Thanks for the replies everyone. We are looking forward to be able to drop in for a few hours here and there, etc. I just don't want to lose the magic of it all. We are looking for a house in either Windermere or Winter Garden so we will be close to the parks.
I hope the rest of you that dream of living there get there one day. We were there in January on a vacation and I would have never guessed that would be moving there a few months later. We are still pinching ourselves to see if it's real!
We have friends who moved from Maryland abut 5 years ago, lived all over the state in Florida and just decided to settle in Winter Garden. Their backyard has a view of Wishes fireworks. They use that back way to get into Disney.
They also are DVC owners and one was a CM for the first couple years. (She left when the family moved out of driving distance for a couple years. Her husband is itching to retire and become a CM in another year or so.)
From what my local friends tell me, what changes is that Disney becomes more like a local park. You don't commanda tour. You avoid crowded times, because you don't need to deal with that mess. You're more flexible in your touring goals. You enjoy resort dining and special events more.
FP+ hasn't been a great thing for my friends because they can't book until 30 days out with their Annual Passes. They only use FP for the most popular attractions because they can always come back another day if a less popular attraction gets busy.
The biggest change for them has been something every Florida-transplant has. Adjusting to the changing weather seasons and lifestyle. It is beyond hot for 5-6 months of the year. Summer is dreadful. Locals go from air conditioning to air conditioning during the day and wander outside at dusk. The holidays are an adjustment if you're used to celebrating Christmas with snow and cold. A palm tree with Christmas lights is not the same as a pine tree. And it feels a lot colder down there in Jan-Mar than it would up North where it is much colder. 50 degrees in Florida feels like 30 in Maryland. After a year, your body adjusts to warmer temps and you lose your tolerance for cold.
We haven't moved to FL (and probably never will), but when we travel down there we stay for 3-4 weeks. We'll stay half the time offsite in a condo and then half onsite. We get APs so if doesn't matter how much time we spend in a park or what we do there. And we always have another couple trips planned.
What we find is that we don't commando park tour... ever. 2-5 rides per day is a lot to us. Usually we'll take in a show, do a favorite ride, go to a restaurant for a favorite meal or see fireworks/parade, etc. Our first day in Magic Kingdom usually begins with my dad getting a haircut at the Barber Shop, catching a bit of the afternoon parade while eating ice cream and hanging out until fireworks.
We do fewer things when we stay offsite. That's because we are driving to the parks ad are not early birds. So we go for afternoon, stay until evening and then go home. Some days we just skip it entirely and explore Orlando instead. Or we may just stay in our condo and relax.
When we move onsite, we tend to be up earlier and out later. The desire to keep going and exploring is very strong. But since we've done and seen it all hundreds of times, we still just stick to our favorites and explore the resorts & special events.
Our last trip we had a two bedroom villa in Bay Lake overlooking Magic Kingdom. We invited our Winter Garden friends over to have drinks and watch the
MNSSHP fireworks from our room. That was fun for all of us. Seeing fireworks from the 14th floor is very different from ground level in your backyard.
we go a few times a month, stay at the resort for staycations every once and a while. I still tear up when I see the castle or the Christmas decorations. If anything, it feels more magical because it always felt like home before, but now it really is. Our son who is 7, says he is so lucky because he gets to live at Disney
but the rest of the year would probably be great! 
I still daydream about moving to that area though. Seeing a positive report invigorates that daydream! The ability to just pop over to Epcot or The Magic Kingdom for dinner is so appealing and to be around for all the seasonal changes and special events...sigh...perhaps one day.
