Where is our dream house?

For more than the past six months, I've been looking through real estate listings for the Orlando area. On our trip down last winter, we actually toured a property--and overall, we liked it....except.

So many of the properties that we've looked at have been great....except. From being in neighborhoods that aren't our ideal to floorplans that simply don't work for our needs (for instance, with all the bedrooms on the second floor, making it impossible for our families to visit comfortably), it seems that every house has some sort of major downside. In some cases, it is largely cosmetic--with enough cash, we could theoretically fix the issues. In some cases, the issues just can't be fixed. And in some cases, the cost for the house, while being something we could afford, would mean making major sacrifices to pay for it, both in terms of the house itself, the remodeling needed, and the HOA fees.

We had a very specific time frame we were looking at. We didn't want a house built before 1994 (when there were code changes in the wake of Hurricane Andrew). We didn't want a house that was built in 2002-2004 (when houses were being finished very cheaply because of the huge downturn in the Orlando economy post 9/11).

Recently, we talked and decided that the best way to get what we wanted would be to build from scratch. The minute we made that decision, all the pieces fell into place. I started looking at builders, and just about had a minor nervous breakdown--the horror stories about builders made me question living in a house at all. Maybe we could just build a yurt in a field and pray for the end to come soon so we wouldn't have to live in solid walls ever again!

Specifically, I was scared about the stuff I saw about KB Home. I can understand a builder having an unsatisfied customer here and there--but from that link...yipes.

I went to the Better Business Bureau's web site, and it seemed that every builder I looked at had failing grades. Every. Single. One.

Then I found D.R. Horton, and they had an A rating. So far so good. I then found a community in the Winter Garden area where they were building. Originally I had eliminated Winter Garden from our list, because it was in Orange County and was closer to the 30-minute-from-Disney mark. There also was the issue that all of the one-story homes were three bedroom, and we really need to have a home office room, a bedroom for us, a bedroom for Lily, and a guest room, so I was trying to go with four bedrooms.

But the more I looked at this floorplan, I wondered what I would need to do make it work. In the end, we'll ideally want to move a couple windows by a few feet. That's it. Move a couple of windows by a few feet.

The neighborhood looks good, the price is within our budget even if we do some extras (like building a pool), and the layout works. I think we've found a dream house. Now to go back to our old, old list of the things we'd be looking for in the area to see if this works.

Two years ago, we compiled this list, and most of it still stands as desired things for us. So, here's the list, along with how this house stacks up.

• Sidewalks--yes, sort of. Right now, there's not many houses built, but each one is being built with a sidewalk. 
• Easy access to a jogging/fitness trail--the web site says that the community has several parks and wide sidewalks "that make it easy to walk, run or ride a bicycle around the community"
• A house backing up to an undeveloped area (lake, field, forest, golf course...anything that isn't another building)--possibly. That's something we'll need to see when we look at lots.
• Target--6 miles
• Coffee chain (Starbucks, Caribou)--not as much of a need anymore, as we haven't been to a coffee chain since....a LONG time, but it is in the same shopping center as Target
• A diner open late--diner, yes. Open late, no. It appears that while there are many diners in the area, they are all breakfast/lunch establishments, not even open for dinner.
• Panera--At the same shopping center with everything else, about 5-6 miles away.
• A decent Mexican restaurant--there's several within 10 miles. I'm drooling looking at them right now. Seriously. Drool. Most of them look like holes-in-the-wall like Chapala, so that makes me VERY happy.
• Takeout Chinese--looks like a decent number to try.
• Sushi--more options for sushi than for takeout Chinese. Zoinks!
• Indian restaurant--although there's a LOT of really really good ones, they're about 20-30 minutes away. Then again, there's always Sanaa as an option...
• Bakery--*giggle* so when I looked for bakeries, the nearby ones were Kringla, Boulangerie Patisserie, the Boardwalk Bakery, and Babycakes. But, when I searched for Cupcakes, I did find an option on Main Street in town.
• Butcher--nothing nearby, but there is an excellent one in Sanford (about an hour away). It would be one of those things where we'd need to make a trip once a season and stock up. When I search for "meat shop", I get one location in town. It's reviewed with a "meh" on Yelp. I think we'll make the trip to the meat packing one.
• Fish market--wow, a big no. Hmmm...
• Farmer's market/CSA--yes to Farmer's Market, every Saturday right in downtown. For CSA, looks like the closest ones are about 45 minutes away. One of them offers half shares that goes every other week. That would be a much better option...
• Good middle and high schools--iffy right now. Because of the huge growth in the area, new schools for that area are likely to be built before Lily enters school. But since we're doing Virtual School, it may never be an issue.
• High Speed Internet--looks like Comcast is provided there.
• Good hospital--a hospital is currently being built.
• Good doctor and dentist--have heard there are good options
• Good grocery store (probably Publix, given the area)--supposedly 4 minutes away
• Good vet--looks like good options in the area.
• Sporting goods store--there's a runner store in the downtown area
• More than one road to get around/out of the area--check!
• Kohls--the nearest one is in Clermont. But I'm very hopeful with the new shopping being built, one might go in.
• Bank that is easy to get in and out of--there's a couple in the area, but we'll have to see which bank we're sticking with.
• Post office that is easy to get in and out of--another "we'll have to see" issue. There's plenty around, but we'll have to see how easy they are to get in and out of.

So far, looking good....I think we may need to make an in-person trip when we're down in Florida next.