[chuckinca]

And you don't live in Arlington Heights because ______________________.



.

[Schaumburger]

Originally Posted by chuckinca

And you don't live in Arlington Heights because ______________________.



.

Since 2003 during the school year I have been a tutor at an English as a Second Language class for adults at a Lutheran church in Arlington Heights sponsored by High School Districts 214 and 211. Class is held at Lutheran Church of the Cross on Goebbert Road next to the former Forest View High School). From 1988 to 1996 I was a member of St. Edna's Church on Arlington Heights Road. Do those count?

[EdV]

If you are serious about playing a lot of golf, then TV is the logical choice and the other surrounding communities just don’t compare. But the private ‘free’ golf in TV is for the par 3 executive courses. The championship courses are open to the public. On the other hand, the executive courses become more attractive as we age and loose distance to father time.

Since I play very little golf these days, other factors came into play with my decision for Stonecrest:

TV homes are made up of clusters of manufactured, vinyl sided, and stucco construction. All the homes in Stonecrest are stucco, a look I prefer. Most of the homes in TV are two bedroom whereas the Stonecrest homes are 3 bedrooms or more and I wanted a guest room and a full size den for all my computer equipment and other toys.

Stonecrest is a 24/7 guard gated community, TV is not.

Stonecrest has a year round heated indoor pool, TV closed their only indoor pool a year or two ago. Stonecrest has an exercise room with a variety of equipment like treadmills, stair steppers and bicycles which is covered by our amenities fee ($104/mo). To use such equipment in TV runs about $600/yr for a couple.

Stonecrest has all of the sports facilities that TV has including pickle ball, tennis, bocce, shuffleboard, and horseshoe courts, billiard tables and table tennis and a beautiful softball field. We just don’t have the huge number of them that TV has because have just 4000 residents. So I don’t see what the advantage is to having 20 times the number of rec centers etc. when you have to support 20 times the number of residents. But I will admit that Stonecrest’s rec center is rather mundane compared to some of the beautiful regional centers in I've seen in TV.

The Stonecrest golf course is owned by the developer but the rec center, pools and recreational facilities are owned by the residents. TV residents don’t own any of these facilities in their neighborhoods. They have a contractual right to use them in return for the amenity fee.

For the vegetable gardeners in our community, Stonecrest’s garden club has a fenced and locked area at the back of the complex that provides 15x25 raised beds with irrigation for something like $15/yr. As far as I know, the TV gardeners will have to use pots on their lanais or birdcages to grow vegetables.

But when it comes to clubs to join, TV with well over a thousand clubs leaves everyone else in the dust. Stonecrest’s 40 or so clubs covers the basic card and activity clubs, but that’s about it.

And finally there’s the touchy subject of the ‘access to The Villages’ advertisements that a few surrounding communities boast. I don’t like it because it connotates being a freeloader at TV resident’s expense when it’s hardly the case. I wish they would change that to ‘convenient access to hundreds of stores, restaurants, and medical facilities along the 441 corridor’. When I looked at Stonecrest, I saw that I could have access to all those facilities from Stonecrest just as easily as if I lived in TV. But to do that in a golf cart would require traveling the long dirt road that runs between Lowes and Orange Blossom Hills. So I simply purchased a street legal cart and I cross over 441 onto Buenos Aires Blvd to shop and eat out and I never have to drive on TV’s private cart paths either.

I think TV is beautiful and a great choice for the tens of thousands of retirees who have chosen to live there, but Stonecrest came closest to meeting my criteria for a retirement community and I don’t regret the decision to live here either.

[BobKat1]

Originally Posted by EdVinMass

If you are serious about playing a lot of golf, then TV is the logical choice and the other surrounding communities just don’t compare. But the private ‘free’ golf in TV is for the par 3 executive courses. The championship courses are open to the public. On the other hand, the executive courses become more attractive as we age and loose distance to father time.

Since I play very little golf these days, other factors came into play with my decision for Stonecrest:

TV homes are made up of clusters of manufactured, vinyl sided, and stucco construction. All the homes in Stonecrest are stucco, a look I prefer. Most of the homes in TV are two bedroom whereas the Stonecrest homes are 3 bedrooms or more and I wanted a guest room and a full size den for all my computer equipment and other toys.

Stonecrest is a 24/7 guard gated community, TV is not.

Stonecrest has a year round heated indoor pool, TV closed their only indoor pool a year or two ago. Stonecrest has an exercise room with a variety of equipment like treadmills, stair steppers and bicycles which is covered by our amenities fee ($104/mo). To use such equipment in TV runs about $600/yr for a couple.

Stonecrest has all of the sports facilities that TV has including pickle ball, tennis, bocce, shuffleboard, and horseshoe courts, billiard tables and table tennis and a beautiful softball field. We just don’t have the huge number of them that TV has because have just 4000 residents. So I don’t see what the advantage is to having 20 times the number of rec centers etc. when you have to support 20 times the number of residents. But I will admit that Stonecrest’s rec center is rather mundane compared to some of the beautiful regional centers in I've seen in TV.

The Stonecrest golf course is owned by the developer but the rec center, pools and recreational facilities are owned by the residents. TV residents don’t own any of these facilities in their neighborhoods. They have a contractual right to use them in return for the amenity fee.

For the vegetable gardeners in our community, Stonecrest’s garden club has a fenced and locked area at the back of the complex that provides 15x25 raised beds with irrigation for something like $15/yr. As far as I know, the TV gardeners will have to use pots on their lanais or birdcages to grow vegetables.

But when it comes to clubs to join, TV with well over a thousand clubs leaves everyone else in the dust. Stonecrest’s 40 or so clubs covers the basic card and activity clubs, but that’s about it.

And finally there’s the touchy subject of the ‘access to The Villages’ advertisements that a few surrounding communities boast. I don’t like it because it connotates being a freeloader at TV resident’s expense when it’s hardly the case. I wish they would change that to ‘convenient access to hundreds of stores, restaurants, and medical facilities along the 441 corridor’. When I looked at Stonecrest, I saw that I could have access to all those facilities from Stonecrest just as easily as if I lived in TV. But to do that in a golf cart would require traveling the long dirt road that runs between Lowes and Orange Blossom Hills. So I simply purchased a street legal cart and I cross over 441 onto Buenos Aires Blvd to shop and eat out and I never have to drive on TV’s private cart paths either.

I think TV is beautiful and a great choice for the tens of thousands of retirees who have chosen to live there, but Stonecrest came closest to meeting my criteria for a retirement community and I don’t regret the decision to live here either.

Thanks for the good perspective.

[Tbugs]

Well, EdVin, you sound as though you like Stonecrest. I bet you come to the entertainment at The Villages on a regular basis and come to our restaurants and country clubs which are open to everyone. That is probably one of the reasons you bought so close to The Villages.

The championship golf courses in The Villages are not open to the public. You could not play here at all. You cannot enjoy any of our functions at the Recreation Centers. You cannot swim in any of our pools. You cannot play tennis or platform tennis here. You must be a Villages resident with an ID card.

We have 90 miles of cart trails linking 67 villages.

[pooh]

Originally Posted by EdVinMass

If you are serious about playing a lot of golf, then TV is the logical choice and the other surrounding communities just don’t compare. But the private ‘free’ golf in TV is for the par 3 executive courses. The championship courses are open to the public. On the other hand, the executive courses become more attractive as we age and loose distance to father time.

Since I play very little golf these days, other factors came into play with my decision for Stonecrest:

TV homes are made up of clusters of manufactured, vinyl sided, and stucco construction. All the homes in Stonecrest are stucco, a look I prefer. Most of the homes in TV are two bedroom whereas the Stonecrest homes are 3 bedrooms or more and I wanted a guest room and a full size den for all my computer equipment and other toys.

Stonecrest is a 24/7 guard gated community, TV is not.

Stonecrest has a year round heated indoor pool, TV closed their only indoor pool a year or two ago. Stonecrest has an exercise room with a variety of equipment like treadmills, stair steppers and bicycles which is covered by our amenities fee ($104/mo). To use such equipment in TV runs about $600/yr for a couple.

Stonecrest has all of the sports facilities that TV has including pickle ball, tennis, bocce, shuffleboard, and horseshoe courts, billiard tables and table tennis and a beautiful softball field. We just don’t have the huge number of them that TV has because have just 4000 residents. So I don’t see what the advantage is to having 20 times the number of rec centers etc. when you have to support 20 times the number of residents. But I will admit that Stonecrest’s rec center is rather mundane compared to some of the beautiful regional centers in I've seen in TV.

The Stonecrest golf course is owned by the developer but the rec center, pools and recreational facilities are owned by the residents. TV residents don’t own any of these facilities in their neighborhoods. They have a contractual right to use them in return for the amenity fee.

For the vegetable gardeners in our community, Stonecrest’s garden club has a fenced and locked area at the back of the complex that provides 15x25 raised beds with irrigation for something like $15/yr. As far as I know, the TV gardeners will have to use pots on their lanais or birdcages to grow vegetables.

But when it comes to clubs to join, TV with well over a thousand clubs leaves everyone else in the dust. Stonecrest’s 40 or so clubs covers the basic card and activity clubs, but that’s about it.

And finally there’s the touchy subject of the ‘access to The Villages’ advertisements that a few surrounding communities boast. I don’t like it because it connotates being a freeloader at TV resident’s expense when it’s hardly the case. I wish they would change that to ‘convenient access to hundreds of stores, restaurants, and medical facilities along the 441 corridor’. When I looked at Stonecrest, I saw that I could have access to all those facilities from Stonecrest just as easily as if I lived in TV. But to do that in a golf cart would require traveling the long dirt road that runs between Lowes and Orange Blossom Hills. So I simply purchased a street legal cart and I cross over 441 onto Buenos Aires Blvd to shop and eat out and I never have to drive on TV’s private cart paths either.

I think TV is beautiful and a great choice for the tens of thousands of retirees who have chosen to live there, but Stonecrest came closest to meeting my criteria for a retirement community and I don’t regret the decision to live here either.

Great post, Ed, thank you. You've made the right decision for you, I made the right one for me. We are both very fortunate to be living in such lovely communities.

[collie1228]

Tbugs, I'm confused. The Villages golf website shows the cost of green fees for non-residents. But you say "The championship golf courses in The Villages are not open to the public". Why do they quote non-resident rates if they are not open to the public?

[Ohiogirl]

The Championship golf courses ARE open to the general public. The executive courses are only open to residents and their guests with guest IDs. You cannot get a guest ID for someone who lives within Lake, Sumter and Marion counties, unless probably, they are snowbirds, have not become Florida residents, and have current drivers' licenses from other states.

[VillagesFlorida]

Originally Posted by Ohiogirl

The Championship golf courses ARE open to the general public. The executive courses are only open to residents and their guests with guest IDs. You cannot get a guest ID for someone who lives within Lake, Sumter and Marion counties, unless probably, they are snowbirds, have not become Florida residents, and have current drivers' licenses from other states.

Our daughter and her fiance live in Ocala and SHE has an "in area" guest pass to The Villages that is good for one year and then must be renewed. She can use the same recreational facilities as any other guest. Her fiance can NOT get the same guest pass since they are not married. HE can play the championship courses, as can anyone, but not the executive courses, nor can he use any other recreational facilities.

[Mack184]

As a recent newcomer to TOTV I have been looking around and reading many different topic threads old and new. I know this is an old thread, but after reading the many responses here, I thought I would add my two cents to this discussion. Maybe there will be some new responses and maybe not.

My wife's mother & dad have been living in TV for some time now. They have a nice home in Belvedere and love it there. My father-in-law is an excellent spokesman for the so-called Villages "lifestyle".

Over the past couple of years my wife's mom & dad made it clear that they would be very happy if their daughter was a bit closer to them at this point in their lives. We have been considering a move into the area for a couple of years.

This past April we came to town and we spent some time with Gerald Bowles from TV and also looked at some homes in Stonecrest. We returned in September and looked at approximately 15 homes in TV, Stonecrest & Del Webb-Spruce Creek Golf Club. Ultimately we bought in Stonecrest. Here's why..

First and foremost we are not retired, nor are we in any danger of it happening any time soon. When we arrive at the beginning of 2013 we will both be continuing our careers working all week long. We will not have time at this point in our lives for the various groups, gangs, clubs and most of the other amenities that TV has to offer. But even if we did have that kind of time available it really wouldn't be a big draw for us. While we are not unfriendly people, we are not "group" people. We don't play golf, we don't want a golf cart and I wouldn't play pickleball if you had a gun to my head.

Now before anybody gets all crazy and thinks I'm saying bad things about TV and the "lifestyle", I'm not. All I'm saying is that it's not for us.

We really disliked the postage-stamp size of the home lots, and at this point in our lives we still needed a bigger home. And to be frank, the infamous "bond" was a real joy killer.

What we needed was a big house with a few amenities like the pools and NO KIDS. We will likely use the pools every day of the year. Other than that, I can't think of anything else that's provided that we would use.

Our biggest need was to be close to my wife's parents, and for that Stonecrest fit our needs far better than TV.

As I read these posts I also noticed a number of posters referring to OUR stores & OUR restaurants & OUR hospital. Hmmm...While I certainly agree that amenities provided by TV such as the pools, golf courses, rec centers, sports fields and the nightly entertainment should be reserved for TV residents & their guests, TV amenity fees DO NOT subsidize or otherwise support private, open-to-the-public businesses. That's like saying that someone who lives in Ocala has no right to drive to Leesburg and eat at a restaurant there! It makes no sense.

Privately owned business are just that. They are open to the public. The restaurants at TV golf clubhouses? That's a differernt thing. The Villages hospital is owned by Leesburg Regional Medical Center and by law must be open to the public. TV amenity fees do not pay for the hospital. Villages Hospital is just as public as Munroe Regional or any other hospital.

Oddly, I would think that TV residents would welcome people from anywhere to come in and eat at the various restaurants, buy groceries at the local supermarkets and patronize the other local businesses. Why not? The more people who come and spend, the more successful the local businessman is. What in the world is wrong with that?

One of my old bosses & mentors had a saying.."There's an a** for every chair". We found our chair at Stonecrest. Glad to know you found yours at TV. You'll see us around TV as we spend time with my wife's mom & dad, but no..I won't be trying to swim in your pool. That's yours. You paid for it.

Cheers!

[graciegirl]

Originally Posted by Mack184

As a recent newcomer to TOTV I have been looking around and reading many different topic threads old and new. I know this is an old thread, but after reading the many responses here, I thought I would add my two cents to this discussion. Maybe there will be some new responses and maybe not.

My wife's mother & dad have been living in TV for some time now. They have a nice home in Belvedere and love it there. My father-in-law is an excellent spokesman for the so-called Villages "lifestyle".

Over the past couple of years my wife's mom & dad made it clear that they would be very happy if their daughter was a bit closer to them at this point in their lives. We have been considering a move into the area for a couple of years.

This past April we came to town and we spent some time with Gerald Bowles from TV and also looked at some homes in Stonecrest. We returned in September and looked at approximately 15 homes in TV, Stonecrest & Del Webb-Spruce Creek Golf Club. Ultimately we bought in Stonecrest. Here's why..

First and foremost we are not retired, nor are we in any danger of it happening any time soon. When we arrive at the beginning of 2013 we will both be continuing our careers working all week long. We will not have time at this point in our lives for the various groups, gangs, clubs and most of the other amenities that TV has to offer. But even if we did have that kind of time available it really wouldn't be a big draw for us. While we are not unfriendly people, we are not "group" people. We don't play golf, we don't want a golf cart and I wouldn't play pickleball if you had a gun to my head.

Now before anybody gets all crazy and thinks I'm saying bad things about TV and the "lifestyle", I'm not. All I'm saying is that it's not for us.

We really disliked the postage-stamp size of the home lots, and at this point in our lives we still needed a bigger home. And to be frank, the infamous "bond" was a real joy killer.

What we needed was a big house with a few amenities like the pools and NO KIDS. We will likely use the pools every day of the year. Other than that, I can't think of anything else that's provided that we would use.

Our biggest need was to be close to my wife's parents, and for that Stonecrest fit our needs far better than TV.

As I read these posts I also noticed a number of posters referring to OUR stores & OUR restaurants & OUR hospital. Hmmm...While I certainly agree that amenities provided by TV such as the pools, golf courses, rec centers, sports fields and the nightly entertainment should be reserved for TV residents & their guests, TV amenity fees DO NOT subsidize or otherwise support private, open-to-the-public businesses. That's like saying that someone who lives in Ocala has no right to drive to Leesburg and eat at a restaurant there! It makes no sense.

Privately owned business are just that. They are open to the public. The restaurants at TV golf clubhouses? That's a differernt thing. The Villages hospital is owned by Leesburg Regional Medical Center and by law must be open to the public. TV amenity fees do not pay for the hospital. Villages Hospital is just as public as Munroe Regional or any other hospital.

Oddly, I would think that TV residents would welcome people from anywhere to come in and eat at the various restaurants, buy groceries at the local supermarkets and patronize the other local businesses. Why not? The more people who come and spend, the more successful the local businessman is. What in the world is wrong with that?

One of my old bosses & mentors had a saying.."There's an a** for every chair". We found our chair at Stonecrest. Glad to know you found yours at TV. You'll see us around TV as we spend time with my wife's mom & dad, but no..I won't be trying to swim in your pool. That's yours. You paid for it.

Cheers!

Glad you're happy.

Glad I'm happy.

Oh what a beautiful day. I got a beautiful feelin' everythin's goin' my way.

[ROCKETMAN]

Originally Posted by babspadget

does anyone know anything about stonecrest. I understand that you can go to tv with your golf cart. Not sure about where to buy a home, will be coming and checking out both places next month. I saw some bigger homes and bigger lots at stonecrest. Please let me know what you think and know regarding the area's around t.v.

Thanks for your input.......

we have friends who live there and they are satisfied. One rec center and 1 golf course. Amenity fee is around $120.00. You can take your cart to the villages on a rough cart path,some of which will be paved by spring. Houses are about 25% cheaper.

[mrsyarbie]

There is no comparison anywhere to The Vilages,go there first and then come here and see what we are all talking about. Good luck to you.

[Bogie Shooter]

Originally Posted by mrsyarbie

There is no comparison anywhere to The Vilages,go there first and then come here and see what we are all talking about. Good luck to you.

The poster who reopened this 18 month old thread said he had explored Stonecrest.

[bluedog103]

Originally Posted by mrsyarbie

There is no comparison anywhere to The Vilages,go there first and then come here and see what we are all talking about. Good luck to you.

TV isn't for everyone. We live here and think it's great. We also have friends in Stonecrest who first lived in TV. These are vibrant, energetic, outgoing people. They simply found Stonecrest more to their liking. Different strokes for different folks.