Are you in St. James yet ? Our home on Oakcrest Path will be finished 6-6. David

We also just purchased a lot at #8 Barksdale in St. James. Great golf course view. We currently live on Cape Cod in MA. Even though the Cape has milder winters than the rest of MA, still too cold for us. Can't decide between the Gardenia or the Bridgeport (with new bedroom layout like the Holly). Lot is large enough for expansions. Does anyone know where stretches can be done on the Gardenia? 2nd and 3rd bedroom are a little small. Love the kitchen in the Bridgeport, but who wouldn't love the lanai in the Gardenia with the nesting doors. Decisions...decisions.

Linda & Kevin from Cape Cod Ma

There are some really good ideas here. I would like to toss out a couple more ideas.

When I moved to The Villages, I had certain criteria. The first was for a resale only - since I did not have time for a new home to be built.

I wanted a golf front or water view. I also wanted an Eastern exposure so the afternoon sun would not come directly into the lanai.

I looked at several homes and chose one with a golf front. I chose that after determining the direction of most golf balls would be away from my house. I have live here about 19 months and have only found about 8 golf balls in my yard. I have heard of too many homes fronting the golf courses getting windows broken on a fairly regular basis.

I did get the Eastern exposure. It is wonderful to sit in the Florida room in the morning, watch the early mornng sun, read the paper, and have breakfast.

I mentioned "Florida Room". The person I bought from had the lanai area completely glass enclosed (rated up to 145 mph windspeed) with sliding windows. I recommend this to new buyers. It will add on to your cost but is a great investment. The room is heated in winter and airconditioned in summer so it is all four seasons.

The Villages is a great place to live. All of you will definitely enjoy it.

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Was the heat/ac put in at the time the home was built? I have a glass enclosed sunroom with sliding doors here up north........and it can get very hot at times. It can be absolutely freezing outside but in the 90's in the sunroom.....love it! I hadn't thought about enclosing the lanai in TV. Oh no, more $$$ :sigh:

No, the vents for heat and a/c were added at the time the room was enclosed.

The room was enclosed as a comfort consideration for his wife. She loved sitting on the screened in lanai but the spring and summer pollen just got too much for her.

As I said, it is an eastern exposure. Even with a/c, a western exposure would be too hot in the summer afternoon and early evening. There are also 2 ceiling fans out there so the air is circulating.

Ceiling fans are almost a necessity in Florida. We have ceiling fans in the Florida Room, the living room, kitchen, den, master bedroom, and spare bedroom. If they were all turned on at one time, the roof might just fly away!

Linda,

We have a Bridgeport and the current floor plan on the TV website looks the same as ours. What has changed? I love our layout so am just curious.

If you go to build your dream home section on the TV website and click on the model, there is a link that tells you what "options" you can get on each model.

k

We did the same with a northeast facing lanai - we love that we can keep the lanai climate controlled, but also open all the sliders to let the breeze in when we want to. There are regs around heating/cooling when you enclose a lanai. I believe that they are county specific. We were able to extend our existing system with the glass enclosure; with acrylic we would have needed to add a separate unit. Overall, that made glass less expensive.

We were shown a Bridgeport but they changed the 2nd and 3rd bedroom layout so it looks like the Holly. 1/2 bath was taken out. Front bedroom has a walk in closet, which we liked. We also are going to "open up" the wall between the kitchen and the living room a bit to get a more open feel. We are also looking at doing a 2-4-2 stretch to the back of the house. 2 extra feet in the master, dining room and 4 foot on the lanai. We will also do the 2ft stretch in the front of the house as well. Do you find that the position of the lanai in the Bridgeport cuts down on the view? That was the one thing I did like about the Gardenia (12 foot nesting doors). We will be coming back the end of May so decisions have to be made by then.

Hi,

We will be away in early June for a bit, but if you would like to come by when you first get here, you could have a look.

I do like the Gardenia's lanai better - though only if you stretch it; otherwise it is too narrow. We extended ours the four feet that was allowed and I really like it. We can fit a love seat, two chairs and pub dinging table - plus all my faux trees. If we had more room at the back, we might have held off until after construction. As it is, we will put a cage off to the side of the lanai to have a spa.

I really like the half bath. It is great if you have houseguests or parties. And with that kitchen, we have parties!

Thanks. I really appreciate the advice. :)

Please give a private message when you get down here and hope you can come over to see first-hand what the Florida Room looks like. Love to show it to you.