[Bill-n-Brillo]

Originally Posted by graciegirl

Welcome to you Franjo...

Is there anyone else here new, that hasn't met some of the other villagers that post on this site?

I could get some of us together.....

A totally "self-serving" suggestion: Wait for us! We'll be rolling in this Sat. afternoon!

Bill

[PatandBob]

Originally Posted by graciegirl

Welcome to you Franjo...

Is there anyone else here new, that hasn't met some of the other villagers that post on this site?

I could get some of us together.....

Coming for a Lifestyle Preview February 19. Would love to meet up with others.

[Cynbod]

Originally Posted by Bill-n-Brillo

A totally "self-serving" suggestion: Wait for us! We'll be rolling in this Sat. afternoon!

Bill

We have DVC points and have visited central Florida for many years. We kept hearing about the Villages. We visited on a Lifestyle visit in early October and closed on a new house in Buttonwood on December 14. We will beat you down (coming in on Friday from Brooklyn, NY: I hope).

[Schaumburger]

Hello Uptown Girl and Judy,
It has been the mother of all winters in the Chicago area hasn't it? First 20+ inches of snow last week then -5 degrees below for the next two nights. I would move to TV tomorrow if I could retire... J udy, Del Webb in Huntley seems very nice from the couple of times I've been there, but it is still in the snow zone. Best of luck to you in selling your house. Hope to spend a couple of weeks in TV later on this year.
Laura from Schaumburg.

[Pturner]

We looked in the Orlando area, in Arizona and at Del Web communities in Florida and Georgia. However, after visiting TV, no other place interested us. No other community had a comparable lifestyle. For us, that was more important in retirement than another big ole house to clean. So...

See you on one of the golf courses. Or at one of the pools. Or in one of the clubs. Or at the Lifelong Learning Center. Or on one of the squares. Or at one of the restaurants. Or at one of the dog parks. Or on the fitness trail. Or at Savannah or Church on the Square. Or at one of the local theaters. Or driving along the cart paths...

Judy and Franjoe

[Jack&Pam]

Hi All,

We were extremely lucky on our journey to be "Frogs" in the villages.
We moved to Cambridge of Carrilon (adult community) in Plainfield, Il in 2010.
I was working and unable to take advantage of many of the amenities, my wife got involved in many activities and loved it. While there we heard about the villages from our new friends. I could not think about moving there since my job was demanding and I was 9 years away from retirement. The villages got put on a back burner.

We decided to size down and sold our house in 2004. We built a new house in a multi-age community. It was OK but even I missed the amenities of Carrilon. We started talking about buying in to another adult communinty.

Then 2007 came and everything got put on hold. My wife continually asked me about visiting the villages and I told her not until and when our present home got sold.

She finally convinced me in Aug of last year to come down for the life-style visit. I came down to look and did not know she was coming to buy. Sure enough we bought a a spec house after four days. It was had exactly what we wanted.

We put our house on the market Sept 1 and used the gimmic of selling all our furniture with it. We took a hit on the listing price but got a contract on 10/01. We thought we'd be in Pennecamp by Nov 15th. Then the appraisal came in 30,000 below the contracted price. We hemmed and hawed for another month and were able to counter with only a 20,000 loss.
We had many sleepless nights and arguements during this process and it tried our 40 year marriage but we endured.

On 12/27/10 we arrived at our new home with an aero bed and some personal items. A day later a pod came with our clothes etc.

Today we have about completed the furnishing of our house and could not be happier.

Please excuse my long winded note. After reading the thread I wanted to relay a real time experience to encourage you to make it happen in your own life,

This was the fastest we ever moved on major decisions in our lives and we
have no regrets. You will love being here.

[jblum8156]

Wow! Great story, Jack & Pam. I'm sorry about the friction in your marriage, but living in TV will fix that. Congratulations!

[EdV]

Originally Posted by In awe of TV

Has anyone looked at Solivita and what are your thoughts? A lot of house for your money there as well. I've been looking online, there are pre-owned homes for sale at great prices, plus new homes greatly reduced.

I used to rent a pool home each spring in the Poinciana area next to Solivita and watched the surrounding area steadily deteriorate due to gang and drug related crime.

A friend of mine rented a home there last year and for entertainment, he and the wife used to sit on the patio at night watching the sheriff’s helicopter hovering over the neighborhoods shining their spotlights on the ground looking for drug deals in progress.

[BobKat1]

I hope this isn't too far off topic, but has anyone visited a Robson community in AZ (Phoenix or Tucson)? We have friends, who've never been to TV, who were impressed with Pebble Creek in Phoenix. We plan to visit Saddlebrook in Tucson in a couple of weeks while out there.

They don't have near the amenitites of TV, but the setting and homes look good. At least in the brochures.

[batman911]

Wife and I have been visiting various Florida retirement communities for the last 3 years. We have been as far South as Naples and Palm Beach. We saw a lot of nice homes and ammenities. One of the things we noticed was that the models usually include well over $100K in upgrades (including the view lots). I believe the models in TV are closer to the actual base product. We were not impressed by the model homes we viewed during our first TV visit. They appreared to be plain and simple construction compared to other communities we had visited. We loved TV and all the activities and ititially thought that we would purchase a Premier to get the quality and size we wanted. After more thought and reasoning, we have come to realize that we really do not want a large house to maintain and clean. We only really use a few rooms in the home we have now. What we really want is to enjoy our retirement and have a lot of good friends to enjoy it with. We did not see that in any of the other communities we visited. You know TV is special to get us out of Hawaii after 45 years.

[2BNTV]

Uptown Girl:

Then a good friend mentioned she'd done a lifestyle visit and said TV was pretty special. My friend is typically not impressed easily.... so that peaked my curiosity.
We'd already scouted a few areas of the country for possible retirement .... New Mexico, The Smokeys and other places, but just for the heck of it, I sent away for info on TV.
All it took was one 4 day lifestyle visit! I spent the first day in disbelief, spent the second truly looking for the 'man behind the curtain' (like in Wizard of OZ) the third day (8 hours, bless my realtor's heart!) looking at homes, and the 4th day choked up at the thought of having to leave!
We came home to organize and plan our future in TV with out a bit of doubt or hesitation!
I LOVE my house here and will remember it fondly. It goes up for sale next month, and TV will be where we choose to live, happily ever after!

batman911:

You know TV is special to get us out of Hawaii after 45 years.


Two of the best posts advocating moving to TV.

[2BNTV]

Franjoe:

to TOTV.

Best Wishes to enjoy your life in paradise.

[2BNTV]

Originally Posted by PatandBob

Coming for a Lifestyle Preview February 19. Would love to meet up with others.

to TOTV;

It is too bad that you just missed the "Crispers" luncheon at 3 PM with TOTV members on every third Friday of the month. I believe it is located in the Southern Trace Shopping mall. Something to keep in mind when you move to TV.

I hope you enjoy your lifestyle visit.

[katezbox]

Originally Posted by ladydoc

Thank you all so much. I appreciate the feedback. You all have said what I was thinking...nothing offered the diversity of TV. As one poster said..I want to get everywhere I need to go in a golf cart! My only hesitancy is that neither of us play golf or have any interest in it and I wanted to know if the other amenities make up for what we would be paying for and not using. We are arriving on the 23rd for 6 days and hope to find our dream house! Our realtor is coming today to tell us what she thinks this place is worth (we have no idea). I hope to meet some of you around and about. I know we will hanging around the dog parks awhile. Thanks again!

Happy to meet you and show you some of the fun. We are often on the small dog side (Finley is a very cute Maltipoo) at DDRR..

[pzjay]

Originally Posted by graciegirl

Hi there Ladydoc.

We didn't look at any other places because I (me the mama, as in if mama ain't happy...) don't like Florida.

I don't like the pretty house here with the next one with cars up on blocks. I don't like the touristy, kinda used looking places that have been visited so many times that they look kinda worn out. I don't like that it goes from trash to treasure and sometimes all in the same block.

I don't like the brilliant PINK house next to a vibrant ORANGE house. I don't like the architecture except in those big ole houses in West Palm that I certainly can't afford....unless I sell one of my grandchildren.

I don't like hurricanes and palmetto bugs and young beautiful girls in thong bikinis plopping down next to me in a beach chair.

I HATE Florida, but I dearly, completely, satisfyingly, totally, love THE VILLAGES.

100%! Florida is not beautitful unless you can afford to live overlooking the Atlantic or Gulf! Whereas The Villages is beautiful wherever
We can't wait to arrive for our month's visit on 3/1! The hard part will be leaving.
Peg & Bob