Back to our roots
 

My wife, Trish, and I met in Miami in 1979 and moved to Southern California (aka SoCal) in 1982. After running our very successful specialty acoustical contracting company (Coustic-Glo) for many years we bit the bullet and just yesterday bought a one year old home in DeSoto. We first visited The Villages in the late 90s when my parents lived in Leesburg. Then we didn’t revisit until June 2018. We’ve been working since that visit to figure out how to get out of California and into The Villages. No politics discussion intended but our monthly living expenses will be cut in half. Our CA home sold in two weeks. Our best friends’ home just sold in 1 day and they will be following us down. Our California friends all want to know how we stand the heat, humidity, bugs, alligators and hurricanes. Since we’ve lived here before, we can say “been there, done that!” Of course we will no longer be experiencing those unannounced CA earthquakes. After the Northridge earthquake in 1994 we had to rebuild our home in the San Fernando Valley. For the past 21 years we had been living in Simi Valley. In California we are currently “homeless” living in our motorhome in an RV park. So now the transition gets challenging. Today we sit with a calendar and figure out the what’s and whens of our move. As soon as we have established residency in Florida, we’ll sell the business in CA and save ton of personal taxes. So I’ve talked too long here....we are very happy to be moving to TV and as my wife likes to say, “We can now drink the Koolaid” and tell everybody how wonderful The Villages is.

:welcome:Congratulations!!! An awesome adventure awaits you. Take it a day at a time, a task at a time. You'll love it here even more than you think you will.

Great intro and welcome. We also spent a good amount of time in SoCal and never looked back. Yeah Florida has its bugs, hurricanes and humidity but playing golf or going on a walk in shorts in January seems to offset it all.

We sold one of our companies back in 2007 and even though we were residents of Florida we got smacked with a huge Cali tax hit. Hopefully you have a better tax plan then we did.

Are you planning to road trip here in the RV? My wife and I have done that road trip many of times and have tons of pointers as far as weather, side trips etc. We store our big Coach here locally but use it now to travel between our homes in the Keys and the Ozarks.

Cheers

We plan to drive the motorhome here probably after our closing but before the holidays. That most likely puts us on the road the first of December. We are a little concerned about making the trip in the winter but then we will be taking the southern route. Due to being married to the business we have never made a trip longer than to Phoenix. We are arranging covered storage in the TV area and hope to do lots of east coast camping including lots in Florida. Any tips you have would be appreciated.

For sure I would take the southern route if leaving in December. I-10 South all the way. The only weird spot depending on height of RV is the tunnel in Mobile AL. If you want to ever visit the Keys, we have full hookup and space at our home there.

Cheers

Some would have you believe we do nothing but complain here on TOTV -- not true.

We don't have an RV and don't plan on getting one but still I want to thank you for your kind offer to the other poster. It's posts like yours that make TOTV great!

Congratulations and welcome to TV!
:welcome:

What a nice offer.....thank you so much. We literally changed our plans since posting our introduction. We now plan to drive the MH across the southern route beginning the end of this month. That will get us here a few days before closing. So we’ll arrive with our 13 year old deaf, arthritic but always happy dog and our towed Chevy Equinox. Note to self: get more Sun Passes. My Honda Ridgeline pickup is scheduled to be shipped and delivered a few days after closing. So now we are trying to line up the vendors and contractors we need before moving furniture in - concrete coating in the garage and lanai; power drop down stairs for the attic; sliding shelves in the pantry, and so forth. Every morning in our Airbnb rental I sit in the lanai drinking coffee, reading my iPad and watching the sun light the sky and I realize how much we are going to enjoy living here.

You may want to get ahold of a sinkhole map and read up on where sinkholes have occurred in The Villages as it is built on Karst. The Science Behind Florida’s Sinkhole Epidemic
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Science
| Smithsonian

Thank you for the article. We have been studying this sink hole info and will definitely take the separate sink hole insurance policy. We are from earthquake country so understand fast destruction can happen with no warning. We rebuilt one home there after the Northquake in 1994.

Lots of Planning
 

The mortgage is approved. The closing date is set. The insurances are ready including wind, flood and sink hole coverages. The new golf cart is purchased. The concrete sealing is scheduled. The attic stairs are being installed. the pest control and gardener are booked. And we are just beginning. Wow....a lot of balls in the air for old people. Can’t wait for our first night.

Pity you can't stay in business a bit longer when you get here, and do something for the bad accoustics in many of TV restaurants.

Acoustics
 

It’s funny because everytime we eat out in The Villages my brain is figuring out how our company could simultaneously improve the acoustics and enhance the cosmetics. But then it’s time for my brain to also retire from real work!

Even egg trays stuck on the ceiling in some establishments would improve the sound quality!! :icon_wink:

My father was one of the early pioneers in the field of audiology so I grew up being conscious of sound and how to control it. I finally bit the bullet and bought my first set of hearing aids two years ago (now on my second set). With hearing aids I’ve become even more sensitive about the ambient sounds in a facility and particularly restaurants. My aids have all kinds of artificial intelligence built into them but regardless of the programming, a loud restaurant can be an impossible place to hear talking. So the best solution is at the source - dampen the noise. We’ve installed all sorts of sound control features in loud facilities including restaurants. I wonder if there are any acoustical contractors that work locally? I would expect Orlando to have some. Gee....another project to work on.