[bamboosmom]

phew! What battling goes on here. Either you like it or ya don't. Simple.
If you want to live here you can by simply working hard and getting that dream home. If you choose to go elsewhere, then that's your own personal choice. When you end up at the other destination how the heck do you know if you are gonna like it or not?? You don't. Also, if people keep flocking to the next best destination, don't you think that things are going to go up such as taxes, home prices etc.? Of course they will. That's exactly what is happening here because it's so freakin' desirable here even with the sometimes stormy weather.

[MrTudo]

Originally Posted by macguy

With all due respect, didn't you write on another Internet board you bought a house in Georgia and were getting out of Florida yourself? In fact you said you and your wife spent like $20,000 searching for another place to live. That doesn't sound like someone who loves living in Florida.

Yup, spent almost 25K out of pocket ( not including the downtime from closing my business down all those weeks, if you factor that, it's a LOT) looking around. ALMOST bought one in Peachtree City Ga area.

Since you are quoting me, why are you taking things out of context and not quoting everything? Hmmm? When you get real and talk about the substance of what I wrote, then we can have a useful discussion. But if you are only going to extract what you think it's going to take to win points for some unknown reason then we can't.

[bamboosmom]

Although life in the Carolinas, Tennessee and a few other southern states may have a lower cost of living, I question if they have the year round weather and diversity of cultural interest in the close proximity that we enjoy. Just an hour and a half to our north we have three major professional sports franchises, not to mention many entertainment venues hosting world class artists. If you enjoy the arts, Sarasota has the Van Wezel and Asolo, and for something closer to home there is the Barbara B. Mann that hosts many top line performers and Broadway shows; and let us not forget about Disney and Universal Theme parks just a little over 2 ½ hours away. Of course there is plenty more to see on the east coast and for the truly adventurous, a quick three hour flight can put you right in the heart of New York’s Theater district on Broadway. How many states offer this diversity of interests?

What do you think about that?

[Racelady88]

Bam, I lived in Florida for almost 20 years. I never once went to a concert of any type, and I certainly never went to the theme parks. The theme parks are for the tourists and are so over-priced.

For many people, myself included, the weather in Florida is really only a plus during the winter months. I find that I spend MUCH more time outdoors now than I ever did before simply because I can tolerate the weather. Not everyone enjoys sweating or the beach.

I am close to major sports teams, although I much prefer the feel of minor league baseball and high schools sports. More of a sense of community involved with those type of events, and they do not break the bank to attend.

For me, I am 20 minutes from Augusta 45 from Columbia and 2 hours from Atlanta. I can get to NYC in 3 hours as well. I have as much diversity available to me as I want.

[calculus]

The Carolinas have sports teams as does Nashville and Atlanta. The Carolinas have theme parks as does Tennessee and Georgia. One of the differences weatherwise is if you take kids to one of these theme parks in the summer in the Carolinas or Tennessee or Georgia, it will not be as nasty hot and humid with the high heat index. As far as weather, if you go to western North Carolina or eastern Tennessee you have about 7 good months of weather. If you go to coastal Carolinas, you get a weather similiar to Florida but with less heat and cooler winters. You can trade one thing for another. What is beginning to bother me is people on this forum that only want read good news about Florida. If someone is saying bad things about the great state of Florida, they go into this "If you don't like it, leave" . That's not discussion. There are good and bad about everywhere. Don't jump on someone pointing out the bad. Address there points. But don't paint a rosey picture by lying either. There are people that want to read both sides because they do not know the area and want to read both sides. Would you want to read only great things about a place you were planning to move to? Sure you can visit a place but getting information from residents either good or bad is the way to go.

[bamboosmom]

Just the facts here. If you choose not to go to a concert or the theme parks that's ok. But they are here and available for whoever chooses. Yes, it's hot but many love the heat...everywhere you go there is air conditioning, the malls, the schools, your car, etc. These are some of the things available. I am not lying about them. Just check out the areas and see!