[l2ridehd]

Every Villages model home has some pros and some cons. Some of the cons can be resolved and others are more difficult. In our search we focused on some of the designer models and have seen some solutions to there issues, but would really like to hear what others have done to compensate or find creative ways to deal with these problems. IMHO these are some pluses and minuses.

Lantana/Juniper. Lots of great space, large laundry room, 3 real bedrooms with closets, and lanai is very open. BUT, very limited cabinets in kitchen, no entry closet, breakfast nook and dining room both open to living area, and bedrooms not split.

Gardenia/Camellia. Great open living area, breakfast nook separated, lanai open and slider from master, split floor plan, and good traffic flow. BUT tiny tiny bedrooms and very limited closet space, no entry closet, general lack of storage space and small laundry room.

Royal Palm/Cypress. Great kitchen and breakfast nook space with lots of storage, larger guest bedrooms all with closets, large closets in master, entry closet, large laundry room with window, split floor plan and sheltered lanai. BUT lanai enclosed on 3 sides, living room has no windows, and second slider to lanai is in a guest bedroom.

Some of these problems are easy to solve. You can add storage space in garage if you have an extended or golf cart garage, you can add a birdcage if the lot allows, you can add solar tubes to areas that have less light, or utilize spaces differently from original design.

What have you found for pros and cons and what creative ideas have you done to take advantage or resolve them?

[graciegirl]

We wanted a Lantana/Juniper but found a Camellia where we wanted it to be and with a good view and a reasonable price. Our daughter lives with us and we wanted her to have a decent size bedroom. But she doesn't spend much time in her bedroom and neither do guests usually. We bought a large console for the hall. And since I don't think we will need boots, gloves and hats much...or hopefully heavy coats. That should suffice. I don't do umbrellas much.

I like the Camellia because there is so much light in the great room. It is a nice house but doesn't have the "comforts" of our northern home. BUT this is a different place and time.

I try to think about the positives.

[SteveFromNY]

We have the Gardenia - the split floor plan is great, and allows the pocket door to be shut creating almost an apartment for guests or our son who will be living with us awhile.
The master bedroom suite, separate his & her closets, hallway to the MBR, entry hallway, huge kitchen/LR/DR and split design swayed us to that model over all the others. Lack of a closet in the den we solved with a dresser. Otherwise, the den and 2nd BR aren't huge, but it didn't matter to us - we'll be sleeping in the other 1/2 of the house and our guests will be mildly inconvenienced.
We have the attic above the garage and like gracie, we didn't bring the snow blower, boots, coats etc. It's really plenty big for us!

[jojo]

The Lantana has a nook opposite the laundry area. Has anyone enclosed it or just put open shelves on it? Curious to know what people do with this space.

[JohnM]

My wife has claimed it as her space for her office or craft area...

John

[Lil Dancer]

We have the gardenia, and love the size and closet space of the master bedroom. the guest rooms are small, but I think adequate for guests. The pocket doors for the guest area is a very attractive feature to us. As you mentioned, there is no hall closet. we don't find that to be a problem, as we generally enter via the garage. but to deal with it, we hung a decorative wood board with hooks on it just outside the entry to the house in the garage, where we can hang a wet jacket,, or whatever if necessary.

[swrinfla]

I decided on the Gardenia long before I actually bought a lot and had a house built (fall 2004). Having lived for 42+ years in a now 110-year-old three-story-plus-basement house, with small rooms and exceedingly limited closet space, I was hugely intrigued with this floor plan!

I agree that the guest room is small, but maybe that'll reduce a guest's stay?

I arranged for custom-designed shelves and cabinets in my "den" to help compensate for its somewhat small size.

Perhaps the laundry room is small, bit it's inside (not in the garage) and much more acceptable to this widower than the cold, dank and dirty basement I had up north!

I added a window in the master bedroom for more light, otherwise left the plan pretty much alone. A couple of ideas ended up being either too impractical or stretched the allowances more than my lot permitted.

SWR

[NJblue]

This is a timely topic as we are currently on a Lifestyle Preview visit and are staying in a Gardenia. This particular Gardenia has an extended lanai (adding about 3 feet to the depth of it off the back) which makes for a huge and very nice lanai. I'm not sure if all of the gardenias come with the 4-panel sliders all of which open up, but the result is about a 10 foot opening into the lanai - very nice. We also like the sliding door into the guest area. However, the guest BR and den are on the small side.

This is the main reason why we have probably opted for a Lantana. We love the extra large second as well as a very spacious third BR. While they do not have a sliding door, they are separate from the rest of the house to give privacy. We also liked the fact that the kitchen had a real pantry. A real bonus to us that was not readily apparent from looking at the floor plans was how large the "bonus space" was in the laundry area. We just looked at very nicely done pre-owned house where the owners had an L-shaped desk built into this for a very nice office space.