Weston / Cooper city area or Pinecrest area?

[AnnRyan]

Originally Posted by whelmed

Accepted the job and out there this weekend to look at a selection of homes. Really leaning to pinecrest/palmetto areas prior to the trip out. I've found other threads in the past with people in similar situations (someone from Jersey was the last one) but they never followed up on what happened which is too bad. Will update with where we buy when we make the decision.

Getting excited now. The package that came with the offer was 15% bigger than I expected... so not sure if that means I should buy 15% more house then :-) (i.e. $1-1.1m).

Congratulations, and please keep us updated on what you decide.

[whelmed]

So figured I'd check back in to finish up the story. Found our dream home near The Falls. We had a ton of drama in selling our home in the Bay area - multiple buyers backed out last minute nervous about it being at the top of the bubble. Had to take less than we should have due to timelines. Caused all sorts of issues on the buy side, the mortgage side, and timing of moving in. We actually spent a month living in a hotel beside the Dolphin mall called Homewood suites. One of the best hotel experiences I have had, so I'll put a plug out to them. The staff was superb, the food excellent, and the building which was just opened the month prior was impeccable. The house finally closed, after an extension of the closing date - thank god the sellers were a dream to work with too. We've now been at our place for just over a month now and are loving the area and the house more than I could ever have expected.

Kids have been in a nearby nursery/vpk the entire time (we just had a longer drive there before we moved down) which encourages Spanish and English and already they are starting to learn some Spanish. They know more than me and have a native miami sounding tongue which is really cute esp coming out of my little towheaded daughter (think children of the corn type white hair with crazy blue eyes). Work is stressful, but nothing that wasn't expected. Really loving the Miami area, people are much more friendly than we anticipated. For all the freak outs we had, it seems like it will be a great place to raise the family. Having a stunning house doesn't hurt either. Would link to it if I wasn't a privacy freak :-)

Thanks all to listening to my rants. Also, to those concerned about living in this area - anything in that green color on that map is great. No reason to put yourself through a hellish commute. My boss has a 50-80 minute commute now that school is back in session. That wouldn't fly for me. I'm happy with my 23-27 minute commute. Now, time to start learning Spanish on my drive! I'm thinking of it as an opportunity rather than a challenge. Gracias!