Tidewater Preserve Neighborhood (homes, to live, to move) - Sarasota - Bradenton - Venice area - Florida (FL) -Manatee and Sarasota Counties - Page 5 - City-Data Forum

The Frogman · 06-30-2015, 07:48 AM

Amy

My suggestion before going thru the design center is to have a good idea of what you want ahead of time. Take multiple deep calming breathes during the process. We went through the options ahead of time and tried to decide what fit us, where we would get the biggest bang for the $$, changing our minds a couple of dozen times before the actual sit down at the design center. When all was said and done, we were overwhelmed in the choices we had to make in those few hours (well I certainly was anyway, with the missus bravely foraging onward.) Some of the choices we are very happy with and some we would do differently, but generally very happy. Have to do with what works best for you.

A couple of things that I would suggest is:
If you're going to put in a pool, use an outside contractor because you certainly get more for the $$. We probably saved close to $8K by doing it ourselves.
Also, go with tankless hot water unless there more than 2 or 3 people in the house. You may have to wait a few minutes for the showers to get hot, but then there is an endless supply of hot water.

Let me know if I can answer any specific question you may have.

Welcome to the neighborhood!!!

Spintime14 · 06-30-2015, 08:00 AM

Thank you for the great tips. We will be in town in a couple of weeks and our plan is to spend the weekend at the design center prior to our meeting on Mon. I know it is going to be overwhelming! We also are going to meet with an interior decorator to help us decide on what furniture we should move that will work in the new house and what we will have to supplement. We are getting a pool; what pool company did you use?

BTW, are you the marina of the marina or associated with it? As my husband and I were walking around the community we met a very nice gentleman, who gave us great confidence in the community, on his boat and I thought his nickname was Froggie or Frogman.

The Frogman · 06-30-2015, 08:16 AM

We used Duwet for our pool. While in the end they did a fantastic job, you need to be patient thru the construction. May be because of living in the northeast for so many years, but I felt that the whole process was took a lot longer than was necessary. Took me awhile to get re-accustomed to the "manana mentality" and gracious Florida living. Again, great finished product tho.

And yes Amy, that was me. You folks were kind enough to help me with the boat that day and I certainly appreciate it. I think that you and hubby will make a very fine addition to the wonderful folks here at Tidewater Preserve. I look forward to seeing you again.

ruthinraleigh · 07-09-2015, 06:29 AM

Hi Spintime14! Welcome to Tidewater Preserve!

My husband and I moved in on May 1. We started the process last August. Our Design Center experience at that time was a bit different in that we ended up with NO time to prep. None. Zip. Nada. We finished signing the contract to build, and drove immediately to the Design Center. This was late on a Friday afternoon and the Design Center rep was willing to wait for us to come in because it would save us a future trip down to Florida. (We lived in Raleigh before we moved down here.)

There are pros and cons to doing it so quickly. We did not have time to stress or argue over decision-making, and I did have a vague sense of what I wanted because we had been location hunting and house dreaming for a couple years. We were prepared to buy a resale in the process, which would have meant we would have taken a house "as is". So any up front choices were a bonus in that respect since we were buying new construction.

Still, it was tense for about the first hour. The most important thing to me, hands down, was flooring. It had to be 100% hard surface (tile or hardwood), and I wanted a dark color. Hardwood ended up being WAY too expensive. And of course, there were no choices in the lower grade tile options that I liked, and the cost for the Level 3 and Level 4 tiles that I liked chewed up our entire Design Option incentive because it was going in the whole house.. My husband was not thrilled with that and was worried about the direction we were going on cost starting with the very first choice.

After some tense moments and some back and forth on choices, I got the floor tile that I liked throughout the entire house and made some compromises on other options. And now that we are in the house, I do really like how it all came out. The granite was one of my biggest compromises at the time, and now I love what we have and how it looks.

There is only one decision I regret that we would definitely do differently if we would have had more time to think about it. We only put additional pot lights in a few rooms, and now I would definitely recommend putting them in every room. So think about the extra lighting options. That was not even on my radar going into the meeting, but definitely has an impact in daily living.

I also recommend deciding ahead of time what is most important to you both, and what you are both willing to compromise on. Like I said, my single most important option was the flooring. Once we finally agreed on that, a lot of other things fell in place including compromises and choices that I would not have anticipated, but looked great with the flooring. If you had told me ahead of time that I would have white cabinets in my new house, I would have laughed and said "no way". But we ended up with white cabinets because they looked good with the floor, and I love the look.

I also wished we would have set a budget before we walked in, but since it happened so fast we did not have a working number in our heads that we agreed on together for design options. That might have helped us in that first tense hour as a couple making choices.

It was a whirlwind 4 hours on a Friday evening, but we made it through and love our house. Above all, keep your sense of humor throughout the process. It's an adventure for sure!!

Ruth

msms · 07-10-2015, 04:52 AM

Tidewater is one of the neighborhoods on my list so this thread is very helpful, thanks everybody. I had nearly ruled it out due to I-75. Any chance there are other single people there? TIA.

The Frogman · 07-10-2015, 07:52 AM

I do know of some singles here. The ages range from early 30's and up.

dpbarr2000 · 07-16-2015, 09:32 PM

My thoughts are that you will enjoy the traffic noise from I-75.

The Frogman · 07-18-2015, 04:15 AM

Traffic Noise from I-75? Sure there is some, depending upon time of day, weather, etc but no more than living anywhere in an urban area. To those of us who have been here for a few years, it's just background white noise. The community has so much to offer to those who are looking for a place with a true sense of neighborhood and community spirit.

Spintime14 · 07-19-2015, 06:31 PM

Thank you so much for all of the great tips and suggestions. It took us about 9 hrs in the design center but we walked out with smiles. Our appt was on a Mon so in all fairness we had Sat and Sun in the design center so it was a great head start.
We anticipate closing either right before the end of 15 or Jan 16. We are really excited and can't wait to get down there. We will be down in the beginning of Sept so I will watch for events that might be going on.

We know we picked the right community and based on all of the posts and the few people we met we have no second thoughts.

Spintime14 · 07-19-2015, 06:34 PM

Ruth,

Thank you for the great advice and sharing your experience. We survived and I am really happy with our choices. We did find out that flooring was the first thing we had to decide on before we could move on to any other options and after being in the models and design center all day Sat we totally changed on Sun but we were prepared for our appt on Mon.

I just can't wait to get there!!!!