Rough Hollow - please explain the appeal (Austin, Sweetwater: rental, house)

[RoadWarrior12]

Originally Posted by orngkat

Nope. I could afford it - as I said - different strokes. Buying toilet paper for four bathrooms makes me queasy.

Having to share one with 3 kids and a mother in law does the same to many as well.

Pretty simple rule to live by, OP. Judge not, lest ye be the one judged.

[riaelise]

I have 3.5 bathrooms and each one gets used. What's the problem.

[Trainwreck20]

Buying toilet paper for four bathrooms makes me queasy.

Umm...the engineer in me says the rate of TP consumption is independent of the number of bathrooms .

But anyway, no, you will not find us there due to a few things, each of which is subjective or dependent on the person:
- Two long a commute for where we work. It isn't that far, really, but a lot longer than our current commutes (5-10 minutes for the wife, 10-20 minutes for me). It would probably roughly double our commute - which would not be awful - but we are so spoiled by our current short commutes..
- Two big a house for our personal taste. I have no issue with people wanting a house that big, but we would likely expand to fill the space. And have to clean it. We currently live in a 2,400 sf 4/2.5 and it works great for a family of 4.
- Pure finances. We COULD afford such a house, but between the mortgage, additional taxes, higher HOA fees (ours is $220/yr), higher utility bills, higher insurance, etc. you are talking some serious cash for someone that is not seriously wealthy. I have not compared the numbers, but for someone like us it could make a 10 year or more difference in when we retire.

That said, we do have a boat and have to drive about 30 minutes to get to it. Living out there would cut that to 10 or whatever, but that is generally on the weekend when there is not much traffic anyway.

[scm53]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck20

That said, we do have a boat and have to drive about 30 minutes to get to it. Living out there would cut that to 10 or whatever, but that is generally on the weekend when there is not much traffic anyway.

You could keep it in their marina, and it would be five min. max.

We came REALLY close to buying there. For us, when were in the market, the available product didn't match what we wanted. Now that I know about the community propane, I'm glad we didn't. One of the existing models is pretty close to our house now, so I'm sure it would have worked.

My wife and I either telecommute, or travel, so the distance to town everyday isn't that big a deal. Kinda far to everyday shopping, and we wouldn't go downtown as much for dinners, etc. as we do if we had moved to RH. But if your life revolves around your kids, it is a great option.

[Trainwreck20]

You could keep it in their marina, and it would be five min. max.

Just out of curiosity, how much does their marina cost? We use Sail and Ski marina, which was really nice the lake was full, but a heck of a hike now that the lake is low. There are several new marinas that have much better access, but we haven't bothered to really hunt around since SaS has been excellent to us from a customer service standpoint. If RH didn't have competitive rates, though, that would be another additional cost to keep it in their marina just to be close.

[scm53]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck20

Just out of curiosity, how much does their marina cost?

We didn't wind up moving there, so I have no idea. Sorry. But it is really nice.

[riaelise]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck20

Umm...the engineer in me says the rate of TP consumption is independent of the number of bathrooms .

But anyway, no, you will not find us there due to a few things, each of which is subjective or dependent on the person:
- Two long a commute for where we work. It isn't that far, really, but a lot longer than our current commutes (5-10 minutes for the wife, 10-20 minutes for me). It would probably roughly double our commute - which would not be awful - but we are so spoiled by our current short commutes..
- Two big a house for our personal taste. I have no issue with people wanting a house that big, but we would likely expand to fill the space. And have to clean it. We currently live in a 2,400 sf 4/2.5 and it works great for a family of 4.
- Pure finances. We COULD afford such a house, but between the mortgage, additional taxes, higher HOA fees (ours is $220/yr), higher utility bills, higher insurance, etc. you are talking some serious cash for someone that is not seriously wealthy. I have not compared the numbers, but for someone like us it could make a 10 year or more difference in when we retire.

That said, we do have a boat and have to drive about 30 minutes to get to it. Living out there would cut that to 10 or whatever, but that is generally on the weekend when there is not much traffic anyway.

My household is probably just like yours. I googled this Rough Hollow place and it kinda reminds me of a Lakeway version of Steiner Ranch. The commute is totally incompatible with our jobs and the area doesn't have the things we really want nearby, as in two minutes from our door. The resort living/amenity center thing is nice, but I can find something a bit similar on a smaller scale and get much more paying less. Just because we can afford something on paper doesn't mean that we'd want to spend that much.

We currently live in a large house and frankly, we've become accustomed living in it. My husband, you used to not like large homes, finds anything below 3500 "too small". That's doesn't make us wasteful snobs it just means that we like space. Space is VERY important to us. Among other reasons, that is why we are drawn to the suburban areas (in the city and outside of the city) because we can have the space we want at the price we'd like to pay (for the most part...)

I think people just need to realize that everyone has different wants/needs and to just respect that. Some people prefer location over all else, so they are willing to give up space. Others want bigger yards, so they'll give up something else.

[CarnivalGal]

Also, people seem to forget that not everyone works downtown or even near downtown (neither my husband nor I do). So buying something close in just makes absolutely no sense for us. And this is true for the majority of my friends out here. I've seen a lot of people here talk about living "way out" in Steiner, where I live. But my husband and I are both only about a 15 minute drive to work.

[Trainwreck20]

My husband, you used to not like large homes, finds anything below 3500 "too small".

Oh, not knocking anyone for the choices; in fact, we might end up liking it too if we moved into a larger house. That is a good reason for us not too, though . My parents house for much of the 70s/80s was a couple of different houses well over 3,000, which was less common at the time. My dad had to have a shop included in the house, my mom wanted a 'full' utility room, and we always had a formal dining room and a den, in addition to general 'largeness' (for the time) of the houses. There were three of us kids (as opposed to the two my wife and I have), so it wasn't off the charts bigger than our current house, but it was bigger.

And honestly, it isn't the size of the house that we are avoiding so much as the cost. We are about three years (maybe a little less) from paying off this current house. The kids are at least decently set up with 529s with some years to go until college, both our cars are paid off (as is the boat), and as soon as this house is paid off, we are going to be diverting a large chunk of money (probably the whole house payment) into retirement funding. It is aiding the inclination to avoid moving into anything more expensive. And since taxes will be the majority of our housing costs in three years, we would like to avoid increasing taxes, HOA fees, and utilities.

All that said, if we had more money, we might happily move to somewhere like RH; esp if there was a SAHM (or SAHD) that had to spend more time in the house or with the kids and did not have to commute.

[hoffdano]

I live near RH, and drive through it often. I have eaten at the restaurant several times, and picked someone up at the marina by boat. I have been through a few of the model homes.

I could never live there. They bald all the hills during construction. The homes are nice enough, as they should be for the money. The hills are terrific and there are some fine views.

My problems, unique to me, with RH:

- big houses on small lots
- oppressive and expensive HOA
- community propane with fascist control over energy including appliances
- too planned, too neat

I have no problem with big houses nor that people want them. Since I live nearby I obviously don't have a problem with the location.