Homes in Southern Oaks
 

I know there are some posters here who live in the Southern Oaks villages and may, or may not, be aware of the differences and diversity of the homes being built and having been built in this area. For the rest of us - have you looked online at, or gone to open houses in the new areas? There are many new styles of homes that are much different and in many cases well advanced over the homes in “the homeland”. We go to open houses down there from time to time out of curiosity, and enjoy seeing the advancements. We went to an open designer the other day that was 4 bed, 3 bath, and over 2300 sf at just over $400k. The veranda homes, designers with fenced yards are also a unique addition. The most glaring advances are in Patio villas imho. Above 44 there were two rather vanilla patio villa models. In the new areas there are about a dozen models, many with two car garages and golf cart garages. There are three bedroom models, and the finishes inside have the feel of a designer home. We were on a neighborhood of patio villas that had picket fences enclosing the yard. I find it very interesting how the developers have observed and listened to what residents want and evolved in the things they are offering. :clap2:

Besides the fenced yards on the Veranda homes and 2 car garage on Patio Villas and Courtyard Villas, the other big difference I see is on the inside. It's an open kitchen with island, which most people consider to be the hub of the home. I believe because of the large display advertising and model homes nearby at On Top of the World and Arlington Ridge, TV has been forced to adapt.

When I came here I noticed so many large designer homes which should feature the kitchen as the most expensive room in the house was usually tucked away in a corner with an L-shaped bar.

Also overlooked was the cabinets themselves, one week of watching House Hunters would tell builders the 7 out of 10 woman want a white kitchen. When I came here 8 years ago and looked at CYV's, not one new home had a white kitchen. We ended up buying horrible looking brown maple cabinets and then spending $5,000 to have them refaced in white. My other cabinet choice was a dark or ebony cabinet. TV seem to love medium brown cabinets and the more modern looking white and gray were very hard to find. Now I see half the new homes having white and gray cabinets.

Here's a model at On Top of the World - very open with an island

https://ontopoftheworldcommunities.c...-kitchen-1.jpg

Typical Villages kitchen on homes built north of 44 - tucked in the corner with brown cabinets and L-shaped bar

https://photonet.hotpads.com/search/...6244_large.jpg

Kitchen on a new home for sale right now, an Iris in Monarch Grove - gray cabinets and an island

https://image.thevillages.com/api/photo/547388.jpg

Evolution takes place everywhere in everything. You can see it when you start in the Spanish Springs area and work your way south. No surprise in what's going on in Southern Oaks. I suspect you will see further changes in the years ahead as the march to Orlando continues :)

The patio villas as of just a week ago no longer will have carpet in the living area and will no longer have an option of white kitchen appliances, all will be stainless. We just purchased one with a two car garage as a rental investment and you can see the more modern touches, the cabinets show brown in the photos but they are actually gray in color. These all come with a washer and dryer also. If you are looking for a long term unfurnished Patio Villa to rent let me know.

...and you have a two car garage on top of those improvements. They are making patio villas more and more desirable. We almost bought a Cabot Cove back in 2011 instead of our CYV, when compared to what you have now, it's ashame they didn't make these changes sooner. In fact the patio villas we looked at in Buttonwood, many had 8' ceilings and a vaulted ceiling was a $2,000 option. Then you have recessed lights in your vaulted ceiling, many of the kitchens then had light fixtures. Now you say no carpet and stainless steel appliances. Looks like only the granite installers and backsplash tile vendors will be the only after-market purchase, and even that's not all that necessary. The flooring I guess is linoleum, but it looks like they picked a pattern that mimics wood, good choice there as well. :coolsmiley:

https://www.talkofthevillages.com/fo...s-img_2194-jpg

The living area flooring is Vinyl Planks, they are using that in a lot of the various models now. Soft to walk on vs wood or especially tile. I would prefer tile but vinyl is what they used.

Even the Courtyard Villas have changed quite a bit. Those met our needs as far as size and features but the 1.5 car garages on an angle was a deal breaker for me. Fortunately, the Verandas were being built when we bought so we got the "courtyard" and a nice garage. However, really more house than we needed. Now, all CYV's are built with a minimum 2 car garage with a straight in driveway and some even have a golf cart garage, and a select few I've even seen with a 3rd car garage. And some of the 2 car garages are very large. I just bought a CYV with a garage big enough to hold both my cars, my golf cart and everything else I need to put in there. Sold my Veranda in less than a day. Some of the Southern Oaks haters are going to continue to hate, but there are a lot of people that want to be down here and it's only getting better.

To be clear I have no interest in being down there, but I am far from a Southern Oaks hater. They are doing some very interesting and positive things in Southern Oaks and I applaud them for that.

John, what a beautifully living room! Most of the newer ideas are wonderful, but I found the concrete/stucco walls, laminated floors, stainless kitchen and grey brown interiors in our Lifestyle villas just plain cold in the winter. Everything was just so cold. The walls, the floor, the counter top etc. I guess that is probably a plus in the summer.