Florida houses?

[Martha7]

We lived in Weston, FL for six years, in a beautiful 3,000 square foot house with a screened pool. The only thing I didn't like about the screen was that you couldn't get a tan by the pool. It did keep you from getting sunburned, however, which was great for the kids! Of course, Hurricane Rita decided that the house didn't need the screen after all, so the new owners will have to decide whether or not to replace it. They have small kids, so they may just put a shorter fence around the pool. We kept our stuff in the attic, but in the summer, I usually went and replaced whatever I needed, (if not too expensive), rather than go up there to retrieve it!
Also, be careful of the way they calculate the square footage of houses in Florida. They have a strange formula that includes part of the patio or something. Someone else can probably explain it better than I! Anyway, I loved Florida, and would move back in a heartbeat! (I'm from California though, so it figures that I'd love it there!)

 

[wdw_dine_junkie]

I looked up our floor plan here near Chicago. Our smallest bedroom (too small for the kids so we use it as a guest room) is 12x14. The kids' rooms are 15x16, 15x14. The master is 21x17 with 13x13. Would it be unrealistic to hope to match these in the Tampa area?

I think those are very large bedrooms. My master is 15x22 and is the largest in the house, the three other bedrooms one is 10x12 and two are 12x14. It'll be tough to find a house with rooms that big. I prefer my living areas to be bigger than the rooms though since that is where we spend all our time. Older homes will have bigger pools, bigger lots and likely bigger rooms.

Where were you looking? Sounds like you were looking at new florida construction with the little pools and smaller lots. New Tampa maybe? I'm not a fan of those myself. Some new construction here has cookie cutter neighborhoods and tiny lots so that's why there are tiny pools. The block construction is a necessity here with the hurricanes.

We are just a couple of exits east on I-4 in Dover and have an acre, plenty of room for a big pool! It all depends where you look. There is a nice neighborhood going in behind us with large homes. You can check out their site to look at bedroom sizes.

http://www.sunrisehomescorp.com/Community.asp?CommunityID=52

BTW, it's 50 minutes, house to mouse!

 

[jeancbpugh]

Where were you looking? Sounds like you were looking at new florida construction with the little pools and smaller lots. New Tampa maybe? I'm not a fan of those myself. Some new construction here has cookie cutter neighborhoods and tiny lots so that's why there are tiny pools. The block construction is a necessity here with the hurricanes.

Thanks for the info.

We were shown houses north and west of the main airport. The first subdivision was West Chase...which is billed as a sort of Celebration. Then we saw Cheval and Villa Rosa, both on the northern part of Tampa.

 

[jeancbpugh]

We are just a couple of exits east on I-4 in Dover and have an acre, plenty of room for a big pool! It all depends where you look. There is a nice neighborhood going in behind us with large homes. You can check out their site to look at bedroom sizes.

http://www.sunrisehomescorp.com/Community.asp?CommunityID=52

BTW, it's 50 minutes, house to mouse!

How far is it to the Tampa airport?

 

[wdw_dine_junkie]

Thanks for the info.

We were shown houses north and west of the main airport. The first subdivision was West Chase...which is billed as a sort of Celebration. Then we saw Cheval and Villa Rosa, both on the northern part of Tampa.

Westchase is very popular right now. Lots of construction going on up there.
Cheval is nice too, a little farther out but probably quieter.

 

[wdw_dine_junkie]

How far is it to the Tampa airport?

I work just off of the Lois exit on I-275, just around the corner from the airport. It's 19 miles to my house to work. On an average day it's about 40 minutes to work during rush hour. On the weekends or a early or late flight it's 20-25 minutes to the airport max.

Good luck, having been born and raised here I can say Tampa is a great place to live!

It's funny, when I look at construction around the country, everything seems so different to me too. Florida construction just looks like Florida construction, so different than up north.

 

[Southern4sure]

Westchase is very popular right now. Lots of construction going on up there.
Cheval is nice too, a little farther out but probably quieter.

It is quieter further north out 41....

 

[tlbwriter]

I hate the tiny bedrooms as well...theory is you spend more time outdoors in FL lifestyle so you don't need big bedrooms...

Some of us would spend all of our time indoors in the a/c!

 

[wdw_dine_junkie]

It is quieter further north out 41....

Much quieter! The Westchase area is becoming a traffic nightmare. I am glad to live farther east. But making that drive through the interchange every morning can be a pain.

Let's face it, there isn't one part of the area that doesn't have it's traffic issues. New Tampa has the I-75 issue, Westchase has the Veteran's slowdown and coming east/west through the interchange stinks.

There is still some land to be bought north out 41, very true.

Good luck OP!

 

[jeancbpugh]

Some of us would spend all of our time indoors in the a/c!

Yeah, I'm afraid we are cold weather people. We love snow. We keep the house at 62 in the winter. Florida will be...an interesting challenge.

 

[Southern4sure]

Much quieter! The Westchase area is becoming a traffic nightmare. I am glad to live farther east. But making that drive through the interchange every morning can be a pain.

Let's face it, there isn't one part of the area that doesn't have it's traffic issues. New Tampa has the I-75 issue, Westchase has the Veteran's slowdown and coming east/west through the interchange stinks.

There is still some land to be bought north out 41, very true.

Good luck OP!

Just wanted to say howdy neighbor....

 

[disneymom3]

I looked up our floor plan here near Chicago. Our smallest bedroom (too small for the kids so we use it as a guest room) is 12x14. The kids' rooms are 15x16, 15x14. The master is 21x17 with 13x13. Would it be unrealistic to hope to match these in the Tampa area?

Wow! Well, that explains you finding the bedrooms small. Our largest kid bedroom is 12x13 and the other two are 11x11. These bedrooms are bigger than in our previous home.

I would love a screened porch or deck here. My mom has one and it is awesome. We saw a lot of screened porches in Celebration and I thought it was a great idea. You can let the little ones out to play and they can't get away and you don't have to worry about the bugs bugging them.

Good luck in your research!

 

[jeancbpugh]

How about new construction? Any areas of new construction or building lots within 30 minutes of TPA?

 

[wdw_dine_junkie]

Just wanted to say howdy neighbor....

Howdy!

 

[wdw_dine_junkie]

How about new construction? Any areas of new construction or building lots within 30 minutes of TPA?

Well, the immediate areas around the airport and south tampa are established neighborhoods. You are likely to find smaller lots and people tend to buy the old houses, knock them down and rebuild new. South Tampa is probably the priciest area in town and also prone to a little flooding. North up the Veteran's expressway is Citrus Park, there is a new mall and lots of new construction. That's closer to the WestChase area. Smack in the middle of town is probably where you don't want to be, no new construction. That just leaves you heading farther north or east of Tampa really. Brandon and Valrico has new construction, but I don't know if you can get to the airport within 30 minutes from there, not during rush hour anyway. I used to live in Temple Terrace, it's a nice older area, but not much new there either.

You could head south over the bridge to St. Pete but there isn't much new over there. It's getting crowded in this city!

I don't know if it's in your budget, but there is a gorgeous neighborhood off the lake in Thonotosassa that's being built, but it's very expensive. I think a couple of Buccaneers live there.

http://www.stonelakeranch.com/

 

[TheGottis]

Try out towards Odessa and the Land O'Lakes (Pasco Cty) area.

 

[zalansky]

I live in Tampa and I am just being curious, what communities did you look at? We are looking to move withint Tampa and cannot find anything that suits our needs under $400k. This is for a house just as you described.

 

[wdw_dine_junkie]

zalansky, this is where they showed her houses. I'd say those neighborhoods are in that price range as well.

We were shown houses north and west of the main airport. The first subdivision was West Chase...which is billed as a sort of Celebration. Then we saw Cheval and Villa Rosa, both on the northern part of Tampa.

 

[zalansky]

HA! Westchase is exactly where we want to live but the home prices have almost doubled in there in the past two years. Rumor has it the homes in there (most of them) were not built very well, but Westchase has it all....LOCATION, beautiful, and almost everyone in there is a family with kids....which is our #1 priority....and they have their own elementary and middle schools. And Publix....and everything!!! WAAAAA, I want to move there!!!

 

[Southern4sure]

I live in Land O Lakes and I love it! There are some homes under $400 in my community. The schools (ele, middle and high) my kids go or will be going to are all A rated. There are kids of all ages here. It is very family friendly. We just had Santa's arrival with hot chocolate and cookies this past Friday evening and Sat Morning was breakfast (Pancakes with all the trimmings) with Santa. It was wonderful not to leave the community and trot to the mall to see Santa.

Here is a link to several houses under the $400K range. I think 4 are listed. Bottom Left are some arrows. Click on these to see the other houses. These are all on the same street. I like that last one!

http://mfr.mlxchange.com/Pub/EmailView.asp?r=1498197031&s=MFR&t=MFR