Another reason to consider a resale. Some of the new homes don’t have garbage disposal, window screens, fans.

The new style of home called 'garden villas' is intended to bring the outside in and the inside out-if I buy one I'll be able to walk directly out my double French doors into my garden area and enjoy true outdoor living-not for everyone but understand-it is a design intent not a cost-cutting measure

None of the homes had screened rear lanais, not screening the front lanai is normal, many of the homes were complete. Usually the screens are put in a 3-4 weeks before completion, which from watching everyday, would have been a few weeks ago.

Let's take a short trip down reality road, or at least the the building materials rows at Lowes and Home Depot. Compared to 5 years ago (pre-covid) prices are 2, 3, or 4 times what they were for wood, drywall, etc., even the cost of paint has nearly doubled. All these prices increases to are passed down to the buyer in the form of higher prices for the home. They (the builder) has 2 choices, charge higher prices for the homes or cut less needed/used items. It is obvious that the latter is the path chosen.

“Garden” homes. They’re not cottage homes. Totally different.

Across the street. OP not taking about the cottage homes there …

Screening
 

if you're not glassing in your lanai, which I don't understand why people do, you definitely need screening!!!

Why would anyone rip the screens out? There are many days and evenings that are great to enjoy the breezes with the glass sliders open.

It’s way north of $20k for windows for your lanai unless it’s a very small lanai or you want to go cheap and put in plexiglass or single pane windows

To Each His Own
 

I golf a minimum of 4X/wk on the championship courses and have seen thousands of lanais close up. The number of times I have seen a homeowner using his/her lanai is minimal. I have probably seen 10 homeowners or contractors cleaning the lanai, pool, or spa for every homeowner actually using the lanai. They look nice, but just aren't used.

With that thought in mind, when we did an extensive remodel of our home, we converted the lanai to another room of the house. We removed the sliding glass door between the house and the lanai; framed the opening; removed the screening etc; poured concrete to raise the floor of the lanai to match the floor of the house; added a knee wall that was under the area covered by the house's roof; framed above the knee wall; added regular windows in the new wall; laid flooring matching the rest of the house; added a mini-split heat/air; and, added a door in the new exterior wall leading to a small patio for access to our gas grill.

We now have a new large, "family" room in our house and a TV theater which is the most used room in the house, compared to a lanai which was seldom used.

As lanais are not included in the square footage of the house for purposes of the county's property tax, while our new room is, there was a minor increase in our taxes.

Our neighbors paid 27K to glass in their lanai. There are a few expenses I would think of before even considering glassing in a garden area lanai. Our musts were home water filters, a softener, blinds, and the garage floor when we moved in. Those costs were about 12 thousand. We had to wait on a couple of these because of contractors so there is some timing inconvenience. I don’t think I would consider a home move-in ready without screening here in Florida.

We did the exact same thing to our screened lanai. We absolutely love the added square footage of home and that room looks over a golf course and pond, so it's beautiful. We didn't put in a mini-split; instead we added extensions to our 18 year old regular A/C system and changed out the whole unit for one that is 1/2 ton more capacity.
We do pay close to $1,000 more in taxes per year, but it's worth it.

I have single pane and I would save maybe $20 a month in electricity or gas so the extra $10,000 doesn't really matter to me or make any sense. It's perfectly comfortable with single pain,
Not everyone is a millionaire in The villages or elsewhere here

Pinching pennies is right! Spec houses don't even come with blinds anymore. That is one thing I really appreciated. I know some changes them out, but it would be an additional burden to have to shop for all the window coverings.They are really cheapening homes - the same model names are quite different and much cheaply done in niceties from 5 years ago.

[QUOTE=BrianL99;2407038]In the last 10 minutes, we've had "no lights" in the tunnels and now, no screens on lanais and smaller lots.

Sounds like someone is pinching pennies down south. Personally, I'm shocked that costs saving are rampant![/QUOTE . years ago all homes came with fans, window shades, vertical blinds , washer and dryer. and no flowers in the round abouts. everything cost.