[graciegirl]

I like the houses, they are well built and a good value. Well insulated, good finish work, but they are mostly built for couples. Many have a third person who will live with them, a parent or adult child. I wish that they had more room for them.

I think the kitchens are perfect.
The master bathroom is good but most second bathrooms are small.

I am talking about designers here, Not Premier homes.

I also wish for a little more architectural interest.

What do you wish the designers of the homes would add to new models?

NO. I don't work for The Villages.

[NJblue]

I would redesign the interiors to eliminate a separate, formal dining room in favor of allocating the space to other areas. To allow for this, I would make the "breakfast nook" larger so it could accommodate larger dining parties. We had a large dining part of the kitchen in our previous house that had just enough separation from the working part of the kitchen that it made the formal dining room obsolete. In today's more informal entertaining mode, it makes little sense to dedicate an entire area of a small house to such a rarely used room.

I like to wire a house for LAN and stereo. To facilitate this, it would be very simple to drop conduit from the attic into all of the rooms and the lanai during the building process. With conduit in place, the process of running wires from any room to another would be very simple for the homeowner to do or very cheap if they wanted to hire it out.

[CSilvestrucci]

I wish more of the designer models offered the option of an extra half bath.

[Hawkwind]

Originally Posted by NJblue

I like to wire a house for LAN and stereo.

Is it possible on a home that is in construction for the home owner or their hired contractor to come in and run CAT 5 while the electrical wiring is being done? It would be so easy to do the runs BEFORE any dry wall is put in place.

[Niels]

Originally Posted by graciegirl

I like the houses, they are well built and a good value. Well insulated, good finish work, but they are mostly built for couples. Many have a third person who will live with them, a parent or adult child. I wish that they had more room for them.

I think the kitchens are perfect.
The master bathroom is good but most second bathrooms are small.

I am talking about designers here, Not Premier homes.

I also wish for a little more architectural interest.

What do you wish the designers of the homes would add to new models?

NO. I don't work for The Villages.

The Villages recently introduced three new designer home floor plans. Two of the plans (The Orchid and The Ponderosa) are 4 bedroom designs. I think this is an attempt to build a little larger house for families that have more than 2 people. I haven't seen them in person but from looking at the floor plans they look like the second bathroom is still fairly small.

One thing I would like to see, just from a convenience standpoint, is for TV to offer as an option some of the more popular items that people later add to their home. For example, many people seem to add attic steps, solar attic fans, and solar tubes to their house. While you could never offer everything, it would make it a lot more convenient if some of the most popular add-ons could just be purchased when the home is being built.

[army one]

One of my pet peeves is the garages are so small. It would be nice to have larger garages not only to accommodate easier parking but to allow ways to have more ground level storage.

[Mikitv]

I agree about the kitchen table area being larger and eliminate the dining area or eliminate the kitchen table space and make dining room larger. I think the secondary bedrooms on some of the models are too small when there are more than 2 of you living in the house. I agree that for a supposedly two car garage they seem small. I don't like the models that don't have a sink and some counter space in laundry room, especially nice for pots or pans that don't fit kitchen sink, or clean up of pets etc. I don't need a tub in master bath and would prefer larger showers with a built in seat. I think their sit down make up area in the bathroom is nice. I would like to see the height of bathroom sinks to be the higher format, much easier on backs. My last home had my dishwasher elevated, another back problem area. This is just my humble opinion.

[RichieLion]

I'd like a foyer closet and half bath, which some models have but not together. It's one or the other if you like the floor plan. If a big second bedroom is what you what, check out the Lily model or the Lantana if you can swing it. They both have 15 ft long 2nd bedrooms and the Lily, which is sort of a "baby" Lantana is more affordable and a beautiful looking home.

[skip0358]

I think the homes are well built as you said, if you look on line there are now more additions that can be made. We were able to stretch the garage front and side, add 2 feet onto the back and lanai, add a bow window to the spare room. After we signed and the footing was poured i found out I could have added 2' to the spare Bedroom also but to late. other then that I was told don't over house yourself as there to much fun to have and not enough time to spend in your house cleaning. Oh what a life.

[sschuler1]

I completely agree with NJ...we have never had a formal dining room in any of our houses. We always used the dining area for an office space. We don't entertain formally, and feel that is totally wasted space. Which is why we chose the Ponderosa Pine floor plan. The kitchen nook is large enough for our informal eating area, even with two leaves in the table. We will be using the dining area for office space. That way the computer user doesn't have to be closed up in a tiny bedroom space. We asked to have an additional cable outlet put into the dining room, and we were denied. Seems like such a silly thing to not let us put an extra cable outlet, and will cost us quite a bit after we get into the house to add it for our office space.

I was also disappointed that most of the homes don't have coat closets. Storage is a big problem, and i don't want to have to stuff our coats into one of the spare bedroom closets with the Christmas decorations. Oh, well..no choice there.

We want to immediately add some landscaping in the back yard for privacy once we move in. They will then have to move the sprinkler heads to accomodate the plant bed. Would make more sense to let us speak with the landscaper to plan for the backyard before they put in the sprinkler heads.

Just my opinion...

[Army Guy]

Another wish would be to allow those of us that want/purchase CYV, to pick things for the inside.
When we bought our CYV, we of course had to buy it "spec", and have spent almost $20,000, tearing out the BRAND NEW carpet, to put tile, laminate countertops to put granite with undersinks in kitchen/baths, and sold the standard refrig. to buy one with French Doors. Also agree totally on the attic stairs.

Army Guy

[Carla B]

The prior suggestions are good...especially reworking the living/dining areas to give better use of space. The Lantana is really frustrating. Not enough seating in the "living room" area since the TV has to be on the long wall next to the sliding glass doors. It's difficult to put more than one sofa and one chair or loveseat in the space. I always thought "if they had just added two feet across the whole back of the house...." Now I find that is currently an option, but it wasn't last year when we bought. It seems there are lots more options now that buyers aren't standing in line.

We have pretty much solved the storage dilemma. All the closets have been reworked to get rid of the wire shelving and put in more shelves along each side with hanging space in the middle. My husband built a queen size platform bed for the guest room. The top hinges up with gas rods. It opens with the mattress in place to provide 30 cubic feet of storage for whatever won't fit elsewhere.

[chuckinca]

A coat closet near the entry would be nice.

[NJblue]

I'm not sure of the benefit of a coat closet by the front door. I guess I can see it to hang guests' coats, but for our coats, having a closet near the front door is the least optimal place to put it since we always come and go through the garage.

[graciegirl]

I find all of your posts agreeing with my thoughts. I hope that the Morse family read this forum!

Many of us are coming from bigger homes, but not only that, they are homes that we have spent time and money making them accommodate our lives. It is very hard to pitch everything even though we are coming to Paradise. The stairs to the attic are scary to me. I can get up them but not crazy about coming down. If that storage had real stairs and higher ceilings than we could keep our treasured holiday decorations and other silly things that we can't explain but don't want to give to our daughter in law to break..... and be able to get to them and use them. Think of your turkey pan.

I second having a bigger dining area in the kitchen and having larger space for sitting and using the computer. I also wish the lanai's weren't so narrow. I know we would have to pay for these updates but it wouldn't take us to the half million for the Premiers.

Also, why not do a Premier Villa, a little bigger and with all the plush stuff, granite and wood flooring and stainless steel? Not everyone wants to fool with a yard and many love their dogs and need a fenced area.