Any 55+ communities that are FFR friendly in Florida?

[blueoval_bowtie_guy]

My wife and I are contemplating relocating to Florida when I retire. We are currently looking around in Florida and stopped in to see some friends in Sun City Center. On Wednesday we are heading up north a bit to stop in and check out The Villages.


I would really like to hear from anyone in the 'Cobra' community that has any experience with either of these 55+ communities (or any other 55+).


I do not want to move somewhere that won't let me work on a car. I don't intend to have some POS hanging around in my driveway, but someday I am planning on building an 818 and don't want an association saying I can't.


We talked to a couple ladies in the Sun City Center visitor center today (and have an appointment with a realtor tomorrow). The ladies said they know of quite a few guys that work on their own cars. That at least leads me to believe it might be ok.


Any thoughts / recommendations?

Thanks!
Steve

[Vman7]

My wife and I are contemplating relocating to Florida when I retire. We are currently looking around in Florida and stopped in to see some friends in Sun City Center. On Wednesday we are heading up north a bit to stop in and check out The Villages.


I would really like to hear from anyone in the 'Cobra' community that has any experience with either of these 55+ communities (or any other 55+).


I do not want to move somewhere that won't let me work on a car. I don't intend to have some POS hanging around in my driveway, but someday I am planning on building an 818 and don't want an association saying I can't.


We talked to a couple ladies in the Sun City Center visitor center today (and have an appointment with a realtor tomorrow). The ladies said they know of quite a few guys that work on their own cars. That at least leads me to believe it might be ok.


Any thoughts / recommendations?

Thanks!
Steve

I live in orlando and live in a 55+ Gated community (manufactured homes, most are very well built like ours, been through 5 hurricanes and many tornado threats with very little damage) for the last 22 yr.s. We have some that have garages, a bunch of hot rods in here and a bunch of harleys. Now on how much they actually work on them here I am not sure of.

We are on the eastside of orlando by UCF. Our 55+ community has 3 club houses, 18 hole golf course, 3 pools, a restaurant. Our lot rent includes pretty much everything including cuting the grass, but not trimming. You can do pretty much what you want to your yard. The police and fire dept. are very close and all have worked very close with our community.

The Villages are very nice, they have both reg. homes and manufactured. The only thing I don't really like about the villages is they are pretty outside of orlando, other then that they are great!

David

[wallace18]

I remember seeing a spot on local news about a 55 community that was for hot rods and bikes near Orlando. I think you could google your question and find it.

[blueoval_bowtie_guy]

I remember seeing a spot on local news about a 55 community that was for hot rods and bikes near Orlando. I think you could google your question and find it.

I think you are probably referring to 'Lake Weir Living'. We got the information from them a few months ago. While that meets my needs, it doesn't meet my wife's. It is essentially a pretty big development where the deed restrictions allow you to build really large garages, rv pads, etc. They don't have any amenities like pools, tennis courts, fitness center, etc. On the plus side, there are no HOA fees.
My wife is VERY physically active. She loves to ride bicycles, rollerblades, tennis and also loves to take exercise classes.

We spent 10 days checking out various spots in Florida and found both an area and a house we both love (a super country club is about 5 minutes away). The house is 2300 sq ft with 3+ car garage. I can build a detached garage/workshop (will build a 2.5 car about 12' tall). The house is in super condition and the price was right (we will cut our housing cost in half). It is on an acre and has a swimming pool (pool is in enclosed in a lanai). We have it under contract and will be settling on it in mid-May. It will take a year or two to wrap things up with our house in PA and I have verbal commitment from my manager that he wants me to work from home so I can continue in my current capacity (Database Engineer). We also have verbal approval that we can join the country club. We'll join the country club before we settle on the house (I have to make sure Joan can do her stuff!).

The house is in Citrus County - about an hour north of Tampa and 1.5 hours WNW of Orlando.

We've traveled all over the country - always with an eye of 'would we want to live here'. We finally found somewhere that we both said YES and the time is right.

[Someday I Suppose]

Steve, awesome news on finding a place and getting to contact. We will miss you up here, but will have to get together and hoist a beverage when were down in Orlando visiting the mouse.

Scott

[blueoval_bowtie_guy]

Steve, awesome news on finding a place and getting to contact. We will miss you up here, but will have to get together and hoist a beverage when were down in Orlando visiting the mouse.

Scott

Scott, we would love to show you the house! We'll still live in PA during the summer and I will be bringing the Cobra back and forth with us (one huge benefit to having a 24' enclosed car hauler). We will live at our ATV camp when we come to PA. It will be about a 2 hour drive to Chester from there but we will be visiting our kids during the summers. My son is in Jersey City and Joan's kids (2 in Hackettstown and one in Highland Lakes) will make it easy to visit the kids AND do the Cobra breakfast the same weekends.

[mrmustang]

We will live at our ATV camp when we come to PA.

Did something change at the camp ground, or did you mount the Cobra on a 4X4 chassis over this past winter?:rolleyes:



Bill S.

[Vman7]

lol......looking back, I probably shouldn't have said anything on this thread ....lol Us common folk need to know our place....roflmbo

If your wife is real active, not sure if she is into kayaking and canoeing, which is big down here, not white water, but very nice. There are some really good rivers north of tampa along with some good canoe outposts. You could canoeing everyday down here and never do all the rivers in a lifetime.

Sounds like a nice place to move to. I the love the west coast, it's like night and day between the two coasts down here. The west side mostly from St. Pete down is just beautiful, the beaches are so much nicer, softer sand and such. Once you get down here go down to the Sarasota area all kinds of things to do down that way.

David

[blueoval_bowtie_guy]

Did something change at the camp ground, or did you mount the Cobra on a 4X4 chassis over this past winter?:rolleyes:



Bill S.

Bill,

The Cobra probably won't get all the way our campsite. I did make it with the black Miata a couple of times though (for those that don't know, we are a 2 Miata family. The red one is a bone stock Mazdaspeed while the black one is lowered and highly modified. Bill knows them both!). Where the portable garage gets parked is something I really have to figure out.

Looking forward to you and Deb visiting tomorrow!

Steve

[blueoval_bowtie_guy]

lol......looking back, I probably shouldn't have said anything on this thread ....lol Us common folk need to know our place....roflmbo

If your wife is real active, not sure if she is into kayaking and canoeing, which is big down here, not white water, but very nice. There are some really good rivers north of tampa along with some good canoe outposts. You could canoeing everyday down here and never do all the rivers in a lifetime.

Sounds like a nice place to move to. I the love the west coast, it's like night and day between the two coasts down here. The west side mostly from St. Pete down is just beautiful, the beaches are so much nicer, softer sand and such. Once you get down here go down to the Sarasota area all kinds of things to do down that way.

David

David,

Thanks for your thoughts!

We both love kayaking and canoeing (we have one of each in our garage!). I have described Citrus County to quite a few people as canoeing and kayaking heaven. I also love to snorkel and used to be a certified diver (something I will take up again). I can't wait to get my own rock crab claws and scallops. We rented recumbent bikes in Inverness last Saturday and checked out a 10 mile stretch of the paved rails to trails 'path' there. It really helped solidify that we were making the right choice.

Steve

[Vman7]

David,

Thanks for your thoughts!

We both love kayaking and canoeing (we have one of each in our garage!). I have described Citrus County to quite a few people as canoeing and kayaking heaven. I also love to snorkel and used to be a certified diver (something I will take up again). I can't wait to get my own rock crab claws and scallops. We rented recumbent bikes in Inverness last Saturday and checked out a 10 mile stretch of the paved rails to trails 'path' there. It really helped solidify that we were making the right choice.

Steve

I forgot about the biking trails, they are all over the place in central fl, speaking of recumbent bikes, there is a place somewhere between orlando and tampa that sell some really good brands that I would like to check out, I'll have to look it up.

Yeah you picked a very good place for canoeing and kayaking. Not to mention your are probably not far away from Performance Automotive up near ocala, plus you have Mark there in the Tampa area.

There is a place here in town called Travel Country probably the biggest outdoor supplier here in FL.
http://www.travelcountry.com/

David

[mrmustang]

Steve,

Not to worry, I'll help you with this conversion after I drop Deb off at the bridal shower at 1pm


16184


Figure it should take us about as much time as when we installed that Harddog rollbar in the black supercharged Miata :rolleyes:



Bill S.

[Vman7]

Steve, I found that bike site, it's Bicycle Outfitters in Seminole, FL http://bicycleoutfitters.net/ they are located on the Pinellas Trail, I like the idea that they sell Catrike, which is made right here in orlando. From what you said about renting recumbent bikes in Inverness, it wouldn't happen to be Suncoast Bicycles by any chance? One of these years I'll get back over the west coast and check out both those places.

David

[blueoval_bowtie_guy]

Steve, I found that bike site, it's Bicycle Outfitters in Seminole, FL http://bicycleoutfitters.net/ they are located on the Pinellas Trail, I like the idea that they sell Catrike, which is made right here in orlando. From what you said about renting recumbent bikes in Inverness, it wouldn't happen to be Suncoast Bicycles by any chance? One of these years I'll get back over the west coast and check out both those places.

David

Thanks David! I checked out the site and immediately found some bikes I like!