What Options to Add After Market
 

We are planning to build a new home in Fenney and will be visiting the Design Center soon to choose our options. Any advice on what options to purchase After Market vs. including with the new home build? (Sorry if this has been asked/answered previously.)

Don’t be in a rush to do anything. Take a look around and take your time. Taste change
after living here awhile

We looked at the floor plan and put our funds into changing what we wanted now, adding depth to the garage, lanai, some of the bedrooms. Get the kitchen options you want.

We can add moldings later, crown, etc.

I'm jealous you get to have so much planning fun!

Do you know yet what model you'll be building? Others with the same house may have more specific suggestions.

Overall, the size of the garage is a big factor for many buyers. A separate cart garage and wider driveway are common post-sale upgrades. Many exterior changes made at a later date will need to get approval from the Architectural Review Committee.

Make all the structural changes you want now. We added 15 feet to our garage and 10 feet (with birdcage) to our lanai. We put tile throughout our house...no carpet anywhere. We specified a full driveway rather than a curve to the golf cart garage. We also added a front porch.

These were our major add-ons to our Iris.

If you would like to see what we did, let me know and you can drop by.

Build your lanai out as far as you can.

We built an Iris recently. Full driveway also. We also extended our garage so we could get deep areas on the side to put in sturdy shelves. Measure what a type of free standing shelves you want and make sure it will sit flush and not protrude into the garage. It makes all the difference. I can park my car in the garage and not hit the shelves and have plenty of room to get out. We extended the house front to back and side to side. We totally eliminated the lanai and enclosed as an under air Florida room. No sliding glass door, just a big crescent shape walk through. Very open. Since we extended was able to add a huge walk in closet and a separate walk in closet for husband in MB. Kitchen was expanded with a big, beautiful walk in pantry. We added a huge room that sits behind the master bedroom overlooking the back yard. (No neighbors behind us). It can be used as a gym, library, craft room....basically anything you want. If I had to do it again, I would have made the laundry room larger. We got the cheapest carpet and pulled all out and put in luxury plank vinyl throughout the house. The more you let The Villages put in, the more your taxes will be.

Good stuff! Thank you. Keep 'em comin'.

We are leaning toward the Begonia model or the Linden.

The average Villager they say moves three times. I found that hard to believe but we ended up being very average. If you decide on a two car plus golf cart garage, make both of them deeper and wider to accommodate shelves and so you can park two golf carts in the golf cart garage. So many couples seem to end up with two golf carts. A large three car garage is even better IMHO.

We built, a Gardenia model and were able to get 3 of 4 requested stretches, and all of the interior items we wanted. We added the birdcage later, after we figured out what we wanted. As pointed out above, anything you add to the house when being built will add to your mortgage and taxes. For example, the builder wanted $2000 for under counter lights, we declined, and I installed my own LED lights for under $300 for both under counter and over cabinet lights. We had the house prewired for a security system, doors, windows, and cable for cameras, this actually saves a lot of money over installing the wiring at a later date. As previously stated, you may want to wait on some of the items until after you move in and see what others have done. Coating the garage floor is a good idea prior to moving in as it is empty, be sure to have 'shark grip' or equal used so you have a non slip finish. We had ceiling speakers (Bose) installed with the house to avoid seeing any wires, but with all of the advances in sound bars and wireless speakers, we get better results with a new sound bar system.
Hope this helps. Send a PM if you want to get more info.

Having previously worked for the design center here would be my suggestions. Take your time. They will try to rush you to be done in one day. Carefully decide what changes are important to you and see if you can see those changes in a finished home. It really depends on your budget. This is the only time you can make structural changes and additions. So yes an additional 3 feet here and there is nice, but will it keep you in budget. I would do any major changes now and just do the basics on all of the other selections. Once you have lived in the home you can see what you may like to change. I would gladly answer any questions or be of any help if I can.

We have a Begonia and love it. We did not have design options when we bought. Things I would suggest are golf cart garage, tile in the public areas, expanded lanai and expanded garage. The standard carpet is ok for the guest bedrooms but would suggest upgrading the master. We have the double sliding doors to the lanai.

Things we added after moving in are, stained glass entry roof with side lights, pull down stairs to attic, you will need the storage space. He careful if gets very hot up there. Crown moulding, additional landscaping, automatic attic vent fan. Painted all walls. Standard white is blah. Plantation shutters, shades in the lanai, blinds across the double sliders. Painted garage floor.

To the standard Begonia, the total cost for all the upgrades was about $15K. Take your time. We were in a hurry and probably could have saved some money. Be careful with the door knockers trying to sell all sorts of stuff.

So, is the general rule of thumb that it is much cheaper to have work done by outside contractors rather than the Developer? e.g., painting, adding crown molding, adding birdcage, adding pull down stairs, etc?

I guess I'd pay a LITTLE bit more for the convenience of having the work done by the Developer, but I wouldn't want to pay a LOT more.

General rule of thumb - yes. In a perfect scenario, you'd be better off getting the basics of everything from the builder and then replace it all with higher grade upgrades after construction. But it's rarely a perfect scenario. Maybe it's not worth it to you to move into a home and then be put through having someone coming in to rip out and replace things like cabinets, counter tops, flooring, etc. Then again, if you can take possession of the home and not move in for a while, maybe there is an opportunity to have those things done and save some money. As others suggested, I would focus more on the structural things that are either difficult or impossible to change after the fact, such as stretches and bigger garage space, and then decide if the things that are a bit easier to change after the fact are worth it to have them done how you want them to start or you prefer to go back and change them later. The truly extra things like backsplashes, moldings, lighting and fans, etc., should be much easier to just not include in the initial design but add/change them later on. Things like attic stairs are a no-brainer. Plenty of companies that will come pop those in for you in no time and at a reasonable price. (That is probably the one thing that makes no sense to me that they don't include already, given the effort and cost, especially in an already upgraded spec home.)