. Of course we lost everything except our security which was held for 2 months. Never again.

So please renting isn't always the answer unless you get lucky and find an honest landlord.

Re: Courtyard landscape designs
 

We bought our courtyard villa almost three years ago and have redone all the landscaping. We were fortnate that we bought before the developer discovered he could save a bundle by using pine straw instead of sod. Personallly, I wouldn't buy a place with pine straw. I find it very unattractive. The developer is selling it as "maintenance free" but I don't buy that at all. In our neighborhood, most of the villas have had their landscaping redone since moving in and we have a really attractive neighborhood.

I wouldn't and didn't consider anything once I saw our Villa. I live privacy and I like having our own small neighborhood. Only 68 villas in Cherry Vale and we are a close neighborhood. Every month, many of us get together and celebrate the birthdays that month and once a month, the ladies get together for breakfast. In a small neighborhood, you can really get to know people and I LOVE my neighborhood.

To each his own but I wouldn't knock anyone for buying a different type home than mine. Everyone has their own style and the CYV is ours. :bigthumbsup:

Re: Courtyard landscape designs
 

Stone also looks nice and thats the way we plan on adding and removing the ugly straw. Adding sod only gives the mower people $$$$.

Green looks good but not for part timers. It's not maintenance free.

Re: Courtyard landscape designs
 

Bubbalarry,
I think stone's what we're planning too when the time comes.
Durable, attractive and low maintenance

Re: Courtyard landscape designs
 

Bubbalarry and JohnN:
We are currently getting estimates on river rock and seminole chips. I think rock costs about 7 times more than mulch!!! But lasts forever. If you find any great rock places, please let me know.

Re: Courtyard landscape designs
 

Straw is a breeding place for cockroaches.

And weeds will grow up through rock.

get some sakrette and a form and fill the yard in and maybe paint it they have some neat looking forms to use.

Or astroturf.


jmho

Re: Courtyard landscape designs
 

Pete, can't that landscape material that lets water through but keeps weeds out (it's almost like fabric) be put under the rock? That's what I was thinking.

Re: Courtyard landscape designs
 

They have rock at the place we're renting (Hudson, FL). I'm sure they have that stuff under the rocks, but the weeds are coming up. We use that stuff at home in Jersey, and, eventually, the weeds get through it.

The CYV we looked at last week had the straw and concrete in the back yard. I kind of liked it.

When we are actually ready to buy a house, I'll probably drive the salesperson nuts. I just want to make sure I get the house I want. :-)

Re: Courtyard landscape designs
 

njg,
straw is pretty enough, I had it in Atlanta, but it decomposes fast I think, seems I was always refreshing it,

can't someone just "round up" a few times a year for the weeds that may come up?

I dunno.... just wanting low maintenance

Re: Courtyard landscape designs
 

If you can believe these landscapers who claim once the straw is up they spray an industrial spray thats 10 times stronger than roundup and last 5 years till you need to hit it again. Then they install screening supposedly will prevent those same weeds as well from popping up.

At least thats what they claim.

One scaper told me that if you don't take all the straw and some dirt out when applying stone it will cause a buildup and create a small mound where weeds can grow with less effort.

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I wonder if that spray stuff is harmful to dogs?

Re: Courtyard landscape designs
 

njgranny
Naw , it can't be , otherwise I would be spraying it everywhere...

bow wowed fumar

Re: Courtyard landscape designs
 

Wise guy!!!!! :) :) :) :) :)