Did Mets win the World Series? NO! :ohdear:
Since you lost our World Series bet, you can pay for lobster in any currency you like. :D

Are you making fun of Canadian currency just because it's coloured? :confused:
Or perhaps because it's in the ditch right now? :cryin2:

Welcome to The Villages. I hope you enjoy it as much as we all do.
Taking your time to get settled and buy furniture is a great idea! :welcome:

We just moved into Pine Ridge--just 2 weeks ago. We have very few neighbors since we're one of the first in this area. Kinda lonely. Looking forward to getting involved in everything we dreamed of!

Since I won our NLCS bet and there was no World series bet, I'll accept my lobster steamed with extra butter. And would I make fun of Canadian currency just because I have monopoly money that looks better???? well, maybe....:1rotfl::1rotfl::1rotfl:

However, we both get 15 yd. penalty for "cross-threading":1rotfl::1rotfl::1rotfl:

Thanks Gracie for starting this forum. My husband and I are new to TV - only here 3 weeks this Wednesday. I am almost settled in and looking for Dentists and Doctors. I do not like needles, therefore, I need a dentist who is really good at giving them if needed ;) I was told of Dr. Cohrn in Lady Lake. Does anyone know of him/her? Can anyone suggest a good Board Certified Internal Medicine Doctor? Our insurance is BCBS. I will be ordering the Daily Sun tomorrow or Tuesday in hopes of finding some doctors to call but really would like recommendations from those that have lived her for a few. Thank you for any and all information! Have a Happy and safe Labor Day!

.How do this people get thru the gates?

I have to say, I read about City Furniture on here prior to going into the store. My thought was, all of this can't be true... maybe some of these villagers are just cranky. I have to say... I was proven wrong. I gave City Furniture the benefit of the doubt and I got BURNED! My initial experience was somewhat pleasant. I met a nice fake blonde who had a forced bubbly attitude, previously I am sure she is multiple times divorced and an alcohol QVC shopper. Anyway, I went in the first time and it was good. It was each time after that was more and more ridiculous. I made a large order with delay after delay on the delivery. Leslie felt so bad she asked to take me for drinks! Anyway, there was a delay on the delivery for months. I grew more and more agitated. Finally, I cancelled. I had to hound Leslie to return my phone calls, calling the store manager didn't work either, so I dialed the number on the pamphlet.. Customer Service.. Good old for nothing, usually stupid and confused Customer Service. It was lucky they knew their own name, seriously. Unless you had your invoice number ready and agreed with whatever they said, they were going to be rude and unsatisfactory. After multiple attempts at reaching corporate unsuccessfully, I gave up. The local general manager was less of a help than anyone.. he just smiles and nods a lot without any clue of what's going on.. Skip my nonsense process and save yourself of the troube.. GO TO BABETTE'S, WHITES, KANES or anywhere else. Go anywhere with customer service.

I totally agee. Just had to replace LASTER LAWN CARE. Terrible service but I made the mistake of contacting for a year. Changed to a service my neighbors were using. Just remember not to use LASTER LAWN CARE and check with your neighbors. Common Sense is a flower that does not grow in everyone's garden.

Not so fast my friend......
 

Yes, yes, I know....I stole that line from my favorite College Gameday host - the great Lee Corso! However, as with most opinions offered on TOTV, there are always multiple perspectives and opinions on the same subject - including service contractors.

In this case, your not-so-great experience with Laster Lawncare (out of Ocala, just to be sure we're referring to the same) happens to be balanced by our really, really great experience with him - and for way more than just simple lawn care!

So.....as always, take everything with a grain of salt on TOTV, do your won research & interviewing of contractors, and go with your instincts. Should anyone have any specific questions about our experiences with Troy and his company, you can PM me. Cheers!! :)

Blinds or Plantation Shutters? The blind person is saying that the shutters keep out more of the heat. Our bedrooms are on the west side. Closing in a couple of weeks but not moving in till November. We want the blinds or shutters in before we come. Also on the shutters inside or outside mount? All opinions welcome.

If it's Rick, trust him. But he can see...........

I just moved into a Villa and for the most part really like it, however - when I purchased it I didn't notice the satellite dish installed by the owner of an income property next to me. The dish is installed on her roof directly across from my sliding glass door. I asked her if she would consider moving the dish and even offered to pay for it to be installed in the back of the house (like everybody else) and she refuses!! I am so disgusted with this I could just scream. I took it to the board at the VCCD yesterday and because of some stupid FCC ruling regarding satellite dishes they will not intercede. I am concerned about the safety of the dish during a windstorm as well as the ugly appearance of it from every one of my windows. I keep my sliding glass door blinds shut a ll the time now because just looking at it aggravates me. The conclusion at yesterdays meeting with the VCCD is that this woman is just a special kind of "inconsiderate" and that most Villagers are not RUDE like she is. There is a perfectly clear signal in the back of the Villa but she just doesn't care. One Villager yesterday suggested I call Channel 6 news and shame her into doing something about it. If I do that, I am pretty much drawing a line in the sand with her and I didn't move here to fight with my neighbors. Any suggestions?

I'm surprised, since you say you see it from every window, that you didn't notice it before buying the villa. The "stupid FCC rule" is in place to guarantee the public access to over-air reception by several means on their own property. Our condo association in MI tried to ban the installation of satellite dishes but lost out. The FCC ruling was that condo owners could install the dishes in "limited common areas," such as decks and balconies.

Here is an explanation of the rule: Over-the-Air Reception Devices Rule | Federal Communications Commission

Your neighbor is within his rights to have his dish there. People are allowed to add on to their homes obscuring peoples see through views of water and golf course. People can and will do things that other people may not approve of but the only things that you can complain about and get relief from the powers that be are the things listed on your deed restrictions.

New Villagers Help
 

My husband and I just moved into the village of Santo Domingo. How do we find groups to play golf with? I have a high handicap (30) and my husband's is in the low 20's. I saw a group for ladies, but my handicap is way too high. Also, has anyone used Villages Landscaping LLC to redo their yards? Thanks.

When you are buying a house here hire an inspector, and then do a total inspection yourself. Our inspector did not notice the dishwasher didn't work at all. In fact it was rusted. We just went by the report, and the answer from the Villages realtor now is that we could have looked in the dishwasher ourselves, so they won't do anything.

If possible, get to the villages to close. We were away, and when we got here the mailbox keys didn't work. At that point the villages realtor said it was our mailbox that we couldn't get to, so there again, was nothing they could do about it. If we were here the day of closing we could have checked all the keys before signing the final paper.

I think if I were to buy another home in the villages I will first try the MLS realtors. Perhaps they do less volume, and can give me the service I've come to expect. The villages realtors do a lot of business, so they are very busy, and often don't have the bandwidth to check details.

can anyone recommend a company to remodel a manufactured home kitchen flooring etc

Thank you all for the great tips. We plan to buy our first home in the Villages soon, so these will come in handy. Does anyone know whether or not the Villages Real Estate will negotiate on the price of their brand new homes? On their website, many have been marked down with "sale" prices. Wondering if anyone has been able to negotiate a purchase price even lower than those advertised discounts.

TV Real Estate may discount some homes but the price is never negotiable. Only pre-owned home prices can be negotiated.

How about landscaping. There are a lot of homeowners in TV that have utlity boxes, big electrical transformers, and other objects sticking in the ground on their property or adjacent land and you don't even see them. They have been hidden behind hedges, palm trees, bushes, etc. That's what I would do if I didn't want to see something in the yard. In our CYV's, every other villa has a utility post sticking up right in the middle of the front yard next to their lampost where they hang their name. You don't see them for the most part, they've been landscaped away.

There are dozens and dozens of these throughout TV.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_vKKv5B9Zdy...ransformer.jpg

See how it's done.

http://cedarlakegardens.com/wp-conte...mer_slider.jpg

Hi Janice,

Although it's been several years since you closed, perhaps you can help me out. We are selling our home in upstate NY at the end of October and plan to rent for a month while we search for our new (or pre-owned home). What did you decide about hiring an independent inspector? Do you feel it is necessary on a brand new home? Also, did you hire an attorney to review your sales contract and represent you at the closing?

We've visited TV for vacations for several years, and now that we've retired, are anxious to get there. Any advice you can offer would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

Door Knockers
 

The door knockers are the WORST. Do not buy from them.

When I moved in we were hit by lawn guys, water treatment, shutters, windows, every home service possible.

I waited 3 months before I started shopping and very glad I did. The companies that I went with, I was able to research and understand the product and services. You also can research the best value for those products as well!

Great Advice.
Join Nextdoor.com.

Nextdoor is a social networking service for neighborhoods. It was launched in the United States in October 2011; in February 2016 the service became available in The Netherlands.[2] Nextdoor allows users to connect with people who live in their own and nearby neighborhoods.
Nextdoor competes with other social networks such as Yelp, Yahoo Groups, Facebook and Google. It claims to be better than Facebook as membership is by invitation only, so "you don’t have to deal with strangers trying to add you as a friend".[3][4] An article in The Washington Post said when Nextdoor launched that it "seems poised to ride the wave of people’s desire to connect back to their community".[5]

I cannot access the video tutorial to learn how to post a classified ad. I am on a MAC. Can anyone help me?

Do not believe or take to heart anyone in these forums as many do not live here and just hang out for the posts and some are trouble makers. There are other forums not here who check address and the people are normal because they have something invested.

Wow! I've found the majority of people here go out of their way to help others. They find names and phone numbers for folks, provide helpful links, offer comfort and support. For someone who just moved to TV and is relatively new to TOTV, I'm sorry you've had such miserable experiences. Every site has its trolls, just like there's always one mean kid at school. Nature of their beasts. Put the trolls on ignore, follow those people you've found to be knowledgeable and helpful, ignore the rest.

Now, the one advice I would give any newbie is go slow. If buying new, make sure any renovations won't void your one-year warranty. Wait on landscaping until you know what plants thrive here. Don't try to do everything at once. Put at least one day week aside to just have fun. The boxes will still be there tomorrow.

just moved in last monday and i am amazed how many solicitors are ringing our bell

:agree: I'm very surprised that The Dude hasn't found this website helpful.
I'm still learning things on TOTV, e.g., the Thread on 2017 Yamaha QuieTech technology.

Anyone moving to The Villages should be made aware that we are NOT a gated secured community. The Villages has traffic gates on public roads. Even gates with gate attendants cannot stop any car or even ask you questions about your destination. These are fine hard working gate attendants but they are NOT security guards.

But at least give credit to The Villages that most gates have camera recording devices which when needed can see who is coming and going.

These are public roads...not private roads.

Agreed. But we are very safe. Most residential locations have no outlets, and people in the 'good' neighborhoods actually wave at each other.

There are big roads but what you see are walls and people's backyards (mainly fenced in at least south of 466a).

To compare.
Beverly Hills, California
2.93 Violent Crimes per 1000 residents.
35.68 Property Crimes per 1000 residents
236 Crimes per Square mile

The Villages, Florida
2.02 Violent Crimes per 1000 residents.
(remember the violent crimes in The Villages are mostly from people not living in the Villages IMHO though I cannot verify that)
7.29 Property Crimes per 1000 residents
18 Crimes per Square mile

Key West, Florida
6.25 Violent Crimes per 1000 residents.
46.40 Property Crimes per 1000 residents
219 Crimes per Square mile

and one of the best to compare:
Greenwich, Conn
0.18 Violent Crimes per 1000 residents.
6.43 Property Crimes per 1000 residents
9 Crimes per Square mile

So, considering the poorer areas that are close to The Villages...
Leesburg, Florida
7.68 Violent Crimes per 1000 residents.
54,38 Property Crimes per 1000 residents
33 Crimes per Square mile

Ocala, Florida
6.51 Violent Crimes per 1000 residents.
52.13 Property Crimes per 1000 residents
76 Crimes per Square mile

...inside our Gated 'non-secured' community, we are doing pretty well.

Anything could happen. But if numbers matter, we are doing pretty well.

(numbers from neighborhoodscout.com)

:BigApplause:

Good post. We realized too late after a couple of bad instances, but we're backing down now. We were excited and trying to build Rome in a day. Things are much better and calmer now.

Ceiling Height
 

We are newbies building in Pine Hills. Does anyone know the standard Ceiling height of a Gardenia, especially in the bonus room off the master bedroom. Can it be adjusted? We have high bookcases and we are trying to figure out if they fit. Thanks!

You say you are building ? Ask the people building it for you.

Participate in your HOA
 

I am on the B.O.D. of a large HOA community here in Virginia and I come back to TV every year for a month as a renter.
The message here is to participate in your community. Before visiting TOTV I thought TV was some kind of place where nothing bad ever happened.
From what I have read in the Sun, people here need to get on board to enforce regulations especially residents that have their no good children or grandchildren move in with them and cause trouble here. We have crime where I live also and those who are caught are always from the outside of our community. Get involved !

Demand that your realtor provide you with copies of Deed Restrictions and Covenants before you sign anything. After reading and understanding, live by the rules . Removes stress and conflict later.

hi, we are thinking of buying a house in Pine Hills and we will be new to TV, have heard all different things like the taxes being higher and have heard you have to pay a Fruitland tax on top of your regular taxes?? Does anyone know this??

thanks all :)

Correct. You will pay Lake County tax which is higher than Sumter as well as the City of Fruitland Park tax. BTW, Fruitland Park welcomes all Villagers !

True, not a gated community and public roads.
But nevertheless, to me it has the feel of a gated community.
And the cameras are a good idea.

Thank you for starting this. We are closing on our house soon and I will look forward to watching this thread for suggestions.

Re: Plants
 

There are many reasons why a plant is not doing well but it all comes down to THE WRONG PLANT IN THE WRONG PLACE.

The box stores are selling peonies. They need a cold spell which we do not have. I read somewhere that in the winter? you can water them with ice water. I'm not going to do that. Some of you might do it for a year or two. In the end it is THE WRONG PLANT IN THE WRONG PLACE.

This year-while it has not been declared, we are in a drought. We've not had rain in two months. Currently, we are 7-10 inches below normal for rain-that is 20-25% short. You want to greatly reduce your application of fertilizer as it will force growth when there is little or no water.